Why is bitcoin down today? (8/14/25)

00:01 Why is Bitcoin down today? Well, the
00:04 primary reason seems to be that the
00:06 Treasury sec secretary, uh, Scott Basset
00:09 went on, I guess, CNBC or someplace and
00:12 said that he made an off-hand comment
00:15 about the United States not buying more
00:18 Bitcoin for the strategic Bitcoin
00:20 reserve. So, so what? So, what um,
00:25 here’s how I think about that. First of
00:27 all, the thesis of Bitcoin was never buy
00:30 it because the US government’s going to
00:32 buy some and pump your bags. That was
00:35 never the thesis of Bitcoin. The thesis
00:37 of Bitcoin is that it’s the world’s best
00:39 money and people need money and
00:42 therefore will eventually gravitate
00:45 toward a money that preserves their
00:47 value better than anything else. A money
00:49 that they can store and hold in their
00:51 own possession that is unconfiscable.
00:54 uh money that they can walk use and walk
00:56 across a border without having it
00:58 confiscated like gold with a metal
01:00 detector or confiscated by thugs at the
01:04 border of a third world country or
01:06 something like that. The power of
01:08 Bitcoin is the fact that no one controls
01:10 it. The fact that it’s amazing, the fact
01:12 that it’s uh you can transfer a you know
01:15 unlimited amount of value to the other
01:17 side of the world in 10 minutes and
01:19 absolutely no one can stop you. the fact
01:22 that you can preserve your purchasing
01:23 power and if you own one Bitcoin, you
01:26 own 121 millionth of all the Bitcoin
01:29 that will ever exist because there will
01:30 never be more than 21 million Bitcoin
01:32 ever in existence ever in the future of
01:35 humanity. So if you own one Bitcoin, you
01:38 have 121 millionth of that purchasing
01:40 power of everything that Bitcoin could
01:42 ever buy. And if you own half a Bitcoin,
01:45 you have 142 millionth of that. If you
01:48 own 0.1 Bitcoin, you have 1 210
01:52 millionth of all the purchasing power.
01:54 With the US dollar, you don’t. With the
01:56 US dollar, if you own $1, you have 122
01:60 trillionth, not millionth or billionth
02:03 trillionth, you have 122 trillionth of
02:06 the purchasing power. And they keep
02:08 making more dollars. So that number,
02:10 that 22 trillion keeps going up and up
02:12 and up and up. And so, you know, that
02:15 number can go up to infinity. So the
02:18 people who need Bitcoin are people who
02:20 are not sitting on a magic money printer
02:24 and need a way of preserving their
02:25 purchasing power in a way that the
02:27 government is not constantly diluting
02:30 and inflating away your purchasing
02:32 power. And for example uh inflation just
02:35 came in hot which me means whatever
02:37 dollars you have that you are storing in
02:40 US dollars uh are now becoming less and
02:43 less valuable meaning you need Bitcoin.
02:46 So, the people who need Bitcoin are the
02:48 people that are the farthest away from
02:50 the magic money printer, not the people
02:52 who are literally sitting on it. So,
02:54 let’s go in order. Who who needs Bitcoin
02:56 the most? The people who need Bitcoin
02:58 the most are average people who have a
03:01 net worth below a million dollar. Why do
03:04 I say below $1 million? Because if your
03:07 net worth is more than $1 million,
03:10 excluding your house, you’re not allowed
03:12 uh for investing in the United States,
03:14 you’re not allowed to count the value or
03:15 equity in your house in your net worth.
03:18 So, you have to have a $1 million net
03:20 worth to invest in anything uh that is
03:23 not publicly traded on the stock market
03:25 or obviously you can buy real estate and
03:27 stuff like that. So, if you have a net
03:29 worth of more than $1 million, you can
03:31 invest in private companies, you can
03:33 invest in deals that are not yet public.
03:35 The average person can’t do that. The
03:36 average person in America does not have
03:38 a net worth of above a million dollars
03:41 excluding their house. So those people
03:43 need Bitcoin more. The next people who
03:46 need Bitcoin more are small businesses
03:48 who have a cash reserve and they need
03:49 some way of you know preserving the
03:52 purchasing power of their cash. Um the
03:55 next people are bigger businesses than
03:57 you know even wealthier people who need
03:60 a way of preserving purchasing power
04:01 over time. the the people who need
04:04 Bitcoin the least are the Peter people
04:07 who are literally sitting on a magic
04:08 money printer which is the federal
04:11 government in the United States. Now why
04:13 is that? Because people are like oh but
04:15 you know they’re not going to buy
04:16 Bitcoin. It’s like seriously they have
04:18 the ability to print out of TW uh of
04:21 thin air trillions of dollars of US
04:24 dollars um their whim and you think
04:28 they’re worried about whether they buy a
04:30 little bit more Bitcoin now or later?
