Category: Crypto

Follow Nikolaus On X Here

Today, MicroStrategy (MSTR) surpassed a $100 billion market cap to become the 93rd largest publicly-traded company in the U.S.

At the time of writing, MSTR has done more trading volume than both stock giants Tesla and Nvidia today, and has traditional stock traders like the Wall Street Bets community losing their minds.

Wow $MSTR is the most traded stock in America today.. to best $TSLA and $NVDA is crazy. It’s been years since a stock has traded more than one of those two (it may have actually been $GME to last do it). It’s also about double $SPY! Wild times.. pic.twitter.com/bUr8nycMX3

— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) November 20, 2024

 This is absolutely mindblowing considering MicroStrategy was a mere $1 billion company when it first bought bitcoin for its treasury about four and a half years ago.

MicroStrategy’s market cap from when they first bought Bitcoin to now

The big question I’m asking myself is, how and when does this end? Assuming MSTR continues to pump until the peak of this bull market, it’s anyone’s guess on how high MSTR may go.

But how hard will it crash in the bear market, considering it is essentially a leveraged trade on bitcoin? Dare I even suggest that this time may be different, and that the downside of the next bitcoin bear market won’t be as brutal as the 70%+ corrections we’re historically used to seeing?

Even with the spot bitcoin ETFs, and the notion that the US may lead the charge of nation states buying up mass amounts of bitcoin, I’m still not convinced that we don’t eventually see a massive downturn in bitcoin’s price. And I’m mentally preparing for a normal bitcoin bear market to commence after this bull market finishes sometime in the next year or so.

But back to MSTR — Michael Saylor has thus far proven that the Bitcoin for Corporations strategy works in stunning fashion. Public companies have been coming out of the woodwork this past week announcing that they’ve purchased bitcoin for their balance sheet or plan to do so, and it seems this trend will continue as the CEO of Rumble asked his X audience if he should add BTC to their balance sheet (almost 94% of his 42,522 voters voted “yes”).

Lets put this in a poll format…

Should Rumble add Bitcoin to its balance sheet?

— Chris Pavlovski (@chrispavlovski) November 19, 2024

 Michael Saylor even offered to help explain how and why Rumble should adopt a corporate BTC strategy.

Institutional bitcoin adoption is here and it’s only going to grow for the foreseeable future. As companies figure out the logic behind adopting bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset, the number of publicly-traded companies that adopt this strategy is going to explode.

Companies that add bitcoin to their balance sheet will rise above most other companies — even top big tech giants — in terms of trading volume, as MicroStrategy has, until all companies add bitcoin to their balance sheet. I try to put myself in the shoes of a trader, with knowledge on Bitcoin and think to myself, “Why on earth would I buy any company’s stock if they don’t have bitcoin on their balance sheet?” I wouldn’t — it would be way too boring.

Putting BTC on the balance sheet helps create volatility, and therefore opportunity for stock traders, which is good for the traders, stock price, and company overall. If you are a publicly-traded company, it is a no brainer to adopt bitcoin as a treasury reserve asset.

This article is a Take. Opinions expressed are entirely the author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.

Today’s modern Bitcoin exchanges have drastically improved access to Bitcoin ownership in 2024. Gone are the days of janky peer-to-peer (P2P) trade forums and questionably secure early exchanges like Mt Gox. Instead, a legion of Bitcoin on-ramps focused on superior security and user experience (UX) has made purchasing your first Bitcoin a breeze. Many of these services have even embarked on education-focused initiatives to encourage greater adoption during Bitcoin’s most recent bear market. In November 2023 Swan launched Welcome to Bitcoin, their free introductory 1 hour course about Bitcoin. In December 2023, Cash App released BREAD, a free, limited-edition magazine that uses design to tell stories and educate readers about Bitcoin in a relatable and accessible way.

