Iran Demands BITCOIN for Hormuz Safe Passage

Iran is highlighting exactly why Bitcoin is an unstoppable force. If somebody can flick a switch and turn your money off, it's a central bank digital currency. It doesn't matter what they call it. Whether your data goes there or not is one question, but if it does, all these different entities will now have access to it. And so to assume that they're going to do it in favor of freedom, I'm not real optimistic about that.

love them or hate them iran is highlighting exactly why bitcoin is an unstoppable force their recent announcement of hormuz safe is making waves and putting the rest of the world on alert sanction us and we'll just opt out everyone welcome to another episode of bitcoin banter i have tony and our very own katie with us katie thank you for joining today guys let's jump right into this news. We talked about Iran a few months ago as they began accepting Bitcoin as payment,

allegedly, for passing through the strait. And now they have a Bitcoin backed insurance product that they're offering that reportedly could generate more than $10 billion in revenue. Tony, this is major news. I think, again, highlights everything that we've said about Bitcoin for the longest time. I would love your initial thoughts on this. This is great news, man. This is the type of signal and bullish headlines you want to wake

up to every day. I said this three, four years ago at my first public appearance on Bitcoin Prague, that there's going to come a day where every bloody government is going to settle on Bitcoin because it's the only neutral ground that they're all going to agree on, right? There's nothing else out there that they're going to settle with knowing that someone else might have an advantage over

them with now that, you know, something like Bitcoin exists. And all it's going to take is for one event or for one major player to make the first move and then everybody's going to follow along and so fast forward three years later and here we are right so we've got iran now who's always been you know on the other side of a weaponized dollar system they've been sanctioned and you know everything in on that list and now they've realized well they don't have to put up

with it anymore right and so who comes to the rescue well bitcoin so for anyone who thought this was a scam, this is something with no use case. Well, all of these retarded theories have just gone out the window now because now you've got a real life story that is being deployed every single day and is literally affecting something that controls 20% of the oil supply worldwide. Give it a little bit of time. Other countries are watching this news. This is like a changing

point in history. Iran did it first, then you're going to see other countries, maybe Russia, maybe India, maybe who knows. But at some point, they will all join that bandwagon. And they will all create laws forbidding anyone to screw around with the Bitcoin blockchain, whether it's a joke or otherwise. Why? Well, because now they're fully invested. Now it's, you know, their interests are on the line. So first they mock it, then they try to fight it,

then they, you know, they lose, and then they join the game. And here we are. You know, Tony, we talked about this on the live stream the other day, and I completely agree with everything you said. The one thing I didn't comment on is I do have a bit of a fear that to some degree, we're going to see a lot of concerns. Well, see, this is proof that it's, you know, used by Bitcoins for criminals, and I don't need to think about it. Now,

doesn't really matter. TikTok next block. It keeps going. My fear, though, is people who might have been close to coming to Bitcoin are not. It's like, I'm not really sure about this thing anymore. Overall, though, what I think remains consistent here is Seyfedean's gunpowder analogy, where he talks about you could choose to adopt gunpowder or you could choose not to and die. And everyone's going to accept it or eventually adopt it. The same thing is true with Bitcoin. Katie, I would

love to hear your thoughts on this. This is just the inevitable outcome of weaponizing the dollar system. Those who are on the end of that weaponization, of course, they're going to go for the only neutral money there is. I mean, you don't see and you're not going to see countries like Iran saying, we're going to accept USDT, for example. I mean, it's going to be Bitcoin

and it's going to be Bitcoin only. And just to what you were saying before, Michael, about Iran accepting Bitcoin potentially makes people associate Bitcoin with criminals or the bad guys. You know, it's neutral money. There's going to be good guys using it. There's going to be bad guys using it. And, you know, Bitcoin keeps going. It just it doesn't care. So, yeah, I just think this is inevitable and other countries are watching and it's going to happen more and more and more.

The use cases are becoming undeniable at this point. And Iran puts that on display for the

world to see. For everyone who's tuned in, we really appreciate you being here. Two things. First of all, stick around to the end. We've got a bunch of donkeys of the week that you're going to want to hear about. Very funny and sad and tragic story. And also do me a huge favor, like and subscribe to the channel. We would really appreciate it. Anything to help feed the algorithm goes a long way. We're very grateful for you being here. Guys, we got up next. This is

well, we got a little bit of clown world going on here. So the former CFTC chair, Timothy Massad, said a U.S. CBDC is still being explored behind closed doors despite Trump's public opposition. So he said this at a summit here just in the last week. Very interesting because we're going to talk next about a state in the U.S. that is actually preventing and banning CBDCs. But it sounds to me like this is in the works still. And I don't think he would have said that if there wasn't some

validity to it, at least not publicly. Katie, why don't you take this one first and give your assessment of what you think might be going on? So I think this is a joint venture with the Bank of International Settlements, and the US is part of that. It sounds to me like they want to create some kind of CBDC that's international. It's not specific, maybe just to the US. That was my

understanding from reading up about it a bit. But I think even if the administration is currently saying, you know, we're not going to allow a CBDC to happen in the US, etc. I don't know that it matters that much because in my opinion, there's going to be a Trojan CBDC kind of situation with stable coins anyway, and with this genius act that they've just passed. Yeah, I think that makes a lot more sense to me. Building a CBDC from scratch feels like a very

large undertaking. And my experience is the US federal government can't even deliver my mail on time or to the right mailbox. So imagine them to build the infrastructure for a CBDC when they could just go up Tether, for example. It doesn't quite make sense. But I have a feeling these are the sorts of discussions is how do we go about this in some way that it actually functions the way that we're hoping it does. And they already proved it with Tether. Even in Iran, Iran did try

using Tether and they had wallets frozen. Like it's, you know, we're going to see more and more of that. Tony, I know you have some strong opinions about CBDCs. Man, why are you guys so surprised about this news. I mean, did you honestly expect the number one thieving reserve not to develop a central bank digital currency? Like, I mean, what looney tune world are we living

here? Of course, they're going to develop a central bank digital currency. And of course, they're going to look for a million ways to ensure that they remain in control of the money, because that's what they do, man. That's what they've done for the past hundred years. Why would it be any different now the only difference in this world today is the existence of something that they can't control right but they are going to go to the furthest extremes possible in order

to save you know what is their product essentially and so all this hoopla about you know anti this is all you know theater man like they laughing at at the people They blatantly making fun of you because if they genuinely wanted to be anti they wouldn't be talking about stable coins either. So the stable coins are just a front for the government. It's not us, it's them, but they don't breathe if we don't tell them how, right?

So stable coins, whether it's official, not official, if somebody can flick a switch and turn your money off, it's a central bank digital currency. It doesn't matter what they call it. So either it's Bitcoin or you're stuck in that dystopia. Choose your poison. Yeah, I think that's it, Tony. And I would just refer everyone to the link below. You should immediately go schedule a call with our team. 30 minutes. It's free introductory. We'll walk you through how we can help you take self-custody.

because I think all of us agree a CBDC in some form or fashion is coming and there will probably come a day much sooner than most people think that you're going to have to choose between

Bitcoin and self-custody or CBDC. Otherwise, you're just not able to exchange value. And I can guarantee you the CBDC is going to be highly permission. So click the link below, schedule a call. You will not regret it. Guys, we do have some good-ish news. I'm something of a cynic on this subject. But South Carolina, a U.S. state has just banned CBDCs. They're protecting self-custody and they gave Bitcoin miners legal cover all in a single bill. We're not going to go into the

details of the bill. I have my skepticism every time I see this sort of news. On one hand, it's better than the alternative. It's better than them saying we're going to adopt CBDCs. But I'll let you guys chime in on this first and then I'll give you my thoughts. Tony, Why don't you weigh in here? Theatrics, man, theatrics. Whether these people are doing it on purpose or unknowingly, this means absolutely nothing to me.

Because you can be anti-CBDC on every headline on the internet, but if your actions prove that you support money that can be turned off, then you're a hypocrite. And so unless they provably show that they are pro-freedom, pro-protecting people's privacy, and pro the interests of the people they supposedly work for, then all of this is theatrics as far as I'm concerned. I agree with that. The other thing I would just say is that in the US, the way it's supposed to

work is that sovereign states are supposed to effectively govern themselves. And there's by design, at least little oversight from the federal government. That's not at all how it works. Obviously, you've witnessed that in a million and one things. The fact that we put so much weight on presidential elections tells you everything you need to know about how things actually function in the US. If a CBDC is adopted at the federal level, do you think that people in South Carolina

aren't going to use it because the state said, well, we're not going to use CBDCs. There's so much interstate commerce. There's so much incentive for welfare payments or UBI or whatever else. They're going to give you some sort of a carrot to get you into the CBDC and South Carolina is going to do it in the same way that everyone else is. And then the last thing I would add here is that they get to define what self-custody is on a piece of editable paper when they write these

sorts of bills. And then a bunch of appointed officials in the judiciary system get to decide what the interpretation of that is. And so to assume that they're going to do it in favor of freedom for us plebs, I'm not real optimistic about that. So I think we get a little too excited about some of these things as though they couldn't be interpreted or changed in the future in a way that's disadvantageous. But Katie, what's your thought on this?

Well, I think it's great PR for South Carolina, but I don't know that it's much more than that. And also protecting self-custody. Do we need governments protecting self-custody? Because by definition, self-custody doesn't involve any government, any state, any other entity. So I don't quite understand what protecting self-custody means. So, yeah, other than that, I agree.

I mean, South Carolina would have to ban stablecoins because if they're going to be the Trojan CBDC, they would have to ban stablecoins. How can they do that? I don't think that's going to happen. So, yeah, I'm a little bit cynical about this. I don't want to be an eternal cynic about everything. I've just I've seen enough of what governments do. Let's give them the benefit of the doubt and say, let's say this was done with the best of intentions.

I think the way it practically plays out regardless is still CBDCs infiltrate for most people because they haven't taken Bitcoin into self custody. And at some point, it's the only option. That's kind of where I sit today. No, man, let's not give them the benefit of the doubt because they are never going to do anything for you, the user, the citizen, right? If they ever were going to do this, we would have seen this decades ago.

Why would it be any different now considering they're under immediate threat of money that is created to literally put them out of business? In my opinion, things are not going to get better. They're going to get much worse as the threat grows, right? As more people become aware that they have a ticket to freedom.

What they're trying to do now is take advantage of the mass ignorance that's out there to make unsuspecting folks believe that the government needs to give them permission to use something like Bitcoin. That's what I see happening. And of course, most people that understand very little believe this nonsense. Can you imagine you have an open cage and you're waiting for the person who puts you in jail to tell you you can leave? Are you crazy? Are you fucking crazy? It's never going to happen.

But that's what they're doing. At least this is what I see them doing. People need to wake up on their own. What's going to incentivize them to finally register what we're trying to say here is anybody's guess, man. I mean, I left a country where everybody got decimated and the very next day, 99% of these donkeys went back to work as if nothing happened. So am I bullish on human IQ? That depends, you know, on what day you ask me. But generally speaking, based on my experience, no.

All righty, guys, let's move through a couple of these quickly. We've got CPI inflation on track to exceed 5% as early as this year. So we all know that, first of all, the CPI print is one big lie. And second of all, as James Lavish points out, we're looking at 2% as the inflation target. And he retweeted this price increase since the start of the Iran war with all of the basic building blocks of our economy, right?

It's like coal, cotton, diesel, gasoline, jet fuel, heating oil, all of these things up, I mean, massive from 11% to 97%, depending on what you're looking at. So inflation is going through the roof this year. I think we all kind of saw that, but many people maybe are surprised by this or don't really know what's coming. Katie, what's your reaction to all of this? Well, first of all, we all know that CPI is a load of bollocks.

It's not designed for your average person to understand how much purchasing power they're losing. It's a statistic that's used by governments. So, I mean, look, we look at that number of 5%. Let's say CPI goes, or official CPI goes to 5%. We all know as individuals that our cost of living doesn't increase 5%, like after the big print of 2020, 2021, it was all our expenses were up 10%, 15%, 20% at least. We all saw cost of

living soar. So we know this is all a bunch of crap. And then we see the prices of these commodities in some cases going up 50% or even 100%. And like you said, Michael, it's the basic building blocks of our entire society, these commodities.

