Exploring Twenty One Capital's Unique Position in the Bitcoin Space
Join John Furrier, co-founder and Co-CEO of SiliconANGLE Media, Inc., at theCUBE's NYSE Studio, as they engage with Jack Mallers, co-founder and CEO of Twenty One Capital. The discussion focuses on Twenty One Capital's innovative approach to Bitcoin-based financial services and its recent milestone as a publicly listed company. This discussion is part of the CUBE + NYSE Wired: Crypto Trailblazers series.
In this insightful conversation, Mallers delves into Twenty One Capital's distinct business model that stands apart from other cryptocurrency firms. With over 43,500 Bitcoin on their balance sheet, Twenty One Capital positions itself uniquely by blending blue-chip credibility with startup upside. TheCUBE Research hosts point out the potential for high-margin, cash-flow-generating products centered on Bitcoin.
Key takeaways from the interview include Mallers' vision of Bitcoin as the new reserve asset, a perspective that shapes the company's focus on building essential Bitcoin financial services. According to Mallers, Twenty One Capital aims to capitalize on the untapped potential in Bitcoin credit markets, offering liquidity solutions without the need for selling Bitcoin. Overall, the conversation highlights the importance of pioneering entrepreneurship in the evolving digital currency landscape.
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Jack Mallers, Twenty One Capital
In this insightful episode of the Crypto Trailblazers series hosted by theCUBE, Mike Cagney of Figure Markets sits down with analysts from theCUBE Research to discuss groundbreaking advancements in blockchain technology and their implications for the finance sector. This video is part of the NYSE Wired digital event, aimed at bridging the gap between Silicon Valley and Wall Street by integrating technology and finance.
Cagney, an eminent figure in fintech, shares expertise on the transformative role of blockchain in financial markets during this interview. Conducted by seasoned analysts at theCUBE, the discussion delves into Figure’s innovative contributions, including their blockchain-native loan origination and securitization process. He outlines how Figure leverages blockchain to achieve cost reductions, enhanced security and improved liquidity in financial transactions.
Key takeaways from the interview highlight insights on the evolution of the Web3 ecosystem, such as the emergence of stablecoins as pivotal to transaction processes and the rise of decentralized finance (DeFi). Oltsik states these developments signify a shift towards democratizing finance, wherein truth and transparency are foundational. The conversation concludes with a look at Figure’s pioneering efforts in creating a new financial marketplace utilizing blockchain technology.
#CryptoTrailblazers #FigureMarkets #BlockchainInnovation #Web3 #NYEWired #BlockchainFinance #DecentralizedFinance #Fintech #Stablecoins
Find more SiliconANGLE news and analysis https://siliconangle.com/.
Follow theCUBE's wall-to-wall event coverage https://siliconangle.com/events/
Learn about the latest theCUBE events https://www.thecube.net/
00:00 - Intro
00:05 - Emerging Innovations in Financial Technology and Market Dynamics
02:45 - Key Elements in Financial Ecosystem Dynamics
06:20 - Blockchain: Truth and Transformation
09:39 - Shaping the Future: Innovations in Financial Markets and Stablecoin Integration
13:15 - Enabling the Future: Navigating Disruptions in Banking and Lending
16:51 - Exploring Opportunities and Building Confidence in the Blockchain Ecosystem
>> Hello, I'm John Furrier with theCUBE. We are here at theCUBE's NYSE Studio on the East Coast. Of course, we've got our Palo Alto studio connecting Wall Street and Silicon Valley. This our Crypto Trailblazers series. We've got a great company here, just went public. Jack Mallers is the CEO and founder of Twenty One Capital, co-founder and CEO. Congratulations, ringing the bell this morning. Welcome to our studio.
Jack Mallers
>> Boom.
John Furrier
>> Boom.
Jack Mallers
>> Thanks for having me.
John Furrier
>> At the end of the day, you get the hammer, the mallet, you kind of close the market, but you guys open it up. Another successful crypto IPO.
Jack Mallers
>> Yup.
John Furrier
>> You guys are different in terms of how you categorize. First, explain the company category. I know you have a unique narrative on this. I want to get that out there.
