BTC Sessions - Did The U.S Just Dump $6.5 BILLION Bitcoin?! The Truth Revealed!

Starting point is 00:00:02 Yo, what is going on, everybody? Welcome to the show. Did the U.S. government just dump $6.5 billion worth of Bitcoin? They got the approval to do so, or is it yet to come? Is there more pain on the horizon? We're going to find out that momentarily. We're also going to be chatting about a ton of other stuff. We've got Nico from Simply Bitcoin here to guide us through the news.

Starting point is 00:00:29 I am Ben with the BTC sessions. this is your Simply session. Yo, buddy, how you doing? Welcome to the show. How are you doing? Yo, dude. Excited, pumped. So much news is Bitcoin land.

Starting point is 00:01:00 The news don't stop, Ben. The news don't stop. There's always so much going on. I mean, we got to talk about it. I'm going to let you lead with what you think is most important to touch on. We'll be getting to the whole DOJ thing momentarily as well. What's top of mind? what's been going on in the space this week.

Starting point is 00:01:19 I mean, dude, like we've been talking about this for a couple weeks now on Simply Sessions, right? This idea that 2021 was a huge letdown. Like, we were expecting a bigger and greater bull market. And then it just didn't come to fruition. Now, the theory that I've been making is essentially, I think a lot of us have PTSD from 2020, from 2021. And we have forgotten what a bull market feels like.

Starting point is 00:01:45 The last time we've had a true parabolic blow off top was back in 2017. That's eight years ago. We don't know what that feels like anymore. So the general consensus this cycle is actually different from the general, from the general consensus of last cycle. So last cycle, 2021 was we're going to hit 100K guaranteed. That never came to fruition. What I'm seeing this cycle is people are saying 120k Bitcoin, 150K Bitcoin,

Starting point is 00:02:14 200k Bitcoin. And everyone agrees that that is around the price point that Bitcoin's going to hit. However, we, Ben and I, we both know that Bitcoin does the exact opposite of what everyone else thinks it's going to do. And I truly believe that I think this cycle, because of the regulatory environment, because of the first pro-Bitcoin administration being sworn into office in 11 days, because of the institutional adoption of Bitcoin, because of the nation-state FOMO, because of the FOMO on the state level with the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve legislation, because of the federal government level FOMO with the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. Also, we're going to talk about this later.

Starting point is 00:03:00 Canada, Justin Trudeau, stepping down, it seems like the conservatives with Pierre Polyver looking in the polls as if he's going to win, and we all know how he feels about Bitcoin. 2025 is looking like it's going to be an absolutely massive explosive year. And I think not that many people are expecting it. So anyways, here is the one and only legendary Matt O'Dell talking about how this cycle, you know, it might look like 2016, 2017. And we all know, Dell, Dell is not a price speculation type of individual. So let's check out the clip.

Starting point is 00:03:38 It comes from what Bitcoin did. And of course, shout out to Danny, because I know he took it over. And I know Peter, amazing content creator. I think he renamed his show to the Peter McCormack show. I think it's going to do absolutely incredible. But anyways, here's a clip from what Bitcoin did and Matt O'Dell. If you're going to say Supercycle, right, we have three cycles that we can compare against. We have the 2012 cycle, the 2016 cycle, and the 2020 cycle.

Starting point is 00:04:05 Now, the 2020 cycle, I think, was artificially suppressed and broken because of FTX, Celsius, gray scale, Barry Silbert, all the different paper Bitcoin games that were played out, and then blew up. So it didn't go as high as it would and went lower than it would have in the bear. So if you go and then you compare it to the 2016 having cycle, right? And why are there cycles? There are cycles because every four years on average, Bitcoin has this pre-planned supply shock. but because people are retarded, it's not priced in. At some point, you'd expect all future havings to be priced in, but we're still far away from that.

Starting point is 00:04:42 So if you compare it to the 2016 cycle, if it was exactly the same top and bottom of the 2016 cycle, you're talking roughly 2 million Bitcoin top, 400,000 Bitcoin bottom. Now, I think, like, some people without thinking about the math would be like, oh my God, that's a super cycle, that's insane. Like, how did we pump that much? No, that's just doing what we did.

Starting point is 00:05:03 2016. So I think you'd have to see, for it to be definitionally considered a super cycle, you'd have to see it blow past $2 million. I don't think there's many people that are calling for that right now. I would love to see that. I'd be cool with seeing that. But what I expect here is we'll see a slightly amplified traditional cycle because of nation state fomo, because of ETFs, because of all this new money that has been unlocked. We'll see a cycle that probably it would have been amplified if you didn't factor in that new demand compared to not factoring that new demand. But I still expect at some point an 80% drawdown where everyone gets wrecked. And when that will happen, I don't know when that'll happen. It'll happen when we're all incredibly

Starting point is 00:05:48 bullish and we think it's not going to happen. And the important contrast, I think, with gold is like gold is, you know, bowling with bumpers. Like there's a circuit breakers. Like, it's a completely controlled market. Like Bitcoin is the closest thing to a free market humanity's ever seen. And humans are inherently volatile and we panic and we do all this crazy shit. We do degenerate shit. All the suits are going to do crazy degenerate stuff that we can't even imagine. Like we're already seeing the early innings of it. Vivek is launching an ETF that buys Bitcoin bonds, the bonds that are then lent to microsatresority. So microstit you can buy Bitcoin while Bitwise is making an ETF that buys the Bitcoin company, buys the company, buys the company.

Starting point is 00:06:29 that buys the Bitcoin, and they're going to do all this different stuff on top of all that stuff and collect fees and everything. So the degeneracy is going to be ridiculous. There's no circuit breakers. People will panic, and we'll probably have another 80% drawdown at some point. And I would say that would also break the definition of Supercycle, which is like a, we wouldn't have like a traditional bare market-ish type of scenario. By the way, if you know how to read between Matt's lines, that sounded a lot to me like he was calling for a $3 million Bitcoin price.

