Episode 1168 of Bitcoin And . . . is LIVE!
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https://cointelegraph.com/news/france-block-mica-passporting-eu-crypto-firms
https://atlas21.com/thailand-three-million-bank-accounts-frozen/
https://decrypt.co/339035/imf-insists-el-salvador-not-buying-bitcoin
https://www.theblock.co/post/370628/monero-shaken-by-block-reorg-reviving-tensions-with-qubic
https://bitcoinnews.com/markets/bitcoin-etfs-inflows-rate-cut-hopes/
https://bitcoinnews.com/markets/capital-group-5-billion-bitcoin-companies/
https://www.theblock.co/post/370600/bitcoin-deserves-credit-strategy-buys-more-btc
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Topics for today:
- BoE To Limit Amount of Stables People Can Have
- France Sees EU's MiCA as Feeble
- Thailand Freezes 3 Million Bank Accounts
- Monero Reorged: 18 Blocks of Worthlessness
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Today's Articles:
https://www.ft.com/content/d80b21d7-2c7b-4727-ace9-4f752c057c7b (https://archive.ph/hrA6d)https://cointelegraph.com/news/france-block-mica-passporting-eu-crypto-firms
https://atlas21.com/thailand-three-million-bank-accounts-frozen/
https://decrypt.co/339035/imf-insists-el-salvador-not-buying-bitcoin
https://www.theblock.co/post/370628/monero-shaken-by-block-reorg-reviving-tensions-with-qubic
https://bitcoinnews.com/markets/bitcoin-etfs-inflows-rate-cut-hopes/
https://bitcoinnews.com/markets/capital-group-5-billion-bitcoin-companies/
https://www.theblock.co/post/370600/bitcoin-deserves-credit-strategy-buys-more-btc
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[00:00:02]
David Bennett:
It is 09:49AM Pacific Daylight Time. It is smack dab in the September 2025. This is episode eleven sixty eight of Bitcoin and getting off to a little bit of a late start today. My apologies for that, but it is what it is. Last week. Let's just say, can we just bury last week, pour gasoline on it, light it on fire, and just it was just it was awful. So here we are in the week after a whole bunch of garbage that occurred, and all I wish for everybody out there is that I hope you're repairing yourself. I do hope that you are trying to find ways to go out, touch grass, and do all the things that that'll make you shake off the what can only be classified as fairly traumatic events from last week.
And, you know, it's just we we gotta move on. And what I've already noticed in the media is that, they're they're just not gonna let us move on. We're this is going to inundate us for weeks, probably. So just be mentally prepared to be mentally exhausted for the next few weeks, because I don't I don't see this as as going away. It just gets worse and worse, and I'm not gonna talk about that because we've got Bitcoin stuff to get get get to today, and that's why you're here. It's all the news that you can use about bit Bitcoin and more.
And we're gonna start with this this thing that is out of the Financial Times about the Bank of England. It has a plan, apparently. And France, well, they might be blocking some crypto companies. We'll talk about it. But then then there's Thailand. And if you ever wanted to know or have a, the most ironclad reason to buy Bitcoin if you don't already have it, this one from Atlas twenty one is gonna grab you by the short hairs. And then, of course, we've got to talk a little bit about the IMF and their ongoing media feud with El Salvador. He said, she said that they're not buying and they are buying.
Who knows what the hell's going on? Maybe this story will help us figure it out. And then Monero's got even more problems. Yes, I understand this is not a shitcoin show, but it would behoove us to understand that even when you get into stuff like Monero, which I technically don't, I I don't hate it. I don't own any. I don't advocate anybody buying it, but as far as shitcoinery goes, I've seen worse, except I kinda haven't. We'll get to it. I I promise. And then we've got some inflow into Bitcoin ETF news. We've got a Capital Group is betting on Bitcoin companies, and apparently, they're they're doing very well at it. So who knows?
And then we'll round it out with a little bit of strategy news. But let's let's get to this Financial Times piece from, of course, the Financial Times. If the the link to this story will with all the other stories will be, in the show notes. However, I've got two links to this because some people are not able to see the Financial Times link, so I've got the archive.ph link up as well. It will take you to it, And in fact, that's the one that I'm reading right now. So the headline is crypto groups hit out as Bank of England plan to limit stablecoin ownership.
Yes. They're going to limit stablecoin ownership or at least that's the plan. Cryptocurrency groups are calling on the Bank of England to abandon plans to limit how many stablecoins people can own, which would give The UK much stricter rules for the fast growing market than The United States or the European Union. The central bank's plan to restrict stablecoin ownership reflects concerns that the tokens could weaken the banking system by draining it of deposits and underscores how The UK has been more cautious on crypto regulation than other countries. BOE officials said it planned to press ahead with proposals for imposing ownership limits of 10,000 to £20,000 sterling for individuals and £10,000,000 sterling for businesses on all systemic stablecoins defined as any widely used for UK payments or likely to be used in the future.
However, the plan has drawn criticism from cryptocurrency and payment groups, which said that it would put The UK at a disadvantage compared with other countries and would be difficult and costly to enforce on the market, pausing to say, you spelled impossible to enforce. You misspelled it. You spelled it wrong. God. Quote, imposing caps on stablecoins is bad for UK savers, bad for the city, and bad for the pound sterling, said Tom Duff Gordon, vice president of international policy at at Coinbase, The US crypto asset exchange, further, quote, no other major jurisdiction has deemed it necessary to impose caps, end quote.
Other crypto industry executives said that the BOE's limits would be hard to implement and hamper the potential benefits of stablecoins such as making cross border payments cheaper and faster. Quote, limits simply don't work in practice, said Simon Jennings, executive director of the UK Crypto Asset Business Council trade body. Quote, stablecoin issuers don't have sight of who holds their tokens at any given time, so enforcing caps would require a costly, complex new system such as digital IDs or constant coordination between wallets, he said.
Don't give them any ideas. The criticism threatens to intensify tensions between the BOE and the Treasury after the central bank's governor, Andrew Bailey, intervened to stop a meeting by chancellor Rachel Reeves to encourage regulators to speed up fintech revolute's banking license. Reeves had has committed to support digital innovation in The UK financial services sector and said in her mansion house speech in July that she would drive forward developments in blockchain technology, including tokenized securities and stablecoins.
The BOE said it proposed limits on stablecoin ownership could be just transitional, you know, while the financial system adjusts to the growth of digital money. It is due to publish a consultation outlining its updated plans for stablecoin regulation this year. Sasha Mills, BOE executive director for financial market infrastructure, said in a recent speech that the limits would, quote, mitigate financial stability risks stemming from large and rapid outflows of deposits from the banking sector, for example, sudden drops in the provision of credit to businesses and household, and risks posed by newly recognized systemic payment systems as they are scaling up.
Highlight that because I wanna come back to it. The global stablecoin market has grown rapidly to reach $288,000,000,000. It is did not or dominated by US dollar based tokens and was given a major boost after congress passed the Genius Act in July introducing regulatory framework. Quote, limits make no sense, said Ricardo Tordera Ritchie, director of policy and government relations at the payments association. Quote, just as there are no limits on cash, bank accounts, or e money, there is no reason beyond skepticism to impose limits on stablecoin ownership.
This is a step in the wrong direction, end quote. Gilles Chehmla, a professor at Imperial Business School and co director of its Center for Financial Technology said, quote, stablecoins are no longer experimental technologies. They are becoming the foundation of the global digital economy, end quote. Ahead of a report published on Tuesday, Chimla warned that The UK was falling behind on stablecoin regulation, quote, London has the talent, the markets, and the history to lead the digital economy, but the delay in implementing a regulatory framework for stablecoins is eroding that advantage, he said. Okay. So that's the end of the article. Let's go back up here to this paragraph. This is an important paragraph.
Because you may be wondering why why would they be why why why are they imposing limits on stable coins? Well, here's what they say. Sasha Mills, Bank of England executive director for financial market infrastructure, said in a recent speech that the limits on stablecoins would, quote, mitigate financial stability risks stemming from large and rapid outflows of deposits from the banking sector, and risks posed by newly recognized systemic payment systems as they are scaling up. But here's the other one, and they they put they drop this in here. Sudden drops in the provision of credit to businesses and households means they can't make loans because everybody took their money out of the banks and went into stable coins. So there's there's really two things at at work here.
One is that's not how loans are made in the first place. If you think it's only The United States that prints money out of thin air, when we make an auto loan, a business loan, or a home loan, or any of that, you are absolutely smoking something that I would love to have a bag of because this is the way it works everywhere, especially in the West. Maybe not in China. I don't know. I'm not I'm not a Chinese professional or or or expert as they would say. But in the West, yeah, that's how the money is made. That's how that's a ton of money is not just printed when we print US Treasury bonds and Treasury bills, it's when we make loans.
Money is also printed there. So this whole, oh, well we won't be able to provision you credit because we won't have money to back the loans because everybody took their money and we out of the banks and we had a banking run and they ran to stable coins. That's what they're really scared of. The banking sector is terrified because while they were pointing and laughing at all this stuff, they were not innovating. They were not getting in front. They were not getting in front. They they just they they just decided to shrink away and use the media to try to poison the minds of everybody in the world against this stuff, and it did not work. They gambled and they lost.
And now this last ditch hail Mary attempt to save the banking sector is honestly even that's kind of a facade. I mean, there is there's definite truth in it. I will say that. But will I what I will also say is that all this really does is go right down to the fact that they don't control the stablecoin issuers yet. One of these days, they they might. I hope they don't, but the future will be what the future is, and I have no say in what happens there. But the loss of control because they they're the the the powers that be include the banks. That's one of the that's one of the power projection arms for the power base in any of these governments.
That the banking sector, they are very, very, very friendly with government. And they represent a very large sector or rather section of their of the of any government's power projection across the people of the the the governed, right, the citizenry. And, well, if if the banks lose that power because the citizenry decides to take their money out of the banks and I don't know, buy tether with it or whatever it is they're going to do, then you don't have that power projection anymore. So, yes, what they say is true. They they really are terrified that, well, the banks won't the the banks will lose their money and therefore and this is where it gets into just pure bullshit.