Jack Mallers
>> Yeah. Well, I'm watching our banners fall from the New York Stock Exchange outside and it says Twenty One, a Bitcoin company. And it's simple, elegant, but it's different. And what's interesting is that we get sized up as a treasury company because the amount of Bitcoin we hold. We have over 43,500 Bitcoin on our balance sheet as we list today. And so people say, oh, that's a smaller version of MicroStrategy. We think we're categorically different than MicroStrategy because we're building a real business with cash flows and Bitcoin focused products more similar to a Coinbase. But we think we're fundamentally different than Coinbase because we already own more Bitcoin than they do. And it's specifically about Bitcoin. We think Coinbase, Robinhood, Kraken, these aren't Bitcoin companies. We see Bitcoin as the forest through the trees, the opportunity, and no one's building financial services on top of it, these high margin, high growth, cash flow generating products specific to Bitcoin. And then the other side of the spectrum, you have Bitcoin treasury companies, which are accumulating a lot of the asset, but don't have as much of a focus on cash flow. And Tether and I figured let's live in the intersection of that. We were shocked that there wasn't a Bitcoin company in the capital markets that was purpose built to give you both blue chip credibility and startup upside with cashflow. And so we're a Bitcoin company, and I think the market is going to have to take their time and digest who we are because I'm not sure they've seen anything like us yet.
John Furrier
>> Well, you're out there publicly. It's this huge news. And I think categorically, one of the big trends, Jack, that's happening, you see it, you're living it, the mainstreaming of decentralized infrastructure and Bitcoin is opening up massive opportunities for wealth creation, entrepreneurship, products. You're seeing financial products emerging that I've never seen in my lifetime. If you were a hustling entrepreneur back in the day, yeah, you get some payment rails, ride someone else, parasitic to get some prepaid cars, make some bunch of money, buy a boat, get rich, but nothing structurally impactful. There's structural value happening. Explain your view on this because when you say Bitcoin company, you're looking at it differently, not just, "Hey, I got a lot of Bitcoin, we're going to leverage this treasury." Then what? Like you guys are different. You're structurally a foundational pillar.
Jack Mallers
>> Yeah. Well, so our focus is specifically Bitcoin financial services. So we look at an industry like credit and lending. Here you have an asset that doesn't have a liquid scaled credit market on top of it where someone can get a loan against the asset. Listen, Bitcoin's compound annual growth rate, over the last 5 to 10 years, call it 50% a year, an easier way to conceptualize that level of growth is it doubles every 18 months. People want to create a cash liquidity event with their Bitcoin without selling it, without having a capital trigger on that. And so the fact that there isn't a market for them to borrow against it for different credit products, lines of credit, termed loans, we think we can live in that space. We are shocked that this is a $2 trillion asset class going on what we believe to be 20 trillion and 200 trillion, and there are fundamental financial services that no one of our scale and size is focused on. We look at a Coinbase and we're like, "What a successful business in earnings and in net profit," But nobody's focused on Bitcoin credit. And we look at a Strategy, acquired a lot of Bitcoin, but nobody's building products. And so again, it's this financial services where we fundamentally believe Bitcoin will be the next reserve asset of the world. The world has to recollateralize itself on something, because it doesn't look like it's going to be treasuries and government debt. And so we think they're going to need tools.
John Furrier
>> All right. So what's the hot use cases out of the gate? Because obviously people who are holding obviously see value in that. What are some of the things you see out of the gate that you're going to jump on?
Jack Mallers
>> At Twenty One?
John Furrier
>> Yeah.
Jack Mallers
>> Our sooner rather than later is this credit lending space. We think that there is a massive opportunity for us. Listen, Tether, my co-founders, are one of the largest, if not the largest Bitcoin backed lender in the world. Strike, my other business, we're one of the biggest, if not the biggest retail distributor of these loans in the world. So we come with an immense amount of market expertise, and there's no one in the capital markets sourcing cheap costs of capital that gives transparency, credibility to this industry. And so a sooner rather than later for us is lending, but we see the opportunities as evergreen. I mean, you're talking about a co-founding group, a board, and a management team that's been doing this for over a decade.
