Mark Rober, Bitcoin’s Rebound, & American Eagle’s Holiday 12/3/25

Summary

---

Squawk Pod – December 3, 2025

Main Theme:
A wide-ranging exploration of today’s top financial stories, with a focus on cryptocurrency—particularly Bitcoin’s resurgence and the growing case for Solana—plus American Eagle’s retail performance, holiday shopping numbers, political dynamics, and a conversation with science communicator Mark Rober about innovation in education and content creation.

---

Episode Overview

This episode of CNBC’s Squawk Pod navigates major market movers and cultural touchpoints. The hosts (Becky Quick, Joe Kernen) discuss the rebound in Bitcoin prices, new optimism around Solana with guest Anthony Scaramucci, strong holiday performance for American Eagle, and the evolving world of science education with YouTuber and engineer Mark Rober. Interspersed are lively debates, quick-witted banter, and industry insights.

---

Key Segments & Insights

1. Crypto Market Rally & Bitcoin’s Resurgence

Timestamps: 02:22 – 03:06, 16:14 – 27:01

• Bitcoin rebounds: Trading close to $93,000, up 2% for the day after hitting lows near $80,000 last week.

  • Joe Kernen: “It’s just crazy that we’re saying, okay, stocks are looking a little better because bitcoin stabilized. It’s just tail wagging.” (03:03)
  • Becky Quick: “Nothing surprises me.”
  • Joe Kernen: “Everything surprises me now.” (02:09)

• Market implications: The stabilization in crypto is credited with improved orderliness in broader markets.

---

2. American Eagle’s Strong Holiday Forecast

Timestamps: 06:33 – 08:18, 14:00 – 16:07

• Earnings beat: American Eagle beats Q3 expectations, raises full-year guidance, with AerIE and celebrity marketing (Sydney Sweeney, Travis Kelce) as key drivers.

  • Joe Kernen: “American Eagle shares are soaring… that’s four times better than the 2.1% growth that analysts were looking for. Amazing.” (06:33)
  • Becky Quick: “That’s why these specialty retailers can be really volatile.” (07:35)

• Holiday shopping surge:

  • New NRF survey shows a record 203 million U.S. consumers shopped Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday, up from last year and the highest since tracking began in 2017 (08:23).

• Macy’s earnings:

  • Courtney Reagan: “Macy’s putting up the strongest total comp sales growth in 13 quarters... CEO Tony Spring said, ‘Our guide is not a ceiling, it’s a guardrail.’” (15:12–15:50)

---

3. U.S. Political Updates & Market Sentiment

Timestamps: 05:24 – 11:47

• Upcoming Fed chair pick:

  • President Trump teases early 2026 announcement; some White House interviews for the role reportedly canceled.
  • Becky Quick: “Trump said he had decided on who he wants to replace Powell… Which tells you a little bit more about what he was thinking.” (05:24–05:58)

• Tennessee special election:

  • GOP’s Matt Van Epps wins, but with a notably narrower margin than expected.
  • Joe Kernen: “It’s noteworthy in that it was even anywhere near that close... she got 45%. She did Tennessee with saying things that were just beyond the pale…” (09:41)

• Changing norms:

  • Joe Kernen: “By the time I croak, I don’t even know if I’m going to recognize this world.” (11:04)

---

4. Crypto Deep-Dive: Solana’s Rise – Interview w/ Anthony Scaramucci

Timestamps: 16:14 – 27:01

Scaramucci’s Key Points:

• Case for Solana:
  • Solana is emerging as an industry standard thanks to “very cheap,” “incredibly fast” transactions and growing adoption.
  • Anthony Scaramucci: “This particular token has very unique properties. It’s very cheap to use, incredibly fast.” (17:17)
  • Joe Kernen: “Fractions of a cent, 50,000 transactions.” (18:11)
• Coexistence with other tokens:
  • Solana, Ethereum, Avalanche, etc., can thrive together—likened to multiple cloud vendors.
  • Scaramucci: “I believe they can cohabitate with each other… a little bit like the cloud.” (17:17)
• Technological and regulatory climate:
  • U.S. regulatory environment currently supportive, but future political swings remain a key risk.
  • Scaramucci: “You do have a regulatory regime under Paul Atkins and President Trump that are favoring the technology and are going to allow for this. And I think it’s very transformative.” (19:07)
• Long-term investment frame:
  • Compares Solana’s moment to early internet or Google’s rise post–AOL.
  • Scaramucci: “This is mature enough now where there will be three or four players that emerge in the next five years that are going to be industry standards. I believe Solana is one of those.” (23:11)
• Politics, ethics, and crypto:
  • Scaramucci distances himself from partisanship, advocating visionaries like David Sacks in government.
  • Scaramucci: “I would just submit back to people rhetorically, you want people like David Sachs in the administration, whether it’s a Democratic administration or a Republican administration.” (21:40)

---

5. Science & Education for a New Generation: Mark Rober Interview

Timestamps: 29:08 – 36:39

Highlights:

