Episode 1174 of Bitcoin And . . . is LIVE!
Topics for today:
Wine
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Twitter: https://x.com/BenJustman
Website: https://www.peonylanewine.com/bitcoin
https://bitcoinnews.com/markets/institutions-18-percent-bitcoin-supply/
https://bitcoinmagazine.com/politics/bitcoin-circular-economies-highlighted-at-united-nations-general-assembly-week-event
https://bitcoinmagazine.com/news/fold-taps-stripe-and-visa-in-launch-of-first-bitcoin-only-credit-card
https://cointelegraph.com/news/stablecoins-vs-credit-cards
Get You're Free Comfrey Owner's Manual Here:
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Topics for today:
- Stablecoins vs. Credit Cards: FIGHT!
- Up To 25% of all Bitcoin Held by Institutions
- Bitcoin Discussed at UN General Assembly
- Fold Taps Stripe and Visa for "BTC Back" Credit Card
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Today's Articles:
https://bitcoinmagazine.com/news/cleanspark-stock-jumps-after-securing-100m-bitcoin-backed-credit-line-from-coinbasehttps://bitcoinnews.com/markets/institutions-18-percent-bitcoin-supply/
https://bitcoinmagazine.com/politics/bitcoin-circular-economies-highlighted-at-united-nations-general-assembly-week-event
https://bitcoinmagazine.com/news/fold-taps-stripe-and-visa-in-launch-of-first-bitcoin-only-credit-card
https://cointelegraph.com/news/stablecoins-vs-credit-cards
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[00:00:02]
David Bennett:
It is 08:37AM Pacific Daylight Time. It is the September 2025. This is episode eleven seventy four of Bitcoin and CleanSpark. The stock got some pumpage going on. We are waiting with bated breath for this massive political statement about Bitcoin that's supposedly coming today. I talked about it yesterday. We'll see. We'll see what the hell is going on. And there's other news too because that's why you're here for the Bitcoin news that you can use and more. There's also going to be, some talk about how much Bitcoin the institutions are actually holding at this point. And the numbers a little bit more surprising than than I think anybody is prepared for. And Bitcoin circular economies was highlighted of at all places the United Nations General Assembly.
I don't know if they're scared or not. I guess we'll find out. We are gonna talk a little bit about the synergies between Bitcoin and AI. And then then we're gonna get into, well, Fold and Stripe and Visa are all crawling in bed together and then stablecoins versus credit cards. It I think those two stories are gonna be tied together because I think the implications we could see a battle on the horizon. I'm just saying, in a battle between Bitcoin companies and Stablecoin companies with credit cards being the linchpin between them.
And we'll I'll I'll see if I I'll see if I can refine that when we get to those particular stories. But first, CleanSpark stock jumps after securing a $100,000,000 Bitcoin backed credit line from Coinbase. Start your engines, ladies and gentlemen. The race begins now. What was I saying yesterday? Strategy's only portal into doing something with their Bitcoin is gonna be based around making some kind of financial becoming a financial company, a financing company. Coinbase seems to have already figured out how to do that. It's not as much that I care about CleanSpark stock jumping as much as the parameters of this particular loan. They're calling it a credit line.
Honestly, it's a loan. Micah Zimmerman from Bitcoin Magazine writing, CleanSpark Incorporated shares ticked higher on Monday, extending last week's bullish momentum after the company announced an expanded Bitcoin backed credit facility with Coinbase Prime. The Las Vegas based mining firm closed regular trading at $13.74 a share but jumped more than 8% in after hours reaching $14.86. The stock is currently up 6% after hours trading near $14.60. CleanSpark tapped an extra $100,000,000 in credit backed by its own Bitcoin reserves. And instead of selling coins on the market, the company is leaning on its Bitcoin holdings as collateral.
This is basically a strategy that turns mined Bitcoin into a working asset. For shareholders, it means growth can be funded without issuing new stock, offering a non dilutive way to keep scaling. CleanSpark has been tapping into its Bitcoin holdings more often to raise capital. This is a strategy that's becoming more and more common among publicly traded miners. Basically, by putting its Bitcoin up as collateral, companies holding Bitcoin keep exposure to the asset's potential upside while unlocking cash that it can put to work. Quote, this expansion with Coinbase Prime allows us to fund growth without sacrificing shareholder equity or liquidating Bitcoin.
We see tremendous opportunity to accelerate mining growth while also preparing select data centers for high performance compute applications, said CEO and chairman, Matt Schultz. CleanSpark said proceeds will go towards efforts like expanding its energy portfolio, scaling Bitcoin mining operations, and, you guessed it, building out high performance compute capabilities. This includes converting some facilities near metro centers into diversified compute campuses while demand for AI and cloud services is growing rapidly. That approach is gaining traction as competition heats up among US based miners. And CleanSpark, in particular, has leaned on energy expansion and efficiency to stay ahead of the pack.
The company has also signaled a willingness to branch out into other forms of compute beyond mining, a sign of flexibility as the industry evolve evolves. Brett Tejpal, who heads Coinbase Institutional, described CleanSpark's latest capital strategy as, quote, a significant step forward for growing the crypto ecosystem through focused capital deployment, end quote. He highlighted Coinbase Prime's role in providing the custody and credit infrastructure behind the deal. CleanSpark's stock is up 33% over the last five trading days according to market data. So in this particular case, and that's the end of the article, CleanSpark is using their own Bitcoin that they have on their own balance sheet as collateral, and Coinbase Prime is taking custody of that collateral, probably in a collaborative custody sense of the word, and then giving them a $100,000,000 in cash or at least a $100,000,000 of of potential credit that can be accessed and utilized. And it's probably a revolving credit, which means that they can just kinda keep this thing running, like, so they'll borrow maybe $50,000,000 out of it, do some stuff with it, you know, mine some Bitcoin, you know, hopefully make some other kinds of revenue. If they do high performance compute, then maybe they're just taking in straight up fiat cash from companies who want to rent their rack space, yada yada yada. And then they pay back $50,000,000, and lo and behold, you still got a $100,000,000 of revolving credit line. So that's what makes it kinda different than a loan, but in all estimations of the word, it's still relatively a a loan, except that it's backed with their own Bitcoin.
Now I want to reiterate what I think is going to happen with strategy is I think they're going to do the same thing. They're going but I think they're going to do it for other people and they're going to take some interest rate off of the top of loans that they collateralize for other people. This is what I think is gonna happen with strategy. They got a buttload of Bitcoin, and they better start putting it to use. And they it does not look like they're gonna be making software anytime soon again. So I think they'll turn into a finance company, and I think what they'll do is they'll go to big banks like JPMorgan, and they'll say, look. We're gonna make this loan to this other guy over here, But essentially, you're gonna make the loan to the guy, and we're gonna back that loan. You're gonna charge, I don't know, let's say, 7% on the interest.
They're gonna give us another, you know, point five you know, another half a percent on top of that. So their effective rate is gonna be seven and a half interest. We get point five. You get seven. Everybody's happy. We're back in the loan. We're making money on our Bitcoin. And then they collater then the person that's taking the loan actually collateralizes for that loan, not to Goldman Sachs, but to Michael Saylor's strategy. I think that's probably the easiest way that they break into retail and institutional financing.
I'm just I'm just saying. But here, we already have some some pretty good evidence that people are gonna start putting their Bitcoin to work for them, CleanSpark being the example here. Now institutions, speaking of institutions, they collectively now hold nearly 18% of the total Bitcoin supply. That's that's a lot of Bitcoin. That's almost one fifth of the entire Bitcoin supply. Let's see what Alex Larry from Bitcoin News has to say about it. Once a grassroot experiment for tech enthusiasts and retail investors, Bitcoin is increasingly being accumulated by institutions.
New data shows that companies, funds, governments, and other organizations now hold almost a fifth of all the Bitcoin in existence. So we're talking about the circulating supply, not the effective total supply that has not yet been mined. According to Bitcoin treasuries, institutions now hold 3,750,000.00 Bitcoin. That's around 18% of the circulating supply. These are spread across 332 entities. And the breakdown is this. 192 public companies own just over 1,000,000 Bitcoin. 44 funds or ETFs hold 1,500,000.0 BTC.
68 private companies hold about 300,000 BTC. 13 governments hold over 500,000 BTC. 11 DeFi projects hold about a quarter million BTC. And four custodians or exchanges hold a total of a 153,000 BTC. The biggest holders are ETFs and publicly listed companies, which ramped up their buying after The US approved spot Bitcoin ETFs. The percentage goes even higher when you factor in coins that will never move. Experts estimated 1,100,000.0 BTC was mined by Satoshi Nakamoto and will never be spent. On top of that, 3,700,000.0 BTC are believed to be lost forever due to misplaced keys or inaccessible wallets.
