0:01

This is an equity based

0:04

media podcast. One of

0:06

the big questions is, what

0:08

is money? practical purposes,

0:10

it exists in a

0:13

series of heterogeneous databases.

0:15

Very different databases. Do

0:18

you believe in crypto?

0:20

Digital currency may be

0:22

an answer. It is a

0:24

high respectable disaster. There is

0:26

a quick one. There is no

0:28

second past. Welcome to the Crypt.

0:31

If you're new to crypto, we

0:33

recommend starting with our early episodes

0:35

where we break down the basics

0:37

and give you a solid foundation

0:39

to understand the crypto world. And

0:41

for the crypto curious, the seasoned

0:44

addicts or the industry insiders, we're

0:46

here to help you unpack the

0:48

latest digital news. My name is

0:50

Tracy and this week Blake and

0:52

I are joined by Mona. She's

0:54

a very special guest. She's the

0:56

queen of crypto and founder of

0:58

Web3 is a joke. Welcome Mona to the

1:00

show. Thank you so much for having me. You

1:03

know I was just thinking while you were reading

1:05

that loud I was like you guys are probably

1:07

one of the first two Australians that I can

1:09

clearly understand and I don't have to be like

1:12

I'm sorry can you repeat that for me? I

1:14

can like clearly understand you guys so it's great.

1:16

Yeah we'll dial the accent back a little

1:18

bit. I appreciate that I always dial it

1:20

back for the potty because mine's usually

1:22

a little bit strong everyone tells me. I

1:24

can understand you pretty clearly but yeah so

1:26

I appreciate you dialing it back though. Well,

1:29

let's jump into the story

1:31

trace. Let's jump into the

1:33

show because it's been an

1:35

unusually massive week of news

1:37

guys and this first story

1:39

is a really big one in

1:41

some shocking footage that has been

1:44

leaked from a North Korean rocket

1:46

because of course they have those.

1:48

We've got the Lazarus group hackers

1:51

and Kim Jong-un living it up

1:53

in a day club in Ibitha

1:55

Mona. What's going on there? I

1:57

mean, it's about time he took a...

1:59

It must be exhausting, right? Just

2:02

being that in that dictator mode

2:04

every day. Like, imagine just being

2:06

that angry at breakfast. Who's this

2:08

angry at breakfast? Lunch and dinner.

2:10

This is a much needed vacation

2:12

for him. And I really do

2:14

hope he gets one of those

2:17

spa treatments. and they are now

2:19

on a spending spree. So they've

2:21

been seen at a day club

2:23

with celebrities, KOLs, and Twitter influences

2:25

reportedly parting to the early hours

2:27

of the morning. Now, we all

2:29

thought what was going to happen

2:31

with this cash and it looks

2:34

like we're starting to see where

2:36

this is going to end up

2:38

in the pocket of the hospitality

2:40

organizations in Ibitha. Now, is there

2:42

any more details on this one,

2:44

Trace? Well, look, rumor has it

2:46

that they even have a barber

2:49

on site, one of the best

2:51

in the world, keeping Kim John's

2:53

fate on point. I mean, come

2:55

on, you know, those edges need

2:57

to be handled. I mean, this

2:59

is exactly the kind of news

3:01

that I live for as a

3:04

comic and as a human being.

3:06

These are exactly the moments. I

3:08

truly want to know when he

3:10

got that haircut. Did the barber

3:12

suggest another style and got killed

3:14

for it? That's what I would

3:16

love to know. So no mullets

3:18

here on a beith of this

3:21

week, but apparently all drink payments

3:23

were settled in crypto with on-chain

3:25

analysts suggesting that tokens were coming

3:27

from tornado cash, which is a

3:29

platform we've spoken about previously that's

3:31

used to lawn to crypto coins

3:33

to obfuscate where they've come from

3:36

and potentially get investigators off their

3:38

trails off their trails. A lot

3:40

of stuff going on here. We've

3:42

been following the story on Twitter.

3:44

Zach XBT has been releasing parts

3:46

of the story as it unfolds.