Starting point is 00:06:59 American Hoddle with the cherry on top at the end. Ben, what are your thoughts on this, man? I mean, again, my rational brain is still telling me to fall in line with the diminishing returns thesis. But I'm also, I'm recognizing like the types of capital that are being attracted to this thing are insane. And so I really, I'm so conflicted because it's almost like if I, it's that Gatch 22. It's like if I openly admit, I think this shit's going to absolutely rip. It's, it becomes the opposite of a self-fulfilling prophecy where it's like, oh, if I expected to happen, it's not going to happen. So like, I'm stuck in this weird spot where my brain is like, you know, how about you under promise and then Bitcoin over delivers? That's what I'm hoping for.

Starting point is 00:07:58 But I don't know, man. I don't like, if anything I've learned over the past number of cycles is that nobody knows shit about shit. Yeah, no one knows shit about shit. I think that's that you hit the nail on the head, you know, expecting, everyone gets the price speculation completely wrong. We all are going on hunches. But I think, Ben, we can, we can reach a common truth, though. common truth is was 2021 a let down for you? Oh, yeah, for sure.

Starting point is 00:08:33 Like, I was, everybody was like, oh, 100K is happening and then far beyond that. Like, I had, I mean, even Odell was like on the show like calling for 500K screaming at Bitcoin Tina for being a bear, which did come to fruition in terms of Bitcoin Tina being a bear. But besides the fact, yeah, like, I think everybody expected it. it like after the craziness of 2017, it started out the year in 2017, sub 1,000, and then went to 20, like a 20x in a calendar year. It was insane. So like imagine, imagine witnessing that in a calendar year again, you know, opening the year in and around 100K and then 20xing from there.

Starting point is 00:09:20 That's crazy, but it has happened. It has happened, dude. it has happened, right? So, and again, Bitcoin does the exact opposite. Wait, Ben, we do have a very important question in the chat. I see it. I see it. And I'll bring it up. Bugle News would like to know, do I think Lynn Alden is hot? Like, guys, obviously. Obviously. Yeah, I was 100. Lynn Alden is super hot. Absolutely, 100%. Also, I love Lynn. Lynn is like the best person.

Starting point is 00:09:55 I'm yeah she's so super super kind I love her and and incredibly smart but also hot a F yeah super hot and also she's hilarious too like her her meme game is on point it's all right kiss every time exactly all right in other news you guys know that we'd love to talk about this topic on simply sessions the idea of freedom of speech the battle for freedom of speech uh we make the case that freedom of speech uh we make the case that freedom of speech is the front line for the battle for Bitcoin. If you can't speak freely, what makes you think they're going to be able, what makes you think they're going to be okay with you transacting freely? So it's very, very important to cover this. I want to provide a little bit of context because it's not exactly Bitcoin related, but it is Bitcoin related because one of our most powerful weapons

Starting point is 00:10:46 to educate the masses and wake the masses up to the scam that is Fiat money is speech. So breaking news. Dana White joins the Meta Board of Directors. Now, the reason this is so significant is Dana has been a very, very vocal proponent of Donald Trump. You definitely can say he's way more on the conservative side of things. So, and of course, you know, Mark Zuckerberg and meta is known to be a little bit more on the liberal side of things. So the fact that this happened was a huge deal. But I think that the reason that this is happening is because meta is changing course. And as much as a lot of you guys are like, Nico, I don't even use Facebook anymore. Like, what that for you talking about? It's still one of the largest social media platforms

Starting point is 00:11:39 on the planet. And shortly after it was announced that Dana White, who introduced Donald Trump at the RNC convention after Donald Trump was almost assassinated? That's how close Dana White and Donald Trump are. Mark Zuckerberg actually released a video explaining how Facebook, or sorry, meta, is going to be changing their misinformation policies. So it's a bit of a long video. I don't know if we'll have enough time to play the entire thing, but I'm going to play as much as we can.

Starting point is 00:12:13 But again, this is a historic moment for free speech because now you have two of the largest platforms X and Facebook. Hopefully YouTube is coming soon because I grew up on YouTube. I love YouTube. I'm fundamentally YouTuber. I know Ben is too. Let's check this out. Hey everyone. I want to talk about something important today because it's time to get back to our roots around free expression on Facebook and Instagram. I started building social media to give people a voice. I gave a speech at Georgetown five years ago about the importance of protecting free expression and I still believe this today. But a lot has happened over the last several years. There's been widespread debate about potential harms from online content, governments and legacy media have pushed

Starting point is 00:12:53 to censor more and more. A lot of this is clearly political, but there's also a lot of legitimately bad stuff out there. Drugs, terrorism, child exploitation, these are things that we take very seriously, and I want to make sure that we handle responsibly. So we built a lot of complex systems to moderate content. But the problem with complex systems is they make mistakes. Even if they accidentally censor just 1% of posts, that's millions of people. And we've reached a point where it's just too many mistakes and too much censorship. The recent elections also feel like a cultural tipping point towards once again prioritizing speech. So we're going to get back to our roots and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our policies,

Starting point is 00:13:27 and restoring free expression on our platforms. More specifically, here's what we're going to do. First, we're going to get rid of fact checkers and replace them with community notes, similar to X, starting in the US. After Trump first got elected in 2016, the legacy media wrote nonstop about how misinformation was a threat to democracy. We tried in good faith to address those concerns without becoming the arbiters of truth. But the fact checkers have just been too politically biased and have destroyed more trust than they've created, especially in the U.S.

Starting point is 00:13:54 So over the next couple of months, we're going to phase in a more comprehensive Community Notes system. Second, we're going to simplify our content policies and get rid of a bunch of restrictions on topics like immigration and gender that are just out of touch with mainstream discourse. What started as a movement to be more inclusive has increasingly been used to shut down opinions and shut out people with different ideas, and it's gone too far. So I want to make sure that people can share their beliefs and experiences on our platform. Third, we're changing how we enforce our policies to reduce the mistakes that account for the vast majority of censorship on our platforms. We used to have filters that scanned for any policy violation. Now we're going to focus those filters on tackling illegal and high severity violations, and for lower severity violations, we're going to rely on someone reporting an issue before we take action.