That means effective institutional ownership is around between twenty three and twenty five percent of the total available supply. The US is by far the leader in institutional Bitcoin holdings. A 118 US based entities report Bitcoin reserves. Canada is second with 43, and then comes The UK with 21, Japan with 12, and Hong Kong tying at 12. This geographical concentration shows how adoption is being driven by developed markets with strong financial infrastructure. Several reasons are driving this institutional demand. Reports say institutions view Bitcoin as a hedge against inflation and fiat currency debasement. It's also viewed as a tool for portfolio diversification because of its low correlation with traditional assets, pausing to say, right now, it's very much correlated.
Right now, it's very much correlated. Sometimes it breaks away. Sometimes it stays away. But right now, no. We've got pretty solid correlation. Just I'm just saying. ETFs are having a big impact. US listed spot Bitcoin ETFs hold over 1,300,000.0 BTC and have taken more than nine times the new daily supply. Repeating that, ETFs hold over 1,300,000.0 Bitcoin and have taken more than nine times the new daily supply. It's not just funds and ETFs that are moving. Corporations are adding Bitcoin to their balance sheets as well. And then they talk about strategy and governments, and you essentially have the breakdown already as to who owns what. But the fact that if you if you go all the way to the extreme side, institutions hold about a quarter of all available, not lost, not locked up forever, BTC.
I personally am not excited about that number, but there's nothing that I can do about it because Bitcoin is for enemies. So Bitcoin circular economies, speaking of enemies, was mentioned at length in a campful of enemies, the United Nations General Assembly, which I do not believe that the u UN is actually working towards humanity. I don't know if they ever were. Maybe there was a time when they were, but right now, I I just don't trust them, and I haven't seen them do anything good in decades. I've seen them screw things up more often than not. But Frank Korva from Bitcoin Magazine is highlighting this United Nations General Assembly Week event.
Let's see what he's got to say about it. Yesterday at the Concordia Summit, which is an annual event held during the UN General Assembly Week, PayStand CEO and cofounder Jeremy Almond made the case for why Bitcoin is important for those living outside the borders of highly developed countries as well as how it helps people meet the UN sustainable development goals. Ew. At the event, which brings together members of government, businesses, and nonprofits to discuss solutions to some of the world's most pressing problems, Almond appeared on a panel titled Frictionless Finance, Unlocking Capital Through Digital Assets, on which he highlighted the role that Bitcoin circular economies play in the global South. Quote, whether it's an indigenous village in Peru or a town in El Salvador, these are community driven grassroots efforts that are happening from the bottom up, Allman told the audience at the Sheraton Hotel just north of New York City's Times Square, referring to the efforts of Motive Peru and those who are part of the original Bitcoin circular economy, Bitcoin Beach.
He added that Bitcoin adoption is growing faster than Internet adoption did and that Bitcoin is changing millions of lives all over the planet right now. It's rare to hear such rhetoric at a UN or even a UN adjacent event despite the fact that Bitcoin can accelerate the pace at which people meet UN SDGs, those those sustainable development goals according to Almond. Here and there, you might read about the UN considering the potential benefits of, quote, digital assets, stablecoins, or even CBDCs. But more often than not, the institution either hard hardly acknowledges Bitcoin or casts it in a negative light. However, Allman sees Bitcoin, something he referred to from the stages of freedom money and a great enabler for savings for people around the globe, many of whom who don't even have access to traditional financial services as something to help people meet the UN's SDGs more quickly.
And he was an excellent candidate to deliver such a message as his company, PayStand, the largest business to business blockchain based payments company in The United States, donates 10% of its profits to paystand.org, a nonprofit that aims to further financial inclusion and one of the aims of SDG three around the world through Bitcoin. Quote, we believe that Bitcoin circular economies are major catalysts that drive a lot of the UN's goals, Almond told bitcoin magazine, but instead of coming at it through philanthropy, they're creating agency.
According to Almond, not only does Bitcoin help achieve certain outcomes, but it quickens the process of doing so. Quote, what does the UN believe? Access to education, access to technology, access to jobs, access to financial literacy are the drivers of better outcomes for people, he said. When you study Bitcoin's circular economies, what you find is that Bitcoin is the catalyzing agent that accelerates those outcomes. Almond shared what's transpired in Bitcoin Beach, a community that paystand.org supports, as an example of this as he noted the importance of the community's education center called Hope House.
Quote, Hope House started with Bitcoin education, general literacy, and tourism. The kids are a little older now, and we have a new program which teaches them about technology and computers. Now they're getting internships at Bitcoin mining companies, explained Almond. Almond also cited the work the Bitcoin data, d a d a, does to not only introduce African women to Bitcoin, but to help them find jobs in the industry. While in town for the UN's General Assembly Week, Almond plans to meet with global leaders and policymakers to help them understand the effect that Bitcoin can have on their constituents, especially the most vulnerable of them. Quote, nation state leaders are now more engaged in Bitcoin than ever, at least in the decade plus that I've been doing this.
Ultimately, leaders follow what their constituents are looking for, he added, alluding to the notion that those on the bottom of the economic ladder in most countries are simply looking for the type of opportunity that Bitcoin and its surrounding industry can provide. Quote, Bitcoin provides their constituency base with access to jobs, access to technology, and access to financial literacy, end quote. Almond also explained how policy makers struggle to address the needs of those at the bottom of the economic period or pyramid, especially because that demographic just doesn't have much of an economic impact on GDPs.
But when he shows these leaders and policymakers the impact that Bitcoin circular economies are having on their community members, few can deny the impact that they're having, and they quickly become believers. He's excited at the prospect of making more believers while he's in New York. Quote, anytime you can engage leaders of the government and United Nations to talk about how Bitcoin is used in the real world is a good thing. Because we are telling the story of why Satoshi created Bitcoin in the first place, Hassett Almond.
So this pay stand, I haven't heard that name rattled off in a long time, a very long time, in fact. And Jeremy Allmond, this is a a name that's new to me. I I did I was not aware of, who who was heading up pay stand, but you may I mean, I don't know. I guess yes. I have a little bit of a an allergic reaction when it comes to talking about stuff like the UN. I don't believe that they're above board. I don't believe that they're really trying to do what needs to be done for humanity. I don't believe they're following their mandates. I I don't think that they actually care about their charter anymore. But all of that aside, hey. This guy is going into the belly of the beast, and he's he's spreading the word in the streets.
He's putting it out there, man. So good for you, Jeremy. I appreciate that. Hey. You want some wine? No. I don't mean go cry into a beer. I mean wine, like red wine, like award winning wines. You can get them from pandelainewine.com, pe0ny,lanewine.com, pnelanewine.com. He's got a picture here of three different wines that have all won the 2022 governor's cup as the best in Colorado wine. There is a blended red wine, there is a pinot noir, and there is a cabernet sauvignon, and they all were awarded the governor's cup. This is a man, Ben Justman, who knows how to make his red wine, and you can buy it for Bitcoin because if you're not selling your goods and services in Bitcoin, you're not in the circle p. This is the circle p. It's where I bring plebs and just regular folk like you that have goods and services for sale to plebs just like you who may actually want to buy said goods and services.
Go to PNE Lane Wine, use Bitcoin and in the coupon code. You don't get a discount, but it does tell Ben Jessman who made the sale and in the advert or value for value advertising model that we use here on the Bitcoin and show, that will allow Ben to determine whether or not he thinks this sale was worth it for him. So go to peonylainewine.com, buy some wine with your bitcoin, and let Ben know using the code bitcoin and that I made the sale for him. Now, moving on well actually there's nothing to move on to so we're gonna go right into running the numbers. CNBC futures and commodities, energy sector is all in the green today, led by West Texas Intermediate Oil, or at least it was. Murbund Crude is actually leading. But West Texas Intermediate is up 2.14% to $63.61 a barrel. Brent Norsey is up almost two points.
Natural gas is up almost a half to $2.81, and gasoline is up a row of sticks, $1.11 to $2 a gallon. Murbaughn Crude leading the pack, as I said, $2 and 4 no. 2.43% to the upside. That is a buck 67 change to get it back above $70 a barrel. Gold making a new all time high. A percentage point to the upside puts it at 3,812 buckaroos. Holy smokes, man. Peter Schiff is happy. Silver is up point 86%. Platinum leads the pack 5% to the upside. Copper is moving sideways. Palladium, 2.61% in the green. Ag looks to be mostly in the green. The biggest loser is coffee, four and a quarter to the downside. Biggest winner today is wheat, 1.9% to the up.
And live cattle is down a fifth of a point, while lean hogs are up 1.4, and feeder cattle are up point 86%. Dow is moving sideways. The S and P is down a quarter as is the Nasdaq. The S and P mini is up point 4% right now. Struggling with Bitcoin at a $112,560, that is a $2,240,000,000,000 market cap. And we can still only get 29.6 ounces of shiny metal rocks with our one Bitcoin, of which there are 19,924,919.92. That's a lot of nines. Average fees per block, 0.02 BTC. Taking in fees on a per block basis. There's about 35, 36 blocks carrying a 132,000 unconfirmed transactions waiting to clear at high priority rates of 2 Satoshis per vByte.