What these initiatives show is that Bitcoin adoption is approaching a turning point. These two major Bitcoin exchanges, along with the industry as a whole, are discovering that easy access to a smash buy button does not guarantee purchase. Numerous barriers to entry still exist for nocoiners, which provide significant constraints to understanding Bitcoin, and thus throttle Bitcoin’s growth and adoption. As we approach a steeper incline in Bitcoin’s bell curve, throwing novices into exchange apps without sufficient education and cultivation is no longer a strategy for success.

@Vivek4real_

What once was a far simpler task of energizing early adopters and cypherpunks around Bitcoin’s clear value proposition, is evolving into a more complex and convoluted process of orange-pilling the early majority of future Bitcoin holders. This, we hope, will then lead to widespread Bitcoin mass adoption as society en masse chooses to store its time and energy in the best money ever created. For this hyperbitcoinization to occur, more people need to understand the intricacies of Bitcoin. This is easier said than done because Bitcoin still has an education problem:

An Economist Intelligence Unit study reported that 51% of people said a lack of knowledge is the main barrier to Bitcoin ownership.A YouGov survey found that 98% of novices don’t understand basic Bitcoin concepts. A nationwide survey from the Yale Center discovered that 69% of young people find learning boring.

This research outlines the struggle of onboarding and educating the next generation of Bitcoiners, most notably younger generations who have been shown to possess a limited attention span of 8 seconds. For inspiration to help solve this problem, we can look at one of the most popular mobile games of all time… Pokémon GO.

pokemongolive.com

Pokémon GO was and remains to be, a global phenomenon. This beloved app caught the attention of Gen-Z, millennials, and Gen-X alike, boasting record-breaking engagement stats:

In 2016, the game peaked at 232 million active players.Pokémon GO has grossed over $6 billion in revenue.In 2024, 24% of 18–34-year-olds in the US are playing Pokémon GO, while 49% of 35–54 year-olds are playing.

We at Jippi believe that the success of this award-winning game can illuminate the path forward for Bitcoin adoption. So we have set upon the electrifying task of building Tribe Clash–the world’s first Pokémon GO-inspired Bitcoin education game. The rules are simple, create or join a Tribe and battle for dominance over a city with your friends by catching a Bitcoin-themed Beast in every Territory.

Each week Jippi will release a new Territory to be claimed. A Tribe member will explore that Territory with their phone, where they will discover a Bitcoin Beast to catch. If they successfully answer all Bitcoin quiz questions correctly the fastest, they will then catch that beast. The Tribe with the most Territories and Bitcoin Beasts at the end of the game will win $30k worth of Bitcoin to be dispersed equally to each Tribe member.

Our vision is for Jippi to become the largest, most popular platform for beginners to gather, educate, and accumulate Bitcoin. We see Jippi as the most accessible on-ramp into the industry, where we can educate a whole new generation of Bitcoiners from novices to experts by lowering the barrier to entry.

You can support the development of Tribe Clash by contributing to our crowdfunding campaign on Timestamp. Timestamp enables investors of all backgrounds to support Bitcoin-only companies and make an impact. Our campaign is open to both the general public and accredited investors, so we would love for you to join us on this journey.

This is a guest post by Oliver Porter. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.

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Martin Gruenberg, Chairman of the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC), announced today that he’ll be stepping down on January 19, 2025, one day before Trump takes office.

I’d like to take this opportunity to tell Mr. Gruenberg not to let the door hit him on the way out.

The FDIC chair was one of the key players behind Operation Chokepoint 2.0 (as well as the first Operation Chokepoint), which included the unlawful debanking of a number of Bitcoin and crypto companies, which almost spurred a global financial crisis.

During this tenure, Gruenberg directed the FDIC to take unlawful action against banks that served the Bitcoin and crypto industry seemingly because the industry was politically unfavorable.

Gruenberg said he’d be leaving his post in May of this year, after reports of sexual harassment, bullying and discrimination occurring within FDIC under his watch surfaced but didn’t offer a date for his departure until today.

A number of prominent voices in the Bitcoin and crypto industry spoke out against Gruenberg, over the past two years. Most prominent among them was Castle Island Ventures partner Nic Carter.