Starting point is 00:14:38 The problem is that the filters make mistakes, and they take down a lot of content that they shouldn't. So by dialing them back, we're going to dramatically reduce the amount of censorship on our platforms. We're also going to tune our content filters to require much higher confidence before taking down content. All right. Well, it continues and I'll keep it playing in the background, but that is a covering your ass moment. I don't think this would have happened. I'm going to keep saying this. I've been saying this for the last couple of weeks on Simply sessions. Elections have consequences, right? And, you know, they see Elon and Trump going in there. And, you know, Facebook's like, you know what? We're going to donate to your inauguration. Dana, why don't you come on board, man? We're all friends. We've never de-platformed you, Mr. President.

Starting point is 00:15:30 What are you talking about? You know, so again, I think I don't blame Zuck. He's a, he's a, he's a businessman. He's protecting his business. And, you know, he's walking back. But I will say this, you know, we're just another election away from an administration that is pro-censorship. And then what's going to happen? We're going to be right back where we started. And this is why decentralized protocols like Noster are so important because there isn't someone like Zuck. There isn't someone like Elon that we have to put so much trust and so much faith and bluntly so much power for them. to act ethically and morally and not censor people, right? He even said it. I don't know if he

Starting point is 00:16:19 meant, he purposely meant to say this, but he slipped up and he said, we're going to reduce the amount of censorship on our platform. Like, it's like, dude, what? What are you talking about? You know, so I don't know, Ben, what do you think? Yeah, I mean, so I'm, I'm super bullish on the fact that there's, there's an ongoing. realization that things went way too far, that people and people in charge of platforms are starting to realize that. Now, this is a double-edged sword, of course. Is it great that you're going to have platforms that lots of people are on that are going to

Starting point is 00:17:03 open up and allow people to have civil discourse and voice ideas that are not the same as each other and allow people to say things that are wrong and rather than fight those with censorship, fight it with better information. That's fantastic. Now, the other part of the double as you said, we're one election away from all this going right back, whipsawing the other direction. And so the thing that fixes this is censorship resistance, which is basically Noster. But I think what's unfortunately going to happen, and it's weird to frame it as unfortunately, but when these controlled platforms begin opening up and allowing people to speak freely again, people aren't going to migrate to the censorship-resistant protocol, right?

Starting point is 00:18:05 And so when somebody's like, well, why am I going to Noster? When there's an answer to that, when there's because you can't say what you want to say on X or, you know, Facebook or whatever, it, the person will, you know, when when they can say what they want, they're going to be like, well, there's no point in me moving over. So it seems almost like it may delay adoption of things like Noster. So like, can you see what I mean when I say like it's positive, but like it's negative in a way? there's like this kind of, you know, it's like in a way, if they were to come out and be like, we're banning Bitcoin, then everybody, and we're going to print the shit out of all the money forever, then what's going to happen, everybody's just not going to obey the law. They're going to use Bitcoin and they're not going to use the dollars anymore.

Starting point is 00:18:56 In a way, friendly regulation allows people to be lulled to sleep. And so I think as long as we're cognizant of that and we still utilize the, those freedom tools, while talking to people that are on the old platforms about how you should hedge your bets and start looking at these other things. I think that's the best approach we can get with the hand we've been dealt so far. 100%. I think that's absolutely one million percent spot on, man. And yeah, it's important to stay vigilant, to remember. Because again, you know, people can get complicit, right? And I think that's that's the potential danger here. Anyways, Ben. Yeah, absolutely. So like for anybody out there watching this that you're like, I love that,

Starting point is 00:19:48 you know, things are going to be censored less. That's fantastic, but don't throw other solutions to the side. Check out Noster. Get yourself on a Noster client. Start examining some of the tools that are popping up there. I think that's the best thing you can do. Everybody out there that's watching, thank you guys so much for being here. Make sure you smash. that like button. Let's get up to 50 likes on YouTube. We're going to smash, smash, smash, as best you can. And we are going to be right back, just a quick shout at to our sponsors. Continue on with the big stories of the week. Bitcoin Well is the best place to be buying and selling Bitcoin in Canada and the U.S.

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Starting point is 00:21:19 or for convenience when traveling. You can head to coin kite.com and use code BTC sessions for discounts or simply scan the QR code on the screen to get started right away. All right, we're back in, but let's give away some stats real quick before we continue on with the news here. anybody watching I'm here over at bitcoinwell.com slash ptc sessions. But if you don't know how to type that,

Starting point is 00:21:48 you can type simply Bitcoin as well if you want to be. If you want to toss Nico some love here as well. But the QR code over there on the right will allow you to sign up. But we're going to give away some stats right now. So the way it works is when you sign up for Bitcoin well, when you buy Bitcoin, when you refer friends, you earn points. And those points can be used to toss in the Bitcoin. coin wishing well and give you a chance to win up to a million sats every single time.

Starting point is 00:22:16 So we're going to do just that right now. Get your lightning wallets out. Whoever scans the QR code in the middle, the fastest will claim the sats and 210 sats are up for grabs. So congrats to whoever snags them or snipes them from everyone else. And let us know if you grab them. If you're in the comments, if you're in the live chat, we'd love to hear about it. But with that, Nico, let's get your screen. back up here and let's continue on. What else has been going on? I see that face. I hate that face.

Starting point is 00:22:48 I'll let you say what's going on with it. Yeah. So huge news. And again, I'm going to keep reiterating this over and over again because this is like a mental mind fuck that Bitcoiners get themselves in where they're like, dude, I have Bitcoin and self-custody. Politics don't matter. I'm fine. like, what are you talking about? And I'm like, okay, in theory, you're 100% right. However, in practice, elections have effing consequences, right? The election of Trump started this bull market. It's most likely going to get Ross free.