Low priority is gonna get you in at one. And hash rate is still very very high. 1.06 zeta hashes per second. Yesterday was 1.08, so we've dropped a little bit, but we're still holding strong in the Zeta Hash region, and that's a one week moving average, by the way. From yesterday's episode of Bitcoin and political nothing burger, I got tulips with a row of ducks, 2,222 satoshis. Thank you, tulips. And he says, regarding the BTC treasury companies, what they do is provide tiny rescue boats to the capital trapped in the Titanic that is the market. It is sinking.
Retail investors, on the other hand, are joining a Ponzi scheme, literally, in the hopes that they outperform Bitcoin itself. I understand it. I cheer for them, but that is not freedom of money and may and not my cup of tea. And at the end of the day, it's all tulips. It is all going to zero. Bitcoin for president 500 says, doing my part. Thank you for the show. You're welcome. Code with 500 says nothing. Jay with 5,555 sats. There you go. I think the pressure you put on these treasury companies to actually produce goods and services and perform beyond their Bitcoin holdings is very healthy, but also very ahead of the curve. Probably, maybe.
If a company saw that the S and P was doing really well and decided to put their treasury into the S and P index fund, many investors would start asking the same questions as you. Quote, why would I invest in you when I could buy the S and P myself? You need to be outperforming the S and P to be valuable, end quote. And I think that's exactly where the situation is heading with investors holding companies feet to the fire saying, you need to be outperforming Bitcoin to be valuable. See, yes. He dude, Jay gets it. Jay, thank you. That's exactly what I'm saying in a in a different way, but it is it's nailing to the wall exactly what I'm talking about. Why? Why would I buy you when I can just buy Bitcoin? What do you offer?
What beyond just you buying Bitcoin, probably at a discount because you have access to capital markets, but probably not by much of a discount. What do you offer other than what I can just go buy myself? You have no revenue stream. You've got no products in the pipeline. You've got no R and D to speak of unless you're unless you include, hey. How do we build a new and improved shiny deployment of of debt capital? I that's in my I don't consider that valuable at this point. I think we've had our fill of of debt structure. Alright? I think it's gotten us in a lot of trouble. I think it's gonna take decades, if not centuries, to dig us out of the hole that we've built for ourselves.
And that's even with Bitcoin at millions and millions of dollars a coin. The the the effective amount of damage that that these assholes have perpetrated upon the people of the planet Earth is immeasurable. It's eye watering. It's so far out there that it's not even I can't wrap my head around it. The amount of actual physical damage done It's just sad. Pies with a 121 says thank you, sir. No. Thank you. And that's the weather report. Welcome to part two of the news that you can use. It's definitely gonna be a shorter show today, but this one is from Micah Zimmerman from Bitcoin Magazine.
Fold taps Stripe and Visa in the launch of the first Bitcoin only credit card. We've heard that this was coming. I guess it's finally dropped, but Fold, a Bitcoin first financial service company, announced today that it was tapping Stripe and Visa to power, oh, its forthcoming Fold Bitcoin credit card, a product designed to make Bitcoin accumulation as simple as swiping a card. The partnership pairs Stripe's infrastructure with Visa's global payments network, combining scale, reliability, and security with a rewards system denominated entirely in Bitcoin.
The card, which is set to launch later this year, offers up to 3.5% back in Bitcoin on every purchase with a flat 2% back instantly and an additional 1.5% for users who pay off their balance through a full checking account. In addition, cardholders can earn up to 10% back at top retail brands such as Amazon, Target, Home Depot, Starbucks, and Uber through the Fold's rewards network. Unlike many crypto linked reward cards that juggle tokens, staking tiers, or exchanging accounts, Fold is positioning its product as Bitcoin only, simple, and transparent.
Fold first announced its credit card development back in February 2025. From a consumer perspective, the card could make Bitcoin accumulation easier and less intimidating. Instead of navigating exchanges, wallets, and private keys, users earn Bitcoin passively as they spend on ordinary purchases. This earn first, learn later approach has already proven effective in onboarding newcomers to Bitcoin, and the card simplicity may further expand adoption. Quote, our credit card offers clear and compelling value and makes Bitcoin easily accessible to everyone, said Will Reeves, CEO and founder of Fold.
Quote, it's simple enough for someone new to Bitcoin, but built with the transparency and control early adopters expect, end quote. For Fold, the move represents a culmination of years of work integrating Bitcoin into everyday finance. The company first gained traction with its Bitcoin rewards debit card, gift card, and the shopping app. Now with Stripe and Visa behind its new credit card, Fold appears ready to bring Bitcoin rewards to a broader audience. Industry partners echoed the optimism. Quote, our new consumer issuing product is designed exactly for this purpose, to power customers like Fold that want to introduce new products to the market without the complexities of managing their own program, said Satish Kumar Srinivasan, I can't pronounce it, head of money management product at Stripe.
Cui Sheffield, Visa's head of crypto, framed the launch as part of the broader trend, quote, Fold's Bitcoin rewards paired with Visa's scale and security give consumers a safe, simple way to earn Bitcoin as they shop. Fold is betting that the prospect of stacking Bitcoin will resonate with consumers. If the card succeeds, it could mark a new chapter for Bitcoin adoption, one where earning and saving Bitcoin becomes as routine as buying groceries or paying for a ride home. So if they yeah. I I knew that they had announced this card. I didn't realize that they had announced it back in February. It I you know, it just takes a long time to get these these credit based products to to market. So whenever it drops, I'm sure you'll hear about it here on the Bitcoin and show.
Dilip Kumar Pitaria, if that's how you pronounce it, is writing this one for Cointelegraph. Stablecoins versus credit cards. The coming $100,000,000,000 United States payment battle. Now, remember what I said at the top of the show. I get the feeling that we may be setting ourselves up for a battle between credit cards and stablecoins, and and Bitcoin is in the middle, sorta acting as the linchpin. Let's see where Dilip takes us on this one. Since stablecoins first emerged in 2014 to provide price stability in the volatile cryptocurrency market, they have redefined traditional banking.
They have separated the core functions of storing and transferring money, which allows fintechs to build programmable services on a global digital currency system. Traditionally, businesses accepted credit card payments, while the remaining functions, including holding deposits and offering additional services and tools, were in the bank's domain. Stablecoins have largely replaced this with an ecosystem where most are centrally issued but operate on decentralized networks rather than a centralized entity. And moreover, it reduces cross border transfer times, it lowers costs in general, stabilizes fund values, and introduces flexible reward systems that out pace credit cards.
See see what flexible rewards systems. So this this stable coin thing is going to it we we're looking square in the face of maybe Will Reeves made the wrong choice in so far as who wins this one. Does Visa win against Stablecoin? Or does Tether win against Visa and Mastercard? It's gonna be an interesting next three years because it's gonna be three to five years to see which way this balance is going to tip. But continuing, credit cards are widely used for payments, not just in The United States, but across the world. However, this convenience has a high cost.
Each transaction involves hidden fees, such as interchange fees paid by merchants to banks, network fees collected by Visa and Mastercard, and other processing costs. These fees, typically between one point five and three point five percent, cut directly into merchants' profits. Businesses like airlines, retailers, and small shops often raise prices to cover these costs, which ultimately affects consumers. The payment system favors card networks, leaving merchants with little control. Meanwhile, consumers end up indirectly paying for the network's profits. Stablecoins pegged to a fiat currency like the US dollar offer a solution with faster, cheaper, and clearer transactions.
By avoiding credit card networks altogether and lowering fees, stablecoins could help businesses save money and provide better value to its customers. Stablecoins are a type of cryptocurrency created to hold a steady value by pegging a stable asset, usually the United States dollar. Unlike predictable cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Shitcoin number one, stablecoins offer stability, making them suitable for daily transactions. Their value is typically supported by reserves of cash, short term US Treasury securities, or similar assets designed to maintain one token at roughly $1 in value.
They combine the speed and efficiency of blockchain technology with the reliability of traditional currency. USDC, issued by Circle, is a dollar peg stablecoin that operates under United States money service business registration and publishes regular third party attestations of its reserves. And in December 2024, Ripple, yay. No. Get away from Ripple. Launched Ripple USD, making the coin available on global exchanges after receiving regulatory approval from the New York Department of Financial Services. These United States dollar linked stablecoins are transforming the payment system, providing businesses and consumers with a cost effective, fast, global alternative to traditional payment methods.
Stablecoins present an alternative to credit cards by addressing two of the biggest pain points in United States payments. High fees being one, slow settlements being the other. Credit card payments may feel instant, but merchants usually wait one to three business days to receive funds. And during that delay, they also pay fees of 1.5 to 3.5% per transaction, which cuts into the margins and often get passed on to consumers. Stablecoins settle on blockchain networks usually within seconds to minutes at a fraction of the cost, giving both merchants and customers a faster, cheaper option.