John Furrier
>> Yeah. Yu definitely qualify as a crypto trailblazer for sure. What's the learnings coming out of the dark times now that we have kind of like sunny skies ahead right now, smooth sailing? What's it been like for you guys? Because outside the United States, it's been thriving.
Jack Mallers
>> Sure.
John Furrier
>> Okay. What's it been like now here? What's that transition been like for you guys?
Jack Mallers
>> Listen, I've been in Bitcoin for 13 years. What some people ... I remember some of my early meetings on Wall Street with some of the investment bankers we were working with, the markets moved 3% and everyone needed to cancel the calls because things were too volatile. I said, "3%? Add a zero to that, and that's an average day for me. Come on guys, where's your chest hair?" And so for us, I plan on being the CEO of this company forever until I die.
John Furrier
>> Yeah.
Jack Mallers
>> And we've got plenty of time and we're building for the long term. We're building for decades. And so the volatility is nothing other than, listen, if you go to the doctor and they're showing your vitals when they check your pulse, your heart rate, and if your heart rate has no volatility, that's probably not good. You might not be alive. Volatility's life. It's a heartbeat. It's a pulse. And so we have no problem with that. And we're accustomed to it. And we've been successful in building through that.
John Furrier
>> The long game is definitely a great vision to have. Look at the success of Amazon, for instance. I always talk about Jeff Bezos, never really got with stock price. They play the long game and look at what they've done in their business. Is there an equivalent Bitcoin version of that? Because what are some of the numbers in your mind? Because I love Saylor's approach. The numbers are tiny compared to other asset classes. If you look at digital transformation, true digitization of our world, digital currency, it's such a no-brainer.
Jack Mallers
>> That's right.
John Furrier
>> Scope the how small it still is.
Jack Mallers
>> Yeah.
John Furrier
>> Because I think this is really speaks to the long game.
Jack Mallers
>> Yeah. Well, so my mental model is us humans collectively, so you talk about long game at high level, us as humans, we own about $900 trillion worth of stuff. So you've got currencies, sovereign debt, real estate, equities, precious metals, fine art. Okay? Half of the stuff we own, we've monetized, meaning we're using it as money. Someone owns the $10 million art painting, not because it's hanging in their kitchen wall where the toddler's going to throw spaghetti at it. They own it and it's sitting in a vault because they want it to persist their wealth through time. And so if you look at the size of the market, where humans have created wealth and all they want to do is bring it with them tomorrow and then later use it to exchange for the things they need in their life, that's about 400, $500 trillion in today's purchasing power. We view Bitcoin as going after that market. To us, this is not a DeFi play, this is not an NFT play. This is a money play. And if you're looking at a $2 trillion asset, you've still have ... I mean, the upside is enormous.
John Furrier
>> It's enormous.
Jack Mallers
>> We say often, fix the money, fix the world. I fundamentally believe if we can fix the money, we can solve half the world's hardest problems. And so that is the long term for us and what we're going after.
John Furrier
>> Yeah. It's such a great point. I mean, people don't understand how small it is capitalized with Bitcoin. The things people don't understand, it's kind of funny. There's an old expression, "People who are pioneering have to be misunderstood for a long time and be okay with it."
Jack Mallers
>> Sure.
John Furrier
>> As you say, was your chest hair on volatility. Same with being misunderstood. What would be things that people misunderstand about your business right now? Obviously, you're a Bitcoin company, you clarified that. What are some of the misunderstandings that you believe quickly will be eliminated?
Jack Mallers
>> So the focus as a Bitcoin company, I think is fundamentally different than a Coinbase or a Robinhood or a Kraken because these businesses are monetizing speculation. Speculation in an environment where the currency is constantly being debased is a great business. Because whether we all know it or not, everyone is a speculator if they are printing the money that you own. And so allowing people to speculate, all these companies, they're going to arrive at the same place. Equity speculation, crypto speculation, prediction market speculation. They're going to arrive at the ultimate place to go speculate once your paycheck hits. As a Bitcoin company, we're building the future financial services that we think society lands on in this new era post whatever this fiat experiment is right now. So we are not building a speculative world. We're not going to list any other tokens. We're not going to get into any of the noise. We fundamentally believe that the opportunity of our time is Bitcoin and someone has to focus on it and harness it, and there's no better group than Tether and I.