Starting point is 00:23:26 It's going to create a positive regulatory environment in the United States. And more than likely, I mean, it probably played a huge role in Trudeau stepping down and resigning, right? So fiat elections still have consequences as we're transitioning into the full information age, the world of the sovereign individual where politics no longer matter. We're not there yet. We're in the transitionary period. So fiat elections still have consequences. Anyways, I have to get a little bit of context there. Justin Trudeau, the Prime Minister of Canada, very, very unpopular for a variety of reasons. He's been in power a very long time.

Starting point is 00:24:13 He has announced that he is resigning. Now, before I get to the Bitcoin-related part, which is hilarious, I do want to welcome Ben as my fellow countrymen. It has been announced that Canada is joining the United States. The Gulf of Mexico is now called Gulf of America. and the Panama Canal is called the Panama Maga and Greenland is now called Our Land. I kid you not, this is a post actually coming out of Donald Trump's truth social account,

Starting point is 00:24:48 the art of the deal. He is 100% serious. I find that hilarious. Trudeau was not able to stop him. So Ben, we actually might be in the same country very, very soon. This is this what world are we living in like what that picture is ridiculous oh my god it's like I just I don't know what to say

Starting point is 00:25:14 like are we in a simulation this is hilarious I mean you know this is this is hilarious the way that he phrased it the way that he did it but the Bitcoin news right is who right now is up in the polls is a gentleman by the name of Pierre Polyber and I probably butchered that pronunciation. But here he is buying Sharma.

Starting point is 00:25:41 So Donald Trump bought burgers. Pierre bought Sharma in Tahini's. So let's check out the video. We're going to buy this shwarma with this Bitcoin. You ready? Hold on. He's creating me an invoice right now. Listen, he's going to, make sure to include the tip in there as well.

Starting point is 00:26:04 By the way, what is on this shwarma? Deliciousness. Deliciousness. An extra serving of deliciousness is exactly what we meet. And by the way, do you use Canadian food when you make your shwarmas? Is it Canadian sort? Everything here is local, actually. Local, local, made in Canada, my friends.

Starting point is 00:26:22 All right, let's do it. So then they do the process, you know, they scan the QR code. Now, what's really, really exciting, too, is check this out. Pro-Crypto Pierre Polyvar leads polymarket odds to become Canada's next prime minister replacing Justin Trudeau. It goes on to say, Mr. Polybar, the pro-Crypto politician, head of Canada's Conservative Party, leads polymarket odds for who will replace Justin Trudeau. Users of the centralized prediction place $257,000 in bets on Polyver, giving the conservative politician an eight, 89% chance in odds in favor of winning the upcoming federal election expected this spring.

Starting point is 00:27:08 So Canada and the United States, Ben, we could have never have imagined this in the beginning of 2024 where things were dark. The Canadian Truckers protest was not that long ago. We could have never have imagined that in 2025, both the United States and Canada will have pro-bitcoin governments mind-effing blowing it's it's wild um first of all okay trudeau being stepping down thank the lord uh you know we can't be rid of him soon enough the the the the economic ruin that he has left this country in is is crazy and you can there's charts where it shows the like GDP per capita.

Starting point is 00:27:59 And it's and it's basically in lockstep with the U.S. All the way up to when he's elected and then it just splits and Canada is is lower. And so like when people come up from the U.S., they're like, why, why your grocery is insane here? And when you look at like the what somebody can afford with their paycheck, like in terms of standard of living here in Canada versus in the U.S., It's crazy. Like everybody's taking a hit because of inflation, but Canada, Canadians are so much worse off than in the U.S. Like, it's wild. Secondly, with Palliev, he knows what's up.

Starting point is 00:28:40 Like he, when he was, I think he's still like kind of off the gas when it comes to talking about Bitcoin. But it's clear he's a Bitcoin. And when you see him explain the economy, when you see him explain how stuff works. and how inflation works. He's not, yes, he talks about, yes, government spending is a problem, spending beyond our means, we're doing all these other things. But he's like, he gets down to the root of it. And he has a very simple kind of walkthrough of like, if you have an economy that has 10 apples

Starting point is 00:29:11 and you have $10 then in that economy, it's a buck an apple. If you print more money and there's now $20, nobody got richer. Like nobody's twice as rich. It's just the apples cost more. And he's like, this is the true source of inflation. When you don't have more stuff, but you print more money, then things are just more expensive. And not everybody gets the money equally. So people are extracting wealth from you.

Starting point is 00:29:37 They're stealing the purchasing power of your paycheck and taking it for the elites to do with as they please. And so, like, he sums it up so well. He's very articulate with it. So, yeah, I mean, great. I'm stoked and also showed up to Ali from Tihini's. dude what a what a absolute chad where he's he's on a bitcoin standard in terms of they're they're doing the micro strategy playbook in terms of their their their uh company treasury is is bitcoin and they've been doing it for ages and and it's allowed them to expand all over

Starting point is 00:30:13 canada there's there weren't any here in calgary now i think there's four tahini's in calgary and they're delicious nicest guy ever comes sees every opening personally, you know, helps out all the franchisee. He's, he's awesome. He's awesome. Yeah, he's, I love Ali. He was at the, at the party here down in Miami. So I had to spend some time with him.

Starting point is 00:30:36 And it was a, it was a great time, man. But this is, this is great, man. You know, four years of Biden was terrible. You know, what is it, nine years of? Nine years of Trudeau. This is my, my souvenir from the Trudeau years. I keep it on the shelf behind me. It's not plugged in.

Starting point is 00:30:56 It's decommissioned, but this was the node, the trucker protest node. Wow. So it's a piece, a little piece of history there. That's what helped relay the donations to help out the truckers that were protesting all the mandate. Incredible, dude. That's a, that's a piece of history right there that you're holding, dude. Holy cow. All right, everybody.