No wonder stablecoins have caught the attention of merchants, airlines, and large retailers that are eager to reduce their dependence on Visa and Mastercard's entrenched networks. By adopting stablecoins, they can reclaim lost revenue, protect tight margins, and still maintain robust loyalty programs. Projects are now using blockchain powered platforms to facilitate stablecoin based reward points. It helps retain real world value, ensuring loyalty schemes remain attractive to customers while delivering tangible financial benefits to businesses.
Customers are able to truly own their reward points, which means they can save the points or move them elsewhere to spend outside of the platform where they were earned. Okay. The compression oh, sorry. The competition between stablecoins and credit cards is not just about lower cost and quicker transactions. It also reflects how major companies are reshaping payment systems for end customers and businesses. From cryptocurrency backed credit cards to stablecoin based loyalty programs, the industry is developing creative hybrid solutions that combine traditional and modern payment approaches.
Here are two case studies to help you get insights into how businesses are refining their payment systems. Gemini and Ripple's strategic moves. On 08/25/2025, Gemini introduced the XRP credit card in collaboration with Ripple. The card provides up to 4% cash back in XRP. I I I gotta pause here because it's sickening that the Gemini twins, you know, the Winklevii brothers, approached and did a deal with Brad Garlinghouse and that other idiot from Ripple. If you're out there and you think Ripple is worthwhile, please stop listening to this show because you haven't learned anything. If it's not Bitcoin, it is a shitcoin. And all of these people that are partnering with people like Ripple are in it for grift and graft.
They're not in it to bring you something innovative, new, and something that helps you out. This this is crap, but it's in the story, so I'm not gonna censor it. Right? So 4% cashback in XRP for gas, electric vehicle charging, and ride share purchases, 3% for dining, 2% for groceries, and 1% for everything else. Rewards are credited instantly in crypto, and the card has no annual or foreign transaction fees. Gemini also adopted Ripple USD as the base currency for all US spot trading pairs, simplifying currency conversions. To further support RLUSD, Ripple acquired Rail, a payments platform for 200,000,000, adding tools for cross border payments, virtual accounts, and automation to its ecosystem.
Retail and ecommerce innovations. AirShop, scheduled for launch in September 2025, seeks to reshape loyalty programs through stablecoin power commerce. The platform employs Airkit for secure identity and tiered membership verification, offering tailored rewards. At its core are stable points, USD backed tokens linked to stable coins, which maintain their value unlike traditional loyalty points. These stable points can be used at over 2,000,000 vert merchants via bookit.com, spanning travel, retail, dining, and luxury experiences. Unlike conventional loyalty programs with restrictive usage or diminishing value, AirShop ensures flexibility and interoperability, letting users carry rewards across brands.
Merchants gain a transparent, cost effective way to connect with customers while consumers enjoy trust, flexibility, and genuine economic, well, value. The in 02/2024, credit cards were the most popular payment method among US consumers accounting for 35% of every transaction. The total purchase volume reached $5,500,000,000,000 across 60 no. 56,200,000,000 transactions made with Visa and Mastercard products. Stablecoins challenge this expensive system by providing cost free or nearly cost free transactions, instant settlements, and flexible rewards through blockchain technology.
If Stablecoin gain even 10 to 15% of the transaction market, they could be redirecting billions of dollars in savings to merchants and consumers. Continued adoption of stablecoin based payments and loyalty programs by retailers, airlines, and ecommerce companies could increase pressure on traditional credit card networks. And such a shift would not only reshape payment economics, but also promote broader use of blockchain technology, transitioning stablecoins from a niche solution to a central component of United States financial infrastructure. The competition between stablecoins and credit cards extends beyond payment methods. It determines who will control the flow of money in the digital age. With increasing regulatory clarity, institutional support, and consumer confidence, stablecoins offer faster, cheaper, and programmable transactions that are highly appealing.
Initiatives like, God forbid, Ripple's RLUSD and Gemini's offerings demonstrate how cryptocurrency companies are embedding themselves in mainstream finance. At the same time, major retailers such as Amazon and Walmart are exploring proprietary stablecoins to cut fees and reinvent loyalty programs. If these initiatives succeed, they could transform the economics of payments, redistributing billions in costs and benefits across the ecosystem. While credit cards remain deeply rooted, blockchain powered stablecoins are likely to become a core component of United States commerce reshaping incentives, lowering costs, and redefining customer engagement in a $100,000,000,000 payment landscape.
That's the end of the article, and I'm gonna say it right here. Credit cards are doomed. They're doomed. Will they go away tomorrow? No. Why? Well, because regulatory moding. If you don't think that the guys that depend on their paychecks from Visa and Mastercard will not fight tooth and nail and will not fight dirty, then you're wrong. They will. They're going to lose anyway. And I so I'm going to say it now. I think I think Will over at Fold made the wrong choice. And if Will have well, okay. Let let me let me say it this way. Will at Fold made the wrong choice by going with a credit card.
That does not mean that Will doesn't understand that. That Will may be already reaching out to somebody like Tether to say, I need plan b because I think that the credit card companies are gonna go tits up, but I need a product on the market right fricking now. So that's why we're going with Visa, Mastercard, and Stripe. However, we all see the writing on the wall now, don't we? It used to be that you could go into a restaurant in the nineteen seventies. Let's say, 1977. And you had two three choices to pay with. You could pay with, and most people did, cash.
Or you could write a check. And yes, even back at that time, well, checking accounts had been have been around for years. Most people took them. And, you know, by and large, there wasn't a whole lot of hot check writing going on at the time. And if you bounced a check on a restaurant, they were never gonna serve you again because that was at a time when we didn't have fast food, really. I mean, sure, we had, you know, McDonald's and Burger King was kind of around, but it's not the landscape of fast food is not like was not like it is today back then. Restaurants were restaurants, And the people that worked at those restaurants generally worked at those restaurants for long enough to know that you are the guy that bounced the $25 check that paid for a meal for five people, which you could probably do in 1977.
It probably cost you $25.35 bucks to feed a family of five or six at an actual sit down restaurant. No. They'd know you. They they'd recognize you, and they wouldn't let you in unless you paid your bill, and they would probably never let you write a check again. Right? That was a different time. Those days are over, but it was a different time. Or, you had a third option in 1977, Diner's Club. It was like the first credit card ever. It was not American Express was not the first credit card. Visa was not around until years after American Express came out. No, it was Diner's Club.
Diner's Club was the first real credit card, and it was for restaurants. Most people paid in cash. Some people paid in checks. Rarely did anybody actually take part and and get a Diner's Club card and go through all that because they thought it was all bullshit. They thought money does not belong on a plastic card. Plastic is not money. That this is the way that my dad used to think about shit. It was three years later that my dad was mainly using a credit card to actually purchase a dinner. It didn't take him long. It didn't take him long at all.
Three years, five years. By the time ten years rolled around, I never watched my father write a check. He either paid something in cash or he paid with a credit card. And he paid off the credit card at the end of every single month. And he he would write a check for that. That was the only time that ever watched watched him write a check was paying off a credit card or paying off a bill or doing something with his business or something like that. That but for for the family, it was either cash or straight up credit card. So here we are, decades later, and we're looking at a wholesale change again.
Will credit cards survive? Not unless they, well, figure out a way to engage in the stablecoin rail and you know, provide rails for stablecoins, but there's always gonna be competition. And if Visa and Mastercard's network is completely reliant upon 1.5 to 3.5%, taken off the top of every purchase ever made, then they won't be able to compete with somebody like Tether, who's got maybe 50 employees and, you know, generates billions of dollars a year in revenue. They they won't be able to compete. Their own interest rate that they depend on, which is supposed to be split, you know, is actually, it's supposed to come directly from the the, retailer, the guy that has the credit card machine.
It's not supposed to come from you. The the in fact, the retailer isn't supposed to raise their prices. That's against the terms of service of some credit card companies. And if they find out it used to be that they pull your machine and you could go fish for, like, another credit card provider, but I don't think that they do that anymore. I don't think they care. I think you can do whatever the hell you want. If if they're char if Mastercard's charging you 3.5%, you're going to jack up your, you know, restaurant's prices by 3.5%, and you're going to let the guy using the credit card cover the cost even though that was never supposed to be how it worked.
Now you've got Stablecoin. You got Tether. They are going to eat what's left of the credit card companies. American Express is barely viable at this point. The only people that use American Express are ultra wealthy. I have never I haven't seen an American Express card flashed at a grocery store or a restaurant in, you know, general company in, like, seven years. It's always Visa or Mastercard, or sometimes a Discover card. Very rarely do I see those anymore. It's usually only Visa and Mastercard. They charge too much. Stablecoins are going to eat their lunch.