They can't make loans to you, dear citizen. So they're doing everything that they can to inject yet another poison pill into all this. And it's just it's just not gonna work. It's just not gonna work. And and this coming out of France is probably not going to work as well. Zoltan Vardai from Cointelegraph, France says it may block crypto companies that are licensed in other European Union countries. Something about passporting. France warned it may try to block cryptocurrency companies operating locally under licenses obtained in other European countries, raising enforcement gap concerns regarding the European Union's crypto regulatory framework.
France's security regulator, the Financials told Reuters on Monday that it is concerned about potential regulatory enforcement gaps related to Europe's markets and crypto asset regulation, the world's first comprehensive crypto regulatory framework. Concerned that some crypto companies may seek licensure in more lenient EU jurisdictions, the AMF is considering a ban on operating in France under Micah licenses obtained in other member states. Quote, we do not exclude the possibility of refusing the EU passport, Marie Anne Barbet Linelanee, I think is how you pronounce it, the chair of AMF told Reuters, adding that it's very complex akin to an atomic weapon for the market.
Wow. The hyperbole is strong with this one. Crypto companies are looking for a weak link in European jurisdictions that will provide a license with fewer requirements than the others, she added. Under Mica, which took effect for crypto asset service providers December 2024, companies authorized in one member state can use this as a, quote, passport to operate across the 27 nation bloc. France's warning highlighted fears that uneven standards could undermine the framework. France became the third country to call for the Paris based European Securities and Markets Authority to take over supervision of major crypto companies according to Reuters, citing a position paper seen by journalists.
Austria's Financial Market Authority and Italy's Financial Markets Regulator, have also called for a regulator or regulatory supervision to be transferred to ESMA. The three countries also backed revisions to Mica, including stricter rules for crypto activities outside of the EU, stronger cybersecurity oversight, and a review of how new token offerings are regulated. The debate follows growing criticism of Malta's crypto licensing regime. In July, ESMA released a peer review of the Malta Financial Services Authority's authorization of a crypto service provider, finding that the regular regulator only, quote, partially met expectations.
After the review, the ESMA's ad hoc peer review committee recommended that MFSA, quote, assess material issues that were pending at the date of the authorization or that have not been adequately considered at the authorization stage, end quote. Malta's MFSA, quote, needs to monitor closely the growth in authorization applications and identify and adjust supervisory practices in a timely manner, the PRC added. Okay. So let's go back up here. This is the the most interesting part of this particular story, which is basically just essentially, what we're seeing is France saying, no. It's not strong enough.
And there when when I say it, I'm talking about MICA, the markets in crypto assets regulation. Now every when when this had been talked about last year and then when it got enacted all that time, there was a whole bunch of people said, oh, this is going to destroy this is going to destroy Bitcoin. It's going to destroy stable coins. Nobody's going to be able to do anything. And yet for France, Mike is well, all of a sudden, it's just not strong enough. This paragraph right here. France's security regulator, the AMF, told Reuters on Monday that it is concerned about potential regulatory enforcement gaps related to the MICA bill or the act, whatever you wanna call it, the world's first comprehensive crypto regulatory framework.
So I thought this was supposed to be a framework that everybody in the EU agreed on. And all of a sudden, we're we're, like, what, ten months out of December when it was when it was put into place, and already one of the EU member states are saying it's not strong enough. What this doesn't bode well for anything about the EU, and the EU is already in a lot of trouble. I've talked about it before. But now we got France who is one step away, as far as we know, from begging at the door of who? The IMF for a bailout. And then all of a sudden, now they're concerned that the markets and crypto asset regulation that was passed isn't strong enough and that they are just going to say, you know what? If you got your licensure in one of the other, European Union block countries, we're just gonna say no.
These people cannot agree on anything. I don't give the EU very much time left before it falls completely apart. Now on to Southeast Asia where I can get a really good plate of pad thai. And one of these days when I go there, I I will, but that's not what we're talking about. Thailand is talking about 3,000,000 bank accounts frozen. 3,000,000. Atlas 21. According to reports, Thailand is at the center of a financial controversy after authorities froze 3,000,000 bank accounts during a large scale operation against online scams.
Yes. They're trying to protect you, I suppose. The anti fraud operation, which began in August, imposed restrictions on bank transfers, limiting daily transactions to 50,000 baht, which is about $1,570 US. This situation has led many experts to point out that Bitcoin could provide an alternative to the limitations imposed by the centralized banking system. Daniel Batten, researcher and cofounder of CH Four Capital, commented, and they have a screenshot of his of his tweet here from x that says, thank you Bank of Thailand for the free Bitcoin marketing. And then he's got a picture of this particular story, which was broke by the Thai Enquirer newspaper.
The massive account freeze affected not only suspected accomplices of scammers, but also innocent merchants and legitimate online sellers. The Cybercrime Investigation Bureau confirmed that numerous legitimate businesses were caught up in the investigation. Jimmy Castro from the Thailand Bitcoin Learning Center stated, quote, the Central Bank of Thailand freezes 3,000,000 bank accounts and begins setting daily limits. This should be an international story. Thank God for Bitcoin. Expatriots living in Thailand have also expressed frustration on social media and online forums complaining about, well, arbitrary banking restrictions and increasingly complex bureaucratic procedures.
Many foreigners saw their accounts blocked for weeks without explanation, having to register their biometric data at bank branches to regain access to services. Let me read it again. Many foreigners saw their accounts blocked for weeks without explanation, having to register their biometric data at bank branches to regain access to services. Thai authorities are currently discussing possible solutions to ease restrictions on the bank accounts of law abiding citizens. The central bank has started talks with the CCIB to find a compromise that protects the financial system from fraud without excessively penalizing honest account holders. Quote, we urge the public not to panic.
That's when you should panic. The suspension is only temporary and will be lifted once checks confirm no wrongdoing, said wizette wizatoria at secretary of the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society. That's the name. Wizette wiz wait. Hold on. Wizette wizette sora hyphen a t. That's the name of this particular person. So but this person is the secretary of the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society. So they're telling you not to panic, a, that's when you should panic. The suspension is only temporary, bullshit. And it will be lifted once they check to confirm that you have not committed in any wrongdoing.
Is this is just one more this is just one more example of why we are here for the reason that we're here. This is ridiculous. 3,000,000 bank accounts in Thailand. In fact, I should have done this earlier. What is the population of Thailand? Let's see. Is is there a population? Hold on. Let me just pop pop that in there. Population. 71,000,000 people. 71,000,000 people. So that's I mean, it's it's it's single digit percentage of bank accounts, but, dude, 3,000,000 out of 71,600,000 people. Yeah, this stock good. It's just it's not good. Be aware, people. Be aware. Now you may be feeling a little grungy after that and good for my friend, SoapMiner, who will get you nice and clean. You can get away clean with SoapMiner brand soaps from soapminer.com.
That's soapminer.com. You can get all kinds of excellent soaps over here at soapminer.com at the shop. Comfrey tallow soap is one of his newest soap lines that he's got out. If you are a gardener and you get, like, scratches and, like, abrasions and small minor cuts or possibly bug bites, waspings, bee stings, If you wash with with comfrey talus soap where like wherever it is that you have scrapes and abrasions, it will help heal. It will help stop itching. It will help stop inflammation because comfrey itself is a wonderful wonderful medicine. It's great for small like, it it will heal deep cuts, but don't do it because it heals so fast that it won't heal the inside before it heals the outside where you're where you're actually applying it. And you could trap bacteria and and yeast and stuff inside the wound. So if it's a deep wound, don't do this. Go to the hospital, get stitched up. And after maybe a couple of weeks, you can keep your wound clean and help it heal with soap miter, comfrey, tallow soap.
He also has Earl Grey. He's got goat's milk. He's got redacted. It's filled with carbon. Carbon is my favorite. He's got just plain Jane rough cut tallow soap. It's a 100% beef tallow, guys. And in like the rough cut tallow soap, he's got distilled water, lye, and 100% tallow. That's it. That's all. And then the rest of these soaps, he he might use like a colored like mineral so that he can color the soap. He might use a few like organic or not organic but, essential oils for fragrance. But honestly, they're all based on that on that very simple formula. Lye, 100% distilled water, and 100% beef tallow.
Get your soap at soapminer.com. Make sure you use Bitcoin. And in the coupon code, you get 10% off. Make sure that you do that because not only will you get it, you will tell SoapMiner that you heard it here on the Bitcoin and podcast in the circle p. The circle p is where I bring plebs with goods and services that are just like you to plebs just like you who might want to purchase said goods and services. Go to soapminer.com, use Bitcoin and in the coupon code for 10% off. Now, onto this one, the IMF, the International Monetary Fund, insists, Oh my god. They're insisting that El Salvador isn't buying any more Bitcoin.
So what's going on? Matt DeSalvo from Decrypt. Bitcoin advocates around the world are enamored with the economic policies of El Salvador's president and his embrace of the digital asset. But when looking at his government's crypto buys, something doesn't quite add up. Back in 2022, the millennial leader said that he'd buy one Bitcoin every day. At today's prices, that's over a $114,000 in so called digital gold every twenty four hours. And sometimes, Bukele says he buys even more. The leader, over the weekend, announced that he bought 21 Bitcoin to celebrate the fourth anniversary of El Salvador's Bitcoin law. That's another $2,300,000 worth of Bitcoin that he said he put in the government's new transparent blockchain coffers, which now holds over $700,000,000 in Bitcoin.