Starting point is 00:31:23 So moving on to the next piece of news. Let me make sure I have all the pages set up. Yeah, let's go to page three first. So Fidelity, there it loaded, Fidelity dropped a report. The name of the report is, Are You Too Late to Bitcoin? Fidelity has, I believe it's off the top of my head,

Starting point is 00:31:44 $4.9 trillion or $4.5 trillion assets under management. So it's absolutely a massive institution. Of course, they have an incredible reputation. So this isn't just a Twitter thread by some Bitcoin and on, you know, on X. This is actually coming from Fidelity themselves. So the name of the presentation is, are you too late? And it goes on to say, in our 2024 look ahead, the Fidelity Digital Assets research team opined that

Starting point is 00:32:19 investors should, quote, prepare for acceleration with increased adoption, development, interest in, and demand for digital assets. However, no one could fully predict what 2024 would bring. The digital assets market experienced two significant waves of acceleration in the first half of the year with the approval of the ETFs, followed by a post-election surge at the end of 2023. Now moving on, oh, I'm on the wrong way. Am I? My doing. I'm on the right page or wrong page. This is the right page. Guys. Sorry about that, guys. We got it. Moving on to page 27. I'm like reading the actual thing and you guys can't see it.

Starting point is 00:33:01 Rookie mistake. All right. Moving on. The possible drivers of mainstream adoption and diffusion in 2025. Nation state and government adoption. The approval and launch of spot Bitcoin ETFs earlier in 2024 led to substantial demand for exposure to Bitcoin from institutional and retail investors alike. This regulated, familiar, and accessible vehicle has made allocation to Bitcoin more streamlined than ever before, leading to several pensions and at least one endowment making allocations to Bitcoin through these products.

Starting point is 00:33:34 While we expect to see this trend accelerate through 2025, one might wonder who the next significant investor might be to add Bitcoin to their portfolios. So here it has a breakdown of the United States, China, United Kingdom, Ukraine, Bhutan, El Salvador. It goes on to say, however, despite holding Bitcoin, many countries with exposure have only gained that exposure through government seizures and recoveries of Bitcoin associated with entities using it for illicit financing purposes, not necessarily because they wanted to establish

Starting point is 00:34:07 a strategic long-term position holding the asset. Further, some of these governments, such as the U.S., have certain requirements relative to the handling, handling and auctioning of this Bitcoin and cannot count them as part of their treasury. As it goes on to say that the countries of Bhutan and El Salvador are countries that have actually have acquired that Bitcoin ethically. So that was pretty, pretty cool. All right. And last page, which is page 32 and making sure I'm sharing the right screen. The last thing is not too late and hopefully early to a new era. Reviewing the 2025 outlook, it is clear that investors are not too late to join the digital asset movement. In fact, we believe we may be entering the dawn

Starting point is 00:34:59 of a new era for digital assets. One poised to span multiple years, if not decades. This era could see digital assets permeating various sectors, industries, technologies, fields, balance sheets, and even nation states. The pivotal question for investors, now is not whether to participate, but how actively they will engage with this transformation. I mean, absolutely incredibly bullish report coming out of fidelity, breaking it down, breaking the data. And I think, look, I would say like, look, the significance of this is this is this is not coming from, you know, an ex anon or a Twitter anon. This is coming from fidelity. So just bullish news all around. Ben.

Starting point is 00:35:46 I mean, again, can you imagine taking this report shoving it in a time machine and sending it back to like 2020 or like, you know, before? It would blow minds. It's blowing my mind right now that it's even a real thing. But I mean, they're on the money, right? Like they understand the sentiment. And to a degree, they're also, I mean, to a lot of. large degree, they're also driving the sentiment. Like, these people look to fidelity, you know, for what do I do with my money? And they, they don't take reports like this lightly. Like the, the financial world looks at what fidelity is doing and actually really deeply considers it. So, I mean, this, to be seeing things like this come out of them, and it's not the first time, they've been bullish as hell consistently for an extended period of time and they're thinking long term. And again, it's that thesis of you're reaching kind of like the edges of society.

Starting point is 00:36:49 You're reaching the people that have nothing to lose. And so they're going to take a chance on Bitcoin, the people that have been debanked that are in authoritarian regimes. But then you're also taking the best off people in society that have the most wealth to protect. And they're also getting it too. And it's working its way inwards where us, the crazies that were early, get to hang out. So it's an interesting place to be. Yeah, dude, I think that just that example of sending it back in a time machine, you know, back to 2016, back to 2017, you would have seen this.

Starting point is 00:37:24 You would have been like that. That's fake. That's what are you talking about? That's a lie. Anyways, to address the title of today's videos, do I think it's a coincidence that the DOJ, you know, announced that they're cleared to sell $6.5 billion in C's Bitcoin. By the way, 69,000 Bitcoin, I find that number hilarious from Silk Road. Is it a coincidence that this is happening 11 days before the inauguration of the first pro

Starting point is 00:37:54 Bitcoin administration kind of, you know, trying to sabotage a little bit, the plan for the strategic Bitcoin Reserve. Do I think that's a coincidence? I mean, after the behavior of the Biden administration for the last four years, no, I do not think it's a coincidence whatsoever. This is 100% on purpose, but it also tells me that we're winning. It also tells me that we're over the target. It also tells me that they're afraid. They're scared. Why else would they do this type of stuff?

Starting point is 00:38:23 This is like child's play. It's like, listen, Trump got a mandate. The Republicans usually never win the popular vote. They usually never do that. They won the popular vote. They won the House. They won the Senate. And Biden is basically spitting in their face and saying, you know what?

Starting point is 00:38:40 I don't care, man. like we're going to sell this Bitcoin anyways look at how that turned out for Germany that was a horrific idea that was a terrible idea so anyways Ben yeah I mean it's it's like the last gasp of an outgoing regime

Starting point is 00:38:55 that failed right like it's it's them just and it's so petty it's so petty like in these final days to like expedite this oh yeah we could we could totally do like a quick sale of all this like he's in an 11 days

Starting point is 00:39:10 It's insane that this is even, you know, a thing right now. Part of me hopes they dump it, right? I hope because historically, as with Germany, people will look back at that moment and be like, my God, God, what a historical blunder and an economic blunder that was at that moment in time. And to degree, I think if they dump it, I think Trump, just to spite them, will buy it back twofold at least. Oh, for sure. And then continue hard from there. Like, it's almost like they're just poking the bear being like, hey, that thing he said you wanted to do and that money you wanted to keep, that Bitcoin you wanted to keep, you're going to dump it all.

