← Coin Stories with Natalie Brunell
Coin Stories with Natalie Brunell
News Block: Bitcoin Falls Behind as Gold and Silver Rally, Journalist Uncovers Massive Minnesota Fraud
00:10:16
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Welcome to the Coinstories news block, powered exclusively by LEDN. I'm Natalie Brunel, and in about 10 minutes or less, I'll provide you with insightful updates on bitcoin, financial markets and the global economy. Everything you need to know in one block. Let's go.
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All right, let's talk about the elephant in the room. Bitcoin's underperformance this past year. For a lot of bitcoiners, especially the new ones, 2025 has been a challenging year, mainly because bitcoin didn't live up to the lofty expect that were floating around all year. Some of the biggest institutional forecasts had bitcoin heading to 150,000 or more by the end of 2025. And some in the space were even calling for 200,000 or 444,000 instead. Here we are near the close of 2025, and bitcoin is down roughly 7% on the year. So what's the cause of this? One theory is pretty simple. Investors have found other markets more exciting. AI linked stocks, for example, have been ripping gold, and silver have been on a total tear. And even newer arenas like prediction markets have pulled speculative capital that might have otherwise rotated into bitcoin. And honestly, I think that's a big part of the pain for bitcoiners right now. It's not the negative 7% number itself. It's the relative performance when it feels like everything else is making new highs and bitcoin is just treading water. Sentiment can turn sour fast. And that dynamic continued this past week as seemingly every other asset class got a Santa rally, while bitcoin got a lump of coal. The stock market is hovering near record highs, and gold and silver are straight up stealing the spotlight. Gold is having its strongest year in decades, up around 70%, fueled by safe haven flows, rate cut expectations, and the broader debasement trade as investors hedge against currency risk and fiscal uncertainty. And then there's silver. It's been even more explosive than gold, up around 170% on the year, driven by a powerful mix of tight supply, heavy investment demand, and real industrial utility colliding all at once. And what's really interesting about silver specifically is the supply and demand story. Silver isn't just a store of value metal. It is a critical industrial input for electronics, EVs, solar and defense applications. And that industrial demand matters because silver supply doesn't just turn on overnight. In fact, a large portion of silver production comes as a byproduct of mining for other metals like copper. And lead, which means its supply response is slower and less direct even when prices surge. So you have this tug of war going on where investors are now hoarding silver as a hedge. But industry also needs it to build in the physical world and there's only so much silver to go around. On top of that, China is throwing threatening export controls on silver. Now here's where we bring this back to Bitcoin, because this is the part a lot of people are missing. When gold and silver are ripping. It's easy to think maybe Bitcoin is broken or even maybe Bitcoin is getting replaced as the debasement hedge. And yes, in the short run, Bitcoin can trade more like a levered tech play or risk on asset than a steady safe haven or true neutral reserve asset. It can lag when markets are chasing what feels safer or when liquidity is tight. But the truth is, most investors are still wrapping their heads around Bitcoin as a safe haven asset. And when you zoom out, Bitcoin's advantage becomes clearer. Gold and silver are scarce, but their supply can and will still respond to demand. Over time, higher prices can pull forward production, incentivize exploration, expand recycling and eventually raise the inflation rate of the supply. Bitcoin is very different. Bitcoin is the only asset in the world where supply will not change in response to demand, ever. No higher price can increase issuance. No scientific discovery can add reserves that fixed inelastic 21 million. Supply isn't just a story, it's embedded in the rules of the protocol. And unlike precious metals, Bitcoin is also native to the Internet. So it's portable, divisible and can be moved and settled globally quickly without needing vaults, shipping or trusted intermediaries. So yes, gold and silver are having their moment in the sun right now. And we'll see whether Bitcoin plays catch up and snaps higher from here or whether it continues to lag for now. But if the world is moving toward a regime where debasement risk keeps rising and where investors are increasingly hunting for scarce assets, Bitcoin's unique combination of absolute scarcity and digital portability is what will shine more and more with time. As Tyler Winklevoss said it, well, most people don't realize that bit bitcoin is gold 2.0. Smarter, better, faster. I'm confident the market will eventually figure this out. Need cash but don't want to sell