So if we look at those numbers and we think that inflation is going to be 2% or even 5 that a complete joke And people should see this coming but I afraid they not going to even after we already lived through this five years ago And it's not going to be better this time. It's going to be worse. Anyone who's still projecting 2% as part of their financial planning, I want what they're smoking. I mean, that's insanity that you would ever even imagine that at this point. Tony, you've-

Katie, you're spot on, man. I mean, you know, anyone with common sense would never believe these numbers to begin with. But what I find funny about this one is that even there are unable to lie that much anymore, which is why they bumped it from two to five, right? But anyone who goes into a supermarket knows that it's at least double digits, or maybe, I don't know, 15, 20, maybe even more depending on where you're living. And the sad thing about this is that it's not going to

retract anytime soon. Cost of living is going to continue spiraling out of control because everything is falling apart and there are people responsible for that deterioration in quality of life. So it's not like this thing just happened out of the blue one day. There are people responsible for the fact that you can't afford anything anymore, that you have to work 200 jobs and still not be able to pay your bills. There's real actions people can take to put an end to this.

So the peaceful way is to stop using that dying product and to learn about something that was gifted to the world, which is Bitcoin and self-custody. And the other thing is stop supporting the very people that are stealing from you. Yep, I think you hit the nail on the head. And for context, I think I saw Parker Lewis's ribeye inflation index every few months, every six months or so. He takes a picture of the same ribeye at the same grocery store.

I think what he calculated was inflation is about 11% a year since 2020. I mean, it's skyrocketed. And that's a ribeye. You look at these commodities that we're talking about here. I think we're in for a world of hurt the next 12 to 18 months because it takes time for this to really trickle through the economy. me. Guys, if you're still here, do me a huge favor, like and subscribe. We'd really appreciate

it. Again, stick around to the end. We've got a donkey, many donkeys of the week coming up here soon as well. And some more bad news out of Australia. Unfortunately, it seems like it's

always bad news out of Australia. So they have this crypto travel rule that is taking effect. I think it's July 1st. So Katie, I'll let you give a little bit of background. But the TLDR on this is if you're moving Bitcoin or any crypto asset off of an exchange, you need to be able to prove ownership of the wallet that you're moving it to. Katie, what else? I know you've done some digging on this. What else have you learned about this rule? Yeah. So the travel rule,

it's not unique to Australia. It already exists, for example, in Europe. And what it means is that if you are transferring crypto assets from one exchange to another, of course, there is already personal data attached to that. However, if you are moving your Bitcoin off a regulated exchange and into a self-custody address. They will now require, so by July 1st, so they may already be doing this, some of the Australian exchanges.

So by July 1st, you will have to identify the owner of that address. So whether it's someone else or whether it's you, you will have to attach your personal details to it. There is a bare minimum requirement normally with the details that you have to supply. In the case of Australia, you have to supply your full name. You have to supply, I don't believe your full address, but the location where you live. And although this is the bare minimum, that does not mean

that exchanges are only going to collect that information. So for example, the way that Coinbase has applied the travel rule in Europe, even if you've already done your KYC, when you do your self-custody setup, getting your self-custody address approved, you have to supply, for example, a copy of your ID, a face scan, and you also have to sign the transaction in your wallet to prove that you own it, that you're not just saying it's yours when it is going to go to

someone else. So it's very, very intrusive, I would say. And the concern here is that when these exchanges have all of your data, they, of course, they have to hold it for at least seven years. And of course, they are potentially subject to data breaches, data leaks, where your data can be sold on the dark web. And also, of course, then it can also be sent to AUSTRAC, in the case of Australia, it can be sent to AUSTRAC. And AUSTRAC acts as like a hub for a

whole bunch of different government entities. So, of course, the ATO, ASIO, the Federal Police, etc so whether your data goes there or not is one question but if it does all these different entities and even some international entities will now have access to it so you are trusting that none of these entities are going to suffer a data breach and the chances are in Australia where it's about 15th in the world ranked 15th in the world in terms of the number of data breaches

that occur, then chances are at some point in time, your data is going to be leaked and they are going to know all of your details. Insanity. So I guess my call to action for everyone is, first of all, we're going to have a video coming out on this subject. So truly make sure you're subscribed to the channel. You're going to want to see that. We're going to go into a little bit more detail, but two, click the link below because not only can we help you take self-custody before

the rule takes effect, but you might just want to get the hell out. And we've got a great Plan B residency program, lots of Australians, lots of folks from all over the world, but especially Australia right now, I think they're just fed up and you're going to want to talk to us about that and consider it as a true option for you. Tony, what's your assessment of the situation here in Australia? Yeah, you nailed it, Katie. I mean, this behavior is, we're going to start seeing it,

you know, pretty much everywhere. I mean, this is how, you know, a dying legacy system, you know, desperately tries to remain relevant. And so all of these extreme actions have nothing to do with anyone's protection. They're trying to force you to stay in their own ecosystem. And all of these measures are very poorly thought through and are putting the users, citizens, in potentially very

big danger. Because when the day comes that these databases get hacked or leaked, well, all that info is in the wrong hands and in the hands of people that are very intelligent because they know why they're going after them in the first place. Now, the silver lining to all of this is that as people experience these horrific outcomes of these activities, it's going to push

them to find solutions and workarounds, right? And the number one workaround I think is going to come out of all of this is that folks are going to understand that Bitcoin is money. It's not money that you need the government's permission to use. It's money that you can start adopting on your own right now. And by that, I mean, start earning it. If you have a business, for example, instead of just accepting that local worthless paper, start taking Bitcoin now.

Tons of merchants around the globe are doing it. Big merchants are doing it. You've got the famous examples of Steak and Shake. You've got the Carrefour in Europe, and you've got tons of other big ones now that are moving in that direction. What upsets me the most is that it's the people, Those for whom Bitcoin was created are the ones who know the least about this or who are taking the least amount of actions because either they're scared or they're genuinely uninformed about their options.

And of course, the system goes completely out of its way to keep them uninformed because that's how they're in a perfect position to be abused all day long. So very bad news but very expected from a system whose entire DNA is control and surveillance But the good news is again is that there is an option that 8 billion people can take And no you don need their permission to go that way You just need to learn the steps. And once you've mastered them, you're done. All righty, we've got Elon Musk.

SpaceX has disclosed a holding of 18,712 Bitcoin worth over almost $1.5 billion. So this is a guy who has peddled Doge. He's kind of flip-flopped on Bitcoin. Truly, I don't know what he thinks about Bitcoin, except it seemed the signal seems to be that he has some level of faith in Bitcoin. A billion and a half is a lot to be sitting on. Tony, price isn't even moving, though.

These sorts of disclosures come about and Elon Musk used to say things and share things and it mattered and it doesn't seem to anymore. What do you think is going on with SpaceX here? Well, he's probably owned this Bitcoin from a long time ago. I mean, I don't know when he bought them. I mean, good for him, right? because, you know, people, smart money already know about Bitcoin and what it represents and,

you know, that it's the future of money. So it would be unusual for them not to have Bitcoin. In fact, if we were able to audit everyone who's actually owning big amounts, you're probably seeing names on that list that would mortify you. But, you know, again, that's the trade-off, the freedom, the freedom money. People that you like, dislike, doesn't really matter. It's neutral ground. It's open game for everyone. Big numbers like this in the hands of one person is great for that person.

But the more institutions and big players absorb their limited supply, the less regular folks have at their disposal. And again, Bitcoin was created for 8.3 billion people. It wasn't created to be isolated to a small percentage of the global population. But at this rate, that's exactly what seems to be happening. Katie, are you excited about this? Do you care at all when you hear about billionaires owning Bitcoin? You know, personally, no. You know, Elon Musk, love him or hate him.

The fact that SpaceX is holding Bitcoin should tell us something. Elon Musk is not a silly guy. And when you see big companies like this holding large amounts of Bitcoin, that is telling you something. So yeah, personally, no, but we should be paying attention. The only thing that frustrates me is that I can go to my normie friends and point out the fact that Elon Musk holds a ton of Bitcoin. Public companies like Strategy and all these others hold a ton of Bitcoin.

BlackRock's buying Bitcoin. Everyone's buying Bitcoin. They're like, yeah, it feels speculative to me. And the fact that it doesn't move the needle for so many people is almost disheartening. I know you don't trust me because I'm the crazy Bitcoin conspiracy theorist guy. But what about Larry Fink or Elon Musk? Certainly, you should be paying attention to something that they're doing. And it just doesn't seem to move the needle. But that's kind of my takeaway from all of this.

All righty, guys, I promised you some donkeys of the week, plural.