Starting point is 00:39:59 And what's he going to do? He's not beyond being petty in the opposite direction. So, I mean, great. Let's just stir the pot. I'm all for it. Exactly, right? You're not going to stop. You're not going to stop the Donald's. Look at all the stuff he's put up with over the last, you know, a couple of years. You're just going to emboldened him, if anything. I 100% agree with that. Anyways, guys, this was your Simply session, the news section, at least, for January 9, 2024. Ben, I will see you next week. Peace out.

Starting point is 00:40:28 Have a good one. Everybody else. Stick around up next. We're going to be talking your bits, apps, and sats. And what does that mean? Well, we've got some huge updates. One of my favorite mobile wallets just had a $5 million raise. We'll be letting you know about that. There's also some crazy privacy tools and a game changer when it comes to multisake. So stick around for that.

Starting point is 00:40:55 We're going to give a quick shout out to our sponsors. And then we're going to give away some sats the second we get back. DeBify is the best and easiest way to borrow against your Bitcoin in a non-custodial way. Funds are held in a multi-sig escrow where you hold a key, and the platform allows for excellent hardware like the cold card Mark 4 and the Q. You have access to flexible conditions, the best rates, and institutional grade liquidity. If you're looking to make use of your capital, don't sell your Bitcoin, borrow against it. You can head over to debify.com to check them out or simply scan the QR code on the screen.

Starting point is 00:41:39 Speed wallet is the easiest to set up and use Bitcoin wallet out there. When you sign up, you can, of course, buy Bitcoin within the app. You can send and receive Bitcoin transactions via the Lightning Network, and you can also send, receive, hold, and swap between stablecoins, aka EUSDT, via the Lightning Network. They've baked in a ton of other great features as well, where you're able to, to earn Bitcoin. This can include referring your friends, shopping your favorite gift cards, or playing fun games via the Speed Arcade. I encourage you to sign up today. There's a QR code on the screen to do so, or you can hit the link in the show notes down below. And when you do, you will earn

Starting point is 00:42:19 5,000 sats as you create your first day. All right, we're back in. We're going to be giving away some sats. I want to give a shout out to everybody that is in the live chat right now, both on Noster and on YouTube and those that are also coming in from X. Appreciate you guys being here. Everybody over on YouTube, do me a huge favor if you can. Smash that like button. We're approaching 100 likes. I've got a stretch goal.

Starting point is 00:42:46 I'd love you guys to hit 150 likes. And what I'll do for you if we hit that 150 before the end of the show, I'm going to give away more sats over here on Bitcoin well. But let's do that right now. Pull out your lightning wallets. Whoever scans this first is going to get the stats. In the meantime, I will also get a QR code up on the right-hand side of the screen. That's Bitcoin Well, where I'm sitting right now.

Starting point is 00:43:10 Again, when you sign up, when you buy Bitcoin, when you refer friends, you earn points. And those points can be thrown into the Bitcoin wishing well to win you up to a million sats every single time you do. So we're going to do just that right now. Anybody with a lightning wallet can participate in this. And I'll hit a quick refresh here so that I can toss a coin. And off it goes. Whoever scans it first will snip the sats from everybody else.

Starting point is 00:43:35 And there's another 210 up for grabs. So congrats to whoever gets it. Let us know in the comments or in the live chat if you snag them. But appreciate you all. I also want to let you guys know that tomorrow on Why Are We Bullish, we've got a stacked show. Bitcoin Shooter, awesome film that he just released, no more inflation. he's going to be on the show. Sue Ennis from Hutt 8, massive, massive Bitcoin miner.

Starting point is 00:44:05 And we've also got Tom Hanzik from Unchained Capital, incredible multi-sig provider. They're all going to be on the show tomorrow, and they're going to be chatting about why they are bullish. Make sure you check it out. And if you haven't already, do check out the tutorial that dropped earlier in the week on the Bitkey. Sorry, stumbled over my words a little bit. surprisingly simple to use. I was very impressed with the ease of use. Now, it comes with some tradeoffs and everything.

Starting point is 00:44:34 Encourage you to watch the tutorial and namely the key takeaways at the end in my opinions in and around it. But very nice device, I will say. And yeah, with that, let's get into all the updates here. By the way, if you have any trouble, be sure to check out Bitcoin mentor. We can help you out with anything in and around your Bitcoin. learning journey. So Jan 3, Jan 3, who is Jan 3? They're the people behind Aqua Wallet. I use Aqua Wallet quite a bit. And the reason I like it is because it eliminates some of the pain

Starting point is 00:45:14 points of that initial onboarding into lightning if you're doing it in a self-custodial manner. Now, there's some nuance here that I want to talk about. But Jan 3, regardless, they just had a $5 million seed round for Aqua Wallet, which is awesome. Huge congrats to the team, Samson, Prince Philip of Serbia, everybody over there, they're awesome. So $5 million seed round led by Fulgar Ventures, participation from Grupo Salinas, Tether, Lightning Ventures, East Ventures, Plan B Fund, Bitcoin Operative DeN fund, and Nidig. Again, they said we're excited to announce the $5 million in seed funding to accelerate

Starting point is 00:45:57 the development and expansion of aqua wallet, this funding marks a pivotal step in our journey to make Bitcoin accessible, practical, and transformative for users around the globe. It had an oversubscribed pre-seed of 620 grand, closed in early 2023. One million of the funds will be allocated to establish a Bitcoin treasury for Jan 3, consisting of 12 coins, acquired at an average cost of 83K. Tether is excited to support the work Jan 3 is doing to advance financial freedom around the world. Aqua has found excellent product market fit by offering a perfect balance of saving in Bitcoin while spending in USDT. I'll say that, you know what, I don't really use the stablecoin stuff.