3:48

What do you guys think that

3:51

they're going to spend the rest

3:53

of this cash on? I hope

3:55

there's hookers and strippers in there

3:57

some way for them. I mean,

3:59

make it rain, bitches. Like, that's

4:01

what I'm talking about. If you're

4:03

gonna, I mean, I don't know

4:05

how you make a rain in

4:08

crypto, because it's not Fiat, but

4:10

maybe they're converting it to Fiat

4:12

and, like, just making it rain,

4:14

just making it clap, like, right

4:16

in front of Kim Jong Moon's

4:18

face. I really, I really, I

4:20

would love to see that. I

4:23

would pay for that. Yeah. Well,

4:25

we'll have to make sure the

4:27

stripers have QR codes tattooed on

4:29

their bodies in this. That's right.

4:31

That's right. That's right. That's exactly

4:33

right. They're public addresses that right.

4:35

That's right to scan it. Yeah,

4:38

I honestly think like some of

4:40

the other money that should really

4:42

be spent on and I wonder

4:44

if like, is there a guru

4:46

that's meditated with Kim Jong-O? You

4:48

know what I'm saying? Like that

4:50

man could really use some meditation,

4:52

don't you think? I would think

4:55

that his gut would be difficult

4:57

to sit down to do the

4:59

Indian pose on the floor. That

5:01

might be a little challenging. I

5:03

don't know how he's going to

5:05

do the downward facing dog because

5:07

his gut just would be just

5:10

slapping him in his face. But

5:12

you know, I think it's a

5:14

solid attempt. But interesting. Look, again,

5:16

like like said, there's a few

5:18

people following this story, so I'm

5:20

sure that's not the end that

5:22

we'll hear of it. All right,

5:25

shall we move on? Let's do

5:27

it. Next up, we have a

5:29

story here that Michael Saylor has

5:31

bought Ethereum. So after years of

5:33

being a Bitcoin Maxie, Michael Saylor

5:35

has bought Ethereum. Finally, the biggest

5:37

Bitcoin bull now believes that programmable

5:39

money is potentially bigger value capture

5:42

opportunity than Bitcoin's value prop of

5:44

digital gold. Now what's gone on

5:46

here, Tracy Mona? What's happening? This

5:48

is massive, massive news this week,

5:50

this week, Mona. I mean, welcome

5:52

to the dark side, right? Let's

5:54

go, Darth Vader. Like, I am

5:57

your father. Like, yes, let's... do

5:59

this. I love the darkness. You

6:01

know what it is? Like, Michael

6:03

Saylor, I call him Bitcoin Jesus for

6:05

a reason and now I don't even

6:07

know what to call him, right? I

6:09

think he's kind of demoted from Jesus

6:12

to, I don't know, who was the

6:14

guy who betrayed him and by Judas?

6:16

There you go, Judas. Yeah, so I don't

6:18

know. I don't know. I feel a little

6:20

Judas energy. That's what I gotta say. Yeah.

6:22

Well, look, what we do know though

6:25

is that there are a lot

6:27

of people melting down in forums.

6:29

There's a lot of Bitcoin and

6:31

Maxis out there who are not

6:33

happy. They have their Bitcoin talk

6:35

forums. Should they be renamed now

6:38

to Bitcoin and Eth Talk forums?

6:40

They are certainly not happy with

6:42

this move. That's right. And

6:44

Taylor has been quoted in

6:46

saying, a theorem is like

6:49

Bitcoin, wrapped Bitcoin, but even

6:51

better. Right, because it can be

6:53

used for defy in a much

6:55

more easy and frictionless way. So

6:57

it's really great to see Sailor

6:59

come over to the Dark Side.

7:01

Vitalic, Beauty and the founder of

7:04

a theorem has now sent Welcome

7:06

to the Dark Side meme in

7:08

an NFT, which has obviously

7:10

captured a lot of attention

7:12

on Twitter. Yeah, I think it's great.

7:14

You know, I just feel like it

7:17

was about time that Sailor switched up,

7:19

you know. I mean, Bitcoin, Orange, don't

7:21

you get tired of looking at the

7:23

orange all the time? Gosh, you need

7:26

a break. So yeah, it's nice. And

7:28

also, sailors got swab, but now he's

7:30

on the nerdy side, like with the

7:32

tolic, who just needs a new wardrobe

7:34

and a new haircut. Like, yeah, totally,

7:36

I love that. I love coming to

7:38

the nerdy side. Well, what do you

7:40

use to say? There is no second

7:42

best, but maybe... there is a second

7:44

biz now so yeah maybe it is

7:46

even better who knows oh that remains

7:49

to be seen you're gonna get a

7:51

lot of heat meal for that hey

7:53

guys I didn't say that Blake did

7:55

I just want to put that out

7:57

there ha ha ha all right let's move

7:59

on on to what's our third story

8:02

here, Mona? All right, let's see

8:04

the third story. All right, the

8:06

third story here is that Ripple

8:08

acquires Trojan condoms. Yeah. Yeah, I

8:10

mean, with a flurry of M&A

8:12

outline in last week's episode, a

8:14

truly baffling M&A twist. Ripple has

8:16

acquired Dun-dun-dun-dun, Trojan condoms. Can you

8:19

guys believe this? This is crazy.

