Bessent Gets Drucked: Bitcoin, AI, and the New Macro Clock — Transcript
Full transcript
- 0:00All right, as far as I'm concerned, uh
- 0:02I'm back in Brooklyn. So, uh summer for
- 0:05me is officially over. And for everyone
- 0:08else, if it's not yet, it will be. Uh
- 0:11let's go through it. Um
- 0:15Bessant gets drunk was the big story to
- 0:17start the week. Then you got Wars at
- 0:19Jackson Hole. Uh a bunch of podcasts for
- 0:23the week. I also uh I got so many people
- 0:25reaching out about Grockbot that I am
- 0:28uploading a uh a prompt. I highly
- 0:31recommend
- 0:33uh everyone who gets the opportunity uh
- 0:37to use it. They've talked about having
- 0:39free trials. I would definitely at least
- 0:41try it to understand the agentic side as
- 0:43that is going to grow. Um, and if you
- 0:46have the ability of finding a way to cut
- 0:48$200 out of your expense for one month
- 0:50and get it for a month so you can play
- 0:53with it for a month, I guarantee you it
- 0:55will be a uh
- 0:58a special time to learn about what AI
- 1:00agents actually do and how you create
- 1:02things. Um, there are so many good
- 1:04videos out there that you can basically
- 1:06use to make sure that you're getting the
- 1:08most out of it. Uh, I will spend time a
- 1:11lot more on uh the AA crypto macro
- 1:14collision. There's a lot of information
- 1:16and as I've talked about, I will be
- 1:17putting out a video specifically geared
- 1:19towards uh crypto. Uh in September, late
- 1:24September into October, um I'm guessing
- 1:26late September I should have what I want
- 1:28to get done. You guys have seen little
- 1:29bits and pieces of it. I'll go through
- 1:31some more. Uh it's been a big month for
- 1:34crypto and I will go through and just
- 1:35highlight some of the things in there
- 1:37and then um the Agentic AI mud trade
- 1:41continues. So, we will go through that.
- 1:44Uh, I highlighted it last week. I'm
- 1:46going to start showing you guys just
- 1:48like it appears everyone else uh the
- 1:51disclosure side of trying to make sure
- 1:53you guys understand I'm trying to help
- 1:55you guys educationally andformationally
- 1:57and I'm really trying to give you the
- 1:59opportunity to know that I'm outsourcing
- 2:01uh or you're outsourcing to me the
- 2:04ability to stay on top of AI and move
- 2:06things. So hopefully you're getting that
- 2:08feel. So let's go through this. Um it
- 2:11the week started off with uh Bessant
- 2:13basically saying he could tap the1
- 2:16trillion dollar general TGA.
- 2:19Uh and that was followed up quickly by
- 2:22I'd say the biggest story of the week
- 2:24which was Stanley Ducken Miller
- 2:27basically writing an op-ed. I think the
- 2:29reaction to it was in my opinion off
- 2:32base. uh Bessant
- 2:36basically the way everyone wrote it is
- 2:39he was blasting uh Duck Miller was
- 2:42blasting Bessant. I really if you read
- 2:44through it and I happen to agree
- 2:47completely with what Stan is saying on
- 2:49the surface which is the more
- 2:52manipulation especially into something
- 2:53like tenure yields uh it's the only
- 2:57fiscal disciplinarian the US has left
- 2:59and that's really the key thing is the
- 3:01fiscal disciplinarian line and that's
- 3:04because it's Congress that's the issue
- 3:06this spending problem has been going on
- 3:08for a long time the distribution of
- 3:10wealth problem has gone on for a long
- 3:12time the kshaped economyy's gone on for
- 3:14a long time. Um, and this cannot be
- 3:16resolved with slight interventions into
- 3:19yields and not allowing yields to go
- 3:21higher uh is definitely
- 3:25going to create other issues. But, and
- 3:28here's the thing that's the most
- 3:29important, we're at around 240 250%
- 3:33market cap to GDP. We're going to be at
- 3:35300% soon. Uh, we're financialized. At
- 3:39the same time, the debt is enormous. So,
- 3:41you can disagree with what's going on,
- 3:44but there really isn't a solution that's
- 3:47easy, uh, other than allowing everything
- 3:49to head towards some sort of recession,
- 3:52which isn't an option. Now, I just want
- 3:54to make sure that you guys see that
- 3:56tenure rates are extremely mispriced
- 3:59relative to what we're doing in nominal
- 4:01GDP. And this is the issue is Donald
- 4:04Trump and Scott Besson have said they
- 4:06want rates lower. They're trying to
- 4:08handle the K-shaped economy. They have a
- 4:10belief that rates should be lower.
- 4:12Apparently, both of them do, or at least
- 4:13Donald Trump does. Uh here's where rates
- 4:17used to be. This is tenure rates, the
- 4:19orange line. And you can see that in the
- 4:2180s, we were above nominal GDP
- 4:24throughout the entire time. And then at
- 4:25this point here in 1997, before the
- 4:27Asian financial crisis when I was in
- 4:29Brazil, that's when they really broke
- 4:32underneath. And they've been underneath
- 4:33since then, except for periods of
- 4:35recession, recession, recession. Other
- 4:38than that, we've basically been at a
- 4:40point where we've been keeping yields
- 4:41below nominal GDP. Well, we not only
- 4:44have nominal GDP right now at six and a
- 4:45half percent, but it's climbing. And so,
- 4:49the reality is for everyone involved,
- 4:51you can make the argument that rates
- 4:52should be at eight and change. They're
- 4:55not. So, this is where it gets into
- 4:57something. And I remember I was at a
- 4:59dinner
- 5:00uh not that long ago, I'd say two years,
- 5:03David Zervos was hosting it. And
- 5:06actually, I know when it was. It was it
- 5:08was 23. It was right after SVB. And
- 5:12every single time people at the table
- 5:14said this is what the Fed should do.
- 5:17This is what the fiscal side should do.
- 5:20And David Zervos would just stop
- 5:22everyone and say that's a normative
- 5:23statement. I don't care about it. The
- 5:24factual statement is what is happening.
- 5:26And that's really important for this
- 5:28stuff. As you read it, you can sit there
- 5:30and have the opinion that Stan Ducken
- 5:32Miller wrote in the article. And this is
- 5:33what I was going through. A a lot of
- 5:36what he's talking about is what should
- 5:38happen. We don't make money on what
- 5:40should happen. We make money based on
- 5:42what the administration is telling us
- 5:44they believe in. So I want to highlight
- 5:47there is another endgame and I actually
- 5:49believe this endgame has a a legitimate
- 5:51chance or is probably a better option uh
- 5:55if we actually hit this point than the
- 5:58other one. And this gets into the debt
- 6:00and entitlement issue which is based on
- 6:03human
- 6:05time. The debt is based on human time.
- 6:08It is the denominator
- 6:10uh or the the number on top basically as
- 6:13you go through this. You're going to
- 6:16have to find a way, and this is what
- 6:17they're trying to do, is grow yourself
- 6:19out of it, which is highly unlikely, but
- 6:22it's essentially the same debate as the
- 6:24AI infrastructure debt debate. When the
- 6:26hyperscalers are taking all this debt
- 6:28out, they're betting that they're going
- 6:29to get the revenues in faster than the
- 6:31debt is going to destroy them. Um, I
- 6:35think there's less of a chance of this
- 6:37working out well for them in a growth
- 6:39perspective and more likely at the
- 6:42government level because I do think GDP
- 6:44is growing faster than what's reported.
- 6:46The question is the tax system is not
- 6:49set up to benefit from it. So, this is
- 6:52where the issue comes in is it's great
- 6:53if you're trying to grow your way out of
- 6:55it. You still have to find a way to get
- 6:57the taxes in. And my guess is, if I'm
- 7:00right about humanoids and what's going
- 7:02to happen five, 10 years from now, 15
- 7:05years from now, whatever number you want
- 7:07to come up with, we're going to keep
- 7:09kicking the can down the road and see if
- 7:11at some point if humanoids are in there
- 7:13that were taxing corporate profits to
- 7:15pay for this stuff and the debt will
- 7:17grow at a place. But the one thing they
- 7:19don't want to do is have interest rates
- 7:21go higher. So again, it is virtually
- 7:24impossible, I agree, without exponential
- 7:26without thinking exponentially for us to
- 7:28get out of this problem. And that's why
- 7:30I keep saying every week, if you're
- 7:32listening to economists, you're
- 7:34listening to people who only think in
- 7:35human time by definition. They're
- 7:38academics. They've done all this work.
- 7:40The problem is if you're not focused on
- 7:42AI and crypto and you're not focused on
- 7:44how quickly things are going to change
- 7:46from a speed perspective, the question
- 7:48is can you outrun the debt clock? And
- 7:52I'm just saying there's no guarantee
- 7:54that you can't. It's part of the
- 7:56probability distribution. It is not
- 7:58zero. And this is what they seem to be
- 8:00attempting to do both the hyperscalers
- 8:03and these guys. So it is a huge bet and
- 8:06I think we just have to follow the
- 8:08facts. So the facts are yen intervention
- 8:11by Bessant
- 8:14late July August 1st. Then the quarterly
- 8:17refunding language changes.