04:32 They currently own uh Scott Basset said
04:34 somewhere between 15 and 20 billion
04:36 dollars of Bitcoin and the US
04:38 government’s Bitcoin is primarily uh was
04:41 confiscated from the Silk Road back in
04:44 2014, which was a uh you know a website
04:48 that was uh offering uh nonviolent but
04:51 illegal illegal stuff. Uh anyway, and
04:55 Ross Albert uh the person who started it
04:57 was pardoned by Donald Trump earlier
04:59 this year. So he is now out of prison.
05:01 Uh but anyway, the the Bitcoin that the
05:04 US government owes was confiscated from
05:06 that website. And so the US government’s
05:08 been selling a bunch of it, but prior to
05:10 Donald Trump, now they are not selling
05:12 any of it. And Scott Bent confirmed that
05:14 they are not selling any of the Bitcoin
05:16 they have. But he made an off-hand
05:18 comment about how they’re not buying
05:19 more of it. Now that doesn’t mean
05:20 they’re never buying more Bitcoin, but
05:23 think about this. Let’s assume the
05:24 government has $20 billion of Bitcoin.
05:27 If they want $20 billion more Bitcoin,
05:29 they can buy it today. They can buy it
05:31 tomorrow. They can buy it a year from
05:32 now. They can buy it five years from
05:33 now. Because anytime they want more
05:35 Bitcoin, they can print US dollars out
05:37 of thin air and buy more Bitcoin with
05:39 it. Now, if you own US dollars, you’re
05:42 screwed because the dollars they’re
05:44 printing out of thin air are diluting
05:46 your purchasing power. But if you’re
05:47 sitting on the Bitcoin, then whenever
05:49 the US government gets around to buying
05:52 Bitcoin, the price of Bitcoin shoots up.
05:55 So again, who cares if they’re buying it
05:57 now? Who cares if they’re buying it
05:58 later? The the thesis of Bitcoin was
06:01 never built on the fact that the US
06:03 government’s going to buy it. Now, this
06:04 is similar. The seven highest performing
06:06 companies uh on the stock market right
06:08 now are called the Magnificent Seven,
06:10 which is Amazon, Apple, Google,
06:12 Facebook,
06:14 uh Nvidia, Microsoft,
06:18 and Tesla, I believe. I think that’s the
06:21 seven. I think I got them all right.
06:22 Anyway, you should never buy any of
06:25 those based on one thing they might do.
06:28 So, if you’re if you’re buying Amazon
06:30 and you’re like, I’m buying Amazon
06:32 because I think they’re about to partner
06:33 with Microsoft. And then you find out,
06:35 oh no, they’re not going to partner with
06:37 Microsoft. And you’re like, oh no, now
06:39 it’s time to sell the stock. That is
06:41 stupid investing. You should never
06:43 invest in something based on the pro
06:46 possibility that one thing might happen
06:49 that is controlled by a small number of
06:50 people or one person and that’s it. Like
06:53 that’s a stupid way of investing. You
06:55 should invest in Amazon because over
06:57 time you think the world will buy more
06:60 stuff online and that you think Amazon
07:02 will do a better job at winning that
07:05 business than other companies. You
07:07 should invest in Microsoft because you
07:08 think software is a big deal and
07:10 Microsoft is good at it and will be good
07:12 at it for a long time. You should invest
07:13 in Tesla because you think electric
07:15 vehicles are amazing, which they are,
07:18 and you think Elon Musk will continue to
07:19 run circles around everyone with
07:21 electric vehicles, robotics,
07:23 self-driving technology for decades to
07:25 come. That’s why you invest in Tesla,
07:27 not because they might or might not
07:30 invest your or announce some partnership
07:32 or they might or might not buy Bitcoin
07:35 or they might or might not do any of
07:37 those things. Same with Nvidia, same
07:38 with Facebook, same with any of those.
07:40 So long-term, who cares if the
07:43 government buys Bitcoin and doesn’t buy
07:44 Bitcoin? Now, I’ve done a video before,
07:46 probably from, I don’t know, six months
07:47 ago, talking about the fact that on
07:50 balance, between the US government
07:52 buying more Bitcoin and not buying more
07:54 Bitcoin. Well, let me back up. On
07:56 balance, I definitely prefer the US
07:59 government have a strategic Bitcoin
08:00 reserve, I would rather they view
08:02 Bitcoin as a strategic asset like I do
08:05 in add rather than trying to fight it.