• Engagement through entertainment:
  • Over 72 million YouTube subscribers; now successful on Netflix and other platforms.
  • Mark Rober: “If you’re an engineer, you could just will something into existence…” (29:57)
• Netflix and Sesame Street partnerships:
  • Launching new shows and collaborations, including "Mark Rober and Elmo’s Christmas Gift" and a Jimmy Kimmel competition series.
  • Mark Rober: “I even sing a song called Failure is Awesome.” (31:10)
• Crunch Labs business & educational mission:
  • Hands-on monthly projects for kids; launching "Class Crunch Labs"—a free science curriculum for grades 3-8, funded philanthropically.
  • Mark Rober: “We’re basically taking all the tricks I’ve learned on how to hide the vegetables and teach science in an engaging way. And then we're making a full science curriculum third to eighth grade. And then we're going to make it free for all teachers forever.” (27:12, 35:01)
• Business model and innovation:
  • Content is costly to make (“six figures per video”) but customer acquisition via platforms is highly efficient (“your CAC is really low”). (33:49–33:58)
  • “Hiding the vegetables”—making learning fun and stealthy: “You click on the video to watch Ronaldo try and score on my robot, but... you learn about motion capture systems and velocity and momentum.” (34:04)
• Memorable moment:
  • Discussion of “glitter bomb” package videos targeting porch pirates, including wild add-ons like fart spray for extra mischief. (35:36–36:17)

---

Notable Quotes & Timestamps

• “It’s just crazy that we’re saying, okay, stocks are looking a little better because bitcoin stabilized. It’s just tail wagging.”
  — Joe Kernen, (03:03)
• “This particular token [Solana] has very unique properties… incredibly fast, very cheap.”
  — Anthony Scaramucci, (17:17)
• “Our guide is not a ceiling, it’s a guardrail.”
  — Macy’s CEO Tony Spring (via Courtney Reagan), (15:50)
• “We’re making a full science curriculum third to eighth grade, and then we’re going to make it free for all teachers forever.”
  — Mark Rober, (27:12, 35:01)
• “Everything surprises me now because by the time I croak, I don’t even know if I’m going to recognize this world that I’m living in.”
  — Joe Kernen, (11:04)
• “You click on the video to watch Ronaldo try and score on my robot, but in the process, you learn about motion capture systems and velocity and momentum.”
  — Mark Rober, (34:04)
• “I believe Solana is one of those [industry standards]. The other ones that I mentioned are likely one of those. But I explain in the book why the technical properties associated with Solana I think are quite favorable.”
  — Anthony Scaramucci, (23:11)

---

Memorable Moments

• Hosts riffing on “Best in Show,” Simpsons, and generational change:
  • Banter about “crazy times,” purple yam donuts, and shifting social norms.
• Mark Rober’s “glitter bomb” stories:
  • Mark Rober: “So then you make a glitter bomb bait package and go after these porch pirates… The fart spray was in there. So to make sure that they threw it out of the house so then we could get the package back.” (35:36–36:26)
• Science “hiding the vegetables”:
  • Rober’s method of teaching kids science by embedding lessons in entertainment.

---

Timestamps for Major Segments

| Segment | Start | End | |---------------------------------------|------------|------------| | Crypto/Market Open | 02:22 | 04:12 | | American Eagle & Macy’s Retail | 06:33 | 16:07 | | US Political Developments | 05:24 | 11:47 | | Solana & Crypto Deep-Dive | 16:14 | 27:01 | | Mark Rober Interview | 29:08 | 36:39 |

---

Tone & Style

The episode retains the show’s signature blend of financial expertise, friendly rivalry, and accessible, sometimes irreverent humor. The hosts and guests balance serious analysis with lively, genuine debate and fun pop culture asides.

---

For Listeners and Readers

Even if you missed this episode, you’ll gain a sense of current trends in crypto and retail, get candid perspectives on political uncertainty, and enjoy engaging stories on science communication and entrepreneurship—anchored by direct quotes and clear segment markers.

Transcript

[FedEx Announcer]

The heaviest metal credit card of all time, rumored to be one of only 18 in existence, plated with the very same tungsten that forged the international space station.

And wielded at business dinners like a samurai sword.

It's a classic corporate power move, but the real power move having end to end visibility on your most critical shipments. FedEx the new power move.

[Schwab Market Update Announcer]

This episode is brought to you by Schwab Market Update, an original podcast from Charles Schwab. Join host Keith Lansford for this information packed daily market Preview delivered in 10 minutes or less, including projected stock updates, monetary policy decisions and key results and statistics that may impact your trading. Download the latest episode and [e-mail] MarketUpdatePodcast or find Schwab Market Update. Wherever you get your podcasts.

[Becky Quick]

Bring in show music, please.

[Squawk Pod Host (possibly Becky Quick or co-host)]

Hi, I'm CNBC producer Katie Kramer. Today on Squawk Pod, we're diving into crypto. Bitcoin has bounced back, but investor Anthony Scaramucci has another bet. Solana, whichever asset is in your portfolio, the Mooch is optimistic about crypto.

[Becky Quick]

You do have a regulatory regime under Paul Atkins and President Trump that are favoring the technology and are going to allow for this. And I think it's very transformative.

[Squawk Pod Host (possibly Becky Quick or co-host)]

At 72 million followers strong, it's scientist YouTuber Mark Rober. He's making physics and chemistry fun online on Netflix, Even on Sesame street, you.

[Mark Rober]

Click on the video to watch Ronaldo try and score on my robot. But in the process, you know, you learn about motion capture systems and velocity and momentum.

[Squawk Pod Host (possibly Becky Quick or co-host)]

Plus, waiting on a new Fed chair. Denim might save Christmas and a closely watched special election that could signal what's to come in 2026.

[Joe Kernen]

Everything surprises me.

[Becky Quick]

Nothing surprises me.

[Joe Kernen]

Everything surprises me now.

[Squawk Pod Host (possibly Becky Quick or co-host)]

It's Wednesday, December 3rd. Squawk Pod begins right now.

[Becky Quick]

Stamp Becky by in 3, 2, 1. Q please.

Good morning, everybody. Welcome to Squawk Box right here on cnbc. We are live from the NASDAQ market site in Times Square. I'm Becky Quick along with Joe Kernan. Crypto prices having a big resurgence. You're talking about Bitcoin up 2%. But it's close to $93,000 after getting down pretty significantly. Gains across the board. Below below 80.