- 8:20Then we get the buyback framework in the
- 8:23refunding statement. Then we increase
- 8:26the buybacks.
- 8:28Then he says the buybacks could be
- 8:30bigger on CNBC.
- 8:33And then this week possible TGA use
- 8:35discussed. So I this is a pattern. This
- 8:40is not what should happen. This is
- 8:42basically there. I'll get into WSH in a
- 8:45little bit. But there's a really really
- 8:47big problem with listening to what
- 8:48people are saying as opposed to what
- 8:50they're doing. This is clearly what the
- 8:52administration is trying to do. They did
- 8:55this yen intervention. Are they just
- 8:57letting rates go or is this something
- 8:59they're trying to manipulate? and can
- 9:01the markets for the first time beat out
- 9:05what the Treasury and the Fed wants to
- 9:07do?
- 9:08Um, this was a great um piece I thought
- 9:11by Andrea Stenol Lararsson. I'm not
- 9:12going to go through the whole thing, but
- 9:13I think it's important to understand
- 9:16that he's bringing up the repo markets a
- 9:18lot in this and heading us towards a
- 9:20situation where we're trying to
- 9:23effectively have the debt at the front
- 9:27end. And this gets back, in my opinion,
- 9:29into the speed side and growing things
- 9:31as opposed to allowing long-term rates
- 9:33where a lot of things are priced around
- 9:34the globe uh at a level where it doesn't
- 9:37just hurt us, it hurts everyone around
- 9:39the globe if 10ear rates go higher
- 9:40because everything is priced off of it.
- 9:42So, it's not just a US situation, it's a
- 9:44global one. But he goes through this and
- 9:46how important the basis trade is in
- 9:48here. You guys have probably at some
- 9:50point, especially when there's an issue,
- 9:52heard about the basis trade. I'm not
- 9:53going to go through every part of this,
- 9:54but if you wanted a visual and you
- 9:56wanted to learn, effectively, Besson is
- 9:59trying to find and making sure that
- 10:01there are buyers for long-term
- 10:02treasuries. The basis trade is one of
- 10:05the demand sides for it. You also have
- 10:07his goal to get stable coins going and
- 10:09getting trillions of dollars that way.
- 10:11There's other places that he's trying to
- 10:13do this in. He did it with bank
- 10:14reserves. He's going to do it with
- 10:16everything that he can possibly find,
- 10:18including trying to hopefully have the
- 10:21Japanese not have to sell uh their
- 10:23treasuries. And that's why he wanted to
- 10:25sit there and get involved with
- 10:27intervention in Japan. We'll see what
- 10:29happens in September. I think until we
- 10:31get to that point, you can expect the
- 10:32market to have back and forth,
- 10:34especially now that after the war,
- 10:36Jackson Hole speech, we're close to 60%
- 10:38chance of a rate hike and the BOJ is
- 10:41gonna tighten rates based on
- 10:43probabilities. What benefit has come if
- 10:47Besson's doing all this work and now
- 10:49Worsh is sending a signal to the market
- 10:51that inflation is his primary focus and
- 10:54they've built in now a 60% chance while
- 10:56the BOJ is trying to do something to
- 10:59stem the yen uh from falling any longer
- 11:03and the yen is at the weakest level in
- 11:07so far this month post the intervention.
- 11:10So if you go through the basis trade you
- 11:13can see where it is. It gives you what
- 11:14to watch out. I just say this as a
- 11:17point. Um, and this is the main thing
- 11:19for me is that I really do believe as
- 11:22people sit there and post when I or
- 11:25respond to me when I post this kind of
- 11:27stuff in X or if I even show it on this
- 11:29videos. You don't have to believe in
- 11:31anything related to AI. I know there's
- 11:33more skeptics than there are believers
- 11:35because people don't use it for much
- 11:37more than chat at this point and they
- 11:39believe that the doom and gloom side is
- 11:41going to happen. I'll get into more of
- 11:42the doom and gloom side, but you have to
- 11:44understand that if humanoids are
- 11:46building things in a decade, which seems
- 11:49legitimate based on what's already
- 11:51happening in China. Let's assume it's a
- 11:54decade. You've got a very different
- 11:56world. And I don't think you can assume
- 11:58that everything is going to play out in
- 11:59some linear fashion of human time again.
- 12:01And that's the reason why I keep going
- 12:03through these. I think you have to
- 12:04change your mind and at least open up
- 12:06the probabilities because it will help
- 12:08you make money as opposed to believing
- 12:10that every time that yields go a little
- 12:11bit higher and as I've highlighted the
- 12:13fact that 10 years are up whatever it is
- 12:15this year 40 50 basis points and people
- 12:18are taking this as being uh the end of
- 12:20the world it's just not they're way
- 12:22below where they should be that's not
- 12:24going to stop growth and it's certainly
- 12:25not going to change the dollar situation
- 12:28if they keep trying to get involved in
- 12:30it. They've sent a message they don't
- 12:31want yields higher. I think that's the
- 12:33most important thing that's going on
- 12:34right now. And I think trying to bet
- 12:36when this is going to collapse and end
- 12:38in a dalio style way, I just don't think
- 12:40that's going to make you money in the
- 12:41near term. And if for any reason rates
- 12:43do uh back up and you get Besson
- 12:46basically saying, "Okay, no moss." We'll
- 12:49deal with it then and we'll see where it
- 12:50is. Will you catch the top? No. But
- 12:52you're not going to catch the top
- 12:53regardless in terms of the market. The
- 12:56main thing is to figure out whether
- 12:57they're really going to let this thing
- 12:58go and cause a major calamity in in the
- 13:01United States or are they just doing
- 13:03what they've done throughout QE and
- 13:05everything else, which is the economyy's
- 13:07financialized, they can't have stocks
- 13:08fall in any major way. And if yields are
- 13:12the ones causing it, like we saw during
- 13:14the tariff on wine, as soon as yields
- 13:16went higher, they stepped in. They've
- 13:17continued that pattern. So AI is the
- 13:20main pressure point here because the
- 13:22capital needs are enormous. So the
- 13:24government is going to remain under
- 13:25pressure. This fight is not going away
- 13:27regardless of what inflation and jobs do
- 13:30unless we see a significant change in
- 13:32both of them. And right now I highly
- 13:34doubt I don't expect to see big job
- 13:36losses even if we stay on the weaker
- 13:38side. And I certainly don't expect the
- 13:40inflation to just fall off a map and go
- 13:42back down to where it was. Even though
- 13:44it is certainly more tame than the way
- 13:46people are talking about it to give you
- 13:48an idea of the numbers. I mean, this is
- 13:50just the hypers scalers in terms of as a
- 13:53percentage of all IG supply, it's
- 13:57already up to 9%. And we have a doubling
- 14:00from last year. We're still going to be
- 14:02growing. So, the numbers are going to
- 14:03continue to get bigger. Um, and now it's
- 14:07replacing in terms of bond purchases.
- 14:09You're getting net foreign purchases
- 14:11more on the corporate side than you are
- 14:13the treasury side. So you're getting
- 14:14this crowding out function in terms of
- 14:16making it harder and harder to find
- 14:18buyers around the globe of treasuries.
- 14:21Uh just to give you an idea, I mean
- 14:22Broadcom goes out and basically you got
- 14:26$70 billion deal that they announced and
- 14:30of course their CDS continues to go out
- 14:32and and all this CDX thing. Remember in
- 14:35the same way that we saw concentration
- 14:38we have about the amount of debt that's
- 14:41being issued by a few companies is
- 14:43enormous. It's all of the quote unquote
- 14:46circular finance companies. Um,
- 14:49basically the S&P 500, the rally from
- 14:52the great financial crisis on was
- 14:54dominated by the MAG7. Profit margins
- 14:57dominated by the MAG7. We live in a
- 14:59concentrated world, guys. Uh, so
- 15:01whenever you see the CDX, these single
- 15:04name should be going wider while the
- 15:06index should not be. Just think about
- 15:08what's been happening in the V of the
- 15:10equity side. We've seen equity V explode
- 15:12higher while index V hasn't. I think
- 15:14people need to understand this when
- 15:16they're dealing with the credit risk is
- 15:17not telling you a story. It's just
- 15:19because it's so concentrated and because
- 15:20there's a probability this won't work
- 15:22out and they should be buying hedges
- 15:23against it. Uh Nvidia $6 billion to
- 15:27build a open- source model to compete
- 15:29with China. So then we get Worsh
- 15:32concerned about inflation says the bank
- 15:34has has more work to do. Nothing he said
- 15:37was new. Um, I think people either went
- 15:40into this uh with the belief that if he
- 15:42gave anything inflationary, this wiped
- 15:44out what Besson was doing. I have no
- 15:46idea, but we did see the market respond
- 15:48to go from 35% to 60% chance based on
- 15:52something he said that wasn't new. I'm
- 15:54guessing based on his own words that he
- 15:57made some mistakes in the press
- 15:59conference that the reaction in the
- 16:02market remember two-year rates back in
- 16:05July 29th during the Fed meeting uh
- 16:10where we where they didn't raise rates.
- 16:12He came across as dovish and you saw
- 16:14two-year yields come down. He didn't
- 16:17want that message to come across. So now
- 16:19you have this. He comes out in Jackson
- 16:21Hole and basically as far as I can see
- 16:24that was the no I'm I'm not I want
- 16:27credibility. I am fighting inflation and
- 16:29so you get up to 57%.
- 16:32Again he's saying they want to fight
- 16:34inflation and until they do there's
- 16:37going to be more rate hikes. All right
- 16:39we've one and a half rate hikes. We had
- 16:40over one before the end of the year. So
- 16:42none of that is a major surprise. I
- 16:45think the bigger surprise out of this is
- 16:48when he said he was dovish, we saw
- 16:50yields back up on the long end.
- 16:54So now he's going to be hawkish and
- 16:55yields backed up on the long end anyway
- 16:57and we're back up to the level where
- 16:59starting here yen intervention. Okay,
- 17:01intervention, intervention,
- 17:02intervention. We'll see what happens
- 17:03next week, but basically 10ear yields
- 17:06despite him being hawkish. If that was
- 17:08the plan, if you be more hawkish, maybe
- 17:10this will maybe this will help the back
- 17:12end and we'll actually get what we want,
- 17:14which is long-term yields down because
- 17:16you're actually talking hawkish. Well,
- 17:17instead it did nothing. So, for everyone
- 17:20who thought if he just raises rates,
- 17:21long-term yields will go down. I'm not
- 17:23so sure that's the case. If this is
- 17:25being caused by the capital needs of AI
- 17:28and speculators believing that they're
- 17:30kind of caught here, which they are. So,
- 17:32here's what dollar yen did again. and we
- 17:34weaken to 160.
- 17:37Uh, important video to watch for
- 17:40everyone who's doubting AI. And I'll
- 17:44call this the best macro podcast of the
- 17:46week. Yes, this is Dylan Patel, the head
- 17:49of semi analysis. And this is his
- 17:51roommate, Dark Cash Patel, no
- 17:53relationship, who interviews all of the
- 17:56top Silicon Valley people. Uh, the fact
- 17:59that they're roommates mean they talk
- 18:01about this stuff all the time. And so
- 18:02whenever they speak, this is not the
- 18:04first time they've spoken, it's
- 18:06important. And they talk about compute,
- 18:08which I've brought up a bunch of times.
- 18:10They talk about the insatiable nature of
- 18:13compute. So let's just go through this.
- 18:15OpenAI and Anthropic are rapidly
- 18:17centralizing global compute. Now, I just
- 18:20want to highlight they don't talk at all
- 18:22in any way about open source being
- 18:24competition. So the first thing and I'll
- 18:27go through this at the end. I just want
- 18:29you to remember they're talking about
- 18:31OpenAI and Anthropic like they've
- 18:33already won. And the reason they've
- 18:35already won is because they basically
- 18:38have the highest margins. So when we go
- 18:40the reverse, oh, we're driving prices
- 18:43lower on the open source. Well, these
- 18:45guys are just collecting more and more
- 18:48money from the people that want to use
- 18:50the best intelligence and groups that
- 18:53are actually there. So this is the
- 18:54enterprises. So all of this stuff about
- 18:56them not getting money that Anthropic
- 18:59has reached a peak, these guys are
- 19:01completely saying the opposite. And I
- 19:04take them more than I I won't even name
- 19:07people in terms of what's going through.
- 19:09There is no way to take two companies
- 19:11whose ARR is growing the fastest in the
- 19:14history of the world and start trying to
- 19:16predict when the top of that is going to
- 19:18be when these guys are basically saying
- 19:20it all comes down to who owns the
- 19:21compute. And these guys have the highest
- 19:22margins, which means they can buy the
- 19:24most compute. Makes perfect sense to me.
- 19:27If they're securing all of the compute
- 19:29of the world, they will continue to have
- 19:31the best intelligence and they will
- 19:33continue to be in a position to make
- 19:35money. So what they're talking about is
- 19:37literally concentration of compute by
- 19:40these two companies. And again, I think
- 19:43when you go through this and you realize
- 19:45that why did Jeff Dean leave Google? Why
- 19:48did Demisabus reportedly try to leave
- 19:50Google? These companies are trying to
- 19:53get to AGI.
- 19:55Google is trying to find a way to make
- 19:57money. Meta is trying to find a way to
- 19:58make money. Everyone's trying to find a
- 20:00way to make money. They're public
- 20:02companies. They have no choice. Their
- 20:04free cash flows go negative. These are
- 20:05private companies that their entire
- 20:08fundraising and stuff is based not on
- 20:10them making free cash flow. It's on them
- 20:13being in a position to own AGI. So
- 20:16they're basically winning this and they
- 20:18go through the whole thing. They talk
- 20:19about regulation and safety pauses or
- 20:21the main breaks that could hurt the
- 20:22revenue per megawatt. But that's the
- 20:24main story is why can Anthropic pay so
- 20:27much money to XAI for Colossus Compute
- 20:30because their margins are so enormous.
- 20:33And so as you go through this they pay
- 20:36more well that makes it more difficult.
- 20:38They talk about how how little Kimmy K
- 20:41in terms of compute. All of these
- 20:43Chinese models they don't have the
- 20:45compute. you have to get the compute
- 20:46from somewhere and if anthropic and open
- 20:49AI can pay the most for the compute and
- 20:51we can't make enough compute relative to
- 20:54the demand then it prices everyone out
- 20:57of actually doing anything. So this is a
- 21:00completely different argument and this
- 21:01was brought up by Darkh on a podcast
- 21:03recently which Gavin Baker thought was
- 21:05interesting. This is them talking about
- 21:07that view. This is why it's so
- 21:08important. The US has pulled far ahead
- 21:10of China in a AI compute deployment.
- 21:14Then they start getting into something
- 21:16that I actually think is kind of funny.
- 21:18Um they start talking about interest
- 21:20rates and how the size of the capex
- 21:23which will go on from 2024 to 2029 will
- 21:26total about 11 trillion dollar 5
- 21:29trillion of which will be credit and how
- 21:30this is going to create a sovereign debt
- 21:32and interest rate shock. So, this is one
- 21:35way to know that when you're stepping
- 21:36out of your wheelhouse, I like all of
- 21:38this, but when they start getting into
- 21:40this and the interest rate shock, I'm
- 21:43sorry, we are also with AI going to lose
- 21:47a lot of debt. There's going to be a lot
- 21:48of defaults. There's going to be a lot
- 21:50of bankruptcies. There's going to be a
- 21:51lot of closures of companies. not in a
- 21:54disruptive synchronized way, but the
- 21:56reason these companies are winning is
- 21:58because the debt makes AI, which allows
- 22:02startup businesses to grow without
- 22:04taking debt. And we've seen this with
- 22:06the cursors of the world and a bunch of
- 22:08places until they get to the point where
- 22:10they get so big. But for companies that
- 22:12want to grow, they don't need people and
- 22:14they don't need debt. So, you got to be
- 22:17careful when you start stepping into the
- 22:19macroeconomic side of this. Now AI
- 22:22creates a higher return clock for
- 22:24capital. So this is the time disruption.
- 22:27This is where we're again getting back
- 22:29into the point where if you can't grow
- 22:33fast enough, if you're not fast enough,
- 22:35then your debt is screwed. You need to
- 22:37have returns coming on this. This is the
- 22:39reason why I said with the government,
- 22:41the hardest thing is going to be is if
- 22:43profit margins are growing rapidly. And
- 22:44that's what we're seeing right now. So
- 22:46GDI versus GDP. GDP and the taxes we get
- 22:52mainly from consumers with a small
- 22:53amount on the corporate side. It's just
- 22:55not going to work unless you go in and
- 22:57what do you end up seeing? Well, let's
- 22:59tax the wealthy and go through the the
- 23:01tax on the 182 trillion that's here.
- 23:03Well, that's not working. People are
- 23:04moving out of states and moving into
- 23:06other places. So, you're kind of left
- 23:09where do we get the money from? And the
- 23:10only thing I can see it on is a
- 23:12combination of the entitlement issue
- 23:14becoming less of an issue on Medicare
- 23:15and Medicaid due to the advancements of
- 23:17AI and at the same point finding a way
- 23:19to increase corporate taxes based on
- 23:21profit margins and profits continuing to
- 23:23go out. The old low rate economy gets
- 23:25crowded out and and again that's the
- 23:27crowding out that's going to happen is
- 23:29if you need low rates these guys are
- 23:32forcing rates to be higher and the
- 23:34reason is their margins are so enormous
- 23:36and rates are they're indifferent to the
- 23:38rates. doesn't change their ability to
- 23:40make money because they're paying 5%,
- 23:426%, 7% or 8% and they go through that
- 23:46the same way that it doesn't matter to
- 23:47them what the electricity costs are. 50%
- 23:51plus of a of a data center's cost is
- 23:54semiconductors.
- 23:55So, it's just not based on the credit
- 23:58side is not going to kill it. Um and
- 24:01again this is somewhat different for the
- 24:04hyperscalers and things like that where
- 24:06they do need to get the money in from
- 24:08the data centers being built. So higher
- 24:10discount rates crush long duration nonAI
- 24:12assets. AI compresses economic time. The
- 24:15old economy borrowed against future
- 24:17human productivity. AI infrastructure
- 24:19capital offers a faster claim. This gets
- 24:21back in in my opinion back to the
- 24:24drunken miller side. So again, when you
- 24:26go through this and you look at the
- 24:27centralization of labor and compute, I'm
- 24:30not going to read all of this, but
- 24:32basically one lab could hold more labor
- 24:34than humanity, you start getting into a
- 24:36very very
- 24:38uh AGI into RSI world. And the reason
- 24:41this becomes important is because we're
- 24:43really getting closer to that. And they
- 24:46talk a lot about how
- 24:48the amount of AI labors is growing by
- 24:52the week. It's it's an amazing amount of
- 24:56things that are happening with the
- 24:57agentic side and it's mainly happening
- 24:59right now at the places that have the
- 25:01most sophistication in compute. It's the
- 25:04reason why I want you guys to play
- 25:05around with Grockbot so you can start to
- 25:07understand what it means. Um the key
- 25:09point Dylan keeps coming back to is that
- 25:10compute will not be evenly distributed.
- 25:12It will flow to whoever can monetize it
- 25:14best. That gets back to the margins.
- 25:16Better models create more revenue. More
- 25:18revenue lets them buy more compute. More
- 25:20compute lets them train better models.
- 25:21better models let them monetize comput
- 25:23even higher rate. So again this becomes
- 25:26very circular not in only the financing
- 25:28side but the strongest flywheel ends up
- 25:31lining up here. You don't have to agree
- 25:33with this. These guys are far far more
- 25:37uh more uh in tune with what's happening
- 25:39than anybody at the banks than anybody
- 25:41you're reading on X. And they're young
- 25:44enough to basically be spending all
- 25:45their time. I read all the work that
- 25:48these guys do whenever I can and I
- 25:50listen to the podcast. They are very
- 25:53very on top of things based on
- 25:55everything that I've heard this year.
- 25:56I've heard them all multiple times. Um
- 25:59Dylan's counter. Oh, the open source
- 26:02thesis says model weights will
- 26:03commoditize AI. Dylan's counter is that
- 26:04compute doesn't commoditize when it's
- 26:06scarce. I've said repeatedly the most
- 26:08important story in the world is we don't
- 26:10have enough compute. We'll get into that
- 26:12later with the thematic agentic
- 26:15portfolio. So AI is real bottleneck.
- 26:18Open source can commoditize models.
- 26:20Scarce compute does not scarce compute
- 26:23is the key thing. Cheap capital wins the
- 26:25buildout. Higher dollars per megawatt
- 26:27can outbid everyone for compute. So the
- 26:30fact that we are scarce compute is what
- 26:32drives this factor.
- 26:36And here's what you get. The demand is
- 26:39growing exponentially.
- 26:41Everything over here, the design
- 26:44permits, all this, the compute side, the
- 26:46supply is growing slowly and these guys
- 26:50models are getting better and better and
- 26:53better and the disruption is taking off.
- 26:56It's just a reality of where we are. So,
- 26:58Vera Rubin getting uh getting it out
- 27:01there and getting Microsoft talking
- 27:03about using it. This is important. Um
- 27:05I'm I'm less worried about this from uh
- 27:08or I think the major story from this so
- 27:10you guys get it is
- 27:13open AAI this chip is developed by AI.
- 27:16This is starting to get into the side of
- 27:18where AI starts solving problems. So if
- 27:20you want to take it as a negative on
- 27:22Nvidia good luck on that uh Nvidia is
- 27:24just so massive and has so much capital
- 27:26and has just built so many of these that
- 27:28to be able to scale this is really the
- 27:30issue to compete. So um it's really more
- 27:33to say that there will be future
- 27:36situations where as AGI does come we
- 27:39will be solving even the physical side
- 27:41which is where I start to get into the
- 27:43terminal value the S&P and the fact that
- 27:44I think you will continue to see
- 27:46multiple compression and we will never
- 27:48get that quote unquote bull market that
- 27:51feels like a bull market where things
- 27:53just explode higher and the reality is
- 27:56that's because competition is coming
- 27:57three years down the road for
- 27:59everything. It's that easy to use
- 28:01Grockbot. I again I'm just highlighting
- 28:03the fact that this is becoming more and
- 28:04more of a story. Um more usage for it in
- 28:08terms of this part of what I'm going to
- 28:10give you is a prompt that will allow you
- 28:12right off the bat to analyze your
- 28:14emails, your calendar, things like that
- 28:16in a safe manner.
- 28:19Um
- 28:21Gavin Baker just talking about how much
- 28:24compute or the spend that he's doing.
- 28:26And then note that it is before Grockbot
- 28:29moves to consumption pricing which will
- 28:31likely create a step function when it
- 28:32happens. At least for me. I completely
- 28:35agree with that. And here's the latest.
- 28:38I showed you guys this last week uh
- 28:41multiple times. You can see I have a lot
- 28:44more agents than I did last week. I have
- 28:46a lot more routines that are being done
- 28:48every day. I have these two things
- 28:51displace and stride. This is a technical
- 28:54um indicator with three agents. This
- 28:57here is a probability uh it's a
- 29:00research-driven probability of based on
- 29:03earnings how vulnerable they are to AI
- 29:08disruption in a few years. So on a scale
- 29:10of one to 100 give me a level on that.
- 29:12So, I built those and this is what
- 29:16you're going to get. So, this will be
- 29:17uploaded to the subscriber site. You
- 29:19guys can read through it, but this is a
- 29:21chief of staff starter pack for
- 29:22Grockbot. The Grock part Grockbot
- 29:25starter pack. Um,
- 29:29and then just again, powering the
- 29:30deficit, AI's massive infrastructure
- 29:32needs now threatened the US national
- 29:34debt. This is becoming a bigger story.
- 29:36This is why again you can't have the
- 29:40rates go higher because of the K-shaped
- 29:42economy. My gut tells me that Kevin
- 29:44Worsh will not raise rates in September
- 29:48even though he may want to for his
- 29:51already legacy and for being an
- 29:53inflation fighter. Um, but I I just
- 29:56think the timing is not right for him to
- 29:59sneak one in at this point while tenure
- 30:01rates are up pressing against while his
- 30:04Treasury Secretary is trying to stop
- 30:05them and they just spent all this time
- 30:07trying to focus on the yen where the be
- 30:09they're trying to get the BOJ to raise
- 30:10rates. So, I think September could be a
- 30:13surprising thing. Is it possible that
- 30:15maybe Japan not only raises rates but
- 30:18then builds in that they're going to do
- 30:19more and they're really going to fight
- 30:21this? At the same time, Wars doesn't
- 30:24raise rates now that it's a surprise and
- 30:27we get a big move. We'll see what
- 30:29happens, but um I think the pressure is
- 30:31growing and I think it's worth spending
- 30:33time on. So again, it's virtually
- 30:35impossible to grow your way out of a $40
- 30:38trillion debt crisis. And although I
- 30:41would happen to agree if there wasn't
- 30:43this exponential innovation side, uh I
- 30:45do think it's worth keeping in the back
- 30:47of your mind as we get to a critical
- 30:49point leading into the midterms. That is
- 30:51the other thing that I think is
- 30:52important for people. Is it really
- 30:54likely that we're going to take any any
- 30:58risk with the long end at this point
- 31:00ahead of the midterms? Are they really
- 31:02going to let tenure rates break higher
- 31:04and go into the midterms that are
- 31:06already in a vulnerable position in the
- 31:08Senate? Um, I just think at this point
- 31:11you have to heir on the side of thinking
- 31:12what do they really want and this
- 31:14administration does not strive does not
- 31:16move too far away from trying to make
- 31:19sure they get what they want. So again,
- 31:21I wrote this paper. I'm just reminding
- 31:23you this was on August 10th. This was
- 31:24the end signal and AI agent macro nexus
- 31:28point getting back to the point that
- 31:30that's where this whole thing started.
- 31:31And the reason I wanted to bring it up
- 31:33is because Pomp did a video with uh
- 31:36Roman Yumplowski.
- 31:39It's worth listening to. Um my son had,
- 31:43ironically enough, reached out and said
- 31:45to me, "Have you listened to him speak?"
- 31:47Uh and he sent me a diary of a CEO, one
- 31:51that was old. And it was really about as
- 31:54much about how AGI is going to have a
- 31:58negative impact on the world. And I
- 31:59think he has publicly said 99.99%
- 32:02chance that humanity is destroyed by uh
- 32:05AI. Now he's a very respected person who
- 32:09is been writing about AI and talking
- 32:12about AI from like 2011 to 2013 from a
- 32:16safety perspective. So it's not
- 32:18surprising that uh I'm sure his public
- 32:21speaking things he's makes more money
- 32:23and does better if he talks about the
- 32:25negative side. What I thought was
- 32:26interesting was he's the only person
- 32:29I've seen connect as I did in the yen
- 32:31signal one. The AI
- 32:34needs, the AI growth, the capital needs
- 32:37to keep this intelligence going is
- 32:39putting pressure on yields. It's putting
- 32:42pressure on the old system and the old
- 32:43system is cracking. So now we've got not
- 32:47printing QE style but we definitely have
- 32:49twisting and we have using the repo
- 32:52facility and we have them clearly trying
- 32:54to find a way to not let yields go
- 32:56higher and that was the reason why in
- 32:58there I said I think this is the
- 33:00beginning of Bitcoin gold and everything
- 33:02else right after the yen side happened.
- 33:04Now when you go through what he said
- 33:07he's not mentioning any of the macro
- 33:09side. This is an AI researcher. If you
- 33:12listen to him, he speaks a language we
- 33:14don't speak. But he eventually gets into
- 33:16the exact same points that I make
- 33:19repeatedly in these videos that
- 33:21eventually because of AI abundance
- 33:24because of the lack of scarcity meaning
- 33:28things that can't be replicated very
- 33:30quickly that as we continue to
- 33:33accelerate in AI and the frontier models
- 33:36are much further ahead than what the
- 33:37public sees, it will fundamentally
- 33:40change labor in the economy. all
- 33:42cognitive jobs become automatable,
- 33:44including new jobs invented afterward.
- 33:47And he goes through the reasons why. And
- 33:49then he talks about
- 33:51the only things that'll be left for
- 33:53Bitcoin, waterfront property, and
- 33:54potentially human attention, meaning
- 33:56what has value.
- 33:58So, I didn't realize that he was that um
- 34:01as I was listening to it was a Bitcoin
- 34:04person. And he gets into the reason that
- 34:08it is. He goes through the importance of
- 34:09cryptography. And again, this is a
- 34:11safety person. The ability to copy
- 34:14things, how we need it verified. AI
- 34:17acceleration is fundamentally about
- 34:19compressing scientific and technological
- 34:21time. So, he's getting into the time
- 34:23thing the same way I did. So, I picked
- 34:25out the point that I wanted him to spend
- 34:27more time on, which was the AGI part,
- 34:29which is right here. And he talked about
- 34:32it where the implication is
- 34:33technological progress starts operating
- 34:35on a different clock from human society.
- 34:37This is the pressure we're seeing. It's
- 34:39not just the debt side again. It's this
- 34:41point that on the one side things are
- 34:43growing insanely fast like anthropic
- 34:45like open AI fact like the AI models in
- 34:48terms of the intelligence side facts
- 34:50like the capex side not just from open
- 34:52AI and them Nvidia spending money Oracle
- 34:55spending money uh Google spending money
- 34:59Amazon spending money Microsoft is you
- 35:01guys get it these are the winners of the
- 35:03technology world they see this coming
- 35:05they see the models that are already
- 35:07here and so we're getting to the point
- 35:10where accelerating drug discovery,
- 35:13improving our understanding of genomics
- 35:14and pro all of the things that I've
- 35:16written about and talked about and where
- 35:18we are. This creates a widening divide
- 35:20on digital time and physical time. We're
- 35:22in there. So AI acceleration is
- 35:25ultimately the compression of the
- 35:26discovery cycle. The defining threshold
- 35:27is reached when machines no longer
- 35:29merely help humans innovate but
- 35:31autonomously decide what to discover.
- 35:34He even gets into the difficult that
- 35:37that will be for
- 35:39companies in general and that you can't
- 35:42compete. Um, and then he gets into the
- 35:45physical uh bottlenecks such as chip.
- 35:47They're unlikely to permanently stop
- 35:49this process because he's saying as it
- 35:52gets smarter and smarter, we will keep
- 35:54getting more advancements.
- 35:56So
- 35:57the entire loop becomes automated. Now,
- 36:00what I did was that interview that my
- 36:02son sent me to watch had 21 million
- 36:06views. So, I'd never heard of this guy
- 36:07three weeks ago. And then Pomp does an
- 36:10interview. My son had already sent me
- 36:12something. So, what I do is I go compare
- 36:16what he said with Pomp with what he said
- 36:21a year ago and see if anything changed.
- 36:23Now, Bitcoin becomes a major theme. It
- 36:26was not even mentioned in his his
- 36:28podcast a year ago. Everything else is
- 36:31kind of in the same, but um it's like
- 36:35shifts. Nothing major. Humanoid robots.
- 36:38There's a little time in the in the in
- 36:40the time, but all of these things here
- 36:43are basically major things that he
- 36:45talked about a year ago. So, it's not
- 36:46like he's just saying this now based on
- 36:48what's happening. Now
- 36:51as you go through it and you look at the
- 36:54uh other parts in here, it's all the
- 36:57same. The shift is the government role
- 36:59has become more aggressive and the open
- 37:02source thing even surprised him in terms
- 37:04of how quickly it it it came. Now what I
- 37:06wanted to do was I released this this
- 37:09week for those of you who didn't see it.
- 37:11I've been saying that Bitcoin's been
- 37:12going through an IPO uh process that in
- 37:15my opinion started right after Donald
- 37:18Trump took over. even though that was
- 37:19not the peak and that's when I believe
- 37:21that the ideologues gave up. Um the ETF
- 37:24was not a good sign for people who
- 37:26wanted decentralization and not having
- 37:28the two systems merge but especially
- 37:30when the president endorsed it and then
- 37:32created a memecoin. I think that was a
- 37:34signal that this is no longer what
- 37:36people had gotten involved in and you
- 37:38saw a lot of people come out. So what I
- 37:40was saying is that Bitcoin AI and the
- 37:42collision of time and going through what
- 37:44I believe is now happening and why this
- 37:46is the critical moment for crypto and I
- 37:49said compare what I wrote to what he's
- 37:52[snorts] saying what he just said with
- 37:54Anthony Pompiano. These are all the
- 37:56different points. It's a time disruption
- 37:58human time. These are all things that I
- 38:00wrote about in the paper. Never seeing
- 38:02or hearing this guy. We're in agreement.
- 38:04The only reason I bring it up, you can
- 38:06disagree with me. You can disagree with
- 38:08Yman. uh with Roman Yampolski, but
- 38:12we're from two different worlds. I am
- 38:14not an AI person. I am not someone who
- 38:17just uh got involved with it uh 15 years
- 38:21ago from a safety perspective, but we
- 38:23are in heavy agreement on almost
- 38:25everything except for the way it ends
- 38:27the world. That's about the only thing
- 38:29that's not there. Now, for Bitcoin, just
- 38:32I'm going to do some more Bitcoin later
- 38:34on, but I I put this out because the 200
- 38:36day moving average slope
- 38:39turned up. So, these are the four times
- 38:42in history that we had the 200 day
- 38:45moving average pointed downward for at
- 38:47least 100 days. Uh, ironically enough,
- 38:50look at these declining observations.
- 38:52Last one took was the exact same amount
- 38:54of time. This one was only off by 13
- 38:56days. This one was off by 60. Here are
- 38:58the performances for Bitcoin over the
- 39:00next three months, six month, one year
- 39:02and two year.
- 39:04Uh in all cases, we never took out the
- 39:06lows uh from before that going down. So
- 39:09that would mean around 58,000
- 39:11would if this holds over history would
- 39:13hold. We got South Korea back in. Um
- 39:16I've mentioned before that AI had been
- 39:18taking everything in South Korea. Well,
- 39:20we had a volume spike in the crypto
- 39:22world over there. Um, I'm going to
- 39:24remind people the amount of people that
- 39:26basically were bearish at the lows. Uh,
- 39:29the most famous one being Jeremy
- 39:31Grantham saying it was less worth less
- 39:33than a bucket full of piss. That was at
- 39:36the lows. That was two days from the
- 39:39lows. Uh, and and really at the lows. It
- 39:42was basically 59,000ish when it was 58.
- 39:44Jim Kramer sold all his BTC two weeks
- 39:48ago. Uh Mark Cuban went on, I sold most
- 39:53of my Bitcoin. It's lost the plot. Uh
- 39:55more technical things in terms of a
- 39:58different way of looking at it. Uh this
- 40:00is a breakout signal that takes uh
- 40:03basically the rate of change and puts a
- 40:05zcore on it. And again, you had a big
- 40:08move,
- 40:10not shocking. Japan to start stocks and
- 40:12bonds tokenization development plans
- 40:14this year. They're racing towards
- 40:15moderniz. In Japan, if you go back and
- 40:18just ask what has cha changed in Japan
- 40:20with their views towards Bitcoin
- 40:22tokenization and do the same for South
- 40:25Korea, there is no way you can ignore
- 40:29that this is starting to become a bigger
- 40:31race just like the administration has
- 40:34said. Why AI forces tokenization?
- 40:38So why does AI force tokenization? Well,
- 40:40it needs programmable money to be able
- 40:42to go. It it compresses decision time.
- 40:45The tokenized assets become better
- 40:47collateral for AI. The fastest rails
- 40:49attract the capital. This becomes
- 40:51important as I get through with Japan.
- 40:53AI makes settlement speed a national
- 40:55competition uh competitive issue. So
- 40:59tokenization democratizes capital
- 41:01formation for the AI rebuild. This
- 41:02becomes critical if you want to raise
- 41:04the capital that's needed for AI.
- 41:06Tokenization helps that because if you
- 41:08guys haven't seen it, if the only people
- 41:10that can buy private credit are people
- 41:12that are
- 41:14wealthy, but you want everyone to be
- 41:17able to buy 8% yield bonds on things
- 41:19that are there or have the
- 41:20diversification to go through.
- 41:22Tokenization will democratize the
- 41:23ability to raise money from anyone. Why
- 41:26does Japan need to have a stake in the
- 41:29tokenization race? Capital moves towards
- 41:31the best operating system. Japan cannot
- 41:34afford to be slow. Global investors want
- 41:37speed, liquidity, yields are blah. If
- 41:39tokenized US assets trade and settle
- 41:41faster than Japanese assets, capital
- 41:42does not need to panic leave Japan, it
- 41:45can quietly migrate to the market with
- 41:46the better rails. Basically, if you're
- 41:48in a market where your stuff settles in
- 41:51a day while everything else settles in
- 41:53seconds, AI agents will continue to
- 41:56treat you differently. The same way we
- 41:58treat emerging markets differently in
- 42:01terms of wondering if their government
- 42:02is going to confiscate things or go
- 42:04through it if you haven't invested in
- 42:05the best technology. So, this is causing
- 42:07a race. Human time rails while or I'm
- 42:11sorry, tokenization compresses financial
- 42:12time. If Japan assets stay on human time
- 42:14rails, while global capital moves to
- 42:16software time rails, Japan does not just
- 42:19risk missing a technology channel. It
- 42:21risks lossing the marginal capital that
- 42:23sets the price of money. I really do
- 42:25think of Blackberry in this case as an
- 42:27example of something that just could not
- 42:29compete with the iPhone. Forget the
- 42:31iPhone and uh Android in terms of open
- 42:35source and closed source. Think of just
- 42:37what happened uh in terms of BlackBerry
- 42:40and not having the apps. tokenization to
- 42:42me and the ability to move things
- 42:44quickly, make decisions, having better
- 42:46liquidity, having democratization of
- 42:48capital. Okay, Ashe BD, I really liked
- 42:53this post in terms of u last week on the
- 42:56tokenization super cycle. Uh I think his
- 43:01analogy here in terms of what YouTube
- 43:03brought again is a democratization side.
- 43:06Distribution is valuation. the more
- 43:09distribution, the more people are
- 43:11involved and theoretically the more
- 43:13you're going to be able to trade things
- 43:14at least that day and know where the
- 43:16price is. Um, distribution was always
- 43:18one of the great moes of US capital
- 43:20markets and that monopoly has now met
- 43:22its final boss internet scale
- 43:23distribution. So the US has dominated
- 43:26capital markets not just because people
- 43:28are wealthy but because it work the
- 43:30deepest capital markets. If all of a
- 43:32sudden we have a competitor for capital
- 43:34markets which is tokenization
- 43:36creates an issue. Um again I'm showing
- 43:40you guys this because as I go through
- 43:43the next four things remember every week
- 43:47on the sub on the website I put up the
- 43:49video podcast info. All the podcasts
- 43:51that I reference in here those are not
- 43:53all the ones I listen to for the week. I
- 43:55go through I don't know 10 maybe 15
- 43:58different podcasts. I go through more
- 44:00than that in terms of transcripts to
- 44:02determine whether I should go look for
- 44:03it. Sometimes I find a transcript where
- 44:05I like the timestamps. I go listen to
- 44:06that 15 minute period. I use those in
- 44:09here. I will go listen to it. If there's
- 44:11more nuggets, this one is big because I
- 44:13have a lot of things in here that I
- 44:15spent a lot of time on. And this is
- 44:16starting to get into the crypto side.
- 44:18For those of you who want to learn more
- 44:20about tokenization, which I'm telling
- 44:21you is the most important thing to be
- 44:23spending time on at this point along
- 44:24with the payment rails in general. this
- 44:26token 49 Singapore event which was a
- 44:30year ago. This is 2025.
- 44:33Ash K ash um BD spoke and I watched it
- 44:37and I thought it was great. Um
- 44:40capital markets no longer work for
- 44:42ordinary people. Labor has been left
- 44:43behind while capital owners won. He goes
- 44:45through this whole thing on why
- 44:48tokenization is important based on
- 44:50what's happened to the world. He talks
- 44:52about Salana specifically, but the
- 44:55internet internet capital markets and
- 44:57what it's going to look like. For those
- 44:59of you trying to I I guess get to the
- 45:02point of number one, why AI agents are
- 45:06necessary for this to be the point. You
- 45:09cannot do this stuff without AI. And so
- 45:12in 2022 where these where you know we
- 45:16were talking about these types of
- 45:17things, it was still a dream. there was
- 45:19no ability to do this and we didn't have
- 45:22Salana and Ethereum to the degree that
- 45:24they are today. So all of this stuff in
- 45:27terms of what the end state is, a lot
- 45:29more assets, wallet based ownership of
- 45:32those assets, not just assets, but
- 45:34things like IP and everything. Um,
- 45:37productive assets. So again, anything of
- 45:40value that you can think of that right
- 45:42now you can't trade. Broader ownership
- 45:44could reduce inequality and social
- 45:46strain.
- 45:48Think about this and go back to the
- 45:50Bessant thing. If you're going to make a
- 45:52bet at this point, the new technologies
- 45:54are the place to make a bet. Not
- 45:56thinking about the world from a economic
- 45:59handbook that goes through the history
- 46:01of the world like Ray Dalio does and no
- 46:03offense to Dra who I love, but the same
- 46:05type of thought process. It's a you have
- 46:09to at least incorporate this in the
- 46:11possibility. I'm not saying it's going
- 46:13to work out. Governments could stop it,
- 46:15but this is not a US clarity act
- 46:18decision. This is a global decision.
- 46:20Salana is not a US thing. Ethereum is
- 46:23not a US thing. So when you go through
- 46:26all these things, I just want to make
- 46:27sure you understand that you have to
- 46:28watch these things to start thinking
- 46:30this way. The same way that a year ago
- 46:33when I was talking to people about
- 46:35micron and memory and why we need all
- 46:37this and I was writing about humanoids
- 46:38and embodied AI and then I wrote a paper
- 46:40on inference in May. Crickets
- 46:43tokenization crickets right now. Nobody
- 46:46wants to spend the time on it. And in a
- 46:48week where crypto is exploding, where
- 46:50Salana's up 40% this month, the only
- 46:53thing people ask me about this week is
- 46:56gold. I kid you not. Of the macro people
- 46:59that are reaching out to me, the only
- 47:01thing I heard this week was gold. Nobody
- 47:04is talking about this stuff. So, if gold
- 47:07is the big trade and people are saying,
- 47:09"Well, I think it's going to go up." I
- 47:10do, too. Gold's not going to be the
- 47:13fastest horse in the race. I don't even
- 47:14think it's going to finish in in in the
- 47:16top hundred of the fastest things. And
- 47:19that's because this thing is a part of
- 47:21the economy going forward and gold will
- 47:23not be a part of that. Gold will not be
- 47:26a part of that. So let's just remember
- 47:29that a store of value is good but the
- 47:32store of value and the tokenization and
- 47:34the stable coin and again
- 47:37if I compare what ash said and then I go
- 47:41through where stripe is
- 47:44again you guys can read this on your own
- 47:47what he was talking about a year ago and
- 47:49what Stripe is doing right now in terms
- 47:51of the companies they're buying and what
- 47:53they're trying to do what they said in
- 47:56their sessions and in their public
- 47:58reports. All of this stuff is based on
- 48:01what Stripe has said. Now, this is what
- 48:04he was talking about a year ago. And
- 48:06again, the reason this is important, AI
- 48:09agents were a dream a year ago. They
- 48:12were not supposed to happen the way they
- 48:13did. So, this has been the year of AI
- 48:15agents. If you guys go back and read
- 48:17what I wrote about or go watch what I
- 48:19wrote about last year on all the videos
- 48:20which are on YouTube, I repeatedly said
- 48:23AI agents will be the story for 2026.
