
Bitcoin On Fire! Is $120,000 The Next Stop?
Loading summary
Scott Melker
Bitcoin is absolutely on fire. Currently trading at above 107,000American dollars. Psychological price targets for many are 120, 150, even 200. But I think everyone can agree, regardless of what that target is at, prices are likely to continue up through this cycle. And I can tell you there's one person who thinks so, and that is Michael Saylor who continues to buy billions of dollars worth of bitcoin and announce it seemingly every single Monday. We're going to discuss what this means for the market, what the microstrategy inclusion in the NASDAQ means and how you too could dollar cost average like Michael Saylor. We have a very special guest today, Patrick Stanko from Gemini as well of course as Andrew Parrish from Arch Public. This show is going to be amazing, guys. Let's go, let's. What is up everybody? I'm Scott Melker, also known as the Wolf of all streets. Before we get started, please subscribe to the channel and hit that like button. Going to go ahead without further ado and bring on our amazing guest, Paget. And Andrew, of course I missed the in person meeting in New York City.
Andrew Parrish
Sorry, sorry.
Scott Melker
We had, we had some date changes, but the content that came out of it was amazing and the conversation was as well. Good news is we can continue it here and now. I don't know what the price of bitcoin was then, guys, but it's $107,000. I mean, Paget, you've been obviously tracking this for quite a while. You talked to Gemini customers consistently. I mean, what do you make of this absolutely insane bull run so far?
Paget Stanko
Yeah. Good morning, Scott. You know, I think it's a really exciting time not only for the price itself, but we're seeing a lot of mainstream recognition. Right. This bull run compared to, you know, previous ones, highlights wider range of market participants that we're seeing across the board. As you mentioned in the intro, we'll talk about micro Michael Saylor's investment and the public, you know, sharing of that every Monday. But the six figure effect is I think having cultural impact at this point.
Scott Melker
Andrew, $107,000. I know we don't talk about specific price targets or any of that, but I mean, it's pretty crazy, you know, I mean we're up like 50% since the election, something like that. This is, you know, we're really, we're really flying here.
Andrew Parrish
I go, I go back to something. You know, our show last week got cut short because of technical issues, but something that I wanted to highlight Last week that I thought was really, really important. Goldman Sachs put out an institutional note on a Saturday that was nine pages long. And on the first page they highlighted a focus on crypto. In, in that focus on crypto, they talked about futures, NDFs and options. And they are offering their institutional clients basis trade packages where they're offering swaps on ETFs versus NDF's. The folks, you know, not to get too technical here, but that is basically saying we are open for business. We want everyone to come here and do business with us with crypto and Ethereum and Bitcoin. And all the ETFs are available to you, all the options are available to you. All the NDF's are available to you. Everything's available to you. Come, come, come and have some fun and play in our little carnival. That is crypto that is so significant that it's, it's hard to quantify. Remember we talked about, with, with, with Jeff park and bitwise we talked about options and what that may mean. And when we talked about that, we talked about this explosive event that could happen, you know, a gamma squeeze of some sort. But we really, we really didn't talk much about the fact that options just existing would mean significant liquidity and significant movement in bitcoin. We're seeing that right now. Options allowed for this note to be put out by Goldman Sachs. And that's playing, that's playing a serious role in the movement that we're seeing. I don't know if anybody's noticed, but bitcoin basically just goes up every morning and then it finds a range and then does it kind of again at the near the end of the day. But every morning it goes up every single morning. Monday through Friday, by the way.
Scott Melker
I was just saying at roughly 9:30.
Andrew Parrish
Yeah, about 9:15 to 10:30. Right. So, you know, are the Goldmans and Blackrocks of the world heavily, heavily involved right now in where bitcoin goes and what it does and how it does it? Of course, of course they are. Yeah. I, I saw a statistic the other day about, you know, sailor buying this much and doing this much. And yeah, that's a, that's a big deal in our, our bubble, in our space. But the truth of the matter is, is, you know, I think the Bitcoin ETFs collectively own two and a half to three times more Bitcoin right now than Saylor does. So it is, you bring those two things together and you're at 175.
Scott Melker
Yeah, obviously that 9:30am could be the buying of the ETFs for the people who purchased the day before. Right. On delay as well. And obviously Gemini, I believe you guys custody for VanEck's ETF. Correct. So we could talk about the institutional side. But Padgett, you touched on something earlier that I want to dive more into, which is obviously the fact that you're seeing more mainstream awareness because it feels like we're in this weird place where price is really high, but we don't have the same feeling from previous cycles yet where everybody's calling me. Right, so what you're seeing with customers, upticks in volume signups, are you seeing sort of that peak FOMO bull market or is it really just the starting of that ramp up?