8:21

This is an odd one Blake.

8:23

What's going on here? What is

8:25

this move all about? Yeah, it

8:27

sounds like they're really just trying

8:29

to diversify here and they have

8:31

a new slogan protection from volatility.

8:33

So Brad Garlinghouse, the CEO of

8:36

Ripple, has said that this is

8:38

really a really extension of their

8:40

mission to build a frictionless experience.

8:42

So there have been apparently some

8:44

NFTs minted soon. Is that right,

8:46

Tress? Apparently, yes. Mint one. Use

8:48

once. That is also part of

8:50

the new slogan. This to me...

8:53

So you can't transfer them once

8:55

they're minted, is that correct? That

8:57

is correct. This is a wild

8:59

one for Ripple here. And I

9:01

also heard that Elon is jumping

9:03

on the bandwagon on this one

9:05

because Elon's pull-out game is really

9:08

weak. If anyone could... Should really

9:10

be the face of Trojan condoms.

9:12

It should be Elon. I mean,

9:14

gosh, just the whole out game

9:16

is just so weak. Good Lord.

9:18

Yep. But look, to be perfectly

9:20

honest, I've never been an XRP

9:22

or Ripple holder, but I might

9:25

think twice here. I'm there for

9:27

this partnership. It's an interesting one.

9:29

Yeah, good news story. Yeah, excellent.

9:31

All right, what's up? Next one

9:33

here, this is another very interesting

9:35

story that we saw take headlines

9:37

just in the last couple of

9:39

days. The CEO of coin base

9:42

and the much-beloved tech monk. Brian

9:44

Armstrong has returned from Turkey. I

9:46

don't know if you guys saw

9:48

the pictures of him getting off

9:50

the plane. He actually has a

9:52

nice slick head of hair now

9:54

guys. He's, he seems to have

9:57

got his mojo back. What's going

9:59

on? Well, yeah, rumors of this

10:01

have caused coin-based stock to jump

10:03

10% in after-hours trading. That's amazing.

10:05

This is a big vote of

10:07

confidence, and I think it really

10:09

dovetails in to, you know, all

10:11

the hard work that they're doing,

10:14

and it's going to filter down

10:16

into the rest of the organization.

10:18

Yeah, I mean, I also heard

10:20

that Pantine has offered Brian to

10:22

be their spokesperson, which... Which Pantine

10:24

said, no thanks. But yeah, I

10:26

mean, that would be amazing. Like,

10:28

head and shoulders, I think that's

10:31

a really good option. I'll tell

10:33

you what, Queen Bice is hidden

10:35

shoulders above the wrist, so I

10:37

really like where you're going with

10:39

that one. Just like the lush

10:41

hair of Mr. Armstrong and to

10:43

see him run his fingers through

10:45

those wonderful hair plug. Wow, what

10:48

a treat. Well, I can understand

10:50

why investors are bullish. I think

10:52

this is a vote of confidence

10:54

for the company and you're very

10:56

nice what, Brian. can achieve with

10:58

the new head of hair. He's

11:00

done a lot without it. So

11:03

I think it's onwards and upwards

11:05

from here. Yeah, nice play Brian.

11:07

Yeah, I mean, good for Brian.

11:09

I want to see a ponytail

11:11

at this point, you know what

11:13

I'm saying? Love it. Oh, what's

11:15

up next, Blake? All right, Australian

11:17

regulators have finally agreed on crypto

11:20

rules and regulations. This one has

11:22

taken 10 years, ladies and gentlemen.

11:24

but all of the government agencies

11:26

have finally agreed on how they

11:28

want to regulate the sector and

11:30

cooperating in order to provide a

11:32

comprehensive framework to regulate the digital

11:34

asset sector here in Australia. So,

11:37

Tracy, do you have any more

11:39

details on this breaking story? Well,

11:41

look, this has been a long

11:43

time coming and I think that

11:45

I've seen a quote that came

11:47

along with this story that said...