But the IMF says otherwise. Under a deal to get a development grant with the IMF, the country was forced to scale back its Bitcoin experiment in December 2024. The IMF now says the Bitcoin buy announcements are all bunk. Quote, we can confirm that the total amount of government owned Bitcoin has not increased and that the increase in the Bitcoin reserve fund corresponds to movements across government wallets, IMF communications officer Mira Lewis told Decrypt in an email. The institution would not answer further questions. So if the IMF says president Bukele isn't buying more Bitcoin, why is he regularly announcing new buys? And how is El Salvador continuing to add to its Bitcoin reserve at a rate of 1 BTC per day as blockchain data shows? Well, the Salvadoran government communications department told Decrypt that the president is indeed still buying Bitcoin, but they themselves wouldn't reply to additional questions.
Wow. Blockchain data shows El Salvador's Bitcoin wallets grouped together and tracked by analytics firm, Arkham, are growing by one Bitcoin per day with deposits from cryptocurrency exchanges like Binance and Bitfinex and a few other random addresses in the mix. The buys are new then? Maybe, but maybe not. Before the Bukele administration announced government wallets for everyone to see, there was little transparency in regards to the buy. The purchases were only traceable via Bukele's tweets, and even then, he would irreverently boast about his buys, even saying he bought BTC on his phone while on the toilet.
It's possible the Salvadoran president's previous buys or other procurement of Bitcoin through taxes or payments made to state run entities prior to the recent agreement with the IMF are currently funding transfers to the Bitcoin reserve. And crypto analytics firm Bubble Maps told Decrypt there's no way to know for certain based on public blockchain data when the Bitcoin being transferred today was actually purchased. It's possible. The Bitcoin was gained some time ago before the agreement with the IMF in late twenty twenty four, and the BTC sat dormant in a crypto exchange account before arriving to publicly disclosed wallets. Interesting. Bubble Maps also said the recent government transactions could have been routed through exchanges, making it look like they were indeed fresh purchases.
And an analyst for the firm said it's impossible to know for sure since third parties cannot access an exchange's ledger of transactions without the exchange releasing the data themselves. James Bosworth, founder and CEO of Washington DC based risk analysis consultancy, Hexagon, told Decrypt that whether or not the Bitcoin buys are new, there should have been more transparency with the buys from the outset. Quote, there are good reasons to believe he is not purchasing all of it on the open market. Instead moving funds and coins around as a type of government backed wash trade, he said. He also added that Bukele's unprofessional management of cryptocurrency continues to obscure the budget situation.
This should be the Salvadoran government's and people's resource, not the president's personal wallets that he can play trading games with, end quote. The crypto exchanges El Salvador has used, Binance, Bitfinex, and Coinbase declined to answer to crypt's questions. No shit. Loved by libertarians for being an anti establishment maverick who'd insult institutions on social media, Bukele had to scrap some of his beloved Bitcoin experiment to get a $1,400,000,000 extended fund facility from the IMF. Still, he claims he's doing what he wants in defiance of the IMF. Quote, no. It's not stopping, Bukele said on x in March regarding the government's Bitcoin buys. Quote, if it didn't stop when the world ostracized us and most Bitcoiners abandoned us, it won't stop now and it won't stop in the future, end quote.
And this brings us to my final say on the the situation with IMF and and and El Salvador. We have no clue what the hell's going on even now. We've had both the government and the IMF make statements about this, and we still have no idea what's actually happening. These people. Now let's run the numbers. West Texas Intermediate Oil up almost a full point to $63.28. Brent Norsey up two thirds of a point to $67.42. Natural gas moving against its own rules of the game. It's actually in the green and not in the red. Two and a third percent to the upside, chilling out right at $3 per thousand cubic feet, and gasoline is up one and a third to $2.01 per gallon.
Merban crude, everybody's favorite light and sweet crude is up a quarter of a point to $70.98. Gold swinging for the fences yet one more time. After an almost 1% rise, we're looking at $3,700 nope. $3,720. Wow. Everybody congratulate Peter Schiff. He deserves it. He's waited a very long time for this, and there's no reason to go beat him around the head and shoulders. Just say, congrats, Peter. I'm happy for you, man. Silver is up a third. Platinum is up a third. Copper is up one and a third, and palladium in the other direction, two and a quarter to the downside. Ag is fully mixed today. Biggest winner today is lumber, four and a half percent to the upside.
Biggest loser is corn, one and a third to the downside. Live cattle is up almost two full points today. Wow. That's gotta make the cattlemen happy, I guess. Lean hogs are up point 4% and feeder cattle are up 2.6. It's gonna take it's gonna cost you a lot of money to buy in those, cattle to get fed before they turn into live cattle so you can sell them. That's a pretty decent differential. That's almost that's almost a full, god, point 63% to the, of a of a differential between the two pricings. Yikes. Dow crawling sideways, but in the green, S and P is up a third, Nasdaq is up two thirds, the S and P Mini is up point 13%, and Bitcoin is at a $114,700.
That is $2,280,000,000,000 of market cap, and we can only get 31 ounces of shiny metal rocks with our one Bitcoin of which there are 19,921,126.17 of. An average fees per block are well stable or or rather average 0.03 BTC taken in fees on a per block basis. There are about 38 blocks carrying 62,000 unconfirmed transactions waiting to clear at high and low priorities of one satoshi per vbyte. Hash rate is well, we're still in Zeta Hash, 1.02 Zeta Hash is per second for the time being. It has been trending down. We hit 1.05, I believe on Friday, and yesterday was 1.04.
So we are trending down a little bit. Now from the unpatriotic act, Friday's episode of Bitcoin and I got arce Arceus or Arceus with 2,718 sets says something to note. Andrea Gacki, director of FinCEN, was a 2023 Biden appointee. Trump can and should replace her. She's continuing the Biden era attacks on privacy in all forms, corporate transparency act, now this patriot act drive. Yeah. No shit. Anybody I don't care who appointed her. Anybody who says crap like Gackie's saying needs to be removed immediately. Wartime with a 133 gives me a couple of emojis I can't see because, yes, my operating system is literally that old.
Bitcoin for president with 500 says, here's to being human. Cheers. You're still a persistent and badass Bitcoiner. Who cares? Thank you for your podcast. They are treasured by many. I appreciate you saying that there, Bitcoin for president. Code with 500 says nothing. Itsy bitsy huddle with holy shit, 27,000 sats. Oh my god, dude. That's now that's a boost, baby. Thank you for bringing us the news. Typically, I do value for value by streaming sats on fountain, but for some reason, my wallet was locked and not streaming for the last three months. Oh, shit. Reached out to Oscar Mayer on Nostra the other day, and he got things fixed within an hour. Freedom tech for the wind. And here are the sats I owe you for all the value for value that you provided.
Wow. I appreciate that, sir. Co or, rather +1 776 with +1 776 says, damn, what a banger episode, Dave. You really encapsulated what so many people are feeling this week. The world feels like it's on warp speed, bracing myself for some nineteen sixties style civil disobedience. We are no longer represented in congress and parliaments in a way that it can be avoided, so buckle up. Bitcoin Sandy with 2,000 says, great show as always. Bitcoin Sandy with another 500 gives me a flame emoji, and Pai's with a 121 sat says thank you, sir. No. Thank you. That's the weather report.
Welcome to part two of the news that you can use. Monero has been shaken by a block reorg. Reviving tensions with Cubic, this is Naga Avon Namayo out of the block. Gonna tell us about all of this business here. Privacy centric blockchain Monero suffered an 18 block reorg that invalidated more than 100 transactions, spring warnings for users to wait beyond the network's typical 10 confirmations before accepting payments. Reorganizations occur when two competing versions of a proof of work chain are mined and the network later converges to the longer, higher difficulty chain.
This ultimately discards the other's recent blocks and, of course, any transactions inside them. While rare at this length, reorgs are a known operational risk for any proof of work network, and merchants typically mitigate them by waiting a set number of confirmations before treating a payment as final. Monero Research Lab, an unofficial project focused on XMR, said nodes observed an alternate chain 18 blocks long starting at height 3,500,000, which left roughly 117 to a 118 transactions on the orphaned branch for forty minutes.
Because the event exceeded nine blocks, Monero's standard 10 block lock did not protect all affected transactions from being rolled back, the group noted. The project advised developers to wait temporarily rolling DNS checkpoints to harden the network's defenses in the near term. Yu Zhuan, cofounder of on chain security firm Slow Mist, also warned that ignoring reorg risk could enable double spins even without a clear majority of hash power. Speculation over the reorg source surfaced quickly after the September 14 alert. Several community accounts pointed to prior tensions with Cubic, which previously claimed outsized Monero hash rate.
The unknown mining pool involved fueled assumptions around Cubic's involvement as the protocol previously stopped reporting its hash rate in public data providers. Monero community podcaster Zenu stated that Cubic may have mined in isolation using a variant of selfish mining even after earlier reorg attempts. Quote, this is the largest reorg in Monero's history, the user posted on x. In selfish mining, a miner withholds newly found blocks to build a private fork and then publishes it in one burst to overtake the public chain, exploiting proof of work's preference for the chain with the most cumulative work.
Cubic founder Sergei Ivan Shlugo rejected some of those assertions in social media posts. He said that Zenu, quote, pulled all that out of his ass, end quote. That's such a professional tone, referring to the podcasters claims of Cubic's role in the incident. Notably, Monero's native token seems to have benefited from the debacle. XMR rose over 6% in the last twenty four hours, while Cubic traded flat according to the block's price page. The latest event follows months of debate inside the Monero ecosystem about reorg exposure and boasts from outside actors about controlling large shares of the network's mining power. Earlier this year, XMR community members traded barbs with cubic proponents after Ivan Sheglow's project reportedly amassed around 51% of the network's hash rate.
So Monero right now, honestly, is just it's just not safe. I'm, again, I I I honestly, I don't have there's okay. Zcash and Monero are the only two other coins that I would actually look at and I don't. I would if I had no other choice, but I do and it's called Bitcoin, so therefore, I don't look at them. However, knowing the history of those coins and the way that they were spun up and who was involved with them, If I had to, it would probably be one of the it would probably be one of those two, honestly. But right now, Monero does not feel safe. It's a it at this point, it's like it's not really the chain isn't used that much. There's not that much mining on it.