Paget Stanko
Yeah, I think, to be quite honest, retail is not come all the way back as it had in previous cycles. So Gemini in particular is really focused with our new brand campaign with some additional educational content on that retail investor. And I think that will come in more time as I kind of pointed to in the beginning here. Right. We're seeing this across mainstream media at this point, which I think will continue to impact the general public, not just the institutional investor. From the institutional side, you know, the Michael Saylors, the traditional finance institutions, as Andrew pointed out, are really putting the spotlight on Bitcoin, both in the ETF format and in the direct. And we haven't seen the dominance in headlines like that before. So I think the retail is going to continue to pick up. But right now, you know, institutional is definitely at the forefront and the focus for us as well.
Scott Melker
So what does that mean for you as far as attracting new customers? Right, so you've got the VanEck ETF, obviously that's, I guess passively you're interested in people, you know, buying the VanEck ETF, but for making sure that these hedge funds and all of these institutional traders and all of them choose Gemini. Like, what does that process actively look like?
Paget Stanko
Yeah, you know, a lot goes into that. I think sticking to Gemini's bread and butter of serving as a trusted and secure exchange and custodian still remains to be, you know, the focus of why people are knocking on our doors and why we're able to achieve the business success that we have, you know, at this point. Right. Serving as a qualified custodian in the space, having the tenure that we have through all previous highs and lows in the market is holding our value for sure. Working alongside, you know, arch public and being able to provide additional opportunities outside of the traditional Exchange, you know, buy, sell orders. We're being expanding that I should say to dollar cost averaging with tech technology included, you know, such as the arch public utilizing our OTC desk, being able to stake certain assets. We're providing a lot more from a feature and functionality standpoint than just that buy, sell, hold that typically was available in the past. And I think, you know, as we're seeing additional institutional involvement, markets are growing, liquidity depths included there as well, and so giving, you know, opportunity for those additional institutional investors to come in if they hadn't previously.
Scott Melker
Does it feel like there's still primarily a bitcoin focus or are you starting to see a lot of interest kind of further down the line?
Paget Stanko
Yeah, I think, you know, Gemini in particular lists, you know, over 70 assets. I think when we look at the top 20 by volume, those are definitely the most popular. Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana. You know, as you see across most exchanges, the ETFs are definitely prominent for sure in terms of bitcoin and Ethereum assets themselves, but definitely starting to spread out as Gemini continues to list some of the meme tokens and others in attracting the retail space as well.
Scott Melker
Can't deny the power of the memes these days. You can try to fight it. I do.
Paget Stanko
Can't deny it. It's there.
Scott Melker
Absolutely undeniable. Interesting article here actually in Bloomberg. I didn't realize just how powerful this bull run has sort of been. Bitcoin on track for longest weekly winning streak in over three years. So, you know, this is just a long trend of huge green candles basically since the election, Andrew. I mean, listen, there will be down days, there'll be down weeks, there'll be big retraces because this is still bitcoin. I don't care what anyone says. I don't think we'll get massively dampened volatility. I think we're going to solve a lot of fun. But Andrew, I mean, when does this train stop in your mind? I mean, Trump hasn't even come in yet. And this is all attributed to Trump. I attribute it to the cycle being this.
Andrew Parrish
Well, I just, I just noticed another thing and you know, apologies that I'm pounding away on this institutional note, but I just noticed another thing. The first paragraph says in light of upward price trajectory in crypto markets in November, on the back of market expectations with regards to the potential prospects and policy implications under the President Elect Trump administration. So there, there's, there's a paragraph that basically says what that article is referring to, like the movement from 57, 90 days ago to 107 right now is connected to that. Like there's an expectation that there's regulate regulatory shift that broadens the highway from a single lane. You're going over a bridge, two cars aren't going to fit to now a four lane highway that, that, that opens up, you know, a huge amount of opportunity, not just for Bitcoin and Ethereum, which we're going to survive no matter the administration that came in. But now there's a reason why the likes of Gemini or Coinbase or Robinhood are just listing asset after asset after asset. Because the regulatory road is going to be completely wide open and there should be some clarity associated with, you know, what is or is, is not a security. Frankly, I, I don't think that particular question will be dealt with directly. I think that question will fade into the background and this will, you know, crypto will just become part of the, the conversation overall in finance. That's where I think the comfortability of exchanging, adding assets that they previously removed from their exchanges, now bringing them back on and then bringing back, not bringing back, but bringing on assets like, you know, Mudang or whatever it happens to be, you know, onto their exchanges, you know, the meme coins and the like. So yeah, it's, that paragraph is illuminating when an organization like that, given its conservative nature is saying, hey, you know, sunny skies ahead. I've said this before on your show. It was, it was such a stunning moment for me when Bernstein put out a black book on Bitcoin that was very, very long and, but basically the headline was Stop questioning it. Buy everything. Stop questioning, Buy everything.
Scott Melker
That was the craziest institution I've literally ever seen.
