Good evening. To everyone reading about the $5.9 billion Binance hack and declaring cryptocurrencies and Bitcoin dead, two things: 1) Bitcoin itself was not hacked, an exchange managing cryptocurrency wallets and holding the keys was hacked. 2) Former CEO CZ says that he expects Binance to fully cover the losses with their $144B balance sheet. This event in no way shape or form exposed or impaired the Bitcoin network. Have a great night.

You’ve likely been hearing the term “fiscal dominance” in the news or on social media lately. If you are wondering what it means and how it affects the average US tax payer, I wrote all about it in simple to understand terms right here, this morning. You can find the full free article right here:

Inflation is particularly insidious because most people don't understand the mechanics that cause it (by and large, money printing). It de facto winds up being the most regressive tax out there, hurting the poorest the most.

Some of the most paranoid bitcoiners on earth used Coldcards. But for 5 years, their keys were quietly vulnerable. Meanwhile, ~$1B was lost to hacks in just the last few months. Total sovereignty vs. custodians is the wrong question. 🪙 Today at 11AM:

The Bitcoin treasury model has evolved. Last cycle, mNAV & common equity issuance drove the engine. That will not be the MAIN driver of returns this cycle. Strive believes having & maintaining a high Amplification Ratio is THE engine & we want more Horse Power.

If you are wondering what state of the fiat experiment we are at, it's the one where they are saying the quiet part out-loudly and proudly in a last ditch effort to normalize the only escape route the government is willing to take.

IMPORTANT POST Our industry became too focused on protecting downside risk and inadequately focused on maximizing Total Returns to the upside. In my view, the entire purpose of our structured finance business model must be to maximize Total Returns for common equity shareholders. Our industry needs more amplification. Even at Strive, where we have the highest Amplification Ratio among Digital Credit issuers, when I look at the risk embedded in our capital structure relative to our amplification, I believe we have room to take it up another notch or two. Building a rocket ship is extraordinarily difficult and requires underwriting and taking real risk. The mission requires not blowing up, but you need an engine powerful enough to reach the moon. Based on Amplification Ratio alone, I view the risk of true issuer failure from over-amplification as very low across our industry today. Amplification Ratio obviously cannot capture every risk, including debt terms, covenants, maturity walls, liquidity constraints, and other structural risks. But controlling for those risks should give issuers significant confidence to take amplification materially higher. That is exactly what we have done at Strive, and I hope others increasingly copy it. I’ve written extensively about why Amplification Ratio will be the single most important driver of outright and relative Total Returns in a Bitcoin bull market. However, I believe incentives naturally push toward under-amplification, modest Bitcoin outperformance, and the safest possible path. My goal with this post is to light a fire and push our industry to think bigger, focus more aggressively on growth and Total Returns, and push the frontier of what our business models can achieve. We have a shared mission across the industry to grow Digital Credit from a nascent asset class into a massive global capital market. That requires trusted issuers, deep liquidity, disciplined execution, and investor confidence. That is where we all should work together, but make no mistake about what will crown the fastest horse in a Bitcoin bull market: the engine. Our mandate at Strive is to build the thing we actually want to own and recruit and retain exceptionally talented people who desire that risk and return opportunity and understand the business model that needs to be built. That mindset drove our execution in building a high Amplification Ratio, helped create strong liquidity, and is also why we are not satisfied with where we are. With Bitcoin under $100,000, our desire is to take Amplification Ratio higher from here. If the Bitcoin bull thesis is right, amplification will be the most important thing. If the Bitcoin thesis is wrong, a few hundred basis points of cost of capital won’t be the difference between success and failure. The model itself will have failed. I love capitalism. I love competition. I want more competition for the fastest horse. The next 10–15 years will be the Digital Gold Rush for Bitcoin. Let’s act like it.

Two days ago, Fed Funds futures priced the odds of an October Fed hike at over 70%. But with new methodology and a weaker core PCE reading, odds have dropped to just about 1 in 3 now. "All the world's a stage..."