It's I that this is why I don't you this is why I never use any of this crap. Because even if even if I can look back in my memory and realize, well, the people that launched these two chains, you know, at least they did it kind of the right way and they don't seem to be the scuzzy underbelly of of all that is unholy when it comes to altcoins, shitcoins, ICOs, and the rest of the garbage that's out there. It's still these are still chains that I I don't trust. They're not they're just not used enough for me to trust it. All the action is on Bitcoin. Please stop trying to front run Bitcoin. If you wanna front run Bitcoin, there's only one way to do it. You you just buy Bitcoin.
From Bitcoin News and Alex Larry, Bitcoin ETFs record biggest inflow in two months on rate cut hopes. Remember, on the seventeenth, we either will get a rate cut out of the Fed or we will not get a rate cut out of the Fed. I suppose there's a third choice, we might get an even bigger rate cut out of the Fed than we're expecting. We're expecting a quarter point. Some people are saying be don't be surprised if it's a 50 basis point cut. I don't know. Because you never know what chairman Powell will do. He might say no cut. In which case, risk assets will will lose their ass for a little bit. So let's find out more. Bitcoin exchange traded funds in The United States are having their best run-in the past couple of months with billions flowing in as investors prepare for a possible rate cut by the Federal Reserve.
According to Farside investors, US spot Bitcoin ETFs have seen five days of net inflows with over $2,300,000,000 in one week. Daily inflows have been strong. 741,000,000 on September 10, 552,000,000 on September 11, and 642,000,000 September 12. September 10 recorded the highest inflow since July as Bitcoin's price climbed back up past 115,000. It seems that institutions are driving the surge. Fidelity's FBTC and BlackRock's iBit are consistently at the top of the list of funds attracting new capital on September 12 alone. Fidelity pulled in 315,000,000 and BlackRock 264,000,000.
Wow. So Fidelity beat out BlackRock on September 12. Interesting. Trading volumes have been big too. Some days saw Bitcoin ETFs do over $3,900,000,000 in daily volume, showing institutional participation is well strong. ETFs are making it easier for pensions, hedge funds, and asset managers to buy Bitcoin without the nasty hassle of self custody. ETFs have moved beyond being a niche investment and are and are now mainstream, and much of this current wave is tied to Fed policy. Investors are widely expecting the Fed to cut rates at the September 17 meeting. A Reuters survey of 107 economists found 105 expect a 25 basis point cut with more to come before the end of this year.
Lower rates means looser financial conditions, more liquidity, and, therefore, more appetite for risky assets like Bitcoin. Oh, for god's sakes. The latest PPI data, which showed a surprise decline in August, has added to the confidence that the Fed will act. Experts believe Bitcoin is building a base. And with steady ETF inflows and Fed support, Bitcoin could go to new highs by year's end. Beyond the short term trading frenzy, 2025 is shaping up to be a big year for institutional adoption of Bitcoin. In 2025, institutional interest is ramping up through strong ETF flows and a fresh wave of companies adding Bitcoin to their balance sheets.
It's paper Bitcoin summer still. Geopolitical tensions, weaker than expected jobs and CPI data, and inflationary pressures are forcing institutions to diversify. And many are now treating Bitcoin as a speculative asset, but also as a strategic macroeconomic allocation. So look to Wednesday, ladies and gentlemen. Wednesday. Wednesday. Wednesday. Wednesday. The big truck rally over at the Federal Reserve. And we'll see what bones McCoy will be able to trample upon. Sorry. I'm getting a little out of hand over here. Capital Group made 5,000,000,000 by betting on Bitcoin companies, also by Alex Larry, also out of Bitcoin news.
Capital Group, one of the world's oldest and most conservative investment firms, has become one of the biggest mainstream backers of Bitcoin. What started as a $1,000,000,000 bet on companies holding Bitcoin has grown to over $6,000,000,000, a major milestone in Wall Street's relationship with the scarce digital asset. Mark Casey, an equity portfolio manager at Capital Group San Francisco office with more than two decades at the firm, has an interesting take on Bitcoin. He's a value investor in the Warren Buffett and Benjamin Graham mold and has surprised many by being one of the most vocal Bitcoin advocates among traditional finance executives. Quote, I just love Bitcoin.
I just think it's so interesting, Casey said on a podcast hosted by venture capital form and firm Andreessen Horowitz. He even called it, quote, one of the coolest things that's ever been created by people, end quote. I I'm sorry. I gotta pause. These are not the words that you should hang your hat on just because these are coming out of somebody who's spent twenty years at this massive investment firm. In fact, this sounds like somebody who doesn't understand Bitcoin at all. I'm just just saying. It sounds like he's giving Bitcoin a compliment. The way that I read it, it's kind of insulting because it means that he doesn't understand Bitcoin, which means he hasn't taken really the time to learn it. But yet he just loves Bitcoin. I wonder if he has fun playing with his Bitcoin.
That those two statements really sound very much alike, if you know what I mean. Founded in 1931, the Los Angeles based capital group manages about $3,000,000,000,000 and is known for being, quote, cautious. It avoided the dot com bubble in the nineteen nineties and has traditionally shied away from speculative manias. That's why its embrace of Bitcoin, a volatile and often criticized asset, has gotten so much attention. The firm's Bitcoin exposure comes mainly through public companies that hold Bitcoin on their balance sheets, often referred to as Bitcoin treasury companies. Yay. Instead of buying Bitcoin directly, like all the rest of the dweebs, Capital Group has invested heavily in companies like Strategy, which transformed itself into one of the largest corporate holders of Bitcoin under founder Michael Saylor. In 09/19.
Good lord. In 2021, Capital Group spent over $500,000,000 to buy, holy shit, a 12.3% stake in strategy becoming the company's second largest shareholder after Saylor himself. Even after some trimming and, of course, share dilution, the stake is 6.62% and is now worth about $6,200,000,000 thanks to strategy stock surging over 2200% in the past five years. Casey and his team view Bitcoin focused companies the same way they would commodity firms that deal in something like gold or oil. Quote, we view Bitcoin as a commodity, Casey told The Wall Street Journal.
This means they focus on balance sheets, disclosure standards, liquidity, and governance rather than short term price swings. That's the same approach that they're taking with other bets. They recently bought 5% of Meta Planet, a Japanese hotel operator that went all in on Bitcoin, and they also own shares of Mara Holdings, a major Bitcoin miner. Together, these positions go beyond strategy and show Capital Group's belief that Bitcoin will be a store of value. For Casey, Bitcoin is more than a trade. He thinks it's replacing gold as a modern store of value and will eventually surpass it. Gold accounts for about 2% of global wealth, and Casey thinks Bitcoin can catch up as adoption grows.
Well, I hope Casey decides to spend a little bit more time learning about what Bitcoin is because those, those earlier statements are kinda distressing. Let me read them to you again. I just love Bitcoin. I I just think it's so interesting. Oh my god. This sounds like a bad date. Just it it does. It sounds like something your your your date who's completely uninterested in you would tell you just because, you know, she wants the the steak and the salad because, you know, you're you're buying. It's just one of the coolest things that's ever been created by people. Dude, really?
Wow. Just wow. Let's go ahead and finish this thing off with this one from James Hunt and the block. Bitcoin deserves credit. Strategy buys another 525 BTC for $60,000,000, bringing its total holdings to 638,985 BTC. And, honestly, we don't need any more else, do we? No. No, we don't. We know that that strategy bought more Bitcoin. Although I will say that this is one of his, you know, one of his more well, lamer buys of Bitcoin because, you know, he's he'll buy a thousand. He'll buy, you know, 2,000. He'll buy 4,000, 7,000.
Sometimes he'll get into the, like, double digits. He'll do, like, 12,000 Bitcoin. But 525 for $60,000,000, I mean, it's nothing to sneeze at because that's 525, people that will no longer be able to be whole coiners as it were, but it is what it is. They Sailor continues to buy Bitcoin. And this capital group continues to buy Meta Planet and Strategy. So who knows? But this this this the capital group situation is not problematic, but it is illustrative of these third tier companies like Capital Group that buy companies like Strategy and Meta Planet because of their exposure to Bitcoin. What I find the most odd, however, from that last story that we read was how early Capital Group got into strategy.
Because if you remember, strategy started buying Bitcoin in the 2020, and Capital Group bought 12% well over 12% of strategy, becoming the second largest shareholder behind Saylor himself one year later. It might have even been six months later or, well, seven or eight months later, something like that, because they started they purchased that in 2021. That was I mean, Sailor was wet behind the ears Bitcoin are still at that point. I I think that's something I think that's something to note even if the guy from Capital Group is being a little wedgie about, oh, it's just so great. It's so awesome. Bitcoin, I love playing with my Bitcoins. Even if even if he sounds a little weird by saying all that, Capital Group still put in a large chunk of cash, and it has paid off for them.
It's like a five x. Well, actually, it's more like a six x. A six x in five years. I mean, anybody who's doing business with Capital Group is very happy. Very happy indeed. We'll have to see if if strategy, you know, holds on to their holds on to their stock price. But even then, the people that that and I'm not here. I'm going about strategy. I don't want to defend it as much as I do want to I do really want to remain neutral on it, but I can't help but scroll back and compress the or yeah, compress the timeline on strategies stock ticker and look at its price over time.
And I mean, even if it was at $600 per share and is now trading at around, I don't know, 3 let's call it $3.25. Oh, it's lost half its value. Dude, did you see what the share price was in 2020? In 2019? It was like a $14 a share. I'm sorry, but $14 to $325 a share, that's fine. That's good. I mean, if you bought, like, at $6.20, yes. I understand people are upset about that, but I'm not sure there's much in the way of sway these people can have when they're telling me how much strategy is a scam because they've lost half their value. There are some things that Saylor is doing that I don't like. I don't like his dilution of shareholders.