The resignation of choke point Marty was bigger news than the ETH ETF. Here’s why: https://t.co/g1KVX4ASMn

— nic carter (@nic__carter) May 21, 2024

While Gensler will likely be remembered as the most disliked regulator by the Bitcoin and crypto industry under the Biden Administration, Gruenberg will be a close second.

As we move forward with a new administration that has pledged to be more fair to the Bitcoin and crypto industry, let us take a moment to celebrate the exit of Gruenberg, a corrupt bureaucrat who tried and failed to stop a burgeoning industry by abusing his power.

This article is a Take. Opinions expressed are entirely the author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.

Let’s get one thing out of the way – The United States already holds more bitcoin than any government in the world.

Follow Rizzo on X.

https://x.com/pete_rizzo_/

While this data is true, you wouldn’t exactly know this from the obscene amounts of FOMO being generated by industry lobbyists on social media.

On X, BTC Inc CEO David Bailey, has been pushing for an Executive Order by President Donald Trump that would put this in place on day one, while Satoshi Action Fund founder Dennis Porter has been stoking state-level enthusiasm, pledging to get states active in purchasing before the federal government as some act of patriotic frontrunning.

Look, I’m into the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. Yes, the United States needs a long-term plan for the dollar, one that finds it (in all likelihood) giving up its status as a global reserve currency. 

Yes, the U.S. should be actively boosting the Bitcoin market and industry. But, this sky-is-falling approach just couldn’t be more at odds with all reason.

There are no other governments buying Bitcoin, nor with any (public) plans to. The next largest state holder of Bitcoin is apparently China, which has formally banned its use.

Of the countries that are actively buying Bitcoin with intent – Bhutan has just over 10,000 BTC, while El Salvador is stuck around 6,000 BTC. Neither are going to purchase more Bitcoin than the U.S. government already has – nor does either have a widely popular money printer.

Full stop – even if the U.S. government didn’t buy Bitcoin for a decade, its stockpile would be sizable. Sure, you may argue that it’s about sending a message, about showing leadership in the world, but there are many ways this can be done without blowing political capital.

Is a Strategic Reserve more important than regulation that will actually ease barriers to our industry? That will empower businesses to actually grow the sovereign use of the currency?

Let’s not forget the horrible taxation laws that make bitcoin holders think twice before using bitcoin for purchases..

All this is to say, Strategic Bitcoin Reserve advocates shouldn’t overplay their hand – a lot can be gained just by getting the U.S. government to stop selling the Bitcoin it already has, and there are arguably bigger gains to be had, or at least much worse laws to erase.

Would it be great if the U.S. government started buying Bitcoin? Surely. The industry has political capital to cash in, but let’s use it to spread Bitcoin adoption, not just pump our bags.

This article is a Take. Opinions expressed are entirely the author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.

Stablecoins are often pitched as a stopgap method, or a friendly tool for people in the developing world who cannot handle the volatility of Bitcoin. They are framed as something complementary to Bitcoin, not in competition with it. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Bitcoiners have commonly used the meme of a trojan horse to justify many things over the years, rationalizing many shortcomings and compromises made over time as what is necessary to sneak Bitcoin into the legacy system to ultimately take over and win. That is exactly what stablecoins are, except in the reverse direction.

Stablecoins are the trojan horse into Bitcoin.

Bitcoin’s volatility makes using it challenging if you do not have the net worth to weather it, but there are mechanisms to handle this. Centralized schemes like Stablesats by Blink have been built to use bitcoin collateral to lock in a dollar value without needing to actually hold dollars. Discreet Log Contracts (DLCs) offer another mechanism for accomplishing the same thing in a decentralized fashion.

Instead we are propping up the US Dollar. Stablecoins are a solution to volatility, but they are a non-Bitcoin native one. They are the US Treasury’s trojan horse into the Bitcoin space. They do more to control and prop up the dollar than they do to “help” Bitcoiners handle the issue of volatility, which can be done while only holding bitcoin.

Stablecoins give the Treasury a new lifeline to sell treasury bonds. Foreign countries have lowered demand and sold existing treasuries for some years now, and stablecoin issuers have stepped up to pick up the slack. The bigger demand grows for stablecoins, the more of a drop in foreign government demand for treasury bonds the US Government can handle. At a time where BRICS is planning more and more to shift away from their dependence on the US dollar, stablecoins represent a vehicle to ameliorate this issue.

They also, unlike Bitcoin native solutions such as DLCs, present a security risk to holders. To my knowledge, aside from the Liquid Network, every network stablecoins are issued on come with a seize and freeze functionality built into the smart contract the issuer uses to create them. Almost all stablecoins support the arbitrary freezing and seizure of users balances on the different networks they circulate on.

Surveillance is another aspect of stablecoin proliferation. The more that dollar stablecoins are adopted around the world, without needing to politically convince any government to officially dollarize I might add, the more the US Government’s ability to directly surveil foreign financial activity expands. Chainalysis and other companies become a de facto government surveillance system for foreign financial activity, with no need to subpoena or gather records first. It’s all right there on the blockchain.

All the while, it propagates the idea that “blockchain” is a useful technology disconnected from Bitcoin, pushing the idea to your average person that bitcoin is simply an asset like gold to invest in. It creates a psychological narrative of “invest in Bitcoin, use your surveillance money when you need to spend.”

Overall stablecoins are going to be one of the most epic unforced errors that have occurred in this entire ecosystem. People need to wake up before it becomes embedded so deeply into their lives, and the financial world in general, that it becomes difficult to disentangle ourselves from.

People should be spreading and building on Bitcoin, a money built to enable freedom and sovereignty, not these cheap imitations called stablecoins that are nothing more than an extension of the surveillance and tyranny of the legacy financial system. 

This article is a Take. Opinions expressed are entirely the author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.

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MicroStrategy’s corporate Bitcoin treasury strategy is taking off. Public companies are FOMO’ing into bitcoin. It’s almost as if Trump’s pro-Bitcoin stance is giving companies the green light to stack BTC.

Yesterday alone, seven public companies announced that they have bought or plan to buy bitcoin for their treasury reserves, with one new company committing to purchasing $1 million in BTC today. Crazy, right? It has felt like a minimum of one to two new companies a day are adopting bitcoin as a reserve asset — not to mention all the companies getting bitcoin exposure via the ETFs.

It’s surreal to witness the FOMO from companies adopting a corporate Bitcoin playbook in real time. I mean, Michael Saylor has been preaching this and leading by example for the last four and a half years, and now that we’re almost at $100,000 bitcoin, companies are FOMOing in en masse.

Was it the dramatic increase in bitcoin’s price that catalyzed this surge in more and more companies adopting Bitcoin, the incoming Trump presidency, or are companies finally taking Saylor’s advice seriously after his strategy has proven to be successful? It’s hard to tell — it’s probably a mix of all three.

Beyond the borders of the U.S., other companies are also adopting the MicroStrategy playbook — and reaping the benefits of it. Metaplanet, a publicly-traded Japanese company, went from a zombie company to ranked #29 out of 4,000 listed companies in Japan by trading value since adopting a corporate Bitcoin strategy. Unreal.

Metaplanet ranked #29 out of 4,000 listed companies in Japan by trading value, surpassing much larger market peers such as Itochu and NTT https://t.co/mUgdytMRM6 pic.twitter.com/Xzf66g9o1r

— Simon Gerovich (@gerovich) November 19, 2024

Over the course of the next year I’m expecting this corporate Bitcoin adoption to only increase as the price of bitcoin rises and Trump takes office.

“Welcome to the Bitcoin Standard” — Michael Saylor.

Company Name: Casa

Founders: Nick Neuman, Jameson Lopp and others

Date Founded: Late 2017

Location of Headquarters: Remote

Website: https://casa.io/

Public or Private? Private

Being self-sovereign isn’t easy — especially if you aren’t technically-minded.

The team at Casa gets this and this is why, for over six years, the company has been helping customers secure their bitcoin in multisig wallets (also referred to as multi-key vaults).