[Sempra Energy Announcer]

It was no.

[Joe Kernen]

In the low 80s in the 80 84.

Previously last week or whenever it was, it had been below. I think it was below 84 briefly. It's just crazy that we're saying, okay, stocks are looking a little better because bitcoin stabilized.

[Becky Quick]

It's just tail wagging.

[Joe Kernen]

Doggy I don't know if it is anymore. It's a risk, it's a risking. But it definitely looked. Market looks a lot more orderly and a lot. The sun is shining a little more on the bulls this morning after yesterday.

I don't know if we're going to mention Boeing yesterday, but that almost was the entire move in the Dow.

[Becky Quick]

Yeah, it was the best performer in.

[Joe Kernen]

The Dow, up 18 points.

[Becky Quick]

Yeah.

[Joe Kernen]

Now it may have been because of the big order for Apaches, and people are saying it's. It's being driven now by its defense business, not just commercial airliners. But I guarantee you that Airbus News did not help or did not.

It certainly didn't help Airbus yesterday. So I don't know. It's Wednesday. Many times. The beginning of the week is. I just think traders feel. Ugh. Feel it's Monday.

[Becky Quick]

Like all of us.

[Joe Kernen]

Yeah, like all of us. By Wednesday, it's like, you know, getting towards the weekend. The weekend will come. I'm gonna buy some stocks and some bitcoin.

On today's squawk planner, some quarterly results Macy's getting set to report. This is after another great parade, I think you'd have to say, and a pretty darn good dog show.

[Becky Quick]

Oh, the Westminster.

[Joe Kernen]

That wasn't. No, it's a national dog show with John o'.

[Mark Rober]

Hurley.

[Becky Quick]

Oh, the Westminster's in Philly in your.

[Joe Kernen]

Yeah, I think this is the national dog show. Guy does a great Fred Willard impression from Best in Show.

[Becky Quick]

So why does she grab him there?

[Joe Kernen]

Yeah, yeah. What?

[Becky Quick]

Why does she grab him there?

[Joe Kernen]

They do it doggy do they do it doggy stuff. That style.

[Becky Quick]

He actually.

[Joe Kernen]

We're also gonna hear.

[Becky Quick]

We're talking about Best in Show for anybody who hasn't seen the show, who.

[Joe Kernen]

Hasn'T seen the movie. Hilarious.

We'll be announcing somebody probably early next year for the new the Fed. I talked to Scott about taking the job, but he doesn't want it. You got the greatest job here.

[Sempra Energy Announcer]

Yes, sir.

[Joe Kernen]

Right. He said, no, I wanted to stay Chairman. I want to stay. I want to stay right where we are. Treasury. And I think we're doing really great, aren't we?

[Becky Quick]

We're doing great, sir. And it's a great team to be part of.

[Joe Kernen]

Yeah, it's amazing.

[Becky Quick]

And President Trump says that he will announce his pick early next year on who he wants to lead the Federal Reserve. After Jay Powell. Speaking at a Cabinet meeting, the President referred to the National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett as a potential Fed choice. He also said that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant doesn't want the job. Over the weekend, Trump said that he had decided on who he wants to replace Powell. The Wall Street Journal reporting that the White House canceled interviews with Fed chair finalists that were set to start today. Which tells you a little bit more about what he was thinking. And in his comments yesterday he said.

[Joe Kernen]

Yeah.

[Becky Quick]

Is he here?

[Joe Kernen]

Got a potential Fed chairman right now.

[Becky Quick]

Should we call him potential? Yeah.

[Joe Kernen]

He.

Hat said I was expecting him to have like to be like, you know, like, you know, look on his. You can take me when I make a look like that. That's a good idea. Director make the look. He's kind of. But he wasn't. Freeze frame. He wasn't. He was like this. He was just smiling like Cheshire cat. Almost like he knew. But I guarantee you we don't know.

[Becky Quick]

No, nothing's done until what we think we know.

[Joe Kernen]

We guarantee you we don't know. All we know is that we don't know.

Talk. American Eagle shares are soaring. The company giving bullish holiday guidance and raising its full year forecasts as it beat third quarter estimates with a big contribution from its aerie brand. American Eagle says it expects fourth quarter comp sales to grow between 8 and 9% and that's four times better than the 2.1% growth that analysts were looking for. Amazing. It says it sees full year adjusted operating income between 303 and $308 million versus a prior range of 255 to $265 million. The latest results are the first showing a full quarter of impact from American Eagle's splashy ad campaigns with actress Sydney Sweeney. Also tight end Travis Kelce which is from the Kansas City. When a retailer.

I didn't realize I didn't tie to that. I thought these people the whims of young people and what to stock their shelves.

[Becky Quick]

That's why these specialty retailers can be really volatile.

[Joe Kernen]

It can be really volatile because I'd have no idea what to put on the shelves. I have no taste.

[Becky Quick]

The tastes change quickly. You're hot and then you're not. But they have had a pretty.

[Joe Kernen]

The Sydney Sweeney thing and then she, you know, her interviews. She's very calm when they try and pin her down and stuff. I think it's. But her movies now, of course you can't really. You don't know what to tie that to. One of her recent openings wasn't so great but I think she's a pretty big star all of a sudden.

[Becky Quick]

Anyway, it's a big deal for American Eagle.

[Joe Kernen]

I don't Know what she commands in her next contract, next movie role. I think it'd be nice. I think we'd be happy.

[Becky Quick]

That's a low bar, right?

[Joe Kernen]

For a year, whatever it is we'd probably be having.