I don't like him reneging on the promise of when he was going to issue new common stock relative to the MNAV. I don't like that shit at all. But I'm I'm not blind either. $14 to $325 a share inside of, you know, outside of five years. I'm not sure where else you're gonna find that. Not not very many places, but it is what it is. Alright. So that is the end of the show. I'm going to say this. You're gonna have to be mentally careful out there. It's bad. It's really bad. I'm not even gonna say why. You know why. I'm just saying that if you continue to look at it, it's going to do irreparable damage to you.
It will hurt your heart. It will tear pieces of your brain out. Too many things happened last week for any human being to be able to functionally process without just turning to straight up anger, and that's what we're seeing. Hate, anger, feelings of ill will, general negativity overall. It's bad. And if you engage with it, it's gonna rub off on you, and even SoapMiner will not be able to clean your ass up. Stay away from that shit if at all possible. Right? Fine. And if you do need to engage with it, find the good or be the good that is injected into those conversations, and I will see you on the other side.
This has been Bitcoin, and and I'm your host, David Bennett. I hope you enjoyed today's episode and hope to see you again real soon. Have a great day.
It is 09:49AM Pacific Daylight Time. It is smack dab in the September 2025. This is episode eleven sixty eight of Bitcoin and getting off to a little bit of a late start today. My apologies for that, but it is what it is. Last week. Let's just say, can we just bury last week, pour gasoline on it, light it on fire, and just it was just it was awful. So here we are in the week after a whole bunch of garbage that occurred, and all I wish for everybody out there is that I hope you're repairing yourself. I do hope that you are trying to find ways to go out, touch grass, and do all the things that that'll make you shake off the what can only be classified as fairly traumatic events from last week.
And, you know, it's just we we gotta move on. And what I've already noticed in the media is that, they're they're just not gonna let us move on. We're this is going to inundate us for weeks, probably. So just be mentally prepared to be mentally exhausted for the next few weeks, because I don't I don't see this as as going away. It just gets worse and worse, and I'm not gonna talk about that because we've got Bitcoin stuff to get get get to today, and that's why you're here. It's all the news that you can use about bit Bitcoin and more.
And we're gonna start with this this thing that is out of the Financial Times about the Bank of England. It has a plan, apparently. And France, well, they might be blocking some crypto companies. We'll talk about it. But then then there's Thailand. And if you ever wanted to know or have a, the most ironclad reason to buy Bitcoin if you don't already have it, this one from Atlas twenty one is gonna grab you by the short hairs. And then, of course, we've got to talk a little bit about the IMF and their ongoing media feud with El Salvador. He said, she said that they're not buying and they are buying.
Who knows what the hell's going on? Maybe this story will help us figure it out. And then Monero's got even more problems. Yes, I understand this is not a shitcoin show, but it would behoove us to understand that even when you get into stuff like Monero, which I technically don't, I I don't hate it. I don't own any. I don't advocate anybody buying it, but as far as shitcoinery goes, I've seen worse, except I kinda haven't. We'll get to it. I I promise. And then we've got some inflow into Bitcoin ETF news. We've got a Capital Group is betting on Bitcoin companies, and apparently, they're they're doing very well at it. So who knows?
And then we'll round it out with a little bit of strategy news. But let's let's get to this Financial Times piece from, of course, the Financial Times. If the the link to this story will with all the other stories will be, in the show notes. However, I've got two links to this because some people are not able to see the Financial Times link, so I've got the archive.ph link up as well. It will take you to it, And in fact, that's the one that I'm reading right now. So the headline is crypto groups hit out as Bank of England plan to limit stablecoin ownership.
Yes. They're going to limit stablecoin ownership or at least that's the plan. Cryptocurrency groups are calling on the Bank of England to abandon plans to limit how many stablecoins people can own, which would give The UK much stricter rules for the fast growing market than The United States or the European Union. The central bank's plan to restrict stablecoin ownership reflects concerns that the tokens could weaken the banking system by draining it of deposits and underscores how The UK has been more cautious on crypto regulation than other countries. BOE officials said it planned to press ahead with proposals for imposing ownership limits of 10,000 to £20,000 sterling for individuals and £10,000,000 sterling for businesses on all systemic stablecoins defined as any widely used for UK payments or likely to be used in the future.
However, the plan has drawn criticism from cryptocurrency and payment groups, which said that it would put The UK at a disadvantage compared with other countries and would be difficult and costly to enforce on the market, pausing to say, you spelled impossible to enforce. You misspelled it. You spelled it wrong. God. Quote, imposing caps on stablecoins is bad for UK savers, bad for the city, and bad for the pound sterling, said Tom Duff Gordon, vice president of international policy at at Coinbase, The US crypto asset exchange, further, quote, no other major jurisdiction has deemed it necessary to impose caps, end quote.
Other crypto industry executives said that the BOE's limits would be hard to implement and hamper the potential benefits of stablecoins such as making cross border payments cheaper and faster. Quote, limits simply don't work in practice, said Simon Jennings, executive director of the UK Crypto Asset Business Council trade body. Quote, stablecoin issuers don't have sight of who holds their tokens at any given time, so enforcing caps would require a costly, complex new system such as digital IDs or constant coordination between wallets, he said.
Don't give them any ideas. The criticism threatens to intensify tensions between the BOE and the Treasury after the central bank's governor, Andrew Bailey, intervened to stop a meeting by chancellor Rachel Reeves to encourage regulators to speed up fintech revolute's banking license. Reeves had has committed to support digital innovation in The UK financial services sector and said in her mansion house speech in July that she would drive forward developments in blockchain technology, including tokenized securities and stablecoins.
The BOE said it proposed limits on stablecoin ownership could be just transitional, you know, while the financial system adjusts to the growth of digital money. It is due to publish a consultation outlining its updated plans for stablecoin regulation this year. Sasha Mills, BOE executive director for financial market infrastructure, said in a recent speech that the limits would, quote, mitigate financial stability risks stemming from large and rapid outflows of deposits from the banking sector, for example, sudden drops in the provision of credit to businesses and household, and risks posed by newly recognized systemic payment systems as they are scaling up.
Highlight that because I wanna come back to it. The global stablecoin market has grown rapidly to reach $288,000,000,000. It is did not or dominated by US dollar based tokens and was given a major boost after congress passed the Genius Act in July introducing regulatory framework. Quote, limits make no sense, said Ricardo Tordera Ritchie, director of policy and government relations at the payments association. Quote, just as there are no limits on cash, bank accounts, or e money, there is no reason beyond skepticism to impose limits on stablecoin ownership.
This is a step in the wrong direction, end quote. Gilles Chehmla, a professor at Imperial Business School and co director of its Center for Financial Technology said, quote, stablecoins are no longer experimental technologies. They are becoming the foundation of the global digital economy, end quote. Ahead of a report published on Tuesday, Chimla warned that The UK was falling behind on stablecoin regulation, quote, London has the talent, the markets, and the history to lead the digital economy, but the delay in implementing a regulatory framework for stablecoins is eroding that advantage, he said. Okay. So that's the end of the article. Let's go back up here to this paragraph. This is an important paragraph.
Because you may be wondering why why would they be why why why are they imposing limits on stable coins? Well, here's what they say. Sasha Mills, Bank of England executive director for financial market infrastructure, said in a recent speech that the limits on stablecoins would, quote, mitigate financial stability risks stemming from large and rapid outflows of deposits from the banking sector, and risks posed by newly recognized systemic payment systems as they are scaling up. But here's the other one, and they they put they drop this in here. Sudden drops in the provision of credit to businesses and households means they can't make loans because everybody took their money out of the banks and went into stable coins. So there's there's really two things at at work here.
One is that's not how loans are made in the first place. If you think it's only The United States that prints money out of thin air, when we make an auto loan, a business loan, or a home loan, or any of that, you are absolutely smoking something that I would love to have a bag of because this is the way it works everywhere, especially in the West. Maybe not in China. I don't know. I'm not I'm not a Chinese professional or or or expert as they would say. But in the West, yeah, that's how the money is made. That's how that's a ton of money is not just printed when we print US Treasury bonds and Treasury bills, it's when we make loans.
Money is also printed there. So this whole, oh, well we won't be able to provision you credit because we won't have money to back the loans because everybody took their money and we out of the banks and we had a banking run and they ran to stable coins. That's what they're really scared of. The banking sector is terrified because while they were pointing and laughing at all this stuff, they were not innovating. They were not getting in front. They were not getting in front. They they just they they just decided to shrink away and use the media to try to poison the minds of everybody in the world against this stuff, and it did not work. They gambled and they lost.
And now this last ditch hail Mary attempt to save the banking sector is honestly even that's kind of a facade. I mean, there is there's definite truth in it. I will say that. But will I what I will also say is that all this really does is go right down to the fact that they don't control the stablecoin issuers yet. One of these days, they they might. I hope they don't, but the future will be what the future is, and I have no say in what happens there. But the loss of control because they they're the the the powers that be include the banks. That's one of the that's one of the power projection arms for the power base in any of these governments.
That the banking sector, they are very, very, very friendly with government. And they represent a very large sector or rather section of their of the of any government's power projection across the people of the the the governed, right, the citizenry. And, well, if if the banks lose that power because the citizenry decides to take their money out of the banks and I don't know, buy tether with it or whatever it is they're going to do, then you don't have that power projection anymore. So, yes, what they say is true. They they really are terrified that, well, the banks won't the the banks will lose their money and therefore and this is where it gets into just pure bullshit.
They can't make loans to you, dear citizen. So they're doing everything that they can to inject yet another poison pill into all this. And it's just it's just not gonna work. It's just not gonna work. And and this coming out of France is probably not going to work as well. Zoltan Vardai from Cointelegraph, France says it may block crypto companies that are licensed in other European Union countries. Something about passporting. France warned it may try to block cryptocurrency companies operating locally under licenses obtained in other European countries, raising enforcement gap concerns regarding the European Union's crypto regulatory framework.
France's security regulator, the Financials told Reuters on Monday that it is concerned about potential regulatory enforcement gaps related to Europe's markets and crypto asset regulation, the world's first comprehensive crypto regulatory framework. Concerned that some crypto companies may seek licensure in more lenient EU jurisdictions, the AMF is considering a ban on operating in France under Micah licenses obtained in other member states. Quote, we do not exclude the possibility of refusing the EU passport, Marie Anne Barbet Linelanee, I think is how you pronounce it, the chair of AMF told Reuters, adding that it's very complex akin to an atomic weapon for the market.
Wow. The hyperbole is strong with this one. Crypto companies are looking for a weak link in European jurisdictions that will provide a license with fewer requirements than the others, she added. Under Mica, which took effect for crypto asset service providers December 2024, companies authorized in one member state can use this as a, quote, passport to operate across the 27 nation bloc. France's warning highlighted fears that uneven standards could undermine the framework. France became the third country to call for the Paris based European Securities and Markets Authority to take over supervision of major crypto companies according to Reuters, citing a position paper seen by journalists.
Austria's Financial Market Authority and Italy's Financial Markets Regulator, have also called for a regulator or regulatory supervision to be transferred to ESMA. The three countries also backed revisions to Mica, including stricter rules for crypto activities outside of the EU, stronger cybersecurity oversight, and a review of how new token offerings are regulated. The debate follows growing criticism of Malta's crypto licensing regime. In July, ESMA released a peer review of the Malta Financial Services Authority's authorization of a crypto service provider, finding that the regular regulator only, quote, partially met expectations.
After the review, the ESMA's ad hoc peer review committee recommended that MFSA, quote, assess material issues that were pending at the date of the authorization or that have not been adequately considered at the authorization stage, end quote. Malta's MFSA, quote, needs to monitor closely the growth in authorization applications and identify and adjust supervisory practices in a timely manner, the PRC added. Okay. So let's go back up here. This is the the most interesting part of this particular story, which is basically just essentially, what we're seeing is France saying, no. It's not strong enough.
And there when when I say it, I'm talking about MICA, the markets in crypto assets regulation. Now every when when this had been talked about last year and then when it got enacted all that time, there was a whole bunch of people said, oh, this is going to destroy this is going to destroy Bitcoin. It's going to destroy stable coins. Nobody's going to be able to do anything. And yet for France, Mike is well, all of a sudden, it's just not strong enough. This paragraph right here. France's security regulator, the AMF, told Reuters on Monday that it is concerned about potential regulatory enforcement gaps related to the MICA bill or the act, whatever you wanna call it, the world's first comprehensive crypto regulatory framework.
So I thought this was supposed to be a framework that everybody in the EU agreed on. And all of a sudden, we're we're, like, what, ten months out of December when it was when it was put into place, and already one of the EU member states are saying it's not strong enough. What this doesn't bode well for anything about the EU, and the EU is already in a lot of trouble. I've talked about it before. But now we got France who is one step away, as far as we know, from begging at the door of who? The IMF for a bailout. And then all of a sudden, now they're concerned that the markets and crypto asset regulation that was passed isn't strong enough and that they are just going to say, you know what? If you got your licensure in one of the other, European Union block countries, we're just gonna say no.
These people cannot agree on anything. I don't give the EU very much time left before it falls completely apart. Now on to Southeast Asia where I can get a really good plate of pad thai. And one of these days when I go there, I I will, but that's not what we're talking about. Thailand is talking about 3,000,000 bank accounts frozen. 3,000,000. Atlas 21. According to reports, Thailand is at the center of a financial controversy after authorities froze 3,000,000 bank accounts during a large scale operation against online scams.
Yes. They're trying to protect you, I suppose. The anti fraud operation, which began in August, imposed restrictions on bank transfers, limiting daily transactions to 50,000 baht, which is about $1,570 US. This situation has led many experts to point out that Bitcoin could provide an alternative to the limitations imposed by the centralized banking system. Daniel Batten, researcher and cofounder of CH Four Capital, commented, and they have a screenshot of his of his tweet here from x that says, thank you Bank of Thailand for the free Bitcoin marketing. And then he's got a picture of this particular story, which was broke by the Thai Enquirer newspaper.
The massive account freeze affected not only suspected accomplices of scammers, but also innocent merchants and legitimate online sellers. The Cybercrime Investigation Bureau confirmed that numerous legitimate businesses were caught up in the investigation. Jimmy Castro from the Thailand Bitcoin Learning Center stated, quote, the Central Bank of Thailand freezes 3,000,000 bank accounts and begins setting daily limits. This should be an international story. Thank God for Bitcoin. Expatriots living in Thailand have also expressed frustration on social media and online forums complaining about, well, arbitrary banking restrictions and increasingly complex bureaucratic procedures.
Many foreigners saw their accounts blocked for weeks without explanation, having to register their biometric data at bank branches to regain access to services. Let me read it again. Many foreigners saw their accounts blocked for weeks without explanation, having to register their biometric data at bank branches to regain access to services. Thai authorities are currently discussing possible solutions to ease restrictions on the bank accounts of law abiding citizens. The central bank has started talks with the CCIB to find a compromise that protects the financial system from fraud without excessively penalizing honest account holders. Quote, we urge the public not to panic.
That's when you should panic. The suspension is only temporary and will be lifted once checks confirm no wrongdoing, said wizette wizatoria at secretary of the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society. That's the name. Wizette wiz wait. Hold on. Wizette wizette sora hyphen a t. That's the name of this particular person. So but this person is the secretary of the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society. So they're telling you not to panic, a, that's when you should panic. The suspension is only temporary, bullshit. And it will be lifted once they check to confirm that you have not committed in any wrongdoing.
Is this is just one more this is just one more example of why we are here for the reason that we're here. This is ridiculous. 3,000,000 bank accounts in Thailand. In fact, I should have done this earlier. What is the population of Thailand? Let's see. Is is there a population? Hold on. Let me just pop pop that in there. Population. 71,000,000 people. 71,000,000 people. So that's I mean, it's it's it's single digit percentage of bank accounts, but, dude, 3,000,000 out of 71,600,000 people. Yeah, this stock good. It's just it's not good. Be aware, people. Be aware. Now you may be feeling a little grungy after that and good for my friend, SoapMiner, who will get you nice and clean. You can get away clean with SoapMiner brand soaps from soapminer.com.
That's soapminer.com. You can get all kinds of excellent soaps over here at soapminer.com at the shop. Comfrey tallow soap is one of his newest soap lines that he's got out. If you are a gardener and you get, like, scratches and, like, abrasions and small minor cuts or possibly bug bites, waspings, bee stings, If you wash with with comfrey talus soap where like wherever it is that you have scrapes and abrasions, it will help heal. It will help stop itching. It will help stop inflammation because comfrey itself is a wonderful wonderful medicine. It's great for small like, it it will heal deep cuts, but don't do it because it heals so fast that it won't heal the inside before it heals the outside where you're where you're actually applying it. And you could trap bacteria and and yeast and stuff inside the wound. So if it's a deep wound, don't do this. Go to the hospital, get stitched up. And after maybe a couple of weeks, you can keep your wound clean and help it heal with soap miter, comfrey, tallow soap.
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Get your soap at soapminer.com. Make sure you use Bitcoin. And in the coupon code, you get 10% off. Make sure that you do that because not only will you get it, you will tell SoapMiner that you heard it here on the Bitcoin and podcast in the circle p. The circle p is where I bring plebs with goods and services that are just like you to plebs just like you who might want to purchase said goods and services. Go to soapminer.com, use Bitcoin and in the coupon code for 10% off. Now, onto this one, the IMF, the International Monetary Fund, insists, Oh my god. They're insisting that El Salvador isn't buying any more Bitcoin.
So what's going on? Matt DeSalvo from Decrypt. Bitcoin advocates around the world are enamored with the economic policies of El Salvador's president and his embrace of the digital asset. But when looking at his government's crypto buys, something doesn't quite add up. Back in 2022, the millennial leader said that he'd buy one Bitcoin every day. At today's prices, that's over a $114,000 in so called digital gold every twenty four hours. And sometimes, Bukele says he buys even more. The leader, over the weekend, announced that he bought 21 Bitcoin to celebrate the fourth anniversary of El Salvador's Bitcoin law. That's another $2,300,000 worth of Bitcoin that he said he put in the government's new transparent blockchain coffers, which now holds over $700,000,000 in Bitcoin.
But the IMF says otherwise. Under a deal to get a development grant with the IMF, the country was forced to scale back its Bitcoin experiment in December 2024. The IMF now says the Bitcoin buy announcements are all bunk. Quote, we can confirm that the total amount of government owned Bitcoin has not increased and that the increase in the Bitcoin reserve fund corresponds to movements across government wallets, IMF communications officer Mira Lewis told Decrypt in an email. The institution would not answer further questions. So if the IMF says president Bukele isn't buying more Bitcoin, why is he regularly announcing new buys? And how is El Salvador continuing to add to its Bitcoin reserve at a rate of 1 BTC per day as blockchain data shows? Well, the Salvadoran government communications department told Decrypt that the president is indeed still buying Bitcoin, but they themselves wouldn't reply to additional questions.
Wow. Blockchain data shows El Salvador's Bitcoin wallets grouped together and tracked by analytics firm, Arkham, are growing by one Bitcoin per day with deposits from cryptocurrency exchanges like Binance and Bitfinex and a few other random addresses in the mix. The buys are new then? Maybe, but maybe not. Before the Bukele administration announced government wallets for everyone to see, there was little transparency in regards to the buy. The purchases were only traceable via Bukele's tweets, and even then, he would irreverently boast about his buys, even saying he bought BTC on his phone while on the toilet.