So from, you know, if if Will, if you're listening, and you're probably not, but if you were listening, get you need to get a hold of the guys over at Tether and work out a plan b because I don't think we're gonna be seeing credit cards any longer in the next three to five years, just like we stopped watching people write checks. Do we see it every once in a while? Yes. We see it every once in a while. Is it the majority of transactions? No. You rarely see anybody write a check at the grocery store. So just keep all that in mind. That's the end of the show. Have a happy Tuesday, everybody, 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 08:37AM Pacific Daylight Time. It is the September 2025. This is episode eleven seventy four of Bitcoin and CleanSpark. The stock got some pumpage going on. We are waiting with bated breath for this massive political statement about Bitcoin that's supposedly coming today. I talked about it yesterday. We'll see. We'll see what the hell is going on. And there's other news too because that's why you're here for the Bitcoin news that you can use and more. There's also going to be, some talk about how much Bitcoin the institutions are actually holding at this point. And the numbers a little bit more surprising than than I think anybody is prepared for. And Bitcoin circular economies was highlighted of at all places the United Nations General Assembly.
I don't know if they're scared or not. I guess we'll find out. We are gonna talk a little bit about the synergies between Bitcoin and AI. And then then we're gonna get into, well, Fold and Stripe and Visa are all crawling in bed together and then stablecoins versus credit cards. It I think those two stories are gonna be tied together because I think the implications we could see a battle on the horizon. I'm just saying, in a battle between Bitcoin companies and Stablecoin companies with credit cards being the linchpin between them.
And we'll I'll I'll see if I I'll see if I can refine that when we get to those particular stories. But first, CleanSpark stock jumps after securing a $100,000,000 Bitcoin backed credit line from Coinbase. Start your engines, ladies and gentlemen. The race begins now. What was I saying yesterday? Strategy's only portal into doing something with their Bitcoin is gonna be based around making some kind of financial becoming a financial company, a financing company. Coinbase seems to have already figured out how to do that. It's not as much that I care about CleanSpark stock jumping as much as the parameters of this particular loan. They're calling it a credit line.
Honestly, it's a loan. Micah Zimmerman from Bitcoin Magazine writing, CleanSpark Incorporated shares ticked higher on Monday, extending last week's bullish momentum after the company announced an expanded Bitcoin backed credit facility with Coinbase Prime. The Las Vegas based mining firm closed regular trading at $13.74 a share but jumped more than 8% in after hours reaching $14.86. The stock is currently up 6% after hours trading near $14.60. CleanSpark tapped an extra $100,000,000 in credit backed by its own Bitcoin reserves. And instead of selling coins on the market, the company is leaning on its Bitcoin holdings as collateral.
This is basically a strategy that turns mined Bitcoin into a working asset. For shareholders, it means growth can be funded without issuing new stock, offering a non dilutive way to keep scaling. CleanSpark has been tapping into its Bitcoin holdings more often to raise capital. This is a strategy that's becoming more and more common among publicly traded miners. Basically, by putting its Bitcoin up as collateral, companies holding Bitcoin keep exposure to the asset's potential upside while unlocking cash that it can put to work. Quote, this expansion with Coinbase Prime allows us to fund growth without sacrificing shareholder equity or liquidating Bitcoin.
We see tremendous opportunity to accelerate mining growth while also preparing select data centers for high performance compute applications, said CEO and chairman, Matt Schultz. CleanSpark said proceeds will go towards efforts like expanding its energy portfolio, scaling Bitcoin mining operations, and, you guessed it, building out high performance compute capabilities. This includes converting some facilities near metro centers into diversified compute campuses while demand for AI and cloud services is growing rapidly. That approach is gaining traction as competition heats up among US based miners. And CleanSpark, in particular, has leaned on energy expansion and efficiency to stay ahead of the pack.
The company has also signaled a willingness to branch out into other forms of compute beyond mining, a sign of flexibility as the industry evolve evolves. Brett Tejpal, who heads Coinbase Institutional, described CleanSpark's latest capital strategy as, quote, a significant step forward for growing the crypto ecosystem through focused capital deployment, end quote. He highlighted Coinbase Prime's role in providing the custody and credit infrastructure behind the deal. CleanSpark's stock is up 33% over the last five trading days according to market data. So in this particular case, and that's the end of the article, CleanSpark is using their own Bitcoin that they have on their own balance sheet as collateral, and Coinbase Prime is taking custody of that collateral, probably in a collaborative custody sense of the word, and then giving them a $100,000,000 in cash or at least a $100,000,000 of of potential credit that can be accessed and utilized. And it's probably a revolving credit, which means that they can just kinda keep this thing running, like, so they'll borrow maybe $50,000,000 out of it, do some stuff with it, you know, mine some Bitcoin, you know, hopefully make some other kinds of revenue. If they do high performance compute, then maybe they're just taking in straight up fiat cash from companies who want to rent their rack space, yada yada yada. And then they pay back $50,000,000, and lo and behold, you still got a $100,000,000 of revolving credit line. So that's what makes it kinda different than a loan, but in all estimations of the word, it's still relatively a a loan, except that it's backed with their own Bitcoin.
Now I want to reiterate what I think is going to happen with strategy is I think they're going to do the same thing. They're going but I think they're going to do it for other people and they're going to take some interest rate off of the top of loans that they collateralize for other people. This is what I think is gonna happen with strategy. They got a buttload of Bitcoin, and they better start putting it to use. And they it does not look like they're gonna be making software anytime soon again. So I think they'll turn into a finance company, and I think what they'll do is they'll go to big banks like JPMorgan, and they'll say, look. We're gonna make this loan to this other guy over here, But essentially, you're gonna make the loan to the guy, and we're gonna back that loan. You're gonna charge, I don't know, let's say, 7% on the interest.
They're gonna give us another, you know, point five you know, another half a percent on top of that. So their effective rate is gonna be seven and a half interest. We get point five. You get seven. Everybody's happy. We're back in the loan. We're making money on our Bitcoin. And then they collater then the person that's taking the loan actually collateralizes for that loan, not to Goldman Sachs, but to Michael Saylor's strategy. I think that's probably the easiest way that they break into retail and institutional financing.
I'm just I'm just saying. But here, we already have some some pretty good evidence that people are gonna start putting their Bitcoin to work for them, CleanSpark being the example here. Now institutions, speaking of institutions, they collectively now hold nearly 18% of the total Bitcoin supply. That's that's a lot of Bitcoin. That's almost one fifth of the entire Bitcoin supply. Let's see what Alex Larry from Bitcoin News has to say about it. Once a grassroot experiment for tech enthusiasts and retail investors, Bitcoin is increasingly being accumulated by institutions.
New data shows that companies, funds, governments, and other organizations now hold almost a fifth of all the Bitcoin in existence. So we're talking about the circulating supply, not the effective total supply that has not yet been mined. According to Bitcoin treasuries, institutions now hold 3,750,000.00 Bitcoin. That's around 18% of the circulating supply. These are spread across 332 entities. And the breakdown is this. 192 public companies own just over 1,000,000 Bitcoin. 44 funds or ETFs hold 1,500,000.0 BTC.
68 private companies hold about 300,000 BTC. 13 governments hold over 500,000 BTC. 11 DeFi projects hold about a quarter million BTC. And four custodians or exchanges hold a total of a 153,000 BTC. The biggest holders are ETFs and publicly listed companies, which ramped up their buying after The US approved spot Bitcoin ETFs. The percentage goes even higher when you factor in coins that will never move. Experts estimated 1,100,000.0 BTC was mined by Satoshi Nakamoto and will never be spent. On top of that, 3,700,000.0 BTC are believed to be lost forever due to misplaced keys or inaccessible wallets.
That means effective institutional ownership is around between twenty three and twenty five percent of the total available supply. The US is by far the leader in institutional Bitcoin holdings. A 118 US based entities report Bitcoin reserves. Canada is second with 43, and then comes The UK with 21, Japan with 12, and Hong Kong tying at 12. This geographical concentration shows how adoption is being driven by developed markets with strong financial infrastructure. Several reasons are driving this institutional demand. Reports say institutions view Bitcoin as a hedge against inflation and fiat currency debasement. It's also viewed as a tool for portfolio diversification because of its low correlation with traditional assets, pausing to say, right now, it's very much correlated.
Right now, it's very much correlated. Sometimes it breaks away. Sometimes it stays away. But right now, no. We've got pretty solid correlation. Just I'm just saying. ETFs are having a big impact. US listed spot Bitcoin ETFs hold over 1,300,000.0 BTC and have taken more than nine times the new daily supply. Repeating that, ETFs hold over 1,300,000.0 Bitcoin and have taken more than nine times the new daily supply. It's not just funds and ETFs that are moving. Corporations are adding Bitcoin to their balance sheets as well. And then they talk about strategy and governments, and you essentially have the breakdown already as to who owns what. But the fact that if you if you go all the way to the extreme side, institutions hold about a quarter of all available, not lost, not locked up forever, BTC.