[Becky Quick]

All right. We're getting a clearer picture of the kickoff of the holiday shopping season. A survey from the National Retail Federation and Prosper Insights and Analytics shows a record 203 million US consumers actually shopped during that five day stretch from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday. That beat estimates of 187 million shoppers. And it was up from last year's tally of 197. The turnout is the largest since the NRF started tracking that five day total back in 2017. It was hard to escape it whether you went outside anywhere, saw ads for things, but probably just picking up your phone, probably got bombarded with ads to shop and shop now and get the deals. It was. Yeah, it was hard to escape this anywhere even. You probably got ads trying to get you to shop online.

[Joe Kernen]

I don't see those for very long, though. I really don't. No, I don't need anything. I need to find things for other people. But you know what? They find things for themselves pretty well, hopefully.

[Becky Quick]

The next Congressman to the United States from Tennessee, Matt Van Epps.

[Joe Kernen]

Hello, Tennessee. What a night. What a night.

NBC News projecting that Republican Matt Van Epps has won a special election in Tennessee that drew national interest and attention, even from President Trump. Van Epps will represent Tennessee's 7th congressional district in the House of Representatives. Most of the expected vote counted. Van Epps led his Democratic challenger by 9 points, but President Trump won three Tennessee's 7th district last year by 22 points. So it's noteworthy in that it was even anywhere near that close. And also noteworthy with some of the stuff that came out that this individual had said or indicated that she believed in the past that it got anywhere close to. I think she got 45%. She did Tennessee with saying things that were just beyond the pale in terms of.

[Becky Quick]

I mean, does it shock you when you have the financial capital of the world being now run by a socialist?

[Joe Kernen]

Yeah, well, that's because how many people really vote in New York City?

[Becky Quick]

I'd say the same in most congressional districts.

[Joe Kernen]

Well, there's only. It's a million people.

[Becky Quick]

A special election is not.

[Joe Kernen]

It's a million people out of a. I don't know what it was.

[Becky Quick]

But a special election never draws as many voters because there's nobody else on the ballot up to get them out.

[Joe Kernen]

It's not a great time for it's.

[Becky Quick]

Not a good sign, but does anything surprise you?

[Joe Kernen]

Yeah, everything surprises me.

[Becky Quick]

Nothing surprises me.

[Joe Kernen]

Everything surprises me now because by the time I croak, I don't even know if I'm going to recognize this world that I'm living in.

[Becky Quick]

Well, that's a cheery thought on this one.

[Joe Kernen]

Every person as they get older. I think that's what happened. I wondered when I was young. What the.

[Becky Quick]

You're like Grandpa Simpson now.

[Joe Kernen]

Yes, I am. And if I don't watch it, they're going to put me in a nursing home. You remember that line? Homer threatens him and he says I'm already in a nursing home. And he goes, well, we're gonna put you in the nursing home. That was on 60 Minutes.

[Becky Quick]

Oh, goodness. All of life comes back to the Simpsons eventually.

[Joe Kernen]

And purple yum donuts.

[Becky Quick]

That's Homer, not Grandpa.

Right?

[Joe Kernen]

But everything does come back.

[Becky Quick]

Yes, it does.

[Joe Kernen]

Cowabunga, dude.

[Becky Quick]

T's will be next.

[Squawk Pod Host (possibly Becky Quick or co-host)]

Coming up next on Squawk Pod, a new era for crypto. According to Anthony Scaramucci, he's betting on Solana as a long lasting standard.

[Becky Quick]

AltaVista, ask Jeeves. We had AOL search. Okay, they got big footed by by Google. But this is mature enough now where there will be three or four players that emerge in the next five years that are going to be industry standard.

[Squawk Pod Host (possibly Becky Quick or co-host)]

We'll be right back.

[FedEx Announcer]

The heaviest metal credit card of all time, rumored to be one of only 18 in existence. Plated with the very same tungsten that forged the international space station.

And wielded at business dinners like a samurai sword.

It's a classic corporate power move. But the real power move having end to end visibility on your most critical shipments. FedEx the new power move.

[Schwab Market Update Announcer]

This episode is brought to you by Schwab Market Update, an original podcast from Charles Schwab. Join host Keith Lansford for this information packed daily market Preview delivered in 10 minutes or less, including projected stock updates, monetary policy decisions and key results and statistics that may impact your trading. Download the latest episode and [e-mail] MarketUpdatePodcast or find Schwab Market Update. Wherever you get your podcasts.

Sling is the live TV service that puts you in charge.

[Becky Quick]

Choose your plan.

[Schwab Market Update Announcer]

Orange for sports and entertainment favorites, Blue for news and reality or select for the essentials. Only pay for the stuff you actually watch and pause your subscription anytime. Because paying for TV or not watching, that's just rude. No long term contracts, no nonsense. Pick your plan, add what you want. Sling lets you do that. Visit sling.com to learn more.

[Squawk Pod Host (possibly Becky Quick or co-host)]

Welcome back to Squawk POD from cnbc. Here's Becky.

[Becky Quick]

Quick, folks, we've just got some numbers out from Macy out with its quarterly results right now. Courtney Reagan joins us on the Squawk Newsline with those numbers and some comments from the retailers. CEO Courtney Court.