Andrew Parrish
I mean just, just a, just an enormous moment. Stop questioning, Buy everything. Literally their mandate as an organization or research organization is question everything. Be careful about buying anything. That's the whole point of their existence as a research organization. They said stop questioning, Buy everything. The opposite of what we usually do. So. And by the way, they were right. They were right, you know, a month and a half ago, if you'd have done what they said to do, you'd have made a ton of money, you know, over the last six weeks.
Scott Melker
Yeah, I was just checking as we were talking about that for my inevitable gauge of market sentiment, the market cap of Fart Coin, which currently today is down and sitting at 762 million. The meme thing just blows my mind. I can't help but joke about it on a daily basis. Interestingly though, Goldman had that note but then David Solomon had an interview where he said something to the effect of, there's a lot of things we want to do, but we're still waiting for regulatory clarity. So the expectation is there. But I do still think that we need to see actual action kind of in the initial phases of the next administration, or that could put in a ceiling to some degree. I don't mean from price, I just mean from hype or sentiment. If we don't actually see a ton of interest in action and follow through, you know, it could lead a lot of people to be a bit disillusioned. I don't think that'll happen, by the way. But, I mean, Patrick, you have to still have people who are saying this looks like a green light, but we need to see the green light.
Paget Stanko
Yeah, I think that's a really important point to bring up. And as you mentioned, Solomon commented on it. Right. I think the conversation around bitcoin cryptocurrency, generally speaking, being regulated, is just no longer speculative at this point. It's pretty much inevitable. Right. And so as we hopefully continue to see bitcoin break records, these prices continue to go up each week, each day. Right. There's a need for clear regulate regulation in this space. And so I think, you know, we're seeing with Trump coming in in a couple weeks here, that that discussion has already begun. How is bitcoin going to be integrated into the system? How's taxation, investor protection, all these components going to actually be addressed not only in us, but we're seeing it overseas as well. So I think, you know, really important to highlight that the conversation itself has shifted from whether or not it's going to be regulated, but actually how we're going to do so.
Scott Melker
Yeah, that makes perfect sense. I want to talk now more about what Sailor's actually doing. Obviously, I guess it's just like another day, another week, another Monday, whatever. At this point, we just shake our head. But, I mean, he did buy, I think another casual 1.5 billion last week, announced it yesterday. I mean, they're joining the NASDAQ 100, which means it everybody, whether they like Bitcoin or not, is basically going to have some exposure to bitcoin here. So there's a little bit of a 360 dunk we get to do on TradFi, I think, with that. But what does it mean to have somebody like this leading the charge continually? He's on media every single day answering questions. I wish we had the video when somebody asked him if it was a ponzi scheme yesterday. I don't know if you guys heard that, you know, continuing to sell stock, take on debt, whatever. And he just pointed out the same thing you would do if you're building in Manhattan went up. I mean, just, you know, he has an answer for everything. Now we have others like Riot following along. Marathon was following along core scientific following along with the same strategy. So what does this inclusion, I guess, in the NASDAQ 100, it's sort of a stamp of approval whether begrudgingly or not for his strategy. What does it mean? And do we think that Michael Sailor can continue to dollar cost average every single week for billions of dollars?
Andrew Parrish
Well, I, I mean, he's going to keep doing it because the banks are going to keep giving, giving him convertible notes associated with equity as the equity continues to go up as it will because it was just included in the NDX. Right. So you have a NASDAQ 100 inclusion which pushed the stock higher. Every time the stock goes higher, he's going to sell shares, he's going to get money from banks, he's going to do convertible notes and he's going more bitcoin. I mean, that is the nature of his business model at this point. So there's going to be another Monday and another Monday and another Monday where he's going to keep doing it. It was interesting that the, the phrase that he used when asked, it's the Ponzi scheme. He's like, no, for 300 years it's, they've been doing in Manhattan, just building bigger bit buildings as the price goes up. It's not a Ponzi scheme, it's an economy. Right. So he had the perfect answer for that question. And I'm always my interest in the quote, unquote, Sailor trade is eventually how it trickles down through the banking system. Right. Because there are banks that are facilitating this process on his behalf. So that being the case, how wide and big does that particular function and trade get? Right. You just talked about there are other firms that are doing it. What other firms begin to do it? How wide does that net actually get? That's where my interest is. And where does that particular, you know, lever that's being twisted and turned and pulled? What does that look like six months from now or 12 months from now in the world of banking? Are there, you know, Fortune 500 type companies of scale that end up using a smaller version of this as a percentage? But it's, it's, it may be even larger because they're much bigger firms that's the interesting part for me.