11:49

We just need a few more

11:52

Senate committee meetings and a quick

11:54

rural commission and we're solid as

11:56

an astro reading. So yeah, these

11:58

guys really know what they're talking

12:00

about. I think I also... heard

12:02

that a koala was consulted in

12:04

the making of these crypto laws

12:06

and the koalas are happy they

12:09

are beyond themselves. We have consensus

12:11

here then for the new reform

12:13

officially titled it's not a rug

12:15

if we don't understand it so

12:17

this is coming straight from the

12:19

horse's mouth guys great news Oz

12:21

track treasury and Asik celebrating this

12:23

by minting NFTs on the MyGov

12:26

chain which is just such a

12:28

pivot. Fantastic, glad I kept that

12:30

app in the end, I'll be

12:32

minting one of those. That's just

12:34

so wonderful to see that Australia's

12:36

getting its shit together. Just congratulations.

12:38

Leaders, now we can be, I

12:40

think, classified as leaders in the

12:43

space. Yeah, absolutely. I believe that

12:45

they're also talking about a Bitcoin

12:47

reserve. Sometime between now and the

12:49

next halving, when this is rolled

12:51

out. It'd be great if this...

12:53

We have an election coming up,

12:55

Mona. May and I think it's

12:58

a really good time to start

13:00

pushing the Bitcoin's, Australian strategic reserve

13:02

and following the US's footsteps. Yeah,

13:04

I agree with you. I mean,

13:06

I don't know what color your

13:08

president is, but our foreign president

13:10

is very pro-Bekk coin because Bitcoin

13:12

is also orange. So, and he's

13:15

just aligning. Yeah, the colors are

13:17

aligning so well together. I don't

13:19

know if you know, but our

13:21

former president was black, so Orange

13:23

is the new black, you guys.

13:25

And that's where we are. Yeah,

13:27

yeah, look, all I can say

13:29

on that story, it is a

13:32

big relief for us here in

13:34

Australia to hear that. So fantastic

13:36

news. And I think with that,

13:38

we'll maybe go for a little

13:40

break when we come back, we've

13:42

got a bunch more short sharp

13:44

news bites. Welcome back,

13:47

you're listening to the crypto curious podcast.

13:49

Time now for our short sharp news

13:51

bites brought to you by the bamboo

13:53

app. But look, welcome back and for

13:55

anyone... That's still with us. wondering whether

13:58

Kim John Un and the Lazarus group

14:00

are really parting it up in Ibiza

14:02

or if good mate Brian Armstrong really

14:04

has had a hair transplant. Those news

14:06

stories were in fact completely made up

14:09

in just a bit of an April

14:11

full joke if you didn't clock that

14:13

one. But look the next part of

14:15

the news is all very very real

14:17

but before we do get into the

14:19

news stories we wanted to talk to

14:22

Mona who's with us today and part

14:24

of the web three is a joke

14:26

space and... explain a little bit more

14:28

about what that is all about and

14:30

why we did this news April Fool's

14:33

session with you today. Because we thought

14:35

we'd have a bit of a laugh

14:37

with Mona. So Mona again, welcome to

14:39

the show. Thank you so much for

14:41

doing those news stories with us. I

14:44

just said in the break, then folks

14:46

nearly wet my pants a couple of

14:48

times then, because it was so funny.

14:50

But tell us a little bit more

14:52

about Web 3 is a joke and

14:55

all the things you're doing there making

14:57

people laugh throughout the world. Thank you

14:59

so much for having me. And I

15:01

love the April Fool's Day. I loved

15:03

it. I mean, it was so good

15:06

that for April Fool's Day, somebody's actually

15:08

gonna ask me on a date and

15:10

then just not show up. April Fool's!