08:07 So, I think the fact that there is a
08:09 strategic Bitcoin reserve is a good
08:11 thing because it means they’re not going
08:12 to dump the Bitcoin they have and it
08:14 means that they are sort of they got
08:16 some skin in the game. They’re on the
08:17 same page. With regard to acquiring more
08:19 Bitcoin, yeah, I guess slightly on
08:22 average, I would prefer they buy more
08:23 Bitcoin because again, it reaffirms that
08:25 it’s a strategic asset. It would likely
08:27 set off a race by other countries uh to
08:30 buy more Bitcoin. But you got to realize
08:32 90% of the world owns zero Bitcoin. So
08:35 if the US government starts buying
08:36 Bitcoin right now, then n the price goes
08:40 way up and as soon as the price goes way
08:42 up in Bitcoin right now, that means 90
08:44 more than somewhere between 90% and 95%
08:47 of the world gets left behind because
08:49 somewhere between 90 and 95% of the
08:51 world owns zero Bitcoin. And the vast
08:54 majority of people who own any Bitcoin
08:56 in the world right now own such a small
08:58 percentage of it as a percentage of
09:00 their net worth that it’s irrelevant.
09:03 So, even if you answer a survey by
09:05 saying, “Yes, I owe Bitcoin and your
09:07 total net worth is $10 or $20,000, but
09:10 you own $200 of Bitcoin,” does it really
09:13 matter if your $200 of Bitcoin goes to
09:15 400, $800, or $1,000 of Bitcoin? It
09:18 doesn’t really matter in the grand
09:19 scheme if that’s a tiny tiny tiny part
09:22 of your total assets. So, in a lot of
09:25 ways, it’s better. the long the longer
09:27 it takes for the US government to buy
09:28 Bitcoin, the more time for the masses to
09:31 adopt Bitcoin and the more of the
09:33 Bitcoin that ends up in the hands of
09:35 average people instead of the people,
09:37 you know, the fat cats in Washington DC
09:39 sitting on their big magic Federal
09:41 Reserve money printer. Uh, so anyway, do
09:43 I care if the US government buys
09:45 Bitcoin? Not really. What I do care
09:47 about is does Bitcoin continue to be the
09:50 best money in the world and is it
09:52 superior to any other money and will it
09:54 continue to be so for hundreds or
09:56 thousands of years into the future? And
09:58 the answer on that is yes. That is what
10:00 Bitcoin is doing. And today, literally
10:02 today, the same time um Scott Bent is,
10:05 you know, on CNBC announcing that
10:07 they’re not buying more Bitcoin right
10:09 now. Um, Jack Dorsey’s company Block,
10:12 which uh makes the Bit Key hardware
10:14 wallet, which is by far the best uh way
10:16 to secure your Bitcoin in out of the
10:18 hands of hackers and scammers, they are
10:20 announcing a new Bitcoin mining stuff,
10:23 which does not apply to you or me, but
10:24 for people that are in the Bitcoin
10:26 mining industry, which is a very tough
10:27 industry. You should not invest in it.
10:29 You should not get involved in it. It is
10:31 a tough industry to make any money in.
10:34 There’s a bunch of people who who do
10:36 that professionally with massive Bitcoin
10:38 mining facilities all over Texas and all
10:40 over the world. They announced brand new
10:42 Bitcoin mining hardware, brand new
10:44 software, brand new everything like
10:46 literally today, like an hour ago. And
10:49 it’s amazing. The stuff they’re doing is
10:50 incredible and it’ll be transformative
10:52 to further decentralized Bitcoin mining.
10:55 So, is the Bitcoin network better today
10:57 than yesterday? Yes. the announcements
10:60 today out of Block um uh the company
11:03 that that makes all this and makes the
11:05 Bitkey device and all of that are
11:07 incredible and will make the Bitcoin you
11:09 know network more secure and more
11:11 decentralized and better for everyone.
11:13 So that’s a huge deal and that’s
11:14 happening like right now. Um so more
11:19 wonderful amazing things are happening
11:20 in Bitcoin than not and in the grand
11:23 scheme who cares if it takes the
11:24 government longer to buy some. Everybody
11:26 gets Bitcoin at the price they deserve,
11:27 but apparently the US government
11:29 deserves a much higher price than today.