[Courtney Reagan]

Hi, good morning, Becky. Yes, Stronger than expected. Third quarter for Macy's. Adjusted earnings coming in at 9 cents. Consensus was for a loss of 14 cents, revenues of 4.71 billion, also stronger than the estimated $4.62 billion. Macy's putting up the strongest total comp sales growth in 13 quarters. The comparable sales on an owned plus license plus market basis, that's basically all. Their business units grew 3.2%. Bloomingdale's again the standout. Comp sales up 9. Macy's nameplate comps up 2%. Blue Mercury up 1.1%. Gross margin 39.4%. That beat expectations, but fell from a year ago. And Macy's attributes that to the tariff impact, though they do like their mitigation actions to be able to get to that point. With one quarter left, albeit the very important holiday quarter, Macy's is raising guidance, expecting revenue now to be between 21.48 billion and 21.

That does bracket the Street's estimate of $21.5 billion. Adjusted earnings now expected for the full year, $2 to $2.20. That is above consensus of $1.96. But this is the third quarter, remember, just beat by a pretty large margin. So I spoke with CEO Tony Spring who said, look, we see a resilient consumer. Our guide is not a ceiling, it's a guardrail. The fourth quarter guidance takes into account our prudent view that we're going to see a more choiceful consumer. And let me just say by prudent, I mean sensible and thoughtful. And then he also said regarding prices, if you looked within any given category, there is merchandise that is more expensive than it was a year ago. In some cases, there is improvement in the quality or embellishment in the fabrication. In other cases, the price has simply gone up. But obviously, consumers of Macy's seem to be handling it fairly well based on these results. But a really big month or two here left to go. Back to you guys.

[Becky Quick]

Okay, Courtney, thank you very much. Right now, that stock is off by about 2 cents.

Joe. Yes, it's you.

[Joe Kernen]

Oh, for investors looking to expand beyond Bitcoin, there's a new book coming out next week, Solana Rising, Investing in the Fast lane of crypto breaks down the blockchain, the major players behind it, and how it can be integrated into a crypto portfolio. Joining us now is the author, Anthony Scaramucci, Skybridge Capital founder and co managing partner. Good to have you on, Anthony.

[Becky Quick]

So you read that the way my mom wrote it, Joe?

[Joe Kernen]

Yeah, exactly. She's a wonderful lady. We're all cutting our teeth together. Maybe not you. You've got a good firm grasp enough to write a book about Solana. But let's start right at the beginning. Similar to Ethereum, it's a blockchain and it can be the backbone of a lot of really quick transactions in defi.

[Becky Quick]

Yeah, well, a lot like the discussion that you were having earlier today with David and Bob. I mean, there's going to be layer one technology.

Not the poor people at home. Ethereum is a layer one technology. Hyperlink, hyper liquid would be one as well. And I think all we're saying is that you'll be able to put a smart contract or a security, formerly known as security, and tokenize it and you'll be able to use the rail system of the blockchain. One of these, I think Solana will be one of the big winners. It's not to say that the others are not also going to win. I believe they can cohabitate with each other. And the analogy I would use for people at home is a little bit like the cloud. When we started using cloud computing about 20 years ago, people were reluctant to use it and then they understood there was great safety and anonymity in the storage and then it proliferated and you have many cloud vendors. And I think that's going to be the case in this world of tokenization. But this particular token has very unique properties. It's very cheap to use, very cheap. It's incredibly fast.

[Joe Kernen]

Fractions of a cent, 50,000 transactions.

[Becky Quick]

Many more transactions, Many more transactions. And Anatoly.

[Joe Kernen]

Not as many nodes though. Right?

[Becky Quick]

It's proliferating now. I mean, again, this is sort of the same conversation that we'd be having about the Internet. And I was watching earlier, I think it was, Paul was bringing it up, about how you're in the Netscape zone on your way to Google and eventually into Facebook. And I think that's where we are. We're very, very early. So just imagine four or five years from now, will there be a rail system on the blockchain where we are tokenizing things? And so I believe the answer to that is yes. Things like avalanche, things like Solana.

HYPE would be one of those as well.

[Joe Kernen]

It's cheaper than Ethereum and it's got two types of proof. It's got proof of stake, proof of history with it with like a timestamp, so you don't even have to. It's much faster, I mean, much faster.

[Becky Quick]

It's much milliseconds versus great, great finality, great certainty. And I think the, I think the big news now is you do have a regulatory regime under Paul Atkins and President Trump that are favoring the technology and are going to allow for this. And I think it's very transformative. Remember, you and I are old enough to remember T +5. Joe, when I started in the business, you didn't settle your securities into your account for five days. It's T plus one. Now, you know, this could be T plus an hour or so, you know, I mean less than that. But I think that's what they'll eventually get to.

Anthony I think crypto has certainly benefited from this administration's view and interests. Crypto, all things crypto it seems like. But today President Trump is going to roll back, we suspect, the emission standards that were under the Obama administration and then the Biden administration placed on the auto manufacturers. Do you think that if there is a different administration down the road, it could roll back anything that's been done here? And what would that mean for the industry? Or once this is out and kind of beyond a fledgling state, is it too late to stop it?

First of all, it's a great question because that's the central thesis. If you said to me right now, what would I be worried about in the future is this sort of regulatory pendulum that's going back and forth in Washington. I would really like to see this industry and other industries have Washington take a post partisan or more transformative approach. And I will applaud David Sachs for that because I think David, when he put out that executive order earlier in the year, he was trying to construct it in a way that would make it bipartisan. Becky And I think that the, I.

Mean that's the worst thing for businesses to say.

We shouldn't have left or right regulation, we should have right or wrong regulation and it should be transparent and safe to use and fair to the customer. And I'm hoping we can get younger Democrats to the table on that is a lot. There's a partisan divide and it's a, it's a very good point.

[Joe Kernen]

Okay, Front page, New York Times today. Trump's AI and crypto czar benefits himself and ally allies and you are? No.