15:12

So no, it's really nice to be

15:14

here. It's very lovely. And yes, so

15:17

I've been a touring stand-up comic. I'm

15:19

based here in Los Angeles. I've been

15:21

a touring comic for about 15 years

15:23

now. And yeah, and I'm also the

15:25

founder. headline shows around the world, I've

15:28

opened for Jay Leno, Margaret Cho, Joe

15:30

Coy, Patnaz, well, I don't know if

15:32

you know who these people are, but

15:34

they're pretty kind of big names in

15:36

the US. And yeah, I started Web3's

15:38

joke because during the pandemic, my neighbor

15:41

introduced me to Bitcoin. And I had

15:43

watched a documentary back in 2016 about

15:45

the crypto world and how crypto was

15:47

going to come up. And I was

15:49

like, ooh. I was like, oh, this

15:52

is fascinating. And then my neighborhood, you

15:54

know, everybody wasn't shut down. He was

15:56

like, hey, I'm making a lot of

15:58

money in Bitcoin. Like, you should invest

16:00

in Bitcoin. I'm like, dude, sign me

16:03

up. Like, how do I get into

16:05

this? And he got me signed up,

16:07

I got invested, I read the white

16:09

paper, learn about blockchain, absolutely fell in

16:11

love. And when the world opened up,

16:14

I started going to all these gatherings

16:16

here in the Hollywood Hills and all

16:18

that with these cryptic get-togethers. And I

16:20

was like, holy hell, this is all

16:22

ran by a bunch of nerds. This

16:25

is some crazy nerd shit, math. Like

16:27

nobody in their right mind like

16:29

nobody like the average person if

16:31

you're like churning out this like nerdy

16:34

shit at them they'll just tune you

16:36

out especially in LA like I'm in

16:38

a pretty shallow city like people are

16:40

like oh my god like I just

16:42

got like my Botoss and like I

16:44

just got my baby Al they don't

16:46

care about freeing crypto like they're not

16:48

gonna take the time to learn this

16:51

and I'm like oh my god I

16:53

can like make this a lot funner

16:55

because I'd already been producing comedy shows

16:57

for a while. So I combined the

16:59

world of comedy and crypto and came

17:01

up with what these jokes. And we had

17:03

our first event with alt coin daily, which

17:05

I'm sure you guys know who they are.

17:08

They have a pretty significant following and crypto

17:10

windio. She was on the show. We had

17:12

a really stellar lineup and we had a

17:14

really nice turnout. And from that point on,

17:16

it just kind of took off. And we

17:18

quadrupled in size in like two years. And

17:20

even less than two years. We were a

17:23

Bitcoin Miami. with bit boy crypto and alt-coin

17:25

daily which is a story I want to

17:27

tell you guys later and yeah we were

17:29

we made you know we were just at

17:31

consensus Hong Kong and East Denver we've

17:33

done sold out of men's in LA

17:36

San Francisco San Diego we actually did

17:38

the roast of alt-coin daily last

17:40

year it was packed we had the mayor

17:42

of Santa Monica show up and the Chamber

17:44

of Commerce showed up and it was awesome

17:46

we all like roasted the hell out of

17:48

each other and we roasted the hell out

17:50

of each other and You know we have

17:52

tons of we have like nine more events

17:54

around the world coming up this year. So you

17:56

go to a lot of the big crypto events

17:58

don't you? Yeah that's right. So yeah, we

18:00

are planning on token in Dubai, token

18:03

2049 and Singapore, we're working on... We'll

18:05

be there. Oh, awesome, awesome, great. Yeah,

18:07

and then, you know, we're working on potentially

18:09

coming out to Australia, so we'll, you

18:11

guys pitched me that conference, so we'll

18:14

talk about that. Then we have UK

18:16

coming up, we have NFT, NYNC coming

18:18

up, possibly Bali. We're working on that,

18:21

Art Basel in Miami, so yeah, we

18:23

got some good stuff cooking stuff cooking

18:25

up. And Web 3 is a bit of

18:28

a joke sometimes. It is so ridiculous,

18:30

the stuff that goes on, and there

18:32

is so much material for you to

18:34

leverage. I tell us how you run

18:36

your comedy shows, it's just like stand

18:38

up, but I think there's so much

18:40

opportunity for those roast sessions as well,

18:42

how do you do those ones? Yeah, we

18:44

don't really do stand up. We do strictly

18:46

roasts. Ours is strictly very much a comedy

18:49

central style dais sort of roasts. We are

18:51

just there to berate each other. That's because

18:53

it reminds me of my childhood and it's

18:55

wonderful. So I'm like, you know, it's cheaper

18:57

than therapy. So yeah, when and we berate

18:59

each other and we berate the industry. But

19:01

it's all out of love. You know, I

19:03

have this one Indian guy who got really

19:05

mad at me. I was like trying to

19:07

talk to him about potentially bringing him on

19:09

as a partner. And I was like, sir,

19:11

I have a company called what-through is a

19:13

joke. He's not a joke. He's not a

19:15

joke. He's not a joke. It is a

19:17

joke. It is a very serious. And I

19:19

was like, no sir, but like, no, that's,

19:22

we believe that too, we're big fans. He's

19:24

like, it is not a joke. I am

19:26

offended that you would say that it is

19:28

a joke. And I was like, sir, it

19:30

is so like we are very pro-wep three.

19:32

That's the only time somebody's gotten mad at

19:34

me, but besides that, everybody's been very positive

19:37

about it. I think like you said, like,

19:39

there's always so much material in this. That

19:41

kind of leads into Mona and Blake the

19:43

next few stories that we've got. We've got

19:45

three stories that we're going to cover of

19:47

news the last three weeks and the first one

19:49

I'm going to talk about now and I know

19:51

that you've got some stories that you can tell us

19:53

with regards to this story because this is

19:55

the last week's worth of news but it's Bit

19:58

Boy who was arrested. So for those you don't...

20:00

Bitboy is a crypto influencer. He's probably

20:02

one of the OGs. He's been around

20:04

for a long time. And he was

20:06

arrested in Florida this week. And it

20:08

was, he's actually wanted for a few

20:10

different things. But this time it was

20:12

for sending emails to a judge while

20:15

acting as his own lawyer. And I'm

20:17

not 100% sure on the full story

20:19

here. But Bitboy had already announced on

20:21

X that the warrant was around, was

20:23

out for his arrest for his arrest.

20:25

So. This guy's been spiraling out of

20:27

control for a while, right? A long

20:30

time, but he's actually been fighting people,

20:32

organized fights here, but then there's also

20:34

been non-organized fights as well out the

20:36

front of people's houses, stealing cars. Like

20:38

it's been a really big fall from

20:40

fame. He was out from his own

20:42

brand by his partner. He was left

20:44

by his wife, but then she went

20:47

back to him. You know, so it's

20:49

been a bit of a fall from

20:51

fame for sure. For sure. was he

20:53

was at a brickway in Miami event.

20:55

He was on the lineup with us

20:57

with alt-cone alien these guys and my

20:59

personal experience with men. He's a sweetheart.

21:02

He's like such a sweet guy. He

21:04

was really sweet to us. So I

21:06

don't have any negative experience with Ben

21:08

at all. I just know that everybody

21:10

on the lineup had to prepare jokes

21:12

but Ben came in with a TED

21:14

Talk and we were like, this was

21:16

not a TED Talk. You were not

21:19

supposed to do a TED Talk Ben.

21:21

You were supposed to have jokes, man.

21:23

But you know, he was like walking

21:25

around in his gold shoot and his

21:27

pimped out goochy jacket and we were

21:29

like, oh my god. Oh man, do

21:31

you? Like God bless, gold chain, like

21:34

God bless. But yeah, we were actually,

21:36

I was in talks with his people

21:38

to do a roast of Ben Armstrong.

21:40

We wanted to do his roast, the

21:42

roasted bit boy, but sadly it didn't

21:44

work out for us and then all

21:46

of this happened. So honestly, I just

21:49

feel like on a little bit of

21:51

a serious note. I think mental health

21:53

is such a underrated issue that plagues

21:55

the world and it has a taboo

21:57

around the world where you can be

21:59

a very successful influencer and still have

22:01

underlying mental health issues that have not

22:03

been So those demons come out and

22:06

like when you become successful those demons

22:08

only get bigger if you haven't taken

22:10

the time to handle them. So I

22:12

really wish Ben the best of luck.

22:14

I really do pray he gets his

22:16

demons, you know, handled and I really

22:18

do pray that he's surrounded by people

22:21

who are going to take care of

22:23

him because it's really sad to see

22:25

his downfall this way. Maybe we'll leave

22:27

that story there on a more serious

22:29

note and move to the next one,

22:31

which is game stop. a very well-known

22:33

name and brand in the last few

22:35

years has announced a 1.3 billion dollar

22:38

offering in zero interest convertible notes due

22:40

in 2030. And this is aimed at

22:42

institutional investors. An extra 200 million in

22:44

notes may be sold within the next

22:46

13 days. So the funds will go

22:48

towards general corporate use including Bitcoin investments

22:50

under the company's new strategy. So this

22:53

one was a huge talking point. over

22:55

the last few days, similar to what

22:57

Saylor's doing. What are your thoughts on

22:59

this one? Yeah, so Saylor had a

23:01

chat with the CEO of GameStops last

23:03

week. There were some photos circulating on

23:05

Twitter and GameStops sitting on about $4

23:07

billion of cash. They were at the

23:10

center of all the attention during COVID,

23:12

where what was that? The Redick group

23:14

called Wall Street Bets. And the... Redick

23:16

Community was trying to short squeeze the

23:18

hedge funds that were shorting the stock.

23:20

So it basically wrecks wreck the hedge

23:22

funds, but it was a long drawn

23:25

out process. So they've got a big

23:27

crowd of investors that are just retail

23:29

investors that are punters, but what's happening

23:31

here again is potentially a similar situation.

23:33

The stock is being shorted to astronomical

23:35

levels again by sophisticated and professional investors

23:37

and against the fact that they're buying

23:39

Bitcoin. So I think we could have...

23:42

Saga number two starting here. Okay. So

23:44

is that what's happening? Is it? They're

23:46

being shorted again. Yeah, it's the high

23:48

shorts. have been put on Game Stop

23:50

since 2021 or something like that. And

23:52

the stock is plunged 22% now. And

23:54

yeah, so who knows? I could see

23:57

a situation where retail investors get behind

23:59

this to liquidate those shorts. Game Stop

24:01

almost feels like to me, like a

24:03

bit of a Kardashian episode, like whenever

24:05

the ratings begin to go down, they're

24:07

like, yeah, it's good. Trans into a

24:09

man. And you're like, whoa! What's happening?

24:11

Like they come up with something like

24:14

a splashy piece of news that like

24:16

gets your attention? I think Game Stop

24:18

always has like some like secret under

24:20

their belt that they're like willing to

24:22

drop like hey listen I want to

24:24

start a reserve I want to start

24:26

the Mona Fund okay I want to

24:29

have a Mona strategic reserve for Bitcoin

24:31

like that'd be amazing right just like

24:33

dropping these gems once in a while

24:35

to be like, I start plus 22%

24:37

but hey let's join us we're gonna

24:39

have a Bitcoin strategic reserve like man

24:41

good times. They've done well though you're

24:43

right though they do always have something

24:46

up their sleeve and they are the

24:48

underdog and people get behind them so

24:50

good luck to them I hope it

24:52

turns out yeah. All right last story

24:54

we've got here is the Ghibli meme

24:56

coin surge as the studio Ghibli AI

24:58

trend goes viral. I don't know You

25:01

guys must have seen, I don't blame

25:03

you, Mona, you're nodding your head there,

25:05

you saw this. So this one was

25:07

all anyone spoke about because of this

25:09

AI art style, which was part of

25:11

the new update to ChatGPT. And then,

25:13

as always, whenever something goes viral and

25:15

something gets big, it's turned into a

25:18

meme. This meme coin then hits... Before

25:20

that trace, it would allow people to

25:22

upload photos and then regenerate it into

25:24

the style of Studio Ghibli films. And

25:26

this went crazy, it was all around

25:28

social media and then what happened. Yeah,

25:30

so then obviously, like I said, these

25:33

guys making these memes will make a

25:35

meme out of anything, this meme went

25:37

up to 27.5 million. market cap in

25:39

just a couple of days. It's popped

25:41

on to a couple of the big

25:43

exchanges now. And yeah, it's just going

25:45

gangbusters. But I think Blake, you were

25:47

saying that people weren't too happy about

25:50

Studio Ghibli being used at the moment.

25:52

Yeah, because the Studio Ghibli up, as

25:54

I understand it, was all done by

25:56

hand. And this generates within a second.

25:58

So it kind of rips off or

26:00

takes away from the original art form.

26:02

But I also see here trace. This

26:05

traded more volume than F on OX

26:07

Fund. Is this where you can leverage

26:09

mean coins at 5X? That is ridiculous.

26:11

I did not know that you could

26:13

do that. And that is the most

26:15

irresponsible thing I've ever heard of. And

26:17

I'm going to go have a go.

26:19

But did you see? Like everyone was

26:22

using that gibly converter. Even E Long

26:24

Musk and Michael Saylor jumped on board.

