What do you make of the Trump administration’s general crypto approach? “We’re going to be the undisputed crypto capital and Bitcoin superpower of the world. Bitcoin is very powerful. It’s all becoming powerful.” Or do you think that the effect of the Trump era is for most people to just think of crypto as a kind of Las Vegas casino game? My understanding of what they’ve done, they’re involved in Bitcoin, they’re involved in stablecoins, and then they’re involved in the memecoins. Right? So let’s start with Bitcoin. They basically created the strategic Bitcoin reserve. And then I think Eric and Don Jr. are involved in a company, American Bitcoin, where they mine Bitcoin. “Hey guys, we’re bringing Bitcoin to America. And America is going to win the crypto revolution. That much I can tell you right now.” So they’ve got a very kind of deep, I think, understanding, belief in Bitcoin itself. And you think that’s very smart. Yes, I think generally that that’s a very smart strategy, has a lot of value at the end of that road. The second thing is the stablecoin. The critiques that I hear of World Liberty Financial, I don’t hear anyone critiquing what they’re doing in terms of the technology, the stablecoins. So those two things to me are like no-brainer-type stuff. -The third one —— – Except for the question of whether there is inherent corruption involved in —— Technology-wise, I don’t think there’s any questions. Maybe business development-wise, that’s where I see the critiques. In the memecoin thing, People can argue whether that’s a good or bad thing, but I think it’s actually been happening now for a number of decades that we’ve just been moving more and more towards this premium around personalities and brand, et cetera, on top of companies that —— Well, it seems like a bad, It seems like a bad thing for people who think it’s a great idea to just buy something whose only value is in the meme. If you buy, you know, a Melania or D.J.T. or whatever memecoin, it’s purely an investment in vibes around Donald Trump. Basically, what my understanding is, is that there’s a licensing deal where Trump licenses names on all kinds – of products —— – Yep. Yep. – He’s been doing it on hotels – He’s been for a long, long time. Now, from that standpoint, what is unique about this digital product, if they were selling calendars or something like that, we would never — “OK, he’s selling stuff. We’ll see what happens.” But there’s a ticker attached to it that has a market price, and that market price can go up a lot and go down a lot, and people are putting their money in. And so they are buying because they think it’s going to go up a lot, or they think it’s going to go down. That’s very unique. We’ve never really seen that in the past, right? Now, if you compare that to maybe a couple of other things that happened in society. Recently, a Pokemon card sold for $16 million. And when people first see that, they say, “That’s insane. How does a Pokemon card worth $16 million … ” Blah, blah, blah, whatever. As a society, we are moving towards this volatility-type – generation. —— – Yeah. – People are seeking these things out —— – Yeah, yeah, no, I think that’s right. I think you can absolutely see Trump memecoins as, like, Beanie Babies for people who love Donald Trump. One, it’s unwise to invest in Beanie Babies, I think, as someone who lived through that era and owned — I was not a Beanie Baby investor. I bought them legitimately, or my family did, because I had a baby sister who liked them, but we wanted them for the actual value. – Little stuffed animals, right? And —— – But you didn’t think you were going to go resell them on eBay or anything. I did not. But they retained, they retained that value in a way that D.J.T. memecoin, if Trump’s brand goes to 0 would not. Two, I just, when I observe the crypto world over the last year and a half, it just seems to me that it’s not just the D.J.T. memecoin that’s bound up in Trump’s political fortunes. It’s the entire world of crypto. And what do you think about that? Do think that’s what’s going on? I think it’s harder to prove, right? Doesn’t mean it’s wrong, just means it’s really hard to prove. You can think of crypto, many people think of crypto as politics is influencing crypto. I think the opposite is true. I think crypto is influencing politics. And I think that’s why you see, you know, if you’re running for president of the United States and you need to go and get votes, what do you do? You start picking groups. I’m going to get the libertarians to vote for me, I go get the Bitcoin people. – I like those Bitcoin folks. – Right. Yep. One of the things that if the president was sitting here right now, what I would tell him is one of the funniest things he’s ever said. I don’t know if you remember when Elon Musk brought the Teslas to the White House. I do remember that. Yes, Yes. And Trump said, “Everything is computer.” “That’s beautiful. This is a different panel than — everything is computer.” – I always remind people —— – That’s one of the best, yeah. I don’t know if, I don’t know how old he is. 78, 79 years old, whatever he is. I don’t think he’s the one who’s like, designing the crypto projects. Right? If you think everything is computer. And so it’s this weird dynamic of — You know, look, we want our leaders to be focused on representing the constituents and doing what’s best for our country and for our citizens. And I think that’s true of presidents, both, whether it’s Biden or Trump, all the way down to staffers. You look at the congressional stock buying, I think the American people in general don’t like this stuff, but I do think that it’s not because politicians are influencing crypto as much as crypto is influencing the politicians.
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