Scott Melker
Microsoft and such. I mean, Paget, what do you think? Who got a 0.55% vote? So I guess we can temper the expectations of Microsoft adding Bitcoin to the balance sheet. But Paget, I mean, seeing him do this, do you think that it's inspiring confidence in other institutions? Do you think it's inspiring confidence in retail? I point to it all the time. I say, listen, this guy doesn't care about the price. He jokes he'll be buying the top for the rest of time. When they say, what about when it's a million? He says, I'll be buying it for a million. It'll just be a bit less bitcoin. Right. So do you think that it's been four years of this? It's pretty crazy that he's sort of been leading with this strategy and it has just continued to work?
Paget Stanko
Yeah, I think it's really interesting. There's obviously the banking side, Andrew, that you spoke to as well. I think we're definitely seeing the influence on other corporations, corporates, on other, you know, the bigger picture here. I think, you know, not all companies are ready to directly dive in like he has. You know, you mentioned Microsoft, obviously Amazon shareholders had a similar vote, that one going in favor. But, you know, so we're seeing this trend for bitcoin adoption in corporate America. It's clearly gaining traction. And I think, you know, microstrategy being included in the NASDAQ itself, we're going to get that in just direct exposure anyways. Right. So a little bit of stepping stones I feel, going on. He's influencing, you know, not only on the direct parts participation there and following, you know, potentially a strategy, but you're also now going to have opportunity for those investors to be exposed to bitcoin even if they, you know, hadn't directly chosen to invest in cryptocurrency itself. So I think he's going to continue to lead the way. I don't see this purchasing, you know, trend stopping by any means. So looking, looking forward to seeing kind of how micro strategy continues to perform and the market continues to follow.
Andrew Parrish
The, the chart that you showed yesterday on Macro Monday associated with the national debt of bitcoin reserve, CAGR and the like, that's extraordinarily illuminating stuff. The numbers are the numbers and those numbers will move around a little bit. But if you're a company and you look at a chart like that associated with numbers that big and the dent that it can make, and then you shift those Numbers to the upside for your company, not just paying down debt, but increasing profits and increasing yield and increasing margins. That's something that you have to seriously consider. Yeah, I mean that's, that, that's serious stuff right there, man. I mean it, it's, it's compelling and it should give, you know, corporate finance folks pause and reason to do a real deep dive.
Scott Melker
My favorite part is the default starting price of 250, 000 in 2025.
Andrew Parrish
Yeah, well, listen, you know, I thought I was aggressive six months ago when I said, you know, bitcoin would be at 80k ish by the end of the year. I was wrong. And I was wrong to the upside to the tune of 25% plus. Right. So, you know, who knows where we're going to be at in 2025 by the Middle of the year to the end of the year. But at the same time, the numbers, there are the numbers. And again, if you flip that on its head and you're using that from a corporate standpoint and the benefits associated with it, you'd be sort of dereliction of duty. If you're not having serious conversations about it.
Scott Melker
Didn't I know that they had changed the FASB rules, the gap accounting method that had kept so many people from keeping bitcoin on the balance sheet obviously in the past when Saylor did it and Tesla and Square, well, they had to mark basically their bitcoin on their balance sheet to the lowest price it was during that quarter, which nobody in their right mind, not Michael Saylor would do. I think those laws I saw this week just actually kicked in the change. And now we had this from David Bailey yesterday. I don't know if you saw the CEO of Bitcoin magazine. Hundreds of public companies in process of adding bitcoin to their balance sheet. They need to hurry some someone wits. He watches the show. Name three we don't know about. I've heard of five just today. So, you know, listen, Bailey can be a bit hyperbolic, but this is one of the guys who's responsible for Trump's conversion over to a bitcoin maximalist. I take him generally at his word. Are we just going to start seeing announcement after announcement? It doesn't have to be Microsoft and Amazon. I mean, there's, you know, tens of thousands of companies that can do this.
Andrew Parrish
Bailey can be hyperbolic, but over the past couple years he's been right and so, you know, he's been at the epicenter of bitcoin being moving, you know, up another shelf up another shelf. Up another shelf. And then as we all know, the most famous guy on the planet ends up speaking at the bitcoin conference. Right. So you know, he probably knows something about something. And given the numbers that we just looked at, perfect time to bring up a, a tweet like that. Yeah, I don't. It only makes sense that there should be more and more corporates at minimum dipping their toe in here. And a reminder a, a corporate dipping their toe in is hundreds of millions of dollars. Generally speaking, it's not, you know, a smash buy for 2 million bucks on an OCC desk.
Scott Melker
If a billion dollar company just adds 1%, buys 10 million, that's, I mean that's a rounding error on daily volume in the market. But it's not as far as narrative.
Andrew Parrish
Correct, Correct. Well, and if that narrative turns into 10 to 20 to 100 to 200 companies doing that, you know, 200 companies inside of the, let's call it the Fortune 5000, which is a very real thing, is not out of the, that's not out of the realm of possibility. That's a real possibility. Actually. We may be not that far away from it as we speak, you know.