26:26

I saw Scotty Pippin put one up

26:28

this morning. everyone's turning. I think, you

26:30

know, Craig's not on the podcast today,

26:32

but he was the first one I

26:34

saw that turned himself, obviously, into a

26:37

picture late last week. And so, yeah,

26:39

it's interesting. Did you use it at

26:41

all, Mona? I had not. I am

26:43

actually intrigued and I want to do

26:45

it. I was actually looking at the

26:47

original photos of the people and then

26:49

I looked at their Ghibli and I

26:51

was like, wow, everybody's white version of

26:54

me. like that's some ice literally will

26:56

switch ethnicities because of Ghibli AI this

26:58

is amazing this is great yeah the

27:00

non-orange trump we would get as well

27:02

oh yeah yeah you actually see his

27:04

hair grow out and all that tan

27:06

just disappear you know that chido dust

27:09

he ruts on his face every morning

27:11

yeah you see all that just well

27:13

look that is it for all the

27:15

news and fight April full news we've

27:17

got this week so we'll be back

27:19

next week with all of the real

27:21

news because there's always so much news

27:23

in this space but we just wanted

27:26

to say thank you so much for

27:28

Mona for into this episode. We've been

27:30

looking forward to this one so much

27:32

for the last few weeks knowing that

27:34

it's happening. It's been such a wild

27:36

ride to do it. But before we

27:38

finish, do you want to tell us

27:41

a little bit more about what you've

27:43

got going on? We really hope to

27:45

see you in Australia sometime soon. So

27:47

listen out folks when we tell you

27:49

might give you a heads up for

27:51

when that might be, but anything else

27:53

you've got going on, you want to

27:55

tell us about? Yeah, I mean, first

27:58

fall, thank you so much for having

28:00

me, thank you so much for having

28:02

me, for having me, for having me,

28:04

for having me, for having me, this,

28:06

this, for having me, for having me,

28:08

this was a lot of fun, this

28:10

was a lot of fun, this was

28:13

a lot of fun, this was a

28:15

lot of fun, this was a lot

28:17

of fun, this was a lot of

28:19

fun, and a lot of fun, and

28:21

a lot of fun, and a lot

28:23

of fun, and thank you, and thank

28:25

I would love to come to Australia.

28:27

I am absolutely petrified of your snakes

28:30

and your spiders. I have seen the

28:32

tech talk videos and it scares the

28:34

absolute shit out of me. I would

28:36

still like to come if there is

28:38

a good, maybe like a pesticide spray

28:40

or something I could bring with me

28:42

to like just, you know, fight them

28:45

off. We have apparently outer edge NFTLA

28:47

coming up. So in another two weeks,

28:49

we're going to have an event here

28:51

in LA, we're going to have a

28:53

crypto comedy roast. I mentioned token 2049,

28:55

Dubai. We are in talks with a

28:57

few companies to be there to have

28:59

a presence there. We are also in

29:02

talks with going to be there for

29:04

Bitcoin Vegas. So for just that one,

29:06

I'm going to actually have some cheeto

29:08

dust. wrapped on my face to match

29:10

the orange, you know, to match, in

29:12

honor of our president. Then in June,

29:14

we have Meen Khan and Lisbon, and

29:17

F10 Weiss. We got Singapore coming up,

29:19

we got work on our Art Basel,

29:21

Zebu Live in UK, so we have

29:23

a whole bunch. You guys can check

29:25

out our website at Web3 is a

29:27

joke.io. You can give us a follow

29:29

on YouTube, you can see all our

29:31

content from all our previous events there.

29:34

All the funny clips and stuff. We're

29:36

also on Instagram and on TikDok with

29:38

all the same web 3 is a

29:40

joke. So yeah, you guys can check

29:42

us out. We'll get all those details

29:44

and put them in the show notes

29:46

ladies and gentlemen so you can access

29:49

it easily. I can't wait to get

29:51

to one of your gigs this year.

29:53

I'm sure I'll be at one of

29:55

those conferences. Thanks again for coming on

29:57

the showmen and very much appreciated. stay

29:59

curious, stay connected. You can do this

30:01

by joining our crypto curious Facebook group

30:03

or our Instagram page. We have a

30:06

weekly crypto newsletter to keep you up

30:08

to date, make sure you sign up

30:10

to that. Be also sure to subscribe wherever

30:12

you're listening to this podcast right now,

30:14

hit that subscribe button. If you're looking

30:16

to dollar cost average into the crypto

30:18

market, have a look at the bamboo

30:20

app and don't forget to use the

30:22

code. Curious for $10. of free Bitcoin

30:24

to get you started. There will be

30:27

a link in the show notes below

30:29

along with all those other links to

30:31

find out more about how you can

30:33

be involved with Mona. We'll be back

30:35

next week. Bye for now. Bye guys.