Bitcoin University
Bitcoin University is an educational channel devoted to Bitcoin, financial freedom, and self-sovereignty. Matthew also covers relevant macro and financial news.
Bitcoin University is an educational channel devoted to Bitcoin, financial freedom, and self-sovereignty. Matthew also covers relevant macro and financial news.
Billionaire Michael Saylor recently reposted a tweet by billionaire Michael Dell, who himself is highlighting an interview with another billionaire, Larry Fink of BlackRock, who happens to run the world’s largest and most important asset manager.
All three billionaires are laser-focused on Bitcoin.
Maybe your drunken uncle, who rants about Bitcoin being a scam every Thanksgiving, should start paying attention soon?
Michael Dell has a net worth of +$100B, and there’s some evidence that people like him have been quietly accumulating Bitcoin for years.
There is some evidence people like Michael Dell have been quietly accumulating Bitcoin for years. As early as July 2014, Dell announced Dell computers had begun to accept Bitcoin. I hadn’t realized this.
Other than this, I can’t find any public announcements that he’s accumulated Bitcoin, but it’s extremely likely.
Larry Fink’s careful sales pitch in this CNBC interview, which Michael Dell has retweeted, makes some interesting points I want to highlight. This is a sales pitch for many people and why they should be interested in Bitcoin, particularly the BlackRock Bitcoin Spot ETF.
In this interview with CNBC, Larry Fink says:
“Bitcoin is a legitimate financial instrument that allows you to have maybe uncorrelated or non-correlated returns.”
It is essential to hear this from his lips. You and I don’t need to listen to it at this stage, but this legitimizes Bitcoin for many people.
Calling Bitcoin a “legitimate financial instrument” gives Larry Fink the blessing to RIA’s and other financial planners to safely recommend Bitcoin to clients.
They can always say, “Larry Fink says it’s okay,” and so it is okay.
He also alludes to the fact that Bitcoin offers uncorrelated or non-correlated returns. Assets with returns uncorrelated to traditional assets like stocks and bonds are the Holy Grail for portfolio diversification.
You want things that zig while the rest of your portfolio is zagging.
This is no longer a concern. Still, it’s hard to overemphasize its importance in portfolio construction.
Larry here is saying the magical words: uncorrelated and non-correlated.
In reality, Bitcoin has gone through periods where it’s more correlated with equities and periods where it’s less correlated with equities. Central bank money printing has a way of pumping most assets denominated in the currency that’s being printed.
So, you have a tendency for real estate, stocks, bonds, and everything to pump at once, including Bitcoin.
However, depending on how you measure it, we still have various correlation periods. The real point here is that Larry Fink is saying the magic words, as we noted: uncorrelated and non-correlated, even if he hedges his statement with a weasel word like “maybe” to give him legal cover in case it’s not always uncorrelated.
Larry Fink says Bitcoin is an instrument you invest in when you’re more frightened. It’s an instrument for when you believe that countries are debasing their currency by excess deficits, and some countries are. The way he says this, you can tell he’s talking about the U.S. He hints at U.S. deficits being monetized by Fed money printing, where the U.S. government is not bringing in enough taxes, so it needs to issue bonds.
At the margin, those bonds are being bought by the central bank, put on the central bank’s balance sheet, and bought with freshly printed money. This is what it means to debase the currency through excess deficit spending and the debt issuance and money printing that follows in the wake.
Larry Fink says:
“It is an instrument that you invest in when you’re more frightened, though… [I]t is an instrument when you believe that countries are debasing their currency by excess deficits — some countries are.” (Hints at U.S. deficits being monetized by Fed money printing.”
Fink continues:
“I believe we have countries where you’re frightened of your everyday existence and [Bitcoin] is an opportunity to invest in something outside of your country’s control.”
I think this was an interesting statement, but I would say that owning a Bitcoin IOU like the BlackRock Spot ETF, (like Larry Fink does) where the real Bitcoin is stored at Coinbase custody under U.S. jurisdiction and regulation, is probably not the smartest thing you can do if you’re worried about evil governments.
We’re really at ground zero here when it comes to evil governments.
That being said, it is an opportunity to own an asset if you own the real thing outside your country’s control.
Fink says:
“If you want to hedge hope, Bitcoin is not an instrument for hope unless you’re hopeful you’re going to make a lot of money on it.”
This shows that Larry Fink has yet to go that deeply down the Bitcoin rabbit hole. He is obviously still valuing his wealth in fiat and other people’s wealth in fiat.
Bitcoin is not just a way to make a lot of money, though it can be that, too. Bitcoin really is the end goal. It is the money you’ll want to have forever, so accumulating a lot of money means accumulating a lot of Bitcoin.
No matter what price you pay for it, you should value your wealth in Bitcoin, not fiat.
One of the goals that I set myself at the outset of the last bear market was to end up with more Bitcoin at the end than I had at the beginning, not even worrying about the fiat value of that Bitcoin.
This is an important way to approach Bitcoin accumulation: value your wealth in Bitcoin, not in fiat.
If you want to hedge hope, Larry Fink says:
"If you want to hedge hope, Bitcoin is not an instrument for hope unless you’re hopeful you’re going to make a lot of money on it.”
This is obviously not true.
We have Michael Saylor’s wonderful website hope.com. A great resource.
Bitcoin is HOPE:
for the global unbanked.
for people who live in weak fiat currency systems and who would not otherwise be able to store their economic energy for the long term.
for activists who work under totalitarian regimes that have tried to cut off all funding to them.
… and, for you and me.
Bitcoin turns the black pill into a white pill for those living through the Fourth Turning. It allows many of us to opt-out and not follow things like politics as closely as we used to.
Bitcoin has become our politics.
Bitcoin came on the scene in 2008 and 2009, just as the Fed began to embark on endless money printing, and the wheels started to come off the U.S. political system and American global geopolitical dominance.
Bitcoin is HOPE now for 8 billion humans and their progeny.
But if you want to experience the purest form of that hope, don’t buy the BlackRock ETF or any other spot ETF or futures ETF.
Buy real Bitcoin and learn to hold your private keys in a ColdCard or Blockstream Jade hardware wallet. Learn how to run your own node as well. This is how you’ll get the fullest expression of the hope that Bitcoin offers humanity.
Bitcoin University is an educational channel devoted to Bitcoin, financial freedom, and self-sovereignty. Matthew also covers relevant macro and financial news.
Learn more at: https://www.bitcoinuniversity.com/
Follow him on Twitter: @mattkratter
Join Bitcoin University: https://www.bitcoinuniversity.com/join
Matthew Kratter is the founder of Bitcoin University YouTube channel, which currently has over 235,000 subscribers.
Before going down the Bitcoin rabbit hole, he founded and ran Trader University, focusing on trading and investment strategies for stocks, options, and futures. Given his hedge fund background and decades of trading experience, Matthew provides a unique perspective.
In late 2019, after finally recognizing Bitcoin’s importance, he began liquidating his stocks and other investments and moving his savings into Bitcoin.
Now, Matthew is all in on Bitcoin, devoting the majority of my time to producing Bitcoin educational content on YouTube and on this site.
In his free time, he enjoys skiing and hiking in the Rockies with his wife, kids, and dogs.
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