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2024 was one of the biggest years for
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Bitcoin yet and I'm here to tell you
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what happened why it's important and
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where we're going let's get started
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first up we have institutional adoption
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Bitcoin started the year around $40,000
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we had the approval of the Bitcoin ETF
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the long awaited new type of investment
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fund now all of a sudden Capital poured
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in and Bitcoin went from $40,000 to
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almost $70,000 and a brand new all-time
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high that's right Wall Street pushed us
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to a brand new all-time high for the
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first time in a number of years now the
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reason why that's important is because
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Bitcoin eventually hit $100,000 for the
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first time in 2024 and those ETFs and
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the institutional adoption were a really
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big piece of the story Bitcoin
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ultimately went as high as
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$108,000 and today is trading just under
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$100,000 again these institutions came
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in for a number of different reasons
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first up is they had a brand new way to
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access the market most institutions
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weren't going to go and open a coinbase
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or a binance account and go buy Spot
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Bitcoin but with the ETFs we were able
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to take Bitcoin and put it into a
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wrapper that they understood and then
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that Capital started to pour in secondly
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a lot of Institutions really understand
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how the traditional Financial system
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works and they realize that the dollar
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continues to be devalued the national
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debt explodes higher and there are
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serious issues in terms of protecting
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your economic value in that Legacy
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system Bitcoin just like gold happens to
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protect your purchasing power in a way
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that other assets haven't been able to
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and so so these incredibly smart
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sophisticated and Wealthy investors they
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are looking for an asset to protect
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their purchasing power just like the
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average retail investor as well and then
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third is that the institutions realized
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that they can make money and any time
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that incentives align Wall Street is
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going to capitalize and so with the ETFs
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being approved these institutions put
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these ETFs through their distribution
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their sales teams went to work they
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started running TV ads and digital ads
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and they started to do educational
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content the whole l idea was that Wall
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Street was going to take this invention
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from the internet and the digital age
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and it was going to bring it into that
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Legacy system nobody does distribution
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like Fidelity and black rock and
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Franklin Templeton and many others when
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the big machine of Wall Street decides
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that something's going to become popular
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there's no slowing them down so you can
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look at this chart right here let's look
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at Black Rock they have over $50 billion
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in a in their Bitcoin ETF and you can
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see that that happened at an incredible
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speed compared to their gold ETF it has
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taken 20 years for the gold ETF to get
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to $33 billion in assets bitcoin's ETF
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blew by it like a Ferrari in the fast
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lane passing a Toyota Camry in the slow
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lane that is the beauty of Bitcoin
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Bitcoin is digital gold with wings and
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the more that Wall Street sees charts
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like this the more they're going to lean
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in the more they lean in with their
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capital and their distribution the
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higher the price of Bitcoin will go and
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it becomes this big reflexive Circle
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another type of institutional player in
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the Bitcoin Market this year was nation
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states we know that El Salvador and
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Bhutan they've already been buying
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Bitcoin mining Bitcoin and generally
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just putting Bitcoin on their balance
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sheet El Salvador now has more than
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6,000 Bitcoin on their balance sheet but
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we also know that many other countries
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are starting to participate as well
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there's countries in the Middle East
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that have joint ventures with publicly
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traded us mining businesses we've seen
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Russia come out and say that they're
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mining Bitcoin and they're using Bitcoin
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for certain transactions because they
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can't be censored and then are rumors of
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many other countries around the world
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that are either buying Bitcoin and not
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announcing it or also using State energy
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to mine Bitcoin as well Bitcoin is good
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for countries if it's good for
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institutions and for individuals and
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that is a big theme of
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2024 institutions obviously have a lot
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of money but no one has as much money as
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nation states then if we go and we look
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at a third type of institution that's
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the publicly traded companies Michael
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sailor and micro strategy now have over
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440,000 Bitcoin on their balance sheet
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they have pioneered Bitcoin on their
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balance sheet as a Playbook there are a
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number of fast followers who have moved
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very quickly to become popular companies
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as well using the same strategy we can