We'Ve had our disagreements in the past about the President. Yeah, we have. So you're not going to be someone that I think would sugarcoat things. In anything you've seen with the President and his family and their conflicts and dealing in crypto and the businesses that they've set up. Has anything really raised your eyebrow or David Saxman or anything really raise your eyebrow in terms of impropriety?

[Becky Quick]

We've been at odds. Some of it is more style.

[Joe Kernen]

How about for this though?

[Becky Quick]

But let's talk about this. So I'm friends with Eric Trump. I think you know that he came to my conference.

[Joe Kernen]

We all have the same birthday.

[Becky Quick]

We all have the same birthday. My son, January 6th. My son was very involved. My son AJ was very involved in helping him raise money for American Bitcoin. I own American Bitcoin. So I just want to make sure that that's fully disclosed here. And so, no, I don't see that. I think that that is a partisan thing as it relates to David Sacks. I read the article and I would just submit back to people rhetorically, you want people like David Sachs in the administration, whether it's a Democratic administration or a Republican administration. And guess what? David Sachs is going to be a visionary and an entrepreneur and do a lot of business related things. And I think you don't want to overly stop those people. I don't think you just want bureaucrats, lawyers and academics in Washington because they have very little business interest outside of Washington. And so, so that's me. I'm a huge fan of David Sachs. I think he's done a great job. And I think the criticisms in that article are unfair. So I don't know, maybe we agree on that, maybe we don't. But that's my approach.

[Joe Kernen]

No, I was just asking.

[Becky Quick]

And I want to encourage people like David Sachs to go into government because we need those types of people in government.

[Joe Kernen]

All right, so back to Solana. If someone, Obviously Bitcoin is 92,000, you can buy bitcoin. You can buy any amount of bitcoin. You don't have to buy a whole bitcoin, obviously. But if someone wants to get into crypto, you think if you're comfortable with Bitcoin, that Solana would be a good investment. Where it is right now, it's at.

[Becky Quick]

About 141, I think. Solana, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Avalanche. We own Ethereum, but we own less of it. But I like the whole area because this is taking off. Listen, we're old enough AltaVista, ask Jeeves. We had AOL search. Okay, they got big footed by, by Google. But this is mature enough now where there will be three or four players that emerge in the next five years that are going to be industry standards. I believe Solana is one of those. The other ones that I mentioned are likely one of those. But I explain in the book why the technical properties associated with Solana I think are quite favorable. And I'll leave you with this thought. When Anatoly created Solana, he didn't try to create new things from a computer science point of view. He used all the available tech that was out there to make it easy for developers to run programs on top of Solana. And so for me it's one of our big names. We own a lot of it, frankly. I have a lot of it on the skybridge balance sheet and so I wrote a book about it because I want to also explain, explain this stuff to our customers. And when I made the investment in Bitcoin five years ago, traditional finance people excoriated me some of the wirehouse before you. Yeah, you were before me, but I got in there with, you know, in size as an, at an institutional level.

[Joe Kernen]

You got it in size.

[Becky Quick]

That's the difference. I got, I got excoriated by a lot of people. Now they're coming and I'm just saying this is five years ago we said bitcoin. I believe five years from now, Joe, for fortunate enough to be sitting at this table again, we'll be looking back on Solana and say that was a good entry point because we're using solo.

[Joe Kernen]

Three of it's been. I saw a funny meme on Twitter. It had a picture of someone frustrated and it's, you know, I've been in Ethereum at 3000 for four years or something like that. I mean there's been, it has not.

[Becky Quick]

Been like you have a lot of fear and uncertainty and doubt in this industry. And so something like Ethereum that has really good technical properties could lag for several years. But again, let's go back early stages of tech in our lifetimes. Amazon went public in May of 1997 and had lots of hiccups, down 50%. You remember the March 2000 debacle was down 80 or 90% at that time. And the point is, as things are adopting and scaling, if they are good fundamentally, you should hold them, which is why we never left our bitcoin thesis.

[Joe Kernen]

Despite the speed of Solana. And it's much cheaper that for you overcomes. It's not as distributed as Ethereum, but.

[Becky Quick]

It'S becoming more distributed. It's growing the scale of its distribution.

[Joe Kernen]

So then it would have no negatives versus Ethereum.

[Becky Quick]

Listen, I think that people will want some customization. If you go to the big chief technology officers at the Fortune 50. Yeah, they may go to. They may be on Avalanche because you have these subnets on Avalanche that can allow for more customization. But I'm talking about broad scale delivery of tokenization. Somebody like a blackrock, somebody thinking about tokenizing stocks and bonds or potentially real world assets. I think they'll use something like Solana. It's bigger, it's faster and it has way more market share and it's growing faster than the others. But I like them. I like them.

[Joe Kernen]

Or reading today we can compare to Andrew.

[Becky Quick]

Andrew, I had a bad sleep score this morning because I was.

[Joe Kernen]

You were nervous about coming on here.

[Becky Quick]

I wasn't nervous, Joe, but I had to get up early because I had to drive.

[Joe Kernen]

You're anxious.

[Becky Quick]

I knew Becky would be here to protect me.

[Joe Kernen]

Yeah, anxious.

[Becky Quick]

Exactly. Exactly. But I knew Becky would be and.

[Joe Kernen]

Andrew wouldn't be here to. To support me. He.

[Becky Quick]

He offers good defense when I need it.

[Joe Kernen]

I know he does.

[Squawk Pod Host (possibly Becky Quick or co-host)]

Still to come on Squawk Pod, he taught millions about science through prank videos on YouTube. And now he's taking his lessons to Netflix and beyond creator Mark Rober.