And so we, as a financial services firm, we're actually building tools and products to make people's lives better with Bitcoin as opposed to speculation. And again, there's nothing wrong with one or the other, but we are categorically different in that way. And I think the market will have to truly digest and appreciate the size and scale and muscle that a SoftBank, Tether, our leadership group and that level of focus on probably the biggest financial opportunity of our lifetime.
John Furrier
>> So talk about why Tether and you guys were successful. What were some of the key things? Just holding the line, staying on mission? If you look at the past, say eight years, what's transpired has been pretty remarkable actually. So it's been pretty amazing. Talk about that dynamic because shit did crash. I mean, there was stuff crashing all over the place.
Jack Mallers
>> Sure.
John Furrier
>> What was the key to success? Just fortitude, just staying on mission? What was the key to success?
Jack Mallers
>> Mission, vision, principles. Listen, as a Bitcoiner, proof of work. You cannot achieve anything worthwhile with shortcuts, with a high time preference. You got to do the work. And Tether and I view the world and what we want out of our species and our future the same way. You're talking about a founding group that was a material part of the El Salvador story. You're talking about my co-founders are probably the biggest story in financial inclusion ever. And these guys are outearning Goldman Sachs in net profit. And so to us, it's as long as we are philosophically aligned and we're going to commit to making sure that Bitcoin is well represented in the capital markets, that's it. And we're willing to stomach the volatility because we've been there and we've done that. We've got the capital and the muscle to achieve all of our hopes and dreams. And so it just starts at that philosophical and principled alignment. We're not interested in adding flame to the fire of a speculative mania in society. I don't want a prediction market on if I'm going to have to take a piss before noon. I don't want that level of hyper financialization. I want to give people hard savings that no one can dilute and print, and financial services that's going to fundamentally make the world better. And we are both aligned on that and that is all it takes at the founding level.
John Furrier
>> It's a great culture. And also you guys were eating glass, spitting nails out there in the tough times. Now that you've got the mainstreaming of crypto happening, what's your take on the path forward for you guys? Because you're starting to see collaboration with the Goldmans of the world now, even though you guys have surpassed that. But just it's next level now. So as the mainstreaming comes in, the store of value, I think that's going to happen. So I think you're on the right side of this one for sure.
Jack Mallers
>> Yeah.
John Furrier
>> What else happens? There's a lot of entrepreneurial activity, folks watching that are looking at their career saying, "Hey, you know what? I've been working at XYZ firm doing this. I could replicate that department. I could just start a company." So as you see the entrepreneurship comes in, money is a big part of that.
Jack Mallers
>> Yeah.
John Furrier
>> So, okay, I make money, I want to store money. So what's your view on the whole entrepreneurial landscape?
Jack Mallers
>> For Twenty One, when you have a team like SoftBank and Tether and our management group, our biggest competition and our biggest enemy and what we need to struggle with every day is ourselves. I don't think that there's a company in the capital markets that can pound for pound compare to what we've put together and what we will do, and we just have to do our jobs. So to be totally candid, banks that want to work with us, I'm picking up the phone, right? Institutions that want to work with us, I'm picking up the phone. But it's not our sole focus. I don't wake up every day and look around my ... We know where we're going, it's straight, and we're going to do it the right way, and we're going to move as fast as we can. And to us, that's all that matters. And we'll get to a point where some of the strategics will make more sense, we'll spend more time on it. But to us, there's such evergreen opportunity. Again, we were, as Bitcoiners, going on 14 years now, we were appalled that there was no Bitcoin company listed in the capital markets giving people the right way to participate in this technology. And so that's the mission, that's the focus. And as an entrepreneur, it's really hard to do a lot of things well. There's one simple thing we want to be the best at, and that's Bitcoin and that's it.
John Furrier
>> So you guys have to straighten out, you're going to gas it, pedal to the metal.
Jack Mallers
>> Yes.
John Furrier
>> Take me through a day in the life. Okay, well, today's a unique day. Doing a lot of media, doