Guest
Ryan Selkis
Episode 59: Scale Like Crazy
- Strategy completed a $1.5 billion repurchase of 2029 convertible notes at an 8% discount, reducing its debt cliff maturity and lowering the Bitcoin price floor (from $9,500 to $7,500) at which liabilities would exceed assets. - Strive acquired 1,109 Bitcoin in one week for $85.4 million, bringing total holdings to 16,500 Bitcoin (~$1.2 billion), making it the seventh-largest public Bitcoin holder. Company maintains 45% amplification with zero debt. - Strive will launch daily dividends on June 16th, replacing monthly payments. This marks the first implementation of business-day dividend payments in the sector and is expected to reduce volatility and unlock new DeFi use cases. - SEDA (Strive's preferred equity product) achieved a 3.74 Sharpe ratio over 30 days and traded 30% of STRC's volume despite holding 1/50th the Bitcoin, signaling strong demand for yield-focused instruments. - New Federal Reserve Chair Warsh took office and faces an impossible balancing act: raising rates risks debt refinancing crisis; cutting rates risks inflation; holding flat maintains status quo but doesn't address structural debt problems. - Ecosystem cooperation: hosts emphasize Strategy and Strive are complementary rather than competitive; multiple issuers of digital credit products strengthen the entire market and enable wider capital flows into Bitcoin.
Ryan Selkis: Building Accountability in Crypto
- Messari's mission to establish **data transparency and disclosure standards** in crypto, addressing the lack of standardized information about token supply, vesting, and treasury movements. - The concept of **token curator registries** using economic incentives (staked deposits) to enforce event-driven disclosures, creating reputational and financial pressure on projects to maintain transparency. - Bitcoin's fungibility problem: absence of privacy features creates a two-tier system of "virgin" and "tainted" coins, potentially threatening equal treatment and censorship resistance over time. - The role of **influence in crypto markets**—Twitter verification, investor logos, and social reputation disproportionately move prices in an immature market lacking fundamental use cases and liquidity. - Crypto adoption remains speculative and narrative-driven; most payment tokens face collapse if they lack reservation demand, and institutional adoption may stall without clear regulatory pathways and market fundamentals. - Breaking into crypto professionally requires **consistent, high-quality public writing** (2+ years) rather than hype-chasing; reputation and network-building on Twitter are more valuable than credentials.