your Bitcoin? Len is the global leader in Bitcoin backed loans, issuing over $9 billion in loans since 2018. And they were the first to offer proof of reserves. With Leden, you get custody loans, no credit checks, no monthly payments, and more. Visit Leden IO Natalie to learn more and get a quarter percentage point off your first loan. Now I want to shift to a story that's been blowing up online, and it's hitting a nerve for a very simple reason. We all work way too hard and pay way too much in taxes for this kind of thing to happen. It started with a viral investigative report from independent journalist Nick Shirley, who posted footage from several daycare, quote, unquote, daycare facilities in Minnesota. In the video, he alleges those centers were collecting millions of dollars in taxpayer money despite little to no evidence that children were ever there or that services were actually being provided. But what's really fueled the backlash is that federal prosecutors are warning this may be part of a much bigger problem. At a press conference, First Assistant U.S. attorney Joe Thompson said 14 Medicaid services flagged as, quote, high risk have cost the state about 18 billion DOL since 2018. And he suggested that $9 billion or more of that billing could be fraudulent, describing it as industrial scale fraud. Just to put that number into perspective, the FTX fraud, one of the biggest financial scandals in history, involved about $8 billion stolen from customers. So if these figures end up being anywhere near where prosecutors are suggesting, we're talking about something that could rank among the largest fraud schemes ever. And this is where it all ties back to the money. Fraud at this scale becomes so much easier in a fiat system because money stops feeling scarce when funding is ultimately backed by debt and central bank balance sheets. The constraint isn't do we have the money? It becomes who gets the money, and can we process the payment now and just deal with the bill later? And when the political incentive is to expand these programs with the best of intentions, the temptation is to move fast, keep spending, and just ask questions later, long after the cash is gone. When the money is just digits on a screen that can be printed out of thin air and people lose any intuitive sense for what billions and trillions actually mean, you create the perfect environment for waste, misallocation, and fraud. In other words, when money is treated like it's effectively unlimited, the fraud opportunity can start to feel unlimited, too. And of course, none of this is free. Ultimately, we all pay for fraud like this. It shows up as a heavier debt burden on younger generations and a more fragile fiscal outlook. All of this accompanied by more inflation and currency debasement over time. So that's why stories like this matter Trust in institutions and government is already near historic lows. And when people learn that billions in taxpayer dollars may have been misused or stolen, confidence is going to erode even faster. And once that trust is lost, it doesn't come back easily. People start looking for alternatives. Not just new investments, but new systems. Systems where the rules are transparent, where enforcement is consistent, and verification doesn't depend on trusting the right person in charge. Which brings us back to Bitcoin again. Bitcoin is built around the idea that money should be scarce and rules based, not managed by discretion. It's designed at its core to be highly resistant to manipulation, censorship, and fraud. You can't just print bitcoin out of thin air to fund your programs and earn votes. It reminds me of something Matt o' Dell posted last week. He wrote, quote, bitcoin has been running for nearly 17 years. At the protocol level. No transaction has ever been blocked. No coin has ever been seized. Not enough people appreciate the magnitude of these simple facts. With Bitcoin, you're not trusting a bureaucracy to catch bad behavior after the fact. The protocol itself is designed to minimize the surface area for fraud and corruption. The rules are enforced by the network, and the ledger is public, so it can be audited by anyone. And while scams can still happen with third parties, the base layer of Bitcoin is pretty much impossible to game. You can't quietly rewrite records. You can't print your way out of a hole. And again, anyone can verify what's happening. And that's why so many people see Bitcoin as a fairer monetary system. If you want to participate, all you have to do is opt in to the same rules as everybody else. Thank you so much to everyone who has listened to the news block this past year. This is our final episode for 2025. We will see you next week in 2026. Happy New Year.
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That's it for the news block, your weekly Bitcoin and economic news update. Powered exclusively by Leden. I'm Natalie Brunel. Make sure you're subscribed to Coinstory so you never miss an episode. This show is for educational purposes and should not be construed as investment advice. Until next time, keep stacking.