I personally am not excited about that number, but there's nothing that I can do about it because Bitcoin is for enemies. So Bitcoin circular economies, speaking of enemies, was mentioned at length in a campful of enemies, the United Nations General Assembly, which I do not believe that the u UN is actually working towards humanity. I don't know if they ever were. Maybe there was a time when they were, but right now, I I just don't trust them, and I haven't seen them do anything good in decades. I've seen them screw things up more often than not. But Frank Korva from Bitcoin Magazine is highlighting this United Nations General Assembly Week event.
Let's see what he's got to say about it. Yesterday at the Concordia Summit, which is an annual event held during the UN General Assembly Week, PayStand CEO and cofounder Jeremy Almond made the case for why Bitcoin is important for those living outside the borders of highly developed countries as well as how it helps people meet the UN sustainable development goals. Ew. At the event, which brings together members of government, businesses, and nonprofits to discuss solutions to some of the world's most pressing problems, Almond appeared on a panel titled Frictionless Finance, Unlocking Capital Through Digital Assets, on which he highlighted the role that Bitcoin circular economies play in the global South. Quote, whether it's an indigenous village in Peru or a town in El Salvador, these are community driven grassroots efforts that are happening from the bottom up, Allman told the audience at the Sheraton Hotel just north of New York City's Times Square, referring to the efforts of Motive Peru and those who are part of the original Bitcoin circular economy, Bitcoin Beach.
He added that Bitcoin adoption is growing faster than Internet adoption did and that Bitcoin is changing millions of lives all over the planet right now. It's rare to hear such rhetoric at a UN or even a UN adjacent event despite the fact that Bitcoin can accelerate the pace at which people meet UN SDGs, those those sustainable development goals according to Almond. Here and there, you might read about the UN considering the potential benefits of, quote, digital assets, stablecoins, or even CBDCs. But more often than not, the institution either hard hardly acknowledges Bitcoin or casts it in a negative light. However, Allman sees Bitcoin, something he referred to from the stages of freedom money and a great enabler for savings for people around the globe, many of whom who don't even have access to traditional financial services as something to help people meet the UN's SDGs more quickly.
And he was an excellent candidate to deliver such a message as his company, PayStand, the largest business to business blockchain based payments company in The United States, donates 10% of its profits to paystand.org, a nonprofit that aims to further financial inclusion and one of the aims of SDG three around the world through Bitcoin. Quote, we believe that Bitcoin circular economies are major catalysts that drive a lot of the UN's goals, Almond told bitcoin magazine, but instead of coming at it through philanthropy, they're creating agency.
According to Almond, not only does Bitcoin help achieve certain outcomes, but it quickens the process of doing so. Quote, what does the UN believe? Access to education, access to technology, access to jobs, access to financial literacy are the drivers of better outcomes for people, he said. When you study Bitcoin's circular economies, what you find is that Bitcoin is the catalyzing agent that accelerates those outcomes. Almond shared what's transpired in Bitcoin Beach, a community that paystand.org supports, as an example of this as he noted the importance of the community's education center called Hope House.
Quote, Hope House started with Bitcoin education, general literacy, and tourism. The kids are a little older now, and we have a new program which teaches them about technology and computers. Now they're getting internships at Bitcoin mining companies, explained Almond. Almond also cited the work the Bitcoin data, d a d a, does to not only introduce African women to Bitcoin, but to help them find jobs in the industry. While in town for the UN's General Assembly Week, Almond plans to meet with global leaders and policymakers to help them understand the effect that Bitcoin can have on their constituents, especially the most vulnerable of them. Quote, nation state leaders are now more engaged in Bitcoin than ever, at least in the decade plus that I've been doing this.
Ultimately, leaders follow what their constituents are looking for, he added, alluding to the notion that those on the bottom of the economic ladder in most countries are simply looking for the type of opportunity that Bitcoin and its surrounding industry can provide. Quote, Bitcoin provides their constituency base with access to jobs, access to technology, and access to financial literacy, end quote. Almond also explained how policy makers struggle to address the needs of those at the bottom of the economic period or pyramid, especially because that demographic just doesn't have much of an economic impact on GDPs.
But when he shows these leaders and policymakers the impact that Bitcoin circular economies are having on their community members, few can deny the impact that they're having, and they quickly become believers. He's excited at the prospect of making more believers while he's in New York. Quote, anytime you can engage leaders of the government and United Nations to talk about how Bitcoin is used in the real world is a good thing. Because we are telling the story of why Satoshi created Bitcoin in the first place, Hassett Almond.
So this pay stand, I haven't heard that name rattled off in a long time, a very long time, in fact. And Jeremy Allmond, this is a a name that's new to me. I I did I was not aware of, who who was heading up pay stand, but you may I mean, I don't know. I guess yes. I have a little bit of a an allergic reaction when it comes to talking about stuff like the UN. I don't believe that they're above board. I don't believe that they're really trying to do what needs to be done for humanity. I don't believe they're following their mandates. I I don't think that they actually care about their charter anymore. But all of that aside, hey. This guy is going into the belly of the beast, and he's he's spreading the word in the streets.
He's putting it out there, man. So good for you, Jeremy. I appreciate that. Hey. You want some wine? No. I don't mean go cry into a beer. I mean wine, like red wine, like award winning wines. You can get them from pandelainewine.com, pe0ny,lanewine.com, pnelanewine.com. He's got a picture here of three different wines that have all won the 2022 governor's cup as the best in Colorado wine. There is a blended red wine, there is a pinot noir, and there is a cabernet sauvignon, and they all were awarded the governor's cup. This is a man, Ben Justman, who knows how to make his red wine, and you can buy it for Bitcoin because if you're not selling your goods and services in Bitcoin, you're not in the circle p. This is the circle p. It's where I bring plebs and just regular folk like you that have goods and services for sale to plebs just like you who may actually want to buy said goods and services.
Go to PNE Lane Wine, use Bitcoin and in the coupon code. You don't get a discount, but it does tell Ben Jessman who made the sale and in the advert or value for value advertising model that we use here on the Bitcoin and show, that will allow Ben to determine whether or not he thinks this sale was worth it for him. So go to peonylainewine.com, buy some wine with your bitcoin, and let Ben know using the code bitcoin and that I made the sale for him. Now, moving on well actually there's nothing to move on to so we're gonna go right into running the numbers. CNBC futures and commodities, energy sector is all in the green today, led by West Texas Intermediate Oil, or at least it was. Murbund Crude is actually leading. But West Texas Intermediate is up 2.14% to $63.61 a barrel. Brent Norsey is up almost two points.
Natural gas is up almost a half to $2.81, and gasoline is up a row of sticks, $1.11 to $2 a gallon. Murbaughn Crude leading the pack, as I said, $2 and 4 no. 2.43% to the upside. That is a buck 67 change to get it back above $70 a barrel. Gold making a new all time high. A percentage point to the upside puts it at 3,812 buckaroos. Holy smokes, man. Peter Schiff is happy. Silver is up point 86%. Platinum leads the pack 5% to the upside. Copper is moving sideways. Palladium, 2.61% in the green. Ag looks to be mostly in the green. The biggest loser is coffee, four and a quarter to the downside. Biggest winner today is wheat, 1.9% to the up.
And live cattle is down a fifth of a point, while lean hogs are up 1.4, and feeder cattle are up point 86%. Dow is moving sideways. The S and P is down a quarter as is the Nasdaq. The S and P mini is up point 4% right now. Struggling with Bitcoin at a $112,560, that is a $2,240,000,000,000 market cap. And we can still only get 29.6 ounces of shiny metal rocks with our one Bitcoin, of which there are 19,924,919.92. That's a lot of nines. Average fees per block, 0.02 BTC. Taking in fees on a per block basis. There's about 35, 36 blocks carrying a 132,000 unconfirmed transactions waiting to clear at high priority rates of 2 Satoshis per vByte.
Low priority is gonna get you in at one. And hash rate is still very very high. 1.06 zeta hashes per second. Yesterday was 1.08, so we've dropped a little bit, but we're still holding strong in the Zeta Hash region, and that's a one week moving average, by the way. From yesterday's episode of Bitcoin and political nothing burger, I got tulips with a row of ducks, 2,222 satoshis. Thank you, tulips. And he says, regarding the BTC treasury companies, what they do is provide tiny rescue boats to the capital trapped in the Titanic that is the market. It is sinking.
Retail investors, on the other hand, are joining a Ponzi scheme, literally, in the hopes that they outperform Bitcoin itself. I understand it. I cheer for them, but that is not freedom of money and may and not my cup of tea. And at the end of the day, it's all tulips. It is all going to zero. Bitcoin for president 500 says, doing my part. Thank you for the show. You're welcome. Code with 500 says nothing. Jay with 5,555 sats. There you go. I think the pressure you put on these treasury companies to actually produce goods and services and perform beyond their Bitcoin holdings is very healthy, but also very ahead of the curve. Probably, maybe.
If a company saw that the S and P was doing really well and decided to put their treasury into the S and P index fund, many investors would start asking the same questions as you. Quote, why would I invest in you when I could buy the S and P myself? You need to be outperforming the S and P to be valuable, end quote. And I think that's exactly where the situation is heading with investors holding companies feet to the fire saying, you need to be outperforming Bitcoin to be valuable. See, yes. He dude, Jay gets it. Jay, thank you. That's exactly what I'm saying in a in a different way, but it is it's nailing to the wall exactly what I'm talking about. Why? Why would I buy you when I can just buy Bitcoin? What do you offer?
What beyond just you buying Bitcoin, probably at a discount because you have access to capital markets, but probably not by much of a discount. What do you offer other than what I can just go buy myself? You have no revenue stream. You've got no products in the pipeline. You've got no R and D to speak of unless you're unless you include, hey. How do we build a new and improved shiny deployment of of debt capital? I that's in my I don't consider that valuable at this point. I think we've had our fill of of debt structure. Alright? I think it's gotten us in a lot of trouble. I think it's gonna take decades, if not centuries, to dig us out of the hole that we've built for ourselves.
And that's even with Bitcoin at millions and millions of dollars a coin. The the the effective amount of damage that that these assholes have perpetrated upon the people of the planet Earth is immeasurable. It's eye watering. It's so far out there that it's not even I can't wrap my head around it. The amount of actual physical damage done It's just sad. Pies with a 121 says thank you, sir. No. Thank you. And that's the weather report. Welcome to part two of the news that you can use. It's definitely gonna be a shorter show today, but this one is from Micah Zimmerman from Bitcoin Magazine.
Fold taps Stripe and Visa in the launch of the first Bitcoin only credit card. We've heard that this was coming. I guess it's finally dropped, but Fold, a Bitcoin first financial service company, announced today that it was tapping Stripe and Visa to power, oh, its forthcoming Fold Bitcoin credit card, a product designed to make Bitcoin accumulation as simple as swiping a card. The partnership pairs Stripe's infrastructure with Visa's global payments network, combining scale, reliability, and security with a rewards system denominated entirely in Bitcoin.
The card, which is set to launch later this year, offers up to 3.5% back in Bitcoin on every purchase with a flat 2% back instantly and an additional 1.5% for users who pay off their balance through a full checking account. In addition, cardholders can earn up to 10% back at top retail brands such as Amazon, Target, Home Depot, Starbucks, and Uber through the Fold's rewards network. Unlike many crypto linked reward cards that juggle tokens, staking tiers, or exchanging accounts, Fold is positioning its product as Bitcoin only, simple, and transparent.
Fold first announced its credit card development back in February 2025. From a consumer perspective, the card could make Bitcoin accumulation easier and less intimidating. Instead of navigating exchanges, wallets, and private keys, users earn Bitcoin passively as they spend on ordinary purchases. This earn first, learn later approach has already proven effective in onboarding newcomers to Bitcoin, and the card simplicity may further expand adoption. Quote, our credit card offers clear and compelling value and makes Bitcoin easily accessible to everyone, said Will Reeves, CEO and founder of Fold.
Quote, it's simple enough for someone new to Bitcoin, but built with the transparency and control early adopters expect, end quote. For Fold, the move represents a culmination of years of work integrating Bitcoin into everyday finance. The company first gained traction with its Bitcoin rewards debit card, gift card, and the shopping app. Now with Stripe and Visa behind its new credit card, Fold appears ready to bring Bitcoin rewards to a broader audience. Industry partners echoed the optimism. Quote, our new consumer issuing product is designed exactly for this purpose, to power customers like Fold that want to introduce new products to the market without the complexities of managing their own program, said Satish Kumar Srinivasan, I can't pronounce it, head of money management product at Stripe.
Cui Sheffield, Visa's head of crypto, framed the launch as part of the broader trend, quote, Fold's Bitcoin rewards paired with Visa's scale and security give consumers a safe, simple way to earn Bitcoin as they shop. Fold is betting that the prospect of stacking Bitcoin will resonate with consumers. If the card succeeds, it could mark a new chapter for Bitcoin adoption, one where earning and saving Bitcoin becomes as routine as buying groceries or paying for a ride home. So if they yeah. I I knew that they had announced this card. I didn't realize that they had announced it back in February. It I you know, it just takes a long time to get these these credit based products to to market. So whenever it drops, I'm sure you'll hear about it here on the Bitcoin and show.
Dilip Kumar Pitaria, if that's how you pronounce it, is writing this one for Cointelegraph. Stablecoins versus credit cards. The coming $100,000,000,000 United States payment battle. Now, remember what I said at the top of the show. I get the feeling that we may be setting ourselves up for a battle between credit cards and stablecoins, and and Bitcoin is in the middle, sorta acting as the linchpin. Let's see where Dilip takes us on this one. Since stablecoins first emerged in 2014 to provide price stability in the volatile cryptocurrency market, they have redefined traditional banking.
They have separated the core functions of storing and transferring money, which allows fintechs to build programmable services on a global digital currency system. Traditionally, businesses accepted credit card payments, while the remaining functions, including holding deposits and offering additional services and tools, were in the bank's domain. Stablecoins have largely replaced this with an ecosystem where most are centrally issued but operate on decentralized networks rather than a centralized entity. And moreover, it reduces cross border transfer times, it lowers costs in general, stabilizes fund values, and introduces flexible reward systems that out pace credit cards.
See see what flexible rewards systems. So this this stable coin thing is going to it we we're looking square in the face of maybe Will Reeves made the wrong choice in so far as who wins this one. Does Visa win against Stablecoin? Or does Tether win against Visa and Mastercard? It's gonna be an interesting next three years because it's gonna be three to five years to see which way this balance is going to tip. But continuing, credit cards are widely used for payments, not just in The United States, but across the world. However, this convenience has a high cost.
Each transaction involves hidden fees, such as interchange fees paid by merchants to banks, network fees collected by Visa and Mastercard, and other processing costs. These fees, typically between one point five and three point five percent, cut directly into merchants' profits. Businesses like airlines, retailers, and small shops often raise prices to cover these costs, which ultimately affects consumers. The payment system favors card networks, leaving merchants with little control. Meanwhile, consumers end up indirectly paying for the network's profits. Stablecoins pegged to a fiat currency like the US dollar offer a solution with faster, cheaper, and clearer transactions.
By avoiding credit card networks altogether and lowering fees, stablecoins could help businesses save money and provide better value to its customers. Stablecoins are a type of cryptocurrency created to hold a steady value by pegging a stable asset, usually the United States dollar. Unlike predictable cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Shitcoin number one, stablecoins offer stability, making them suitable for daily transactions. Their value is typically supported by reserves of cash, short term US Treasury securities, or similar assets designed to maintain one token at roughly $1 in value.
They combine the speed and efficiency of blockchain technology with the reliability of traditional currency. USDC, issued by Circle, is a dollar peg stablecoin that operates under United States money service business registration and publishes regular third party attestations of its reserves. And in December 2024, Ripple, yay. No. Get away from Ripple. Launched Ripple USD, making the coin available on global exchanges after receiving regulatory approval from the New York Department of Financial Services. These United States dollar linked stablecoins are transforming the payment system, providing businesses and consumers with a cost effective, fast, global alternative to traditional payment methods.
Stablecoins present an alternative to credit cards by addressing two of the biggest pain points in United States payments. High fees being one, slow settlements being the other. Credit card payments may feel instant, but merchants usually wait one to three business days to receive funds. And during that delay, they also pay fees of 1.5 to 3.5% per transaction, which cuts into the margins and often get passed on to consumers. Stablecoins settle on blockchain networks usually within seconds to minutes at a fraction of the cost, giving both merchants and customers a faster, cheaper option.
No wonder stablecoins have caught the attention of merchants, airlines, and large retailers that are eager to reduce their dependence on Visa and Mastercard's entrenched networks. By adopting stablecoins, they can reclaim lost revenue, protect tight margins, and still maintain robust loyalty programs. Projects are now using blockchain powered platforms to facilitate stablecoin based reward points. It helps retain real world value, ensuring loyalty schemes remain attractive to customers while delivering tangible financial benefits to businesses.
Customers are able to truly own their reward points, which means they can save the points or move them elsewhere to spend outside of the platform where they were earned. Okay. The compression oh, sorry. The competition between stablecoins and credit cards is not just about lower cost and quicker transactions. It also reflects how major companies are reshaping payment systems for end customers and businesses. From cryptocurrency backed credit cards to stablecoin based loyalty programs, the industry is developing creative hybrid solutions that combine traditional and modern payment approaches.