[Mark Rober]

We're basically taking all the tricks I've learned on how to hide the vegetables and teach science in an engaging way. And then we're making a full science curriculum third to eighth grade. And then we're going to make it free for all teachers forever.

[Schwab Market Update Announcer]

This episode is brought to you by Schwab Market Update, an original podcast from Charles Schwab. Join host Keith Lansford for this information packed daily market Preview delivered in 10 minutes or less, including projected stock updates, monetary policy decisions, and key results and statistics that may impact your trading. Download the latest episode and [e-mail] MarketUpdatePodcast or find Schwab Market Update wherever you get your podcasts.

[Steffi (Famous Footwear Announcer)]

Hey, I'm Steffi. You may know me from your social feed. I go big for the holidays, so I'm going to Famous Footwear because the best gifts are giving Famous. My friends and family are gonna love all these styles from Nike, Adidas, Crocs, New Balance, Skechers and more. With over 800 stores, you're never far from the perfect gift. So make your list and make it famous. Come in today for buy one pair, get one half off at your local famous footwear or famous dot com. Some exclusions apply.

[Sempra Energy Announcer]

The world runs on energy. And as demand increases, Sempra is rising to help meet the challenge. Through our Texas and California utilities, we're investing billions to help power these booming economies. We're building tomorrow's energy infrastructure today, modernizing one of North America's largest energy networks with next generation technology to power the everyday lives of nearly 40 million people. That's positive energy. Learn about Sempra's financial [e-mail] investors.

[Squawk Pod Host (possibly Becky Quick or co-host)]

You're listening to Squawk Pod Today with Joe Kernan and Becky Quick.

[Mark Rober]

Elmo, welcome to Crunch Labs.

[Becky Quick]

Up. And Becky, cue.

Our next guest has conquered you. YouTube with more than 72 million subscribers. You heard me right. I think that's up from 60 million subscribers at this time last year. It's a lot. He is now branching out into other platforms with a new show on Netflix. Joining us right now is Mark Rober. He's the founder of Crunch Labs. He's also a former NASA and Apple engineer. You've been on the program plenty of times before. We're really glad to have you back, Mark. But let's talk about this. I mean, really, when it comes to big influencers out there, you're at the top of the list of these things. You started on YouTube in 2011.

[Mark Rober]

That's right.

[Becky Quick]

And you built up a huge subscriber base by showing kids, I guess, the fun things around science.

[Mark Rober]

Yeah. Just like how engineering can be cool if you're an engineer. You could just will something into existence if you want it to exist. That includes things like last month I built a goalie robot that moves at like 40 miles an hour. And then Ronaldo tried to score on it.

[Becky Quick]

Was he successful?

[Mark Rober]

No. Eventually he found one weakness the robot had. But it's impossible to score at that speed.

[Joe Kernen]

Wow.

[Becky Quick]

Yeah, it's really cool. This is why you make science and engineering fun for kids. And for that, we love you. But you are moving beyond YouTube. You've started doing videos on Netflix. How did that come about? And how's it going?

[Mark Rober]

Yeah, we just, so we launched just some, actually just some of the YouTube videos. And what we're realizing is the audiences are different on different platforms. Right. So we launched those. We were number in the top 10 globally for on Netflix, on most watched on Netflix and then number one on kids. And these are just YouTube videos. You know, we are doing some original content though. We're doing Mark Rober and elmo's Christmas gift. Ms. So I went to Sesame street, the whole Sesame Crew came to Crunch Labs. And that'll launch on December 8th. I even sing a song called Failure is Awesome, so.

[Becky Quick]

I didn't know you sang on top of that.

[Mark Rober]

Yeah, yeah. I don't know if I'd say I sing. There was a bit of autotune involved.

[Joe Kernen]

In Elmo's voice or in your own?

[Mark Rober]

No, in my own voice. You know, it's a duet with Elmo. It's a duet.

[Joe Kernen]

Yay.

[Becky Quick]

Elmo loves it. Oh, can Mr. Mark read it again?

[Joe Kernen]

Please, please, please?

[Mark Rober]

Okay. But this is the last time.

[Becky Quick]

Okay.

[Joe Kernen]

Okay. There's a new Elmo, isn't there? The other guy's in jail, I think, isn't it?

[Becky Quick]

That's a long time ago. Kevin Glass.

[Mark Rober]

And then next holiday season, Jimmy Kimmel and I, we're doing another, like, competition show that involves teachers. That's gonna be really, really cool.

[Becky Quick]

So you're expanding not only beyond your audience, but it sounds like the age demographic that you would. Cause I always think of you as being, like, preteen and teen, especially with the Crunch Labs. But boxes that you put out, that's my kids in.

[Mark Rober]

And that's kind of the thing is, you know, we've seen double digit profit margins and revenue growth for four years now since we launched with the Crunch Labs boxes. With the Crunch Labs boxes, you know.

[Becky Quick]

Which, by the way, for those who don't know if you're just seeing this for the first time, the boxes are ways to. It's a monthly or an annual subscription. It comes once a month, and kids can use it to actually build their own things. You teach them how to build a.

[Mark Rober]

Lawn so that perfectly. Ricky. That's right. And so part of the expansion, though, to your point, is now with Creative Kit. So this teaches the creativity. I do creative engineering. So this is like the creative aspect of it. And it's like ages 6 and up. So we now have offerings on subscription boxes from ages 6 to 106. And it's a little bit of a Trojan horse to get kids younger thinking like an engineer. That's kind of what we. What we promise.

[Becky Quick]

Is this, like, a squirrel thing? Because for those who aren't familiar, your squirrel mazes were some of the most popular things that you ever did that really brought people in. I see a squirrel on the back. Is that wrong?