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look at metap Planet in Japan it's the
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number one best performing stock in
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Japan this year it's the most heavily
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traded stock in Japan this year and they
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simply took Bitcoin put it on its
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balance sheet and remained laser focused
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on buying up more and more Bitcoin this
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strategy works and we're seeing
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companies copy it all over the world you
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can see companies like similar
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scientific or defi Technologies and many
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others put Bitcoin or other assets on
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their balance sheet and that continues
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to be a great strategy heading into 2025
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and then that leaves the publicly traded
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miners many of these companies over the
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years mined Bitcoin sold it for cash and
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they just were trying to drive revenue
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and profit to get their stock price to
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continue to grow but now these miners
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realize that holding Bitcoin is a
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superpower and so we can see that
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Marathon has over 44,000 Bitcoin Riot
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has over 177,000 Bitcoin and Hut 8 has
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over 10,000 Bitcoin on their balance
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sheet these companies obviously are able
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to drive revenue and profit through the
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mining activities or through the AI data
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centers but holding Bitcoin on their
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balance sheet has driven a significant
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amount of value for these businesses and
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so whether you are a traditional
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financial institution you're a country
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you're a publicly traded company or
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you're a publicly traded minor Bitcoin
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has now entered into the institutional
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game and the price of Bitcoin was a big
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winner because of it institutions aren't
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the only story of 2024 though
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we know that Bitcoin has been a Bottoms
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Up adoption story it was the people who
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first bought Bitcoin but there's a
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couple of data points that I think are
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pretty eye openening specifically in the
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United States it was estimated in 2023
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that 30% of Americans own crypto today
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in 2024 that number is estimated to be
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40% so a significant onethird increase
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the number of Americans which equates to
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over 90 million people in our country
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that own these assets but more
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importantly the number of of women that
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own these assets has significantly
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increased as well we have seen the jump
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from about 18% to 30% of women in
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America meaning one out of every three
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women they actually own crypto as well
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this is a trend that is not slowing down
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and if you extrapolated out globally it
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is now estimated that more than 550
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million people globally own Bitcoin or
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cryptocurrencies and so my guess is that
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we will only continue to see that number
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go higher and higher and higher at one
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point we are going to cross over 1
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billion users of this technology I don't
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know if that'll happen in 2025 but we
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are definitely on the path to 1 billion
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users if we know that institutions are
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adopting Bitcoin and driving the price
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higher and we know that retail is also
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increasing their ownership it then
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brings us to the point that retail also
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is refusing to sell based on the latest
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numbers one out of every two Bitcoin
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that is in circulation has not moved in
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the last 2 years that means that when
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Bitcoin was down around
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$17,000 all the way up to over
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$100,000 50% or more of the Bitcoin in
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circulation nobody sold that is because
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Bitcoin takes people who come in for
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speculation people who want to get rich
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with Bitcoin and it converts them to
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long-term Str strong holders of the
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asset this is the type of thing that is
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needed for an asset with a finite Supply
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to continue to appreciate in price but
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it is also the thing that drives word of
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mouth and one of the big stories of 2024
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is that word of mouth had a big comeback
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obviously individuals who held Bitcoin
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and saw their portfolios increasing in
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price they started to talk about it to
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their family their friends their Barber
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their taxi driver or anyone who would
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listen but also the mainstream media
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began to talk about Bitcoin in a way
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that they previously had it it no longer
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was Bitcoin is this thing that's not
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going to work Bitcoin is a thing as a
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punching bag that we should talk about
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and talk down to instead Bitcoin has now
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entered the main stream it's hard to
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argue against Bitcoin when Stanley dren
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Miller Paul tutor Jones Larry Fink Black
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Rock Fidelity Franklin Teton many others
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are all embracing Bitcoin and so the
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mainstream media flipped from being
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bearish to bullish they now have a
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cautious optimism in Bitcoin that more
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positive coverage has led to even more
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word of mouth as more word of mouth
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spreads more people see the media
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talking about it more Capital comes into
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the system as more Capital comes into a
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finite Supply asset the price continues
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to go higher that is the fly wheel of
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Bitcoin a decentralized asset that has
