← Coin Stories with Natalie Brunell
Coin Stories with Natalie Brunell
News Block: Peace Talks Collapse, Trump Blockades Hormuz, Iran Accepts Bitcoin for Oil, NYT Says it Found Satoshi & Morgan Stanley's Bitcoin ETF Smashes Records
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Welcome to the Coinsories 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.
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Let's go. One story has been driving financial markets for the past six weeks. The Strait of Hormuz. Roughly 20% of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas moves through that waterway, which means whoever controls it controls the marginal price of energy and a meaningful chunk of global inflation. This weekend, things escalated again. Vice President J.D. vance, Jared Kushner, and Steve Witkoff sat down with Iranian officials in Islamabad, Pakistan, for what were supposed to be the peace talks that ended the war. After 21 hours, they walked out with nothing. Vance told reporters Iran refused to commit to abandoning its nuclear weapons program. He said, quote, they have chosen not to accept our terms. Then on Sunday morning, President Trump responded on Truth Social writing, quote, effective immediately, the United States Navy, the finest in the world, will begin the process of blockading any and all ships trying to enter or leave the Strait of Hormuz. He said the Navy would also intercept any vessel that had paid a toll to Iran, adding, quote, unquote, no one who pays an illegal toll will have safe passage on the high seas. And he finished with, at an appropriate moment, we are fully locked and loaded and our military will finish up the little that is left of Iran. So the United States just declared a naval blockade on the most important energy choke point in the world. You can't remove one of the largest producers from a tight global oil market without everyone feeling it. Brent crude prices ended last week roughly 30% above where they were before the war started. And markets are bracing for more pain. Inflation, of course, is ticking back up on the surge in energy prices. But here's where this story gets really interesting. Before the talks collapsed, the Financial Times reported that Iran had been running its own toll system through Hormuz and that vessels were being instructed to pay in either Chinese yuan or. Or Bitcoin. Think about that. A country cut off from the dollar system, cut off from swift, cut off from correspondent banking demanding payment for access to a fifth of the world's oil in Bitcoin. This is exactly why Bitcoin will matter more and more in geopolitics. Bitcoin is neutral and can't be sanctioned or censored. Iran is finding it useful for the same reason a protester in Russia or a working class saver in Argentina does. No government can print it. No bank can block it. No oppressive regime can reach it. Bitcoin is for enemies. Bitcoin is for allies. Bitcoin is for everyone. And that's the whole point. Now the big question going into this week is what happens next if this blockade escalates and the strait stays closed. It only gets worse from here. Higher energy prices, higher inflation and potentially a serious sell off across every major asset class. So we are not out of the woods. If you're holding Bitcoin but need liquidity, you need to know about ledn. They're the global leader in Bitcoin backed loans issuing over $9 billion since 2018, the first to offer proof of reserves, custody loans, no credit checks, no monthly payments, and more. My followers get a quarter percentage point off their first loan Visit LEDN IO Natalie Last Tuesday the New York Times published a pie by a reporter named John Carreyrou claiming to have finally unmasked the pseudonymous creator of bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto. His conclusion? That Satoshi is Adam Back, the cypherpunk and cryptographer who founded Blockstream. The story went viral and honestly I thought it was pretty underwhelming because the theory isn't new at all. Adam Back has been floated as a satoshi candidate for years, in part because he was early in the cypherpunk community and because he invented hashcash, a proof of work system cited by Satoshi in the bitcoin paper. Carrie Roux's main evidence is something called stylometry, basically analyzing writing patterns to match Adam Back's public writing to satoshi's. But as Michael Saylor pointed out this week, quote, stylometry is interesting, but not proof. The contemporaneous emails between Satoshi and Adam Back suggest they were distinct individuals. Until someone signs with Satoshi's keys, every theory is just narrative. And that's really a key point. Satoshi controlled a set of cryptographic keys that can unlock around 1 million bitcoin that have never moved. Those keys are the only way to prove beyond any doubt who Satoshi is. Everything else is just circumstantial. Adam Back himself flatly denied the claims. Again, he said, quote, I'm not Satoshi, but I was early in laser focus on the positive societal implications of cryptography, online privacy, and electronic cash. Here's the thing, and this is what I really want you to take away from this story. The fact that we still don't know who Satoshi is is actually a feature, not a bug. Think about it. Every other digital asset has a known founder whose name is attached to the project. When those founders speak, markets move. When those founders are investigated, sued or pressured, their networks feel it. Having a known living founder creates a central point of failure, an attack surface that governments, regulators and bad actors can all target. But bitcoin doesn't have that. Satoshi gave us Bitcoin and walked away. And because of this selfless act, Bitcoin became a leaderless, truly decentralized network. That is arguably the single most important feature of Bitcoin. Adam Back himself made this point saying, quote I think it is good for Bitcoin that this is the case as it helps Bitcoin be viewed as a new asset class. This the mathematically scarce digital commodity. That's the right framing. Adam deserves all the respect in the world, but I personally don't believe he's Satoshi and it actually doesn't matter all right, let's close the show this week with two institutional Bitcoin stories that, taken together, tell you everything you need to know about where bitcoin is headed. First, Morgan Stanley launched its spot Bitcoin ETF last week and it drew in about $34 million in inflows on its first day, making it the best performing ETF debut in the firm's entire Amy Oldenberg, Morgan Stanley's head of digital assets, said on Bloomberg TV, quote It was the best first day of trading for any of our ETFs. Now I have to say the timing of this launch is fascinating because we're in the middle of a bitcoin price drawdown. Sentiment has been shaky and yet one of the oldest and largest banks on Wall street chose this moment to bring their Bitcoin ETF to market. And speaking of institutions accumulating strategies, Stretch, which is a perpetual preferred stock product, had an absolutely record breaking week. On Friday alone, Stretch traded $526 million in volume, more than double its 30 day average of $258 million. Strategy CEO Fong Li said this week that Stretch is now trading with more liquidity as a percent of market cap than every single Magnificent seven common stock. Not just some of them, all of them. That is crazy volume for a preferred stock. And since Stretch closed at or above par on every single day of the week, it's estimated that the company purchased around 9,000 Bitcoin through the Stretch ATM program alone. 9,000. On Saturday, Michael Saylor posted a chart of Strategy's Bitcoin purchase history with just two think bigger, hinting at another big bitcoin purchase coming. And if you want to understand exactly how Stretch actually works, the 11.5% dividend, the tax deferral, the risks, check out my recent interview with Fong Li on Coinstories. It's about to hit a million views on X alone. So here's what these two stories tell you when you put them together in a bear market. Morgan Stanley is launching Bitcoin products to the biggest success in the firm's history, and strategy is quietly scooping up thousands more Bitcoin in a single week. So it's a great time to keep stacking.
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That's it for the News block, your weekly Bitcoin and economic news update. Powered exclusively by ledn. I'm Natalie Brunel.
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Make sure you're subscribed to Coinstory so
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you never miss an episode. This show is for educational purposes and should not be construed as investment advice. Until next time, keep stacking.