[Mark Rober]

Yeah, Here. So each one comes with, like, an animal friend. You kind of build out a town. And we kind of study the concept of creativity and what goes into it with Dr. Adam Green at Georgetown and So you build out a town, and there's kind of guardrails on how to build this. But then there's like, opportunities to get really creative on how you actually make your town and build it out. And each one comes with an animal friend. Of course, the first one's a squirrel.

[Becky Quick]

Okay. So the whole point of this has been that you've been able to do this pretty cheaply on your own. The videos aren't cheap, I should say. You're using six figures for every one of these videos that you make, but then you get such play from it that it's very quickly profitable.

[Mark Rober]

Yeah, that's right. And that's kind of the secret sauce of the creator economy is your CAC is really low because you get eyeballs through the platforms.

[Becky Quick]

Customer acquisition costs.

[Mark Rober]

Yeah, your customer acquisition costs. So through YouTube, now Netflix, we also launched on Samsung. It's the largest fast channel. So our idea is just like, we want to reach as many brains as possible. So we make the content. It's really high quality. It teaches engineering principles, gets kids and adults stoked about science education, learning, and I call it hiding the vegetables. You click on the video to watch Ronaldo try and score on my robot, but in the process, you learn about motion capture systems and velocity and momentum. That's a formula that's just kind of worked for us. And it's a beautiful thing to live in this day and age where you can do that.

[Becky Quick]

Are you ever going to bring investors in? Is there a need for additional capital? What. What would you use that for? I mean, you're. You're getting pretty huge reach already.

[Mark Rober]

Yeah, it's a great question. You know, we do have some initiatives where, like, we're doing something called Class Crunch Labs. So this is where we're basically taking all the tricks I've learned on how to hide the vegetables and teach science in an engaging way. And then we're making a full science curriculum third to eighth grade, and then we're going to make it free for all teachers forever. And so that's going to cost us $55 million. So there's some of these initiatives, and then we're going to.

[Becky Quick]

What's the return on investors?

[Mark Rober]

Nothing.

[Becky Quick]

So this is a charitable philanthropy.

[Mark Rober]

It's a charitable thing.

[Joe Kernen]

Right.

[Mark Rober]

But at some point, when you have these big initiatives and ideas like that, and there could be some things for the business as well, I won't say we would never take on outside capital, but right now we've been able to do pretty well just bootstrapping it.

[Becky Quick]

It's really impressive. I miss the package explosions that you used to have around the holidays, the glitter bombs for anybody. Because when you get packages stolen. You got packages stolen from my house.

[Mark Rober]

Yeah, legitimately. I got a package stolen from my house. And again, this is what's cool about being an engineer is you feel violated and it's like you feel sad, but then you're like, wait, I could do something about this. So then you make a glitter bomb bait package and go after these porch pirates.

[Becky Quick]

And it was really more than a glitter bomb.

[Joe Kernen]

This would be like spikes.

[Becky Quick]

No, it had spikes or it had fart powder in it.

It would blow up ball bearing.

And he videotaped all of it. So you catch them on video getting blown up with these, which was great.

[Joe Kernen]

Yeah, Poop.

[Mark Rober]

Yeah.

[Becky Quick]

He did do fart bones.

[Mark Rober]

Yeah, fart bones.

[Sempra Energy Announcer]

Yeah.

[Mark Rober]

The fart spray was in there. So to make sure that they threw it out of the house so then we could get the package back and.

[Becky Quick]

Have the camera back.

[Mark Rober]

Yeah. And the cameras. It was an expensive package.

[Becky Quick]

Mark, thank you for coming in. Wish you all the best of luck with this. And I would love to hear more about this new initiative down the road, too.

[Mark Rober]

Love it. Thank you.

[Courtney Reagan]

Thank you.

[Mark Rober]

Always good to be here.

[Becky Quick]

By the way, content creator Mr. Beast, Jimmy Donaldson is part of the Dealbook Summit lineup with Andrew today. CNBC will have coverage of that event all day and Andrew is going to be joining us in the next hour.

[Joe Kernen]

An Elmo update from Mark. The original Elmo did not go to jail. In fact, Kevin collapsed. No. The statute of limitations had run out on the charges, so they were dismissed. However, evil Elmo, who used to be right out here.

[Becky Quick]

Dirty Elmo.

[Joe Kernen]

Evil Dirty Elmo did go to jail for trying to extort the Girl Scouts of the usa.

[Becky Quick]

So there's see you learn something on squadron every day.

[Joe Kernen]

It was in Times Square. This is the too. And he was naked.

[Becky Quick]

Well, he underneath.

[Joe Kernen]

Yeah.

[Mark Rober]

Okay.

[Joe Kernen]

Wow. See, Elmo's always naked as you. As you know.

[Squawk Pod Host (possibly Becky Quick or co-host)]

And that is Squawk Pod for today. As always, thanks for listening. Squawk Box is hosted by Joe Kernan, Becky Quick and Andrew Ross Sorkin. Please tune in weekday mornings on CNBC at 6 Eastern or get the best of our show right into your ears in this easy to listen to podcast. When you follow Squawk Pod, we're available for free wherever you like to get your podcasts. Have a great day. We'll meet you right back here tomorrow.

[Becky Quick]

We are clear. Thanks, guys.

[Sempra Energy Announcer]

The world runs on energy and as demand increases, sempra is rising to help meet the challenge. Through our Texas and California utilities, we're investing billions to help power these booming economies. We're building tomorrow's energy infrastructure today, modernizing one of North America's largest energy networks with next generation technology to power the everyday lives of nearly 40 million people. That's positive energy. Learn about Sempra's financial [e-mail] investors.