Here are two case studies to help you get insights into how businesses are refining their payment systems. Gemini and Ripple's strategic moves. On 08/25/2025, Gemini introduced the XRP credit card in collaboration with Ripple. The card provides up to 4% cash back in XRP. I I I gotta pause here because it's sickening that the Gemini twins, you know, the Winklevii brothers, approached and did a deal with Brad Garlinghouse and that other idiot from Ripple. If you're out there and you think Ripple is worthwhile, please stop listening to this show because you haven't learned anything. If it's not Bitcoin, it is a shitcoin. And all of these people that are partnering with people like Ripple are in it for grift and graft.
They're not in it to bring you something innovative, new, and something that helps you out. This this is crap, but it's in the story, so I'm not gonna censor it. Right? So 4% cashback in XRP for gas, electric vehicle charging, and ride share purchases, 3% for dining, 2% for groceries, and 1% for everything else. Rewards are credited instantly in crypto, and the card has no annual or foreign transaction fees. Gemini also adopted Ripple USD as the base currency for all US spot trading pairs, simplifying currency conversions. To further support RLUSD, Ripple acquired Rail, a payments platform for 200,000,000, adding tools for cross border payments, virtual accounts, and automation to its ecosystem.
Retail and ecommerce innovations. AirShop, scheduled for launch in September 2025, seeks to reshape loyalty programs through stablecoin power commerce. The platform employs Airkit for secure identity and tiered membership verification, offering tailored rewards. At its core are stable points, USD backed tokens linked to stable coins, which maintain their value unlike traditional loyalty points. These stable points can be used at over 2,000,000 vert merchants via bookit.com, spanning travel, retail, dining, and luxury experiences. Unlike conventional loyalty programs with restrictive usage or diminishing value, AirShop ensures flexibility and interoperability, letting users carry rewards across brands.
Merchants gain a transparent, cost effective way to connect with customers while consumers enjoy trust, flexibility, and genuine economic, well, value. The in 02/2024, credit cards were the most popular payment method among US consumers accounting for 35% of every transaction. The total purchase volume reached $5,500,000,000,000 across 60 no. 56,200,000,000 transactions made with Visa and Mastercard products. Stablecoins challenge this expensive system by providing cost free or nearly cost free transactions, instant settlements, and flexible rewards through blockchain technology.
If Stablecoin gain even 10 to 15% of the transaction market, they could be redirecting billions of dollars in savings to merchants and consumers. Continued adoption of stablecoin based payments and loyalty programs by retailers, airlines, and ecommerce companies could increase pressure on traditional credit card networks. And such a shift would not only reshape payment economics, but also promote broader use of blockchain technology, transitioning stablecoins from a niche solution to a central component of United States financial infrastructure. The competition between stablecoins and credit cards extends beyond payment methods. It determines who will control the flow of money in the digital age. With increasing regulatory clarity, institutional support, and consumer confidence, stablecoins offer faster, cheaper, and programmable transactions that are highly appealing.
Initiatives like, God forbid, Ripple's RLUSD and Gemini's offerings demonstrate how cryptocurrency companies are embedding themselves in mainstream finance. At the same time, major retailers such as Amazon and Walmart are exploring proprietary stablecoins to cut fees and reinvent loyalty programs. If these initiatives succeed, they could transform the economics of payments, redistributing billions in costs and benefits across the ecosystem. While credit cards remain deeply rooted, blockchain powered stablecoins are likely to become a core component of United States commerce reshaping incentives, lowering costs, and redefining customer engagement in a $100,000,000,000 payment landscape.
That's the end of the article, and I'm gonna say it right here. Credit cards are doomed. They're doomed. Will they go away tomorrow? No. Why? Well, because regulatory moding. If you don't think that the guys that depend on their paychecks from Visa and Mastercard will not fight tooth and nail and will not fight dirty, then you're wrong. They will. They're going to lose anyway. And I so I'm going to say it now. I think I think Will over at Fold made the wrong choice. And if Will have well, okay. Let let me let me say it this way. Will at Fold made the wrong choice by going with a credit card.
That does not mean that Will doesn't understand that. That Will may be already reaching out to somebody like Tether to say, I need plan b because I think that the credit card companies are gonna go tits up, but I need a product on the market right fricking now. So that's why we're going with Visa, Mastercard, and Stripe. However, we all see the writing on the wall now, don't we? It used to be that you could go into a restaurant in the nineteen seventies. Let's say, 1977. And you had two three choices to pay with. You could pay with, and most people did, cash.
Or you could write a check. And yes, even back at that time, well, checking accounts had been have been around for years. Most people took them. And, you know, by and large, there wasn't a whole lot of hot check writing going on at the time. And if you bounced a check on a restaurant, they were never gonna serve you again because that was at a time when we didn't have fast food, really. I mean, sure, we had, you know, McDonald's and Burger King was kind of around, but it's not the landscape of fast food is not like was not like it is today back then. Restaurants were restaurants, And the people that worked at those restaurants generally worked at those restaurants for long enough to know that you are the guy that bounced the $25 check that paid for a meal for five people, which you could probably do in 1977.
It probably cost you $25.35 bucks to feed a family of five or six at an actual sit down restaurant. No. They'd know you. They they'd recognize you, and they wouldn't let you in unless you paid your bill, and they would probably never let you write a check again. Right? That was a different time. Those days are over, but it was a different time. Or, you had a third option in 1977, Diner's Club. It was like the first credit card ever. It was not American Express was not the first credit card. Visa was not around until years after American Express came out. No, it was Diner's Club.
Diner's Club was the first real credit card, and it was for restaurants. Most people paid in cash. Some people paid in checks. Rarely did anybody actually take part and and get a Diner's Club card and go through all that because they thought it was all bullshit. They thought money does not belong on a plastic card. Plastic is not money. That this is the way that my dad used to think about shit. It was three years later that my dad was mainly using a credit card to actually purchase a dinner. It didn't take him long. It didn't take him long at all.
Three years, five years. By the time ten years rolled around, I never watched my father write a check. He either paid something in cash or he paid with a credit card. And he paid off the credit card at the end of every single month. And he he would write a check for that. That was the only time that ever watched watched him write a check was paying off a credit card or paying off a bill or doing something with his business or something like that. That but for for the family, it was either cash or straight up credit card. So here we are, decades later, and we're looking at a wholesale change again.
Will credit cards survive? Not unless they, well, figure out a way to engage in the stablecoin rail and you know, provide rails for stablecoins, but there's always gonna be competition. And if Visa and Mastercard's network is completely reliant upon 1.5 to 3.5%, taken off the top of every purchase ever made, then they won't be able to compete with somebody like Tether, who's got maybe 50 employees and, you know, generates billions of dollars a year in revenue. They they won't be able to compete. Their own interest rate that they depend on, which is supposed to be split, you know, is actually, it's supposed to come directly from the the, retailer, the guy that has the credit card machine.
It's not supposed to come from you. The the in fact, the retailer isn't supposed to raise their prices. That's against the terms of service of some credit card companies. And if they find out it used to be that they pull your machine and you could go fish for, like, another credit card provider, but I don't think that they do that anymore. I don't think they care. I think you can do whatever the hell you want. If if they're char if Mastercard's charging you 3.5%, you're going to jack up your, you know, restaurant's prices by 3.5%, and you're going to let the guy using the credit card cover the cost even though that was never supposed to be how it worked.
Now you've got Stablecoin. You got Tether. They are going to eat what's left of the credit card companies. American Express is barely viable at this point. The only people that use American Express are ultra wealthy. I have never I haven't seen an American Express card flashed at a grocery store or a restaurant in, you know, general company in, like, seven years. It's always Visa or Mastercard, or sometimes a Discover card. Very rarely do I see those anymore. It's usually only Visa and Mastercard. They charge too much. Stablecoins are going to eat their lunch.
So from, you know, if if Will, if you're listening, and you're probably not, but if you were listening, get you need to get a hold of the guys over at Tether and work out a plan b because I don't think we're gonna be seeing credit cards any longer in the next three to five years, just like we stopped watching people write checks. Do we see it every once in a while? Yes. We see it every once in a while. Is it the majority of transactions? No. You rarely see anybody write a check at the grocery store. So just keep all that in mind. That's the end of the show. Have a happy Tuesday, everybody, 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.
Opening: Big Bitcoin day, show roadmap
How the facility works: collateral, revolving credit, AI/HPC pivot
Prediction: Strategy/MicroStrategy as a Bitcoin financing company
ETFs’ impact and effective float after lost coins
Case studies: Bitcoin Beach, Motive Peru, Bitcoin DADA
Engaging policymakers: Bitcoin as ‘freedom money’
Markets & metrics: energy, commodities, BTC price, mempool, hashrate
Listener boosts and commentary: treasury companies vs Bitcoin
Case studies: XRP card, RLUSD, and stablecoin loyalty platforms
Take: Credit cards are doomed? Plan B with stablecoin rails
Wrap-up and sign-off