Scott Melker
Yeah, you know, that's what he's saying here. But you know what's funny is we used to go on this show when we started and we talk about how Larry Fink was out on the roadshow and marketing bitcoin for us and it's this like fever dream that the basically most powerful person in finance is doing that. And then we would say, what happens when Larry Fink goes out and says, you know what, everybody should just add 1 or 2% bitcoin to their portfolio. He literally did that last week and it's not even a News story anymore. BlackRock put out a note and said 2 to 3% exposure. Maybe they said 1 to 2. And then actually somebody more conservative said 2 to 3% fidelity. It wasn't fidelity, but I mean BlackRock just said that like they managed 12 trillion in assets, largest asset manager on the planet, said, hey, you know, everybody should just have 2%. You can't tell me that people aren't, aren't listening to that pageant.
Andrew Parrish
Right?
Scott Melker
You guys are going to see it.
Paget Stanko
Yeah, I think, you know, completely ° agree with what you guys are saying. I think the fact that we're seeing the topic right. Come across to shareholders attentions for all of, you know, Fortune 5005000 Andrew companies here. Right. Is clear tailwinds that we're seeing. So I think really exciting Time, you know, and businesses are just going to continue add, whether it's bitcoin or spread out into some of the other assets here. But I think the conversation alone is really exciting.
Andrew Parrish
So go, try and go back, you know, try and hyperblast yourself back to like 2019 in the last 10. So many things differently in the last 10 days. We've had a year's worth of headlines from 2019 for just in the last 10 days. Goldman puts out a note. David Solomon says we want to do more bitcoin and eth products. BlackRock says 2%. Fidelity. Fidelity jumps on top of that. Bitcoin strategic reserve. Oh, it might happen in the first day by executive order, more companies coming on board doing the sailor thing. Sailor Smash buying another billion dollars every Monday. And I've. I'm certain I've missed a few in the last 10 days. Right. I mean, that is. And we wonder. Oh, we're at. You know, I think we just hit another new high, I think just moments.
Scott Melker
Ago, probably about to hit on. Yeah, right.
Andrew Parrish
So. So every day. Yeah, it is, It's. It's incredible to watch. But when you, you take a step back and you're like, oh, we've had all of these announcements in the last 10 days. No kidding. We're at a new high.
Paget Stanko
Yeah. I mean, we're dominating headlines. Right. We've never seen this before. And so I think just the attention both general public, mainstream media, financial world. Right. We're across the board here.
Scott Melker
Do you have five more minutes? I know that we're like running up against your time.
Paget Stanko
All good. No worries.
Scott Melker
It might be 10, knowing me, but. So I want to talk about arch public in Gemini, obviously, and following that sailor strategy. But first, I want to talk about what Gemini is specifically doing, because this is kind of a moment where anyone in crypto has the opportunity to capture this really like lightning in a bottle, I think. And ahead of that, you release this incredible new campaign. I saw it in Times Square. I saw it in Miami on the side of buildings. You guys have gone really, really big with this. Go where dollars won't. So I find this really interesting because you could obviously focus on prices and investing and making a lot of money. And I think that's what a lot of people do. Like, hey, bitcoin's going to go to the moon. That's our marketing strategy. You guys have really focused, I think, back on the core sort of ethos of the original bitcoiners and solving problems in the greater financial system. It's a pretty Interesting and risky and I think bold take. What was behind sort of taking this approach to the whole new branding and campaign?
Paget Stanko
Yeah, it's been really fun and really exciting. So this Go Where Dollars Won campaign, we actually launched on the eve of the presidential election. So crypto obviously being a major campaign issue and topic, it was such a pivotal moment. And you know, as we've seen in the seven, eight weeks since, we've seen massive changes obviously in pricing and in the industry as a result. This campaign, exactly as you pointed to, is really fun and whimsical and we wanted to focus on the optimism, the fun, the creativity that is associated with the crypto space. So all of the images that were used in this campaign were actually drawn by Matt Griffin, who is the artist behind Dune, Dune 2, a lot of the Star wars work. So that was really exciting and just trying to provoke people to think about the future experiences that they may do where crypto can take them. So really this playful what the role of cryptocurrency is going to be on the future, you know, market and day to day life. Scott, you're exactly right. We launched this New York, LA, Miami, Dallas, London, so over 2,000 ads placed globally and really exciting and fun imagery for sure.
Scott Melker
It's amazing. You're sort of doing the heavy lifting for all of us by doing a campaign that's less Gemini specific and more or. This is why you need bitcoin and crypto.
Paget Stanko
I think there's an education component too. Right. Obviously taking a fun approach to it. But this is what crypto is all about. It's the optimism, it's building for a future. Obviously we've seen regulatory challenges and bad actors previously in the space, but hopefully this message buries all of that and looks to the future ahead and the brightness that's available there.