It's possible the Salvadoran president's previous buys or other procurement of Bitcoin through taxes or payments made to state run entities prior to the recent agreement with the IMF are currently funding transfers to the Bitcoin reserve. And crypto analytics firm Bubble Maps told Decrypt there's no way to know for certain based on public blockchain data when the Bitcoin being transferred today was actually purchased. It's possible. The Bitcoin was gained some time ago before the agreement with the IMF in late twenty twenty four, and the BTC sat dormant in a crypto exchange account before arriving to publicly disclosed wallets. Interesting. Bubble Maps also said the recent government transactions could have been routed through exchanges, making it look like they were indeed fresh purchases.
And an analyst for the firm said it's impossible to know for sure since third parties cannot access an exchange's ledger of transactions without the exchange releasing the data themselves. James Bosworth, founder and CEO of Washington DC based risk analysis consultancy, Hexagon, told Decrypt that whether or not the Bitcoin buys are new, there should have been more transparency with the buys from the outset. Quote, there are good reasons to believe he is not purchasing all of it on the open market. Instead moving funds and coins around as a type of government backed wash trade, he said. He also added that Bukele's unprofessional management of cryptocurrency continues to obscure the budget situation.
This should be the Salvadoran government's and people's resource, not the president's personal wallets that he can play trading games with, end quote. The crypto exchanges El Salvador has used, Binance, Bitfinex, and Coinbase declined to answer to crypt's questions. No shit. Loved by libertarians for being an anti establishment maverick who'd insult institutions on social media, Bukele had to scrap some of his beloved Bitcoin experiment to get a $1,400,000,000 extended fund facility from the IMF. Still, he claims he's doing what he wants in defiance of the IMF. Quote, no. It's not stopping, Bukele said on x in March regarding the government's Bitcoin buys. Quote, if it didn't stop when the world ostracized us and most Bitcoiners abandoned us, it won't stop now and it won't stop in the future, end quote.
And this brings us to my final say on the the situation with IMF and and and El Salvador. We have no clue what the hell's going on even now. We've had both the government and the IMF make statements about this, and we still have no idea what's actually happening. These people. Now let's run the numbers. West Texas Intermediate Oil up almost a full point to $63.28. Brent Norsey up two thirds of a point to $67.42. Natural gas moving against its own rules of the game. It's actually in the green and not in the red. Two and a third percent to the upside, chilling out right at $3 per thousand cubic feet, and gasoline is up one and a third to $2.01 per gallon.
Merban crude, everybody's favorite light and sweet crude is up a quarter of a point to $70.98. Gold swinging for the fences yet one more time. After an almost 1% rise, we're looking at $3,700 nope. $3,720. Wow. Everybody congratulate Peter Schiff. He deserves it. He's waited a very long time for this, and there's no reason to go beat him around the head and shoulders. Just say, congrats, Peter. I'm happy for you, man. Silver is up a third. Platinum is up a third. Copper is up one and a third, and palladium in the other direction, two and a quarter to the downside. Ag is fully mixed today. Biggest winner today is lumber, four and a half percent to the upside.
Biggest loser is corn, one and a third to the downside. Live cattle is up almost two full points today. Wow. That's gotta make the cattlemen happy, I guess. Lean hogs are up point 4% and feeder cattle are up 2.6. It's gonna take it's gonna cost you a lot of money to buy in those, cattle to get fed before they turn into live cattle so you can sell them. That's a pretty decent differential. That's almost that's almost a full, god, point 63% to the, of a of a differential between the two pricings. Yikes. Dow crawling sideways, but in the green, S and P is up a third, Nasdaq is up two thirds, the S and P Mini is up point 13%, and Bitcoin is at a $114,700.
That is $2,280,000,000,000 of market cap, and we can only get 31 ounces of shiny metal rocks with our one Bitcoin of which there are 19,921,126.17 of. An average fees per block are well stable or or rather average 0.03 BTC taken in fees on a per block basis. There are about 38 blocks carrying 62,000 unconfirmed transactions waiting to clear at high and low priorities of one satoshi per vbyte. Hash rate is well, we're still in Zeta Hash, 1.02 Zeta Hash is per second for the time being. It has been trending down. We hit 1.05, I believe on Friday, and yesterday was 1.04.
So we are trending down a little bit. Now from the unpatriotic act, Friday's episode of Bitcoin and I got arce Arceus or Arceus with 2,718 sets says something to note. Andrea Gacki, director of FinCEN, was a 2023 Biden appointee. Trump can and should replace her. She's continuing the Biden era attacks on privacy in all forms, corporate transparency act, now this patriot act drive. Yeah. No shit. Anybody I don't care who appointed her. Anybody who says crap like Gackie's saying needs to be removed immediately. Wartime with a 133 gives me a couple of emojis I can't see because, yes, my operating system is literally that old.
Bitcoin for president with 500 says, here's to being human. Cheers. You're still a persistent and badass Bitcoiner. Who cares? Thank you for your podcast. They are treasured by many. I appreciate you saying that there, Bitcoin for president. Code with 500 says nothing. Itsy bitsy huddle with holy shit, 27,000 sats. Oh my god, dude. That's now that's a boost, baby. Thank you for bringing us the news. Typically, I do value for value by streaming sats on fountain, but for some reason, my wallet was locked and not streaming for the last three months. Oh, shit. Reached out to Oscar Mayer on Nostra the other day, and he got things fixed within an hour. Freedom tech for the wind. And here are the sats I owe you for all the value for value that you provided.
Wow. I appreciate that, sir. Co or, rather +1 776 with +1 776 says, damn, what a banger episode, Dave. You really encapsulated what so many people are feeling this week. The world feels like it's on warp speed, bracing myself for some nineteen sixties style civil disobedience. We are no longer represented in congress and parliaments in a way that it can be avoided, so buckle up. Bitcoin Sandy with 2,000 says, great show as always. Bitcoin Sandy with another 500 gives me a flame emoji, and Pai's with a 121 sat says thank you, sir. No. Thank you. That's the weather report.
Welcome to part two of the news that you can use. Monero has been shaken by a block reorg. Reviving tensions with Cubic, this is Naga Avon Namayo out of the block. Gonna tell us about all of this business here. Privacy centric blockchain Monero suffered an 18 block reorg that invalidated more than 100 transactions, spring warnings for users to wait beyond the network's typical 10 confirmations before accepting payments. Reorganizations occur when two competing versions of a proof of work chain are mined and the network later converges to the longer, higher difficulty chain.
This ultimately discards the other's recent blocks and, of course, any transactions inside them. While rare at this length, reorgs are a known operational risk for any proof of work network, and merchants typically mitigate them by waiting a set number of confirmations before treating a payment as final. Monero Research Lab, an unofficial project focused on XMR, said nodes observed an alternate chain 18 blocks long starting at height 3,500,000, which left roughly 117 to a 118 transactions on the orphaned branch for forty minutes.
Because the event exceeded nine blocks, Monero's standard 10 block lock did not protect all affected transactions from being rolled back, the group noted. The project advised developers to wait temporarily rolling DNS checkpoints to harden the network's defenses in the near term. Yu Zhuan, cofounder of on chain security firm Slow Mist, also warned that ignoring reorg risk could enable double spins even without a clear majority of hash power. Speculation over the reorg source surfaced quickly after the September 14 alert. Several community accounts pointed to prior tensions with Cubic, which previously claimed outsized Monero hash rate.
The unknown mining pool involved fueled assumptions around Cubic's involvement as the protocol previously stopped reporting its hash rate in public data providers. Monero community podcaster Zenu stated that Cubic may have mined in isolation using a variant of selfish mining even after earlier reorg attempts. Quote, this is the largest reorg in Monero's history, the user posted on x. In selfish mining, a miner withholds newly found blocks to build a private fork and then publishes it in one burst to overtake the public chain, exploiting proof of work's preference for the chain with the most cumulative work.
Cubic founder Sergei Ivan Shlugo rejected some of those assertions in social media posts. He said that Zenu, quote, pulled all that out of his ass, end quote. That's such a professional tone, referring to the podcasters claims of Cubic's role in the incident. Notably, Monero's native token seems to have benefited from the debacle. XMR rose over 6% in the last twenty four hours, while Cubic traded flat according to the block's price page. The latest event follows months of debate inside the Monero ecosystem about reorg exposure and boasts from outside actors about controlling large shares of the network's mining power. Earlier this year, XMR community members traded barbs with cubic proponents after Ivan Sheglow's project reportedly amassed around 51% of the network's hash rate.
So Monero right now, honestly, is just it's just not safe. I'm, again, I I I honestly, I don't have there's okay. Zcash and Monero are the only two other coins that I would actually look at and I don't. I would if I had no other choice, but I do and it's called Bitcoin, so therefore, I don't look at them. However, knowing the history of those coins and the way that they were spun up and who was involved with them, If I had to, it would probably be one of the it would probably be one of those two, honestly. But right now, Monero does not feel safe. It's a it at this point, it's like it's not really the chain isn't used that much. There's not that much mining on it.
It's I that this is why I don't you this is why I never use any of this crap. Because even if even if I can look back in my memory and realize, well, the people that launched these two chains, you know, at least they did it kind of the right way and they don't seem to be the scuzzy underbelly of of all that is unholy when it comes to altcoins, shitcoins, ICOs, and the rest of the garbage that's out there. It's still these are still chains that I I don't trust. They're not they're just not used enough for me to trust it. All the action is on Bitcoin. Please stop trying to front run Bitcoin. If you wanna front run Bitcoin, there's only one way to do it. You you just buy Bitcoin.
From Bitcoin News and Alex Larry, Bitcoin ETFs record biggest inflow in two months on rate cut hopes. Remember, on the seventeenth, we either will get a rate cut out of the Fed or we will not get a rate cut out of the Fed. I suppose there's a third choice, we might get an even bigger rate cut out of the Fed than we're expecting. We're expecting a quarter point. Some people are saying be don't be surprised if it's a 50 basis point cut. I don't know. Because you never know what chairman Powell will do. He might say no cut. In which case, risk assets will will lose their ass for a little bit. So let's find out more. Bitcoin exchange traded funds in The United States are having their best run-in the past couple of months with billions flowing in as investors prepare for a possible rate cut by the Federal Reserve.
According to Farside investors, US spot Bitcoin ETFs have seen five days of net inflows with over $2,300,000,000 in one week. Daily inflows have been strong. 741,000,000 on September 10, 552,000,000 on September 11, and 642,000,000 September 12. September 10 recorded the highest inflow since July as Bitcoin's price climbed back up past 115,000. It seems that institutions are driving the surge. Fidelity's FBTC and BlackRock's iBit are consistently at the top of the list of funds attracting new capital on September 12 alone. Fidelity pulled in 315,000,000 and BlackRock 264,000,000.
Wow. So Fidelity beat out BlackRock on September 12. Interesting. Trading volumes have been big too. Some days saw Bitcoin ETFs do over $3,900,000,000 in daily volume, showing institutional participation is well strong. ETFs are making it easier for pensions, hedge funds, and asset managers to buy Bitcoin without the nasty hassle of self custody. ETFs have moved beyond being a niche investment and are and are now mainstream, and much of this current wave is tied to Fed policy. Investors are widely expecting the Fed to cut rates at the September 17 meeting. A Reuters survey of 107 economists found 105 expect a 25 basis point cut with more to come before the end of this year.
Lower rates means looser financial conditions, more liquidity, and, therefore, more appetite for risky assets like Bitcoin. Oh, for god's sakes. The latest PPI data, which showed a surprise decline in August, has added to the confidence that the Fed will act. Experts believe Bitcoin is building a base. And with steady ETF inflows and Fed support, Bitcoin could go to new highs by year's end. Beyond the short term trading frenzy, 2025 is shaping up to be a big year for institutional adoption of Bitcoin. In 2025, institutional interest is ramping up through strong ETF flows and a fresh wave of companies adding Bitcoin to their balance sheets.
It's paper Bitcoin summer still. Geopolitical tensions, weaker than expected jobs and CPI data, and inflationary pressures are forcing institutions to diversify. And many are now treating Bitcoin as a speculative asset, but also as a strategic macroeconomic allocation. So look to Wednesday, ladies and gentlemen. Wednesday. Wednesday. Wednesday. Wednesday. The big truck rally over at the Federal Reserve. And we'll see what bones McCoy will be able to trample upon. Sorry. I'm getting a little out of hand over here. Capital Group made 5,000,000,000 by betting on Bitcoin companies, also by Alex Larry, also out of Bitcoin news.
Capital Group, one of the world's oldest and most conservative investment firms, has become one of the biggest mainstream backers of Bitcoin. What started as a $1,000,000,000 bet on companies holding Bitcoin has grown to over $6,000,000,000, a major milestone in Wall Street's relationship with the scarce digital asset. Mark Casey, an equity portfolio manager at Capital Group San Francisco office with more than two decades at the firm, has an interesting take on Bitcoin. He's a value investor in the Warren Buffett and Benjamin Graham mold and has surprised many by being one of the most vocal Bitcoin advocates among traditional finance executives. Quote, I just love Bitcoin.
I just think it's so interesting, Casey said on a podcast hosted by venture capital form and firm Andreessen Horowitz. He even called it, quote, one of the coolest things that's ever been created by people, end quote. I I'm sorry. I gotta pause. These are not the words that you should hang your hat on just because these are coming out of somebody who's spent twenty years at this massive investment firm. In fact, this sounds like somebody who doesn't understand Bitcoin at all. I'm just just saying. It sounds like he's giving Bitcoin a compliment. The way that I read it, it's kind of insulting because it means that he doesn't understand Bitcoin, which means he hasn't taken really the time to learn it. But yet he just loves Bitcoin. I wonder if he has fun playing with his Bitcoin.
That those two statements really sound very much alike, if you know what I mean. Founded in 1931, the Los Angeles based capital group manages about $3,000,000,000,000 and is known for being, quote, cautious. It avoided the dot com bubble in the nineteen nineties and has traditionally shied away from speculative manias. That's why its embrace of Bitcoin, a volatile and often criticized asset, has gotten so much attention. The firm's Bitcoin exposure comes mainly through public companies that hold Bitcoin on their balance sheets, often referred to as Bitcoin treasury companies. Yay. Instead of buying Bitcoin directly, like all the rest of the dweebs, Capital Group has invested heavily in companies like Strategy, which transformed itself into one of the largest corporate holders of Bitcoin under founder Michael Saylor. In 09/19.
Good lord. In 2021, Capital Group spent over $500,000,000 to buy, holy shit, a 12.3% stake in strategy becoming the company's second largest shareholder after Saylor himself. Even after some trimming and, of course, share dilution, the stake is 6.62% and is now worth about $6,200,000,000 thanks to strategy stock surging over 2200% in the past five years. Casey and his team view Bitcoin focused companies the same way they would commodity firms that deal in something like gold or oil. Quote, we view Bitcoin as a commodity, Casey told The Wall Street Journal.
This means they focus on balance sheets, disclosure standards, liquidity, and governance rather than short term price swings. That's the same approach that they're taking with other bets. They recently bought 5% of Meta Planet, a Japanese hotel operator that went all in on Bitcoin, and they also own shares of Mara Holdings, a major Bitcoin miner. Together, these positions go beyond strategy and show Capital Group's belief that Bitcoin will be a store of value. For Casey, Bitcoin is more than a trade. He thinks it's replacing gold as a modern store of value and will eventually surpass it. Gold accounts for about 2% of global wealth, and Casey thinks Bitcoin can catch up as adoption grows.
Well, I hope Casey decides to spend a little bit more time learning about what Bitcoin is because those, those earlier statements are kinda distressing. Let me read them to you again. I just love Bitcoin. I I just think it's so interesting. Oh my god. This sounds like a bad date. Just it it does. It sounds like something your your your date who's completely uninterested in you would tell you just because, you know, she wants the the steak and the salad because, you know, you're you're buying. It's just one of the coolest things that's ever been created by people. Dude, really?
Wow. Just wow. Let's go ahead and finish this thing off with this one from James Hunt and the block. Bitcoin deserves credit. Strategy buys another 525 BTC for $60,000,000, bringing its total holdings to 638,985 BTC. And, honestly, we don't need any more else, do we? No. No, we don't. We know that that strategy bought more Bitcoin. Although I will say that this is one of his, you know, one of his more well, lamer buys of Bitcoin because, you know, he's he'll buy a thousand. He'll buy, you know, 2,000. He'll buy 4,000, 7,000.
Sometimes he'll get into the, like, double digits. He'll do, like, 12,000 Bitcoin. But 525 for $60,000,000, I mean, it's nothing to sneeze at because that's 525, people that will no longer be able to be whole coiners as it were, but it is what it is. They Sailor continues to buy Bitcoin. And this capital group continues to buy Meta Planet and Strategy. So who knows? But this this this the capital group situation is not problematic, but it is illustrative of these third tier companies like Capital Group that buy companies like Strategy and Meta Planet because of their exposure to Bitcoin. What I find the most odd, however, from that last story that we read was how early Capital Group got into strategy.
Because if you remember, strategy started buying Bitcoin in the 2020, and Capital Group bought 12% well over 12% of strategy, becoming the second largest shareholder behind Saylor himself one year later. It might have even been six months later or, well, seven or eight months later, something like that, because they started they purchased that in 2021. That was I mean, Sailor was wet behind the ears Bitcoin are still at that point. I I think that's something I think that's something to note even if the guy from Capital Group is being a little wedgie about, oh, it's just so great. It's so awesome. Bitcoin, I love playing with my Bitcoins. Even if even if he sounds a little weird by saying all that, Capital Group still put in a large chunk of cash, and it has paid off for them.
It's like a five x. Well, actually, it's more like a six x. A six x in five years. I mean, anybody who's doing business with Capital Group is very happy. Very happy indeed. We'll have to see if if strategy, you know, holds on to their holds on to their stock price. But even then, the people that that and I'm not here. I'm going about strategy. I don't want to defend it as much as I do want to I do really want to remain neutral on it, but I can't help but scroll back and compress the or yeah, compress the timeline on strategies stock ticker and look at its price over time.
And I mean, even if it was at $600 per share and is now trading at around, I don't know, 3 let's call it $3.25. Oh, it's lost half its value. Dude, did you see what the share price was in 2020? In 2019? It was like a $14 a share. I'm sorry, but $14 to $325 a share, that's fine. That's good. I mean, if you bought, like, at $6.20, yes. I understand people are upset about that, but I'm not sure there's much in the way of sway these people can have when they're telling me how much strategy is a scam because they've lost half their value. There are some things that Saylor is doing that I don't like. I don't like his dilution of shareholders.
I don't like him reneging on the promise of when he was going to issue new common stock relative to the MNAV. I don't like that shit at all. But I'm I'm not blind either. $14 to $325 a share inside of, you know, outside of five years. I'm not sure where else you're gonna find that. Not not very many places, but it is what it is. Alright. So that is the end of the show. I'm going to say this. You're gonna have to be mentally careful out there. It's bad. It's really bad. I'm not even gonna say why. You know why. I'm just saying that if you continue to look at it, it's going to do irreparable damage to you.
It will hurt your heart. It will tear pieces of your brain out. Too many things happened last week for any human being to be able to functionally process without just turning to straight up anger, and that's what we're seeing. Hate, anger, feelings of ill will, general negativity overall. It's bad. And if you engage with it, it's gonna rub off on you, and even SoapMiner will not be able to clean your ass up. Stay away from that shit if at all possible. Right? Fine. And if you do need to engage with it, find the good or be the good that is injected into those conversations, and I will see you on the other side.
This has been Bitcoin, and and I'm your host, David Bennett. I hope you enjoyed today's episode and hope to see you again real soon. Have a great day.
Introduction and Episode Overview
Bitcoin News and Updates