11:31 So anyway, my advice, which is not
11:33 financial or investment advice, but my
11:36 advice as a friend, uh, you know, is the
11:38 same as always, which is buy as much
11:39 Bitcoin as you can, sit on it for as
11:41 long as conceivably possible. And if you
11:43 were worried that Bitcoin was 123,000 a
11:46 coin, and you’re like, “Dang it, I
11:47 should have bought it at 118.” Guess
11:49 what? You can buy it at 118 right now.
11:51 Right now. 118,000 just for you right
11:54 now. And guess what? That little dip, it
11:57 washed out a bunch of stupid people
11:58 using uh leverage, borrowed money, and a
12:01 bunch of insanity. So great, those
12:03 people got washed out. They got
12:04 liquidated. They lost their investment.
12:06 And now the Bitcoin network uh has a
12:09 greater ability to climb higher without
12:11 a bunch of leverage in it. And the more
12:13 the more the more the price is supported
12:15 by a bunch of leveraged money uh and
12:18 people that could get liquidated, the
12:20 harder the price corrections come when
12:22 they do come, which they always come at
12:23 some point. you you take these little,
12:25 you know, or medium-sized corrections
12:27 along the way. But a lot of those people
12:28 got washed out because they were
12:30 anticipating uh the price would never go
12:32 back down after it hit a new all-time
12:34 high. Who knows? Nobody knows. Which is
12:36 why you don’t use borrowed money to buy
12:38 Bitcoin. Certainly not borrowed money
12:39 that is uh leveraged against an asset
12:42 that can get liquidated like borrowing.
12:43 And what these people were doing who all
12:45 got wiped out in the last 24 hours was
12:47 they were borrowing against their
12:48 Bitcoin to buy more Bitcoin and then
12:50 they got wiped out and lost their
12:52 investment. Uh that’s why you shouldn’t
12:54 do that. Um I’ve done a whole video
12:56 about uh whether it makes sense to, you
12:58 know, finance a vehicle or a house and
13:01 buy money, you know, buy Bitcoin instead
13:03 and then pay the house or the vehicle
13:05 off slowly. I’m sitting in a 2026 Tesla
13:08 Model Y that I financed at 6% with
13:10 Trustmark Bank. Um because I didn’t want
13:13 to sell most of a Bitcoin to buy it with
13:16 cash, uh which is what I otherwise would
13:18 have done. And my my car payments keep
13:20 getting cheaper. I did this when Bitcoin
13:22 was at 85,000 a coin and my last car
13:26 payment last month was 118,000 a coin
13:28 and this, you know, the one coming up in
13:30 about a week or so, you know, will
13:32 probably be higher than 118,000 a coin.
13:34 Um, so that’s a steep steep steep
13:36 discount on that car payment of what it
13:38 would have been when if I had locked in
13:40 the Bitcoin price at 85 instead of 118.
13:43 Um, but again, that’s not the sort of
13:44 leverage that gets you in trouble the
13:46 same way. it’s borrowing against your
13:48 Bitcoin to buy more Bitcoin and then the
13:50 price dips a tiny amount and especially
13:51 if you’re using leverage of like uh 40x
13:54 which a lot of people were uh over the
13:56 last few days a lot of people were
13:57 buying Bitcoin with 40x leverage that
13:59 means they’re trying to get 40 times the
14:01 return but that also means if the price
14:03 moves against you by 2 and a half% uh
14:06 that you lose all your investment and so
14:08 that’s what happened the price was at
14:09 123 they were betting 40 to1 that it
14:12 would keep going up it only had to go
14:14 down 2.5% to get wiped out and they got
14:17 liquidated because they were stupid and
14:19 you shouldn’t do that. And thankfully
14:20 it’s you kind of can’t do that in the
14:22 United States. The people who are doing
14:23 that are almost all on, you know, weird
14:25 offshore exchanges and stuff like that.
14:27 So anyway, everything is amazing in
14:29 Bitcoin land. Who cares if the US
14:31 government uses their magic printer to
14:33 buy Bitcoin today or tomorrow? What
14:35 matters is is Bitcoin scarce? Yes. Is it
14:38 divisible, durable, portable,
14:39 verifiable, authenticable? Is it all of
14:41 the things that make a great money? And
14:43 is adoption marching on? marching on
14:46 worldwide every day and Bitcoin is doing
14:49 that in spades. So, all is good in
14:53 Bitcoin land and now you have an
14:54 opportunity to buy more Bitcoin at
14:56 118,000 if you want to. I think you
14:59 should. Have a great day everyone.
15:00 Thanks.