Andrew Parrish
What I think is cool off the cuff.
Scott Melker
Andrew, I'm just gonna tell you this. Andrew, personally, as friends like you can give me get bitcoin for the holidays. It's right here on the site. Give the gift of bitcoin. You can put it in an ornament.
Andrew Parrish
What I love about the campaign is that Gemini was, was, you know, put together the campaign, I'm sure spent months on it and launched it a day before the election. Right. So no matter the results of the election, there was a commitment to broadening the message outside of politics. Right. And I think that's cool. You know, I'd love to hear more interesting stories about those conversations and what that looked like and, you know, the different pathways also My shirt matches their campaign on their website. That was, that was totally strategic today. But no, it's just, it. I think it's really, really, really cool. Obviously we went there and did some video and some of the stuff in New York City, the places where it's hosted. Madison Square Garden is absolutely electric. There's all these huge video boards and they did a bunch of takeovers there. It's very, very cool stuff.
Scott Melker
Yeah, it really is. And the timing, I mean, just impeccable. You guys. Feels like you knew something very, very smart. Yeah, no, but it's amazing. I would have loved to be in that room where like, this is what we're going to do where you get the dune guy. Mammoths in space, right?
Andrew Parrish
Yeah.
Scott Melker
This is where crypto is doing crypto.
Paget Stanko
Could be a safari on Mars. You know, we're playing with fun items here. There's no kind of dynamic technology piece included. It's really up to your imagination, which is fun.
Scott Melker
Yeah. And so other things you can do on Gemini and of course with Arch public. And since we have both of you here, it's worth discussing, as you guys know, because Andrew's here every week and we talk about it. The bitcoin algorithm biology public is launched specifically with Gemini. Everybody who is a responsible advocate of our industry says just dollar cost bitcoin, stupid. Don't overthink it. Don't, you know, trade moodong with hat with high leverage. The easiest way to gain exposure to this market and the smartest, in my humble opinion, is to simply dollar cost average, like sailor, but your own little sailor.
Andrew Parrish
It is a. You know, we've talked about this tool a bunch on, on this, on this show and Gemini has been an awesome partner. They're absolutely wonderful exchange and people have loved using the tool. We are going to be launching the sell side of, of the algo as well the second week of January. The reason why we're doing that beyond, you know, acquiring bitcoin, there's a lot of people with a lot of bitcoin already that are thinking, okay, how do I. Do I want to sit at the tippy top or do I want to, you know, do I want to make some meaningful decisions?
Scott Melker
How dare you.
Andrew Parrish
And that is harder.
Scott Melker
And nobody sells it. You will be banished from the high council of maximalist wizards.
Andrew Parrish
And by the way, that is harder to do than when do I buy bitcoin? It's much harder to do is when do I. When do I trim some of my holdings? And then inside of that conversation, you now have. You'll have the opportunity and we'll put out some papers associated with using our tool to arbitrage Bitcoin to actually increase your stack on a go forward basis. And then the other thing I want to announce on the show today is in that second week of January, we will be announcing two more algorithms that will be asset specific on Gemini's platform, Ethereum and Solana. So those will go live.
Scott Melker
That was the announcement of an announcement.
Andrew Parrish
The announcement of an announcement, actually.
Scott Melker
But they actually gave the announcement.
Andrew Parrish
It's not a crypto show without an announcement of an announcement. You know what I mean?
Scott Melker
But then you made the announcement, so now we know what the announcement you announce that you're going to announce the announcement that you announced. I love that. I love that. That was very, very solid. So why those two, I guess specifically then? Right? By the way, guys, I literally didn't know that. So that the reason for those two.
Andrew Parrish
Have to do with liquidity and then obviously the fact that those are assets that people are very, very interested in and that people own. Okay, People own those assets. So when you're looking at the opportunity, we're going to launch a campaign that's going to say acquired, trade or arbitrage all of these assets. Right. And so you have to be involved in those assets to really do two of those things. Right. So, you know, as Padgett can tell you, Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana are the probably the most traded and active assets on their exchange, probably any exchange. So the opportunity in terms of liquidity to be able to do those things and to profit from doing those things are the reasons why we will launch those two algorithms.
Scott Melker
Paget, from your side, how are you viewing this? Obviously you guys are happy with it, you're expanding, but do you think that this is the way, whether with Arch Public or otherwise, but do you think that this is the approach that most people should probably be taking? Not financial advice.
Paget Stanko
Yeah, not financial advice. I definitely agree with you. Right. If it's working for Sailor, why not try it yourself itself at a smaller scale? I think, particularly, you know, working with the Arch public, having them launch this algo with Gemini exclusively is a really exciting way to hopefully see some of this retail market share come back. Right? I don't think we're fully there yet. And so having the spy capability is great. And exactly as Andrew pointed to, a lot of people are holding Bitcoin. So let's bring in the sell capability and let's expand this to other assets. You know, we're what, four or Five weeks into launch here, we've seen success across the board and clients constantly onboarding and asking questions. So, you know, letting it prove itself at this point. But I think, you know, if you haven't already, why not try.