- 48:26consumer agents and AI agents will now
- 48:28be the story for 2027. The reason that's
- 48:31important is because we're now getting
- 48:33into the application side, which is the
- 48:35agents actually consuming and doing more
- 48:37traffic on the internet, doing more
- 48:39things, which is why I want you to use
- 48:40Grockbot. That is the reason why I do
- 48:42these videos so you can learn. Tom Lee,
- 48:46I don't know if because Tom Lee has this
- 48:48kind of look to him that people don't
- 48:50pay attention once he started to get
- 48:52more involved in crypto. Um, I've done
- 48:55John Gillan
- 48:56interviews before. I think I have
- 48:58another one coming up in September. This
- 49:01one is a good listen. Uh, I think it's
- 49:03important. You should go understand
- 49:06Tom Lee says a lot of, uh, smart things.
- 49:10Uh, he says he has a lot of experience
- 49:12on Wall Street obviously, but he
- 49:14understands Tradfi, but he says a lot of
- 49:17very key lines. And I say that because
- 49:18when I'm listening to someone and during
- 49:21an interview I pause and stop the button
- 49:25seven to 10 times and I go into AI and I
- 49:28have a conversation. It took me about
- 49:30double the time this morning before I
- 49:32went to go uh work out listening to this
- 49:35for a second time where I had to go
- 49:37remember all the things. So when you go
- 49:40through this and you realize what he's
- 49:42talking about and how AI agents change
- 49:45everything, how AI agents demand this,
- 49:48they cannot work without the smart
- 49:50contracts. They cannot work without all
- 49:53of this. AI forces finance to move from
- 49:56human precision to programmable
- 49:58constraint. And again, it's the same
- 50:00thing as AI agents force memory. It's
- 50:03the same exact thing, guys. the
- 50:05inference needs, the memory needs would
- 50:07not be as high if it wasn't for the
- 50:09advancements we made with Opus 4.5. It
- 50:11wouldn't have led Nvidia to then very
- 50:14quickly go out and purchase Grock.
- 50:17All of this stuff happened in the final
- 50:19quarter of last year. We are now seeing
- 50:21the Agentic side and the consumer side
- 50:23go and we have an administration that is
- 50:25trying to figure out a way to get out of
- 50:27the debt problem in the old system and
- 50:30they're betting on this stuff working
- 50:32again. Maybe it doesn't work, but it's
- 50:34part of the distribution. The Ethereum
- 50:36network, he goes through that. Um,
- 50:38Ethereum is not just a blockchain. It's
- 50:40more like the root settlement layer for
- 50:41a new financial operating system. Um,
- 50:45there's a lot of things in here that are
- 50:48important. And again, financial systems
- 50:51are rarely won by technology alone. They
- 50:53are one by liquidity, trust, standards,
- 50:56developer activity, institutional
- 50:58comfort, and path dependence. This is a
- 51:01critical part because people on the
- 51:02crypto side that are negative on
- 51:03Ethereum, they see other places building
- 51:07and going through their own approach. I
- 51:11completely agree with this having worked
- 51:12at Wall Street. You have to remember the
- 51:14old system is not going away. We need to
- 51:16find a way for AI agents to work, but we
- 51:18also need a way for humans to feel and
- 51:22this is institutions too. At least for
- 51:24the near term, liquidity is there, trust
- 51:26is there. Maybe eventually it won't be
- 51:28there but for the beginning start I
- 51:30absolutely believe that Ethereum will be
- 51:32the big benefit from here. So Ethereum's
- 51:35edge may be less about speed and more
- 51:36about trust at scale.
- 51:40Salana may represent 247 speed of
- 51:42markets. Bit may represent protection
- 51:43against time debasement. Ethereum in
- 51:46Lee's argument represents the
- 51:47institutional settlement layer where
- 51:48tokenized assets and activity become
- 51:50legally financially and socially usable.
- 51:52He obviously has a vested interest in
- 51:54this because he has a DAT uh on
- 51:57Ethereum. So, Bit Miners is something
- 52:00that I own and I own it because I
- 52:03believe in Ethereum and I believe this.
- 52:05Uh I've listened to Tom a bunch of times
- 52:07and I actually think Ethereum should
- 52:09outperform Bitcoin. I like the way the
- 52:11chart has looked all year when Bitcoin
- 52:13was down. So, I just bring this up as
- 52:14something to go through it and I get
- 52:16back to tokenization as the super cycle.
- 52:19Lee's point is that tokenization turns
- 52:21assets into software. Once an asset
- 52:23becomes software, it can move faster,
- 52:25settle faster, be divided into smaller
- 52:26pieces, be embedded into apps, be used
- 52:28as collateral, be traded globally, and
- 52:29interact with smart contracts. This
- 52:30changes an asset from a static financial
- 52:32claim to a programmable object. Again,
- 52:35there's so much richness in this in
- 52:38terms of things to understand and to go
- 52:40through. But a stock becomes software, a
- 52:42dollar becomes software, a bond becomes
- 52:44software, a royalty stream becomes
- 52:46software, a membership becomes software,
- 52:47reput you get it. It's when AIs enter
- 52:50the picture. So assets become
- 52:53programmable. That's the tokenization
- 52:56side. Then we go into 247. I gave a
- 53:00presentation at the New York Stock
- 53:02Exchange uh to
- 53:05uh I think all of the Korean major
- 53:08Korean brokers. Um, just to give you an
- 53:11idea of again where Asia is leading on
- 53:13this. AI agents become the users of
- 53:15those markets. So, you need them to
- 53:17become programmable. That's what we've
- 53:19been working on and getting towards. You
- 53:22need this, but then you need AI agents.
- 53:23This is the catalyst point. Okay? That's
- 53:26why I'm talking about this now. That's
- 53:28why as much as I love the infrastructure
- 53:30names to outperform the S&P, I don't
- 53:33think you're getting 10 and 20 baggers
- 53:35from those in a year anymore like the
- 53:37firework show is over. But I do think
- 53:39you can find those things in crypto. We
- 53:41have the tape speaking to us. We have
- 53:43the action point of AI agents. We have
- 53:45the administration saying we're not
- 53:46going to let yields go higher. Maybe
- 53:49they'll change their mind. Maybe Wars
- 53:50will raise 50 base points in September
- 53:51and crypto will go back to the lows. I
- 53:54just don't think that's the place, but
- 53:55it's obviously part of the distribution.
- 53:57Now, connecting this to Grockbot, Elon
- 54:00Musk, Grockbot promised, we will make
- 54:02you whole if AI loses your money. I
- 54:04think this is an super important story.
- 54:06Number one, I'm using Grockbot. Elon
- 54:09Musk backed a bold Grockbot promise on
- 54:12Wednesday. If the AI agent loses money
- 54:15while running an investor's bank
- 54:16account, XAI will make the user whole.
- 54:19He's trying to get people to use it with
- 54:23agents. This is the way it starts, guys.
- 54:26And this is why he wants to own this
- 54:28framework, which is why I want you guys
- 54:30to use it.
- 54:32[sighs and gasps] Tom talked about why
- 54:33this crypto winter is different. Okay.
- 54:36Why this one is different. Price was
- 54:39acting like crypto was dead while
- 54:40fundamentals were acting like crypto was
- 54:42getting ready for an institutional
- 54:44adoption. So this is his big change
- 54:47right now is that other times when
- 54:49crypto winters were occurring.
- 54:52There was no fundamental side. It was
- 54:54all a way down a future dream. The
- 54:57fundamental side is happening. The value
- 54:59acrruel is happening. We have public
- 55:01companies that are showing what their
- 55:04earnings are. All of this stuff has
- 55:06changed over the last two years, but the
- 55:07fundamentals have been improving all
- 55:09year while the prices have been have
- 55:11not. Part of that was because AI was a
- 55:13better place to put your money. Whatever
- 55:15the case is right now, remember software
- 55:19was getting destroyed in the first
- 55:20quarter of this year. Then it reached a
- 55:23point where
- 55:25no one was in it and everyone was in AI.
- 55:28Then we got the momentum unwind in July
- 55:30which got people to cover their shorts
- 55:32in software at the same time reduced
- 55:35their longs and semis. We're still
- 55:37seeing that play out. And guess what
- 55:38guys? Software's gone back up towards
- 55:40the highs. Now Bitcoin miners led it.
- 55:43Palunteer is part of that. Palanteer is
- 55:45part of the thematic uh portfolio. It's
- 55:47what I've written about. It's what I
- 55:49own. All of these things in here as far
- 55:52as I'm concerned are part of the
- 55:53rotation of looking for the next thing.
- 55:55This is part of the software trade. So
- 55:58past crypto winners ended because
- 56:00speculation returned. This one may be
- 56:02ending because the use case matured.