Starting point is 00:46:38 I understand why some people do in certain areas. I'm just all in Bitcoin. So you can turn that switch off if that doesn't appeal to you. Final quote, we've seen rapid growth of both user adoption and volumes within a month of November, 24, alone, crossing 11 million in swap volume by leveraging advanced technologies like lightning and liquid networks. We've managed to create a Bitcoin super app that's able to deliver real utility and be used in daily life around the world.

Starting point is 00:47:07 It just works. And it's only going to get better. And that's from Samson Mao. So again, with Aqualilat, I've done a tutorial on it. I highly recommend you check it out if you're trying to figure out where, you know, a happy balance of getting a lightning wallet that maybe you're trying to get around the idea of lightning channels and balancing liquidity and all of that crap. And you're like, I just, I don't want to even deal with that.

Starting point is 00:47:35 This is kind of what Aqua achieves. You don't have to worry about actual lightning channels because what it's actually doing is swapping from lightning to liquid network in the background, which doesn't require a lightning channel to happen. So you can send and receive to and from anybody else. using a lightning wallet, but you yourself don't have a lightning channel. Now, there are nuances in and around how liquid works. I encourage you to work through those and kind of make your best decision.

Starting point is 00:48:02 But for a day-to-day spending wallet, it works like a breeze. You can also swap to on-chain. There's all these different features for it. They have baked in things for being able to use it in day-to-day. They have a marketplace and all that. So definitely check out Aqua. And again, hats off to Jan 3. Good job, guys.

Starting point is 00:48:19 another big launch and this is again an absolute game changer when it comes to bitcoin security uh in and around multi-sig along with insurance so a lot of people they freak out because they're like i i'm self-custodying which is good but what happens if something goes wrong or somebody manages to get a hold of my coins like am i just screwed and the team at anchor watch becca and rob working like crazy and they've just launched for U.S. customers. Right now, it's for higher net worth. So people holding between $250,000 and $100 million worth of Bitcoin. But what this does is you can get a multi-sig vault where you actually retain control

Starting point is 00:49:13 and you can actually get full, like have it fully insured as well at the same time. And there's mechanisms where if you begin losing things over time, the multi-sig has time locks involved so that as time goes on, if you lose access to certain keys, it becomes easier to access, but you can always bump that forward over time. And you can also bake in things like inheritance planning. What they've built at Anchor Watch is incredible. And I definitely want to have Robin Beck on the show to talk about it. But they're amazing.

Starting point is 00:49:51 Check out the Bitcoin Mentor space coming up. They're going to be on. And just check out, follow at the BTC mentor. And just look out for that space is coming. They happen every Monday, Wednesday, Friday. I can't remember when this one is happening. Either way, quick summary here. Anchor Watch is a Lloyds of London.

Starting point is 00:50:12 cover holder with binding authority up to $100 million per customer. Company aims to transform Bitcoin custody with its Trident Vault software, leveraging Bitcoin smart contracting language for features like time locks, multiple spending conditions, and multi-sig quorums. This ensures strong security and governance facilitated at the Bitcoin protocol level, while embedded regulated insurance reduces risks from theft, kidnappings, and fraud. Again, it gets super technical here, but the long and the short of it, they say most of our customers with around 250 grand of Bitcoin are paying around, you know, just over $1,000 to $2,000 a year, fully insured. Full service enhanced self-custy.

Starting point is 00:50:58 We waived the Trident Tech fee for the first $250K. And then they say policies are denominated in dollars. So you get the exact amount of insurance you pay for it. So if you bought a $500,000 policy, you have $500,000 of coverage. If you feel underinsured during the policy term, you can increase your limit accordingly. So like if your Bitcoin increases in value, you can get a higher policy. And again, this is all baked into a multi-sig of which you're actually a part of. So there's no possibility for Anchor Watch to rug you, which is awesome.

Starting point is 00:51:33 So I mean, these guys are giving everybody a run for their money. Like they've really thought through this. They've thought through the people that want to self-custody, but also are worried about what if shit hits the fan. We're going to see so much innovation in the multisic space in the coming years. This is impressive. Okay. Moving on Blitz Wallet.

Starting point is 00:51:53 I did a video on Blitz Wallet back in the day. Actually, back in the day. It wasn't that long ago. It was like late last year. Really, really cool. This is a new update, 0.3.7 beta on-chain payments from Lightning or Liquid, manual channel rebalancing. The long and the short of it is Blitz Wallet allows you to send and receive payments to and from

Starting point is 00:52:16 on-chain, lightning, liquid, and e-cash all with one balance. And depending on the threshold of how much you have in the wallet, it will react differently. So like when you're dealing with a few hundred sats, it deals with e-cash because that's higher risk, but it's the easiest onboarding. When you get above a certain threshold, it moves to liquid. When you get again above a certain threshold, it will just open up a full lightning channel to you when that becomes economically viable.

Starting point is 00:52:49 And it just kind of does it in the background without you having to think that you can set different thresholds if you want to. But now they've added the ability to send directly to an on-chain balance if you have lightning or liquid in whatever is sitting in the background of the wallet at the current time of using it. Awesome.

Starting point is 00:53:07 Again, I love the idea how all of these different rails are coming together and being presented in a way to the end user where it's just, you just have Bitcoin and maybe you have some settings that you tinker with, but more or less, you just see a balance and you can interact with anybody. It's like going up to a point of sale terminal anywhere. And they don't care if you have a debit card or a Visa or a MasterCard or American Express. They just say, tap your card here. Boom.

Starting point is 00:53:33 That's what we're seeing with. Bitcoin wallets now. And it makes me bullish. I'm going to continue on. We've got a few privacy things here. Coin swap version 0.1.0 first public beta release. So what is this? It is a decentralized atomic swap protocol that facilitates swaps of Bitcoin UTXOs or pieces of Bitcoin through a decentralized civil-resistant marketplace, meaning you have a chunk of Bitcoin, say maybe you have whole Bitcoin, somebody else has a whole Bitcoin or however many sats, you have the same size coins and then you swap them with the other person without a definitive trace as to who you swapped with and who currently owns the other coin. So this is really cool. I'll read a little bit

Starting point is 00:54:25 just from the bottom here. What is a coin swipe you might a swap you might ask? Let's say you and me swap a UTXO. We each lock our output in a special contract. We exchange secrets that allow us to claim each other's coins, and either we both successfully swap, or we get our original coins back. When we swap our UTXOs, there's no direct on-chain link between our transactions. While someone could see two swaps happened, they can't connect my history to your new coins or vice versa, breaking the transaction trail and giving each participant fresh coins. super awesome, excited to see more happening in the Bitcoin privacy space. A couple more things here. Sentinel, this is a watch-only Bitcoin wallet tracker,

Starting point is 00:55:10 and it's for managing multiple wallets and addresses. And this was used in tandem a lot with Samurai wallet. Well, Samurai wallet obviously was shut down by the DOJ, server sees and everything. Somebody forked that protocol, or forked that project, rather, and created Ashigaro wallet. and you pair that with a dojo. I did a video on setting up your dojo

Starting point is 00:55:33 and setting up your Ashi-Garo wallet. Well, now Sentinel can be a companion app for anybody using a dojo. So they announced the release, version 5.1.1. It allows a few things, fully spending a UTXO by tapping the available balance,

Starting point is 00:55:52 scanning BIP-21 QR codes, selecting which exchange to use for your fiat rate. You can paste your dojo credentials in various ways now, rather than just the default before. And you can add a street mode for hiding your balance. And this is also inspired by the latest Ashigaro update and a few bug fixes here as well.

Starting point is 00:56:16 Furthermore, if you're not running a dojo, but you want to experiment with Ashigaro wallet, they do now have a dojo, which is publicly available, Now, they do say you should have your own dojo, but if you don't, you can begin to play with the Samurai Wallet Fork and use theirs. I would recommend that you set up your own, but for experimentation purposes, check it out. Live Wallet. I got to talk about this one, too. I haven't tried it yet. This is promising I want to play with it. Live Wallet is a desktop app that helps users understand the current and future fee burden of their UTXOs. and so it has the ability to analyze user transactions to check for potential privacy heuristics

Starting point is 00:57:04 that chain analytics companies use to cluster wallets. It also adds basic transaction output labeling. And so basically you can select whatever UTXOs and then analyze the privacy of them and see how they can be linked and interpreted. That's really, really cool. I can't wait to play with this. I think it's super interesting. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:57:29 And in the whole mining space, I want to touch on this. Canaan, I'm not sure how to say these guys' name. Let me know in the chat. How do I say Canon? Canaan? Let me know. I would love to hear your pronunciation of this in the chat. But Canaan announces the launch of the Avalon Mini 3 and the Nano 3S at CES in Las Vegas.

Starting point is 00:57:54 So these are home miners. So if you're mining at home, if you played with the Bitax, the Brains Mini Miner, the Future Bit, this is in that realm for you. But it is a space heater as well, both of them. So the Avalon Mini 3, this device is a 37.5 terra hash Bitcoin miner. That's pretty decent for a space heater. It also functions as a home heater. And then they have the Avalon Nano 3S.

Starting point is 00:58:20 It's an upgraded version of the well-received Avalon Nano3, has a hash rate of 6. Terra hash, which sounds pretty similar to my, to the, God, why am I forgetting the S-9? God, the S-9. So I took an old S-9 miner that I think I got for $100. I swapped out the fans and put it in a 3-D printed case from crypto cloaks, who are awesome. And that one is a similar terra-hash when I kind of pull back the wattage to keep it quieter. And so this, if you're kind of looking for comparison, that's what this Avalon Nano3 is like.

Starting point is 00:59:02 Now, their quote here, we are committed to making Bitcoin mining accessible to everyone. Avalon Mini 3 and Avalon 3S represent our vision of user-friendly, practical mining solutions for the modern individual. We're reimagining how technology can create value while minimizing environmental waste. The ability to generate, we'll say Bitcoin, because that's what it is, while heating your home, It's a perfect example of our vision for sustainable multi-purpose technology. That's from the CEO. And pricing, what are these things going to cost you? Remember I said I was using the S-9, which has a comparable, but obviously you've got to pay if you're going to use like an enclosure and everything.

Starting point is 00:59:41 You're looking probably 250 bucks when all is said and done once you get all set up with the fan replacements, all that. Well, that's what the Avalon Nano 3S is. And so it's kind of like you can just get something plug and play with comparable tarahash. That's not bad. I think I'm going to try that out. The other one, the mini three is $899. And so what is that?

Starting point is 01:00:13 Six terra hash versus 37.5. So about a 5x5? 6, 6x and terra hash and it's 899. So not bad, not bad. I wouldn't expect to like make money with these,

Starting point is 01:00:32 but you can kind of think of it as if you need the heat anyways, you're getting reimbursed for part of your electric bill. So well worth checking out. And thanks, Rusty. Canaan, Nanbread. There we go. There we go.

Starting point is 01:00:46 That's what I needed to be able to pronounce. Canaan. All right. I'm going with that. I'm going to trust Rusty. He's never steered me wrong. Anyways, guys, with that, I'm going to wrap it up. You guys are now filled in for your bits, apps, and sats for the week.

Starting point is 01:01:04 We're going to see you tomorrow for Why Are We Bullish at 6 p.m. Eastern Time. Make sure you're there. Smash that like button for your head out and have a wonderful evening. This has been your Simple session. We know.

BTC Sessions - Did The U.S Just Dump $6.5 BILLION Bitcoin?! The Truth Revealed!

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