Andrew Parrish
Yeah.
Scott Melker
On the sell side, you could just sell your bitcoin to Sailor. He's dollar cost averaging into that which you are dollar cost averaging out.
Paget Stanko
Perfect.
Scott Melker
I think we might have a little more juice to squeeze. But to your point, I always comment that bull markets are so, so much more stressful than bear markets. Bear markets, you just have like a set floor of depression where you just like sitting there doing nothing. Whole markets, you have to actively make decisions and fight the fact that things could go up beyond when you sell them. And all the emotions that come with actually having to actively manage positions, I, I find it so much.
Andrew Parrish
Will you have double anxiety? If I sell and it goes up, I'm screwed. If I don't sell, it goes down. Oh, why didn't I say? You know what, what am I doing right?
Scott Melker
So every day could be the beginning of the next bear market. Never know. Well, I love the announcement of the announcement. Padgett, it was awesome to have you on here. Thank you so much. I'm hoping we can do this more frequently.
Paget Stanko
Yeah, definitely. Happy to join again. Always enjoy speaking with both of you and I think exciting times ahead. Let's see what the new year has to bring. For sure.
Scott Melker
So, of course, guys, check out gemini.com. you can see the campaign that we were talking about and obviously all the things they have to offer. And arch public.com formerly known as the arch public.com to check out the bitcoin algorithm and get signed up and then you can be signed up on both you do I see people joking about Swan in the comments?
Andrew Parrish
Yes.
Scott Melker
I don't know if they have a sell button, but Gemini does. You can still sell. Yeah, it is allowed. That's all we got for you today. Thank you so much. Padgett and Andrew, check out Arch Public. Check out Gemini and we'll see you all soon. Thank you.
Andrew Parrish
Bye. Thanks.
Scott Melker
Let's dope.
Podcast Information:
In the December 17, 2024 episode of The Wolf Of All Streets, host Scott Melker delves deep into the soaring journey of Bitcoin, which has surged past the $107,000 mark. The episode features insightful conversations with Patrick Stanko from Gemini and Andrew Parrish from Arch Public, exploring the factors driving this unprecedented bull run, the role of major institutional players, and strategies for investors looking to navigate this dynamic market.
Scott Melker opens the discussion by highlighting Bitcoin's remarkable ascent, noting, "Bitcoin is absolutely on fire. Currently trading at above 107,000 American dollars." (00:00). He emphasizes the bullish sentiment surrounding Bitcoin, with psychological price targets soaring to $120,000, $150,000, and even $200,000. Melker asserts, "prices are likely to continue up through this cycle." (00:00).
Patrick Stanko echoes this optimism, stating, "we're seeing a lot of mainstream recognition" and highlighting the "cultural impact" of Bitcoin's rise (01:44). He points out that this bull run is attracting a broader range of market participants than ever before.
Andrew Parrish brings attention to the significant institutional engagement, particularly referencing a recent nine-page institutional note from Goldman Sachs that underscores their commitment to crypto markets (01:19). Parrish explains, "they are offering their institutional clients basis trade packages... saying we are open for business" (04:33). This move signals a strong institutional endorsement, indicating that major financial players like Goldman Sachs and BlackRock are heavily influencing Bitcoin's trajectory.
Melker adds, "bitcoin basically just goes up every morning and then it finds a range and then does it kind of again at the near the end of the day" (04:36), attributing this consistent upward trend to the influx of institutional funds and the introduction of sophisticated financial instruments like ETFs, futures, and options.
A significant portion of the conversation revolves around impending regulatory changes under the Trump administration. Andrew Parrish remarks, "crypto will just become part of the conversation overall in finance" (07:00), suggesting that regulatory clarity is imminent and will further legitimize cryptocurrency in mainstream finance. He anticipates that the broader regulatory framework will facilitate the integration of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies into traditional financial systems.
Patrick Stanko concurs, highlighting that "the conversation itself has shifted from whether or not it's going to be regulated, but actually how we're going to do so" (14:14). This shift from speculation to actionable regulatory discussions is seen as a pivotal moment for the cryptocurrency industry, paving the way for increased adoption and stability.
A focal point of the episode is Michael Saylor of MicroStrategy, whose relentless Bitcoin accumulation is making waves in the market. Melker notes, "He continues to buy billions of dollars worth of bitcoin and announce it seemingly every single Monday" (00:00). The discussion explores the implications of MicroStrategy's inclusion in the NASDAQ 100, signifying a broader acceptance of Bitcoin within traditional financial indices.
Andrew Parrish elaborates on Saylor's strategy, explaining, "he's going to keep doing it because the banks are going to keep giving him convertible notes associated with equity" (16:30). This strategy not only bolsters MicroStrategy's Bitcoin reserves but also exemplifies a sustainable model for institutional investment in cryptocurrency.
Melker highlights the ripple effect of Saylor's actions, suggesting that his consistent Bitcoin purchases are inspiring other firms like Riot, Marathon, and Core Scientific to adopt similar strategies. He remarks, "it's sort of a stamp of approval... for his strategy" (16:30), indicating that Saylor's success could catalyze widespread institutional adoption.
Patrick Stanko discusses Gemini's latest initiatives aimed at capitalizing on Bitcoin's momentum. Gemini has launched an expansive marketing campaign titled "Go Where Dollars Won’t," featuring over 2,000 ads globally in major cities like New York, LA, Miami, Dallas, and London (28:31). The campaign, illustrated by artist Matt Griffin, focuses on the "optimism, the fun, the creativity" associated with the crypto space, rather than solely promoting Bitcoin's investment potential.
Stanko explains, "this is what crypto is all about... building for a future" (29:52), emphasizing Gemini's commitment to educating the public and highlighting the transformative potential of cryptocurrency in the financial ecosystem.
Andrew Parrish introduces Arch Public's Bitcoin algorithm, designed for dollar-cost averaging into Bitcoin, modeled after Michael Saylor's investment approach (32:41). He mentions that Gemini partners with Arch Public to provide tools that simplify the investment process for retail investors, allowing them to "acquire, trade or arbitrage" Bitcoin effectively.
Parrish also teases future expansions, announcing the upcoming launch of algorithms specific to Ethereum and Solana on Gemini's platform (34:09). These additions aim to cater to the liquidity and trading volume of these major cryptocurrencies, providing users with more diversified investment opportunities.
The conversation shifts to the broader market sentiment and the increasing trend of corporate adoption of Bitcoin. Melker cites Bloomberg's coverage of Bitcoin's longest weekly winning streak in over three years, underscoring the sustained bullish trend (09:13). He debates whether this momentum will plateau, citing regulatory uncertainties expressed by figures like David Solomon of Goldman Sachs, who indicated a need for regulatory clarity despite optimistic forecasts (12:38).
Andrew Parrish counters by stressing the inevitability of regulatory integration, stating, "crypto will just become part of the conversation overall in finance" (14:14). He envisions a landscape where Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies become entrenched in corporate financial strategies, as evidenced by the increasing number of companies adding Bitcoin to their balance sheets.
Patrick Stanko adds, "we're seeing this trend for bitcoin adoption in corporate America" (20:21), pointing out that as more Fortune 5000 companies consider Bitcoin, the institutional demand and market liquidity will continue to grow, further driving up prices.
As the episode wraps up, the guests express unwavering optimism about Bitcoin's future. Patrick Stanko reiterates the excitement surrounding the ongoing adoption and the potential for continued price appreciation, while Andrew Parrish emphasizes the strategic importance for corporations to integrate Bitcoin into their financial models.
Melker concludes by encouraging listeners to explore Gemini's offerings and Arch Public's Bitcoin algorithm, positioning them as essential tools for navigating the bullish Bitcoin market. He humorously underscores the complexity of managing Bitcoin investments, contrasting the ease of dollar-cost averaging with the emotional challenges of active trading (36:57).
The episode closes on a high note, with all parties expressing eagerness for the future developments in the cryptocurrency space and the positive trajectory Bitcoin is poised to maintain.
Notable Quotes:
Scott Melker (00:00): "Bitcoin is absolutely on fire. Currently trading at above 107,000 American dollars."
Patrick Stanko (01:44): "we're seeing a lot of mainstream recognition... having cultural impact at this point."
Andrew Parrish (04:33): "crypto that is so significant that it's, it's hard to quantify."
Andrew Parrish (14:14): "crypto will just become part of the conversation overall in finance."
Patrick Stanko (28:31): "this is what crypto is all about... building for a future."
Andrew Parrish (32:41): "the easiest way to gain exposure to this market and the smartest, in my humble opinion, is to simply dollar cost average, like sailor, but your own little sailor."
Scott Melker (09:13): "Bitcoin on track for longest weekly winning streak in over three years."
Andrew Parrish (16:30): "he's going to keep doing it because the banks are going to keep giving him convertible notes associated with equity."
Patrick Stanko (20:21): "we're seeing this trend for bitcoin adoption in corporate America."
This comprehensive discussion underscores the transformative phase Bitcoin is undergoing, driven by substantial institutional investments, strategic corporate adoption, and proactive regulatory developments. With influential figures like Michael Saylor leading the charge and platforms like Gemini facilitating accessible investment strategies, the cryptocurrency landscape is poised for sustained growth and mainstream integration.