So it's kind of a lengthy story to share. So I'll try to keep this short. So the TLDR on this is basically the FBI built a token on Ethereum called NextFundAI. And they basically went to all of these market makers. So they were suspicious that Gotbit, there was MyTrade. You've got all of these market makers who they suspected were basically creating fake liquidity and having bots buy and sell and make it look like this token actually had legs.

And so they ran one of these scams through all these market makers, and they did exactly what the FBI suspected they were doing, made fake liquidity, basically designed and architected the pump and dump for the FBI's token. And then a bunch of them got arrested. And so they're the donkeys, all these market makers, the people who got arrested, who were behind this. We suspected it for a long time. And the FBI more or less proved it.

Not entrapment because it was under suspicion that this is what they were doing. But Tony, you've been calling this for a long time, the rug pulls, the pump and dump schemes. I mean, this is par for the course in the crypto world. Man, we've been telling you that the scum of the earth live in the crypto world, right? That these are all, you know, digital scams, they're casinos, you know, designed to dupe the unexpected. And voila, here we go. Another headline that proves

that point. The sad thing about this, man, is that a lot of people are going to continue falling for these scams because they're desperate. People's, you know, financial situations is very, very dire, unfortunately. And so people need immediate fixes. And so they will go to any extreme if they genuinely believe that it might get them out of the rut that they're in. But,

you know, there's no such thing as free money, right? I mean, the roads to riches, you know, it doesn't exist, you know, from putting five bucks and expecting five million, you know, three hours later. It's just like a delusion. But yet a lot of people still believe in that dream because you've got corrupt players like this that keep shilling that nonsense. So sat there, but expected all the same. And I hope a lot of people learn from this and just walk away from that world entirely, man.

It's a very, very dirty world and no one needs to stay in it. Yeah, I would actually point people back to my podcast, my recent episode with James Lavish. We talked about basically people are gambling, right? Whether it's in the stock market, Calci, Polymarket, because they're desperate. And what most people don't recognize is that this is what goes on behind the scenes. I wish I had this pulled up. There was a statistic about Polymarket.

Suspected insider accounts are like 15% of the volume or something like that. Basically, if you're in the US military and you know that there's going to be military action, these guys are going in and betting on it and making tons of money. And we're just a bunch of people without any... It's a big club and we're not in it. And so the people who go out gambling don't understand that behind the scenes are these market makers. There's manipulation. There are insiders.

And that's really how it works. So just build your skill set and learn to provide value to the world. That's how you should be earning your money and try to earn it in Bitcoin if you can. But Katie, what do you think about all this? Well, we have multiple layers of donkeys here. I mean, you've got the guys, the market makers who jumped all over this in the hopes of making a quick buck and instead ended up in handcuffs.

And then unfortunately, you've got the people who believed right at the bottom of the chain. You've got the people who believe that this was a genuine project and actually invested their money into it. I mean, and that's kind of sad. You know, it's like a casino, but it's actually worse than a casino.

know it's kind of a sad story at the end of the day when you've got people investing money into a coin that was actually invented by the fbi in order to entrap these criminals honestly it's sad i mean it's i'm glad to see that there's going to be justice served for some of these criminals but it's sad the number of people who get pulled into all this stuff but the thing is guys there's no refund day for the real people who lost real money yes i don't think they're getting anything back

I'd be shocked. I'd be shocked. Yeah, no, I think you're right, Tony. Well, guys, I think that's a good place to wrap up. For everyone who tuned in, if you're still here, you must have liked it. So make sure you like the video, subscribe to the channel. We'd appreciate that. Do me another favor, though. Click the link below. Schedule a call with our team. We can help you with self-custody. Like I said, Plan B residency.

Also, we talked a little bit about data breaches being very prevalent in Australia in particular, but really all over the world. We've got personal cybersecurity services as well. And then the last thing I'll add is we have an awesome newsletter.

click the link below subscribe to the newsletter it's fantastic comes out every sunday you will learn and you will laugh we've got tons of great memes in there uh but i think that's all i've got for everyone today tony thank you for joining as always katie you kind of came on last minute really appreciate you being here we had someone who needed to run because of personal uh matters but really appreciate it and we'll be back again next week thanks guys great energy thanks cheers Thank you.