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no CEO no board of directors no
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marketing team and no marketing budget
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the beauty of this thing is that no one
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controls it but everyone is involved
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which brings me to my last point which
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is not only did the institutions and
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Retail adopt Bitcoin but we also saw the
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political Arena finally embrace the
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conference in Nashville he said that I
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will protect Bitcoin I will protect your
00:09:54
right to self- custody of Bitcoin and I
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will make sure that Bitcoin succeeds he
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is also talked about a national
00:10:00
strategic Reserve where the United
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States would hold the 200,000 Bitcoin
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that we currently own and would commit
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to not selling it but also that the
00:10:07
United States would start to buy Bitcoin
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once he assumes office in January we
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will see whether that campaign promise
00:10:14
becomes reality or not on top of Donald
00:10:17
Trump running as a pro Bitcoin candidate
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and receiving immense support from the
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industry Donald Trump has now appointed
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two different people who I think are
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worth paying attention to the first is
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Paul Atkins who will be the new SEC
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chairman as long as as he is approved
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Paul Atkins is very friendly to bitcoin
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and cryptocurrency he has an
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understanding of the technology of the
00:10:36
market and has a thought that the United
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States should be a leader and therefore
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the regulatory body should not be as
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abrasive as it has been in the past on
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top of that David saxs somebody who I've
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interviewed somebody who owns Bitcoin
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and has talked very fondly of Bitcoin he
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is the incoming Ai and crypto Zar he'll
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be working to make sure that there's
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policy and regulation that is created
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that is thoughtful that is helpful to
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the United States being a leader in both
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of those categories and then as a bonus
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there is actually a third person his
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name is Bo Hines and he's coming in as
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the crypto person he's going to lead
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policy on that front as well between
00:11:09
Paul David and Bo I think that Donald
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Trump has assembled a team that is going
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to be friendly to bitcoin and
00:11:15
cryptocurrencies it's going to help the
00:11:17
United States continue to extend their
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leadership and it likely will cement the
00:11:21
Bitcoin strategic reserve the United
00:11:23
States has the opportunity to lead and
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if the United States wants to be a
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leader in capital markets if they want
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to be a leader in finance then they have
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to embrace Bitcoin and so if you have
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institutions retail and countries all
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embracing Bitcoin that is likely a very
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strong long-term Tailwind now what
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happens in 2025 is anyone's guess it
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looks like the price will go higher but
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nobody knows we had the having in 2024
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which obviously created a supply shock
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we've now had a demand shock coming from
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those institutions the ETFs retail and
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the political Arena but now we also see
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the Federal Reserve cutting interest r
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rates and the expansion of global M2 all
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of that is a Tailwind for Bitcoin and so
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2025 likely will be friendly towards the
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asset will there be another crash will
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the four-year cycle continue I have no
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clue but what I do know is that every
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day more and more people around the
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world become bitcoiners 2024 was a great
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year and 2025 likely will be a better
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year because at the end of the day what
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we are watching is the global adoption
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of a decentralized digital peer-to-peer
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system
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that asset is being repriced by the
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global market what is it worth what is
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an asset that is backed by the strongest
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Computing Network in the world actually
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valued at we don't know what the future
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holds but the world is trying to figure
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it out and so far they think that the
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asset is worth at least $100,000 per
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Bitcoin my guess is that over time that
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price will be higher and the people who
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hold Bitcoin who understand it who have
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done the work done their own research
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and realize what they're holding will
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likely do very well when it comes to the
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value of that asset and so the
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institutions are here retail's been here
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for years and nation states are starting
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to show up if the year of 2024 was the
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year of Institutions the year 2025 is
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going to be the year of nation states I
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think there's a lot of fun in store for
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all of us thank you so much for all
00:13:20
paying attention to so much content for
00:13:22
providing so much Insight in the
00:13:24
comments and on Twitter I've learned so
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much from all of you Bitcoin has been an
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asset that that has taken me around the
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world I've met thousands of people and
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it has helped me better understand
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everything from politics to the
00:13:35
economics of what the society we live in
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is but ultimately I'm most excited about
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what is the future of Bitcoin
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understanding the past is important
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understanding the infrastructure and the
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technology is even more important but
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the single most important aspect is that
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Bitcoin gives everyone hope it gives
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them excitement it gives them something
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to look forward to and I just like you
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have a lot to look forward forward to in
00:13:59
2025