The company was the first to offer an easy-to-use version of such a product that also came with customer support. It was Casa’s plan from the onset to be there for their customers, as this type of support was lacking in the broader crypto industry.

“The service element was what was missing from a lot of solutions out there,” Casa co-founder and CEO Nick Neuman told Bitcoin Magazine.

“People need help doing this stuff, especially for large amounts of money. It was always the plan to support customers, because it was impossible to get support from exchanges or hardware wallets,” he added.

“So, we just took a very support-heavy and user experience focused approach to everything.”

Casa’s approach has paid off, as the company has become a household name in the Bitcoin and crypto space, and has come a long way since Neuman first had the idea for a company like Casa seven years ago.

How Casa Started

It was toward the latter part of the 2017 bitcoin bull run when Neuman had grown tired of his previous work in finance and tech, and found himself down the proverbial Bitcoin (and crypto) rabbit hole. By February 2018, he had an idea for a company and entered himself into a hackathon to attempt to bring the idea to life.

“I participated in the first ETHDenver hackathon,” said Neuman.

“I went in with an idea that I called key split, which was basically taking a private key using Shamir secret sharing and creating a social recovery mechanism,” he added.

“I recruited a couple of people at the hackathon to build it with me, and we ended up winning.”

Neuman quit his job and set out to start a company around this technology he and his team had created. But word had gotten out about his victory at ETHDenver, and the previous CEO of Casa, who was the head of the company before it pivoted to offering multisig wallets, reached out to Neuman, asking him to come on board.

It was after learning that Casa had just recruited Jameson Lopp, self-described “professional cypherpunk” and now Chief Security Officer at Casa, that Neuman decided to join the team.

“I was like, ‘Well, Jameson’s going to be an unfair advantage,’” recalled Neuman with a chuckle. “Instead of starting my own company, I’m going to join.”

Soon after Neuman came on board, Casa retired its then flagship product, the Casa Node, and the company shifted its focus to user-friendly multi-key vaults, a much needed product at the time. Before Casa, multisig software was so complicated that even Neuman himself struggled to use it.

“There was the Armory multisig wallet and the Glacier protocol,” recounted Neuman.

“Glacier wasn’t even software. It was like a giant GitHub repo that you had to follow in order to set up your cold storage. Armory was super janky, too. I remember trying to use it once, and I couldn’t figure it out,” he added.

“We were the first to create multisig that was usable.”

How Casa Works

Casa offers users two main set ups. The first is a five-key vault, which includes three keys on three different hardware wallets, one on the user’s phone (which is backed up securely in the cloud) and one that Casa holds.

This was Casa’s first multisig product, which it rolled out while the company primarily focused on serving customers with a high net worth in bitcoin. Casa learned an important lesson while serving these clients, which was that even if developers create easy-to-use software, people still want an expert there supporting them as they use it — especially if they’re securing a lot of value.

“When you’re dealing with millions of dollars worth of Bitcoin, you really want to have an expert there who helps make sure that you don’t make a mistake,” said Neuman.

Casa’s other main product is for those who might not be sitting on bitcoin whale-type wealth, but who still hold enough bitcoin where a less-than-ideal security setup has the potential to keep them awake at night.

This product is Casa’s three-key vault, which the company brought to market in early 2019. It includes a key on a hardware wallet, a key on the user’s phone (which can be swapped out for another key on a second hardware wallet if the user prefers) and a key that Casa holds.

Casa began offering this setup because it “always wanted to be able to offer great security and usability to as many people as possible,” according to Neuman.

New Casa Services And Features

In the past year, Casa has further broadened the services it offers.

Two weeks ago, it announced its Enterprise Plan, which enables companies to more easily secure their bitcoin treasuries.

“We’ve had businesses using Casa for self-custody for years, but they were always using our retail plans and just making it work,” explained Neuman.

“We changed that, though, because I think corporate treasuries holding bitcoin has been popularized by MicroStrategy. We actually see that as a growing trend that’s worth taking advantage of, and we’re hearing from more Bitcoin companies that are storing bitcoin on their balance sheet that they need help with security,” he added.

This summer, Casa also began enabling users to replace hardware wallets used in their vaults with YubiKeys.

“We see people struggle with hardware wallets all the time, and so we were thought ‘How can we make this simpler?’” said Neuman. “We pieced together a couple of new pieces of technology that have passkey and and YubiKey key capabilities and were able to build something that hadn’t been done before.”

And in March, Casa launched Casa Inheritance, a service that makes it easier for the loved ones of Casa users to access the bitcoin secured in the vaults in the event of a user’s death.

“With Inheritance, we heard from our customers all the time ‘Okay, I feel good about my Casa setup, but I’m worried about what happens if I die,’” explained Neuman. “So, we built that feature to make it super easy for their family to recover the bitcoin in case the main account holder dies.”

Normalizing Multisig

Despite all of the work Casa has done in the last six years, some still have an emotional block when it comes to switching to a multisig setup. Whether it’s because this type of wallet format was more difficult to enable years ago or because it’s understandably anxiety-provoking to make changes to one’s bitcoin security, people seem to drag their feet when it comes to using a multisig setup — even if they really want to — according to Neuman.

“They hear the word ‘multisig’ and they’re like, ‘That’s too hard,’” explained Neuman. “What they don’t realize is that to get started with multisig with Casa, you can use your same hardware wallet, and it is literally the same amount of effort as using a hardware wallet, but you significantly improve your security by doing it.”

Neuman thinks that more people will come around and that multisig will become more widely adopted, especially during a bull market.

“It takes the price of bitcoin going up where people suddenly have more value to secure,” said Neuman. “And it takes people hearing from their friends ‘Yeah, I’m doing multisig and it’s not as hard as it sounds.”

For those that do get the urge to try Casa, the company is allowing people to try the service at no charge for a month.

Neuman feels that as more users come on board, it will not only benefit them, but potentially the industry at large as well.

“If we can make it out of this bull market without another massive blow up like FTX because we’ve helped more people self-custody in a way that they feel good about, that feels like a real win to me.”

If you have been following Bitcoin news today, like I have, you can not be more bullish on Bitcoin. Seriously, what a time to be alive!

Just today:

MicroStrategy purchased another 51,780 BTC for $4.6 billion and announced its plans to raise $1.75 billion to buy more bitcoinSemler Scientific bought another 215 BTC for $17.7 millionGenius Group launched its Bitcoin treasury by purchasing 110 BTC for $10 millionMARA Holdings announced a $700 million raise to buy more BTC Metaplanet issued ¥1.75B debt offering to buy more BTCGlobal healthcare group Cosmos Health adopted BTC as a treasury reserve asset

Insane, right?

The corporate Bitcoin adoption is going absolutely parabolic. The race among public companies to stack the most satoshis has kicked into hyperdrive.

Some other news:

Donald Trump is meeting with Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and is expected to discuss appointmentsDonald Trump’s media $DJT in talks to purchase crypto trading platform BakktOptions trading on BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF could be listed as soon as tomorrow

It’s only Monday, and my head is already spinning! With this tidal wave of positive adoption, I’d be downright shocked if we don’t blast through $100,000 per Bitcoin this week.

I expect a flood of more bullish news and serious FOMO buying pressure this week. Seriously, tighten your seatbelts, folks—with this momentum, Bitcoin hitting a hundred grand is coming sooner than you imagined!

This article is a Take. Opinions expressed are entirely the author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.

Follow Frank on X.

A co-worker recently told me about NiHowdy, a platform that helps you save on prescription medication while earning bitcoin rewards in the process.

For context, I’m a fan of bitcoin rewards programs like Fold, which let you earn bitcoin for making everyday purchases (I can’t help but appreciate deals like this — I grew up with a coupon-clipping mom.) I also like that NiHowdy differentiates itself from other bitcoin rewards companies by offering a discount on a product.

While I’ve yet to use NiHowdy, it seems fairly simple to do so. You simply sign up through the company’s website, where you’ll obtain either a discount card or a QR code that can be scanned at selected pharmacies. You can also use the website to compare prices and find the cheapest locations to purchase prescription medication (the company is also working on a mail-order service).

When you pay for your prescription, you’ll earn 3% back in bitcoin, which automatically gets deposited into your Coinbase account. (While I’d prefer NiHowdy had partnered with a different exchange, as I don’t like how Coinbase partners with government agencies to surveil transactions, this isn’t a deal breaker for me.)

NiHowdy sees itself as fighters of Big Pharma…

At Nihowdy, we’re not just a prescription savings platform. We’re warriors in the battle against big pharma, fighting for your right to reclaim the savings that are rightfully yours. #NiHowdy #PrescriptionSavings

Join us in reclaiming the savings that belongs to you. 💪💊 pic.twitter.com/rTP3MgUWLZ

— NiHowdy (@nihowdyrx) May 31, 2024

…which I’d say is a bit of a stretch, but it does seem to provide a good way to save money on potentially burdensome prescription drug costs while at the same time stacking sats.

The ultimate hack here would be if you could use your Fold debit card to pay for your prescriptions, earning some extra sats on top of the 3% back in sats you earn through NiHowdy.

If that’s possible, I might get so pumped that I’ll need to go and refill my sedative prescription.

This article is a Take. Opinions expressed are entirely the author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.

In anticipation of a solo exhibition by artist Nardo at Bitcoin Mena, in collaboration with AOTM Gallery, I sat down with him to explore the intersections of memes, mythologies, and digital culture. Nardo’s work navigates the intriguing space between the tangible form of traditional painting and the fleeting nature of meme culture—two seemingly contrasting mediums that are evolving in tandem with Bitcoin.

The title of your exhibition, Fresh Impact, and the centerpiece painting, Sandwich Artist, both reference Subway-related memes. Notably, Subway became the first fast-food chain to accept bitcoin in 2013—a moment documented by Andrew Torba, who famously used bitcoin to buy a $5 sub in Allentown, Pennsylvania (an ironic detail, given that Torba is now CEO of the social network Gab). This early mix of Bitcoin and meme culture sparked humorous reflections on “spending generational wealth” on footlongs and highlighted themes of currency value over time, as the dollar’s purchasing power wanes while bitcoin’s grows. How does this Subway meme resonate with you, and how does it shape your approach to painting in an increasingly digital age?

I think there is something to be said about quick consumption in contemporary culture—whether it’s fast food footlong subs or internet memes. The attention span of human senses has diminished to bursts of repeated dopamine, where selecting your type of bread, meats, and toppings becomes the most exciting part of your afternoon. Then comes the tireless effort of finishing 12 inches of processed food matter. You repeat this over and over because it’s convenient, and maybe next time, you’ll excite yourself by swapping cheddar for provolone.

However, Subway has developed a systematic experience that feels eternal. Memes and internet behavior function in a similar way. The ephemeral consumption of entertaining or humorous memes acts as the dopamine hit—we share them with friends, they spread at rapid speeds, and then they often die off, leading us to move on to the next. Yet, the success of memes also lies in their systems: cultural iconography, bold fonts superimposed onto captivating imagery, hyper-sharpened visuals, deep-fried aesthetics, or low effort applications. Memes rely on visual and cultural layers—bread, meat, and toppings.

I think, as it relates to Bitcoin, we should really confront its experiential nature in the exact moment of exchange. To have purchased a footlong for $5 worth of Bitcoin in 2013, only to view it today in 2024 as ~$4,300, is both absurd and somewhat painful—but the experience is eternal. The very act of using digital internet money in exchange for physical, consumable goods feels almost alchemical.

Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins coined the term “memes” to describe units of cultural transmission, likening their spread to gene replication. Memes also resemble viruses in how they propagate through social networks, blurring the lines between genes and viruses as both can integrate into DNA and influence evolution. You and I have joked that memes—and memecoins—are akin to the fast food of digital culture, serving as cybernetic junk food or street drugs. Do you consider memes to be a low art form? Is the buildup of studio trash made famous by painter Francis Bacon or the outlandish waste and detritus of Dash Snow’s 2007 “hamster nest” installation somehow related? What are your thoughts on contemporary artists like Christine Wang, who replicates notable memes in her recent painting exhibition, “Cryptofire Degen,” at The Hole in New York? What happens when a digital meme becomes a physical painting? 

This all ties back to what I discussed earlier—I am interested in slowing down the process of consumption. To meticulously hand-paint a meme in oil and present it as such can be a little jarring. Similarly, considering trash as form or content, rather than something to be discarded, fascinates me.

After the user has consumed their lunch and doom-scrolled through countless memes on Twitter, what remains as the detritus of all that? The whole experience can feel like nullifying brain rot—a diminishing of structure and existence within passive chaos. Perhaps, though, that is the liminal mindset necessary to birth the most viral ideas.

My introduction to cybernetics came from Japanese animation series like Ghost in the Shell (1995-2014), which explore cyberpunk themes such as internet-connected minds, hackers, and cyber viruses, echoing Dawkins’ ideas about memes and cultural transmission. The series highlights concepts like “ghost-hacking” and “thought viruses,” which replicate across networks and influence societal behavior, aligning with Dawkins’ notion of self-replicating cultural units. Given your recent exploration of the “skibidi toilet” meme phenomenon, what insights have you gained about how this meme has propagated across social networks and shaped the collective consciousness of younger audiences?

The Ghost in the Shell connection isn’t far removed from the world as we know it now. Much like the premise of that “fiction,” our fleshy brains are nestled within a cybernetic façade of digital personas and communications. We practically live vicariously through a digitized shadow-self—a projection of what we think we could become. This aligns with why I often say, “You become what you meme.”

I am deeply intrigued by the phenomenon of American youth becoming obsessed with new memes that older generations are unable to compute, such as Skibidi Toilet. I think it is in this fracturing of sensibility that new languages are born, while old mythologies are repackaged in contemporary ways. Skibidi Toilet is the Iliad of the Internet.

Beyond Ghost in the Shell’s exploration of cybernetics, the seminal anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion intersects with the Age of Aquarius concept through its themes of interconnectedness and collective consciousness. The series delves into the merging of individual identities, echoing how “hive mind” behaviors in contemporary internet culture reflect the rapid influence of shared information and memes. In your artwork Sandwich Artist, you highlight the tension between individual artistry and the pressures of representing a faceless brand. How have you observed this shift over time, and how can artists engage with collective ideas while preserving their individuality in today’s digital culture?

The Sandwich Artist piece utilizes a well-known meme template, yet through various digital alterations—specifically the literal scribbling out of pre-existing text—it takes on the feel of graffiti and eventually becomes my own. I like this piece for how it represents an individual manifesto of my work and reflects how I think about my artistry as a whole. Sure, consistent branding and aesthetics are great for sales if done right, but I’m more interested in how my work exists within a long enough historical timeline. The hive mind desires a brand to rally behind, yet history yearns for individual artistry.

We’ve discussed the term “subway” in relation to submarine sandwiches, but it also evokes the idea of underground transportation. Japan famously studied mycelial growth patterns to optimize its subway and train systems. Similar to fungi, memes propagate and connect individuals in a vast, decentralized network, evolving as they move from one “host” to another. This fungal comparision highlights how memes adapt and spread dynamically, mirroring natural systems of growth and communication. How do you think artists can consciously navigate this memetic landscape of propagation, host vessels, and network dynamics?

The lifespan of most internet memes moves so rapidly that it’s difficult to grasp them before they vanish into a shallow grave. Among the few that manage to take hold of the collective consciousness, I find it fascinating to analyze how they connect to humanity’s past on a metaphysical level. Trends and symbols have remained consistent throughout human history; they simply resurface in different forms as time passes.

Efficient memes rely on efficient systems for delivering information. As artists, we should remain conscious of history and metaphysical symbolism, as this awareness can help us uncover our own primordial self through the mirror of memes.