- 56:04There was no FTX. There was no the
- 56:07system is showing a much better place.
- 56:09And meme coins are not leading this one
- 56:11out. This is being led as I created my
- 56:13thematic portfolio for crypto by quality
- 56:17fundamentally driven ones. You got this.
- 56:21This week, Coinbase and Better Mortgage
- 56:22announced general availability of
- 56:24Bitcoin backed mortgages.
- 56:26I could show you guys time after time
- 56:29how many countries are embracing crypto.
- 56:32It's happening.
- 56:34Uh figure more good news. The tokenized
- 56:39portfolio again broke out. Here we go.
- 56:43Bitcoin again. I'm showing you this.
- 56:44This is since October one. So, the
- 56:47tokenized index which is outperforming
- 56:48so far this year. It's up on the air
- 56:50while Bitcoin is still down. This is
- 56:52meant to represent that Bitcoin is the
- 56:54store of value for this and they're
- 56:55exactly the same trade. Okay. So, when
- 56:57you're trying to figure out the
- 56:58fundamental story for Bitcoin, even for
- 57:00crypto people who don't think this way,
- 57:03at the end of the day, it should be
- 57:05incredibly correlated to the ecosystem.
- 57:07So, when the ecosystem is getting the
- 57:09money from the Tradfi world, Bitcoin is
- 57:11going to be going higher as well. If you
- 57:13just want to buy the proxy, you go buy
- 57:15Bitcoin. I don't see them separating.
- 57:16Here are the verticals. Not going to
- 57:18take you through all of them, uh, but
- 57:20you can see how they're broken down
- 57:22sector-wise. This is what they are
- 57:24monthtodate.
- 57:26This is the verticals monthto date. So
- 57:29big moves
- 57:32all where everyone's complaining about
- 57:34AI movements. Here are the individual
- 57:36names that have moved so far. What you
- 57:38can see Salana up 46%.
- 57:43Figure public company. hype. one drug
- 57:47mentioned uh in his uh quarter remember
- 57:50pure or purr purr which is owns hype is
- 57:56on there another big performer and then
- 57:58you've got circle
- 58:01nvidia reported
- 58:04blowout numbers uh next year the
- 58:06expectations were for 44% growth they
- 58:09said it's going to be 70
- 58:12um here's the pe now uh continuing to
- 58:16just move lower. Here's the earnings
- 58:19estimates post the announcement. This is
- 58:21for 2029. I just want you to see how
- 58:24much it's up. That's how much of a
- 58:26surprise it was to analysts.
- 58:29But as I've said, we're in the Nvidia
- 58:32mudstorm. So the stock trades up 9% one
- 58:35day and then the next day it goes right
- 58:37back down four to 5%. This is what's
- 58:40been happening in it. this line here
- 58:42with the chart.
- 58:45It's almost exactly where we closed
- 58:46today. I think it's up $3 from that.
- 58:48That was October.
- 58:50The earnings have gone up dramatically.
- 58:52So, just get used to the fact that this
- 58:54multiple compression story has been
- 58:55happening to Nvidia. It's going to
- 58:58happen to a lot of the AI semiconductor
- 59:00names. They are overowned in the hedge
- 59:02fund world. People have already made a
- 59:04lot of money. They're just not having a
- 59:06fun time buying things that aren't
- 59:08working on a momentum basis. That's the
- 59:09way momentum ends up unwinding and
- 59:11selling off. I'll show more about that
- 59:13in a little bit. S&P for the week, as
- 59:15much as it was seemed like a crazy week,
- 59:1740 basis point change. Same thing for
- 59:20the Q's. Russell was down 1.4%.
- 59:24The thematic portfolio was down 1.4%.
- 59:29Um, this is the breath analysis that
- 59:31I've shown you guys. This is what I'm
- 59:33waiting for for us to be out of the mud.
- 59:35I don't think we're going to be out of
- 59:36the mud till maybe the midterms. That
- 59:39would be my guess. I think we're gonna
- 59:40be in the mud. That doesn't mean you
- 59:42can't find a name that won't go up a
- 59:43decent amount. Pure Storage went up a
- 59:45decent amount. Marll went up from 180 to
- 59:50240 and then pull back after good
- 59:52earnings report and after saying that
- 59:54things are going to be much better than
- 59:55what people expect going forward. But
- 59:56that's that's all different. Here's what
- 59:58we need. It's the 50-day moving average,
- 1:00:00not the 20-day moving average.
- 1:00:02Structurally 50-day moving average. We
- 1:00:04are still only have 29% above the
- 1:00:0750-day. This need name this needs to
- 1:00:09start expanding. The slope of the 50-day
- 1:00:11is turning down. We only have 36 there.
- 1:00:13The 200 day still massively positive.
- 1:00:16We're 25% off the highs. That's the
- 1:00:18biggest amount we've been off the highs
- 1:00:20except for the situational awareness
- 1:00:22lows. So, we are getting some
- 1:00:26improvement in terms of the range, the
- 1:00:29volatility range. This is a good first
- 1:00:32step because the V is coming down. So
- 1:00:35this is the average volatility range
- 1:00:39for all of the names. So we are making
- 1:00:42some progress. Again, this is mud. So we
- 1:00:44bounced out of here. Ken Griffin buys a
- 1:00:47bunch. We go up and now we're basically
- 1:00:49no different in price than we were after
- 1:00:51the first gap day. We're sitting here. I
- 1:00:53expect a more of this. And let's assume
- 1:00:56this goes in the midterms. That's out
- 1:00:57here. It will be frustrating, guys.
- 1:01:00It'll be frustrating.
- 1:01:03Um, momentum, this is tech momentum. Has
- 1:01:05not stopped going down yet. Made new
- 1:01:07lows. Industrial momentum went back
- 1:01:09down. This part of the reason you're
- 1:01:10going through it. Remember, momentum
- 1:01:12does not mean that the AI trade is not
- 1:01:13working. It means that
- 1:01:16the long side is not moving. It's in
- 1:01:18mud. But the short side continues to go
- 1:01:20higher. That is what's driving this.
- 1:01:21Now, so software is going higher.
- 1:01:24The longs are not moving. So, what you
- 1:01:27get is the V's coming down. I mean,
- 1:01:29here's the 15-day V on tech momentum.
- 1:01:33The 60-day peak, but it's not going fast
- 1:01:35enough yet. Uh, factor neutral V still
- 1:01:39not moving. It's not coming down fast
- 1:01:41enough. It's going to take a little
- 1:01:42while. I think that's going to stay
- 1:01:44there. Bitcoin, you had this massive
- 1:01:47week. All those Sigma numbers, great
- 1:01:50consolidation week. Fantastic. Ethereum,
- 1:01:53a bigger week, over 30% consolidation.
- 1:01:56Salana even better up over 30 finished a
- 1:02:02week up eight. Salana seems to have some
- 1:02:04tokenization love going on right now. If
- 1:02:07you want to see something amazing in
- 1:02:09February semiconductors before they had
- 1:02:12had their big rally just to show you how
- 1:02:13quickly
- 1:02:16crypto can win.
- 1:02:18Salana relative to SMH
- 1:02:21is now back where it was in the early
- 1:02:24parts of February, guys. After that
- 1:02:26entire bare market, it takes one month
- 1:02:29for it to make up everything. That's how
- 1:02:32you can find five to 10 baggers with
- 1:02:34inside crypto. Here is the software
- 1:02:36thing I talked about. This is the UBS
- 1:02:39software index. This is not a cap
- 1:02:41weighted one. This is equate. This was
- 1:02:42the highest correlation with Bitcoin.
- 1:02:45again looks pretty good to me. Uh
- 1:02:49credit, we've got triple C's widening
- 1:02:51out. This is what I talked about before.
- 1:02:52I think the crowding out and the
- 1:02:54movement on all this stuff in yields and
- 1:02:55the CDS going out, you're going to see
- 1:02:57crappy companies that are not going to
- 1:02:59be able to survive. The junk spreads,
- 1:03:02they're hanging in there, not doing
- 1:03:03much, but the triple C's are widening.
- 1:03:06Just something to watch. Uh high yield
- 1:03:09CDS, nothing. Oh no, no. These are the
- 1:03:13disclosures that I mentioned at the
- 1:03:15beginning. I'll start including these at
- 1:03:16the end. You guys can watch them and
- 1:03:18read them on your own. Uh that's it for
- 1:03:20this week. It's good to be back.
- 1:03:22Although the humidity is horrible. Uh
- 1:03:24I'll be seeing you guys at events that
- 1:03:27I'll be speaking at. I'm sure in
- 1:03:28September and October, some in DC. I'll
- 1:03:31be at an event in New York in September.
- 1:03:34And then I think Pomp's event is uh in
- 1:03:37October. I look forward to seeing
- 1:03:38everyone there. Uh reach out and uh I'll
- 1:03:41see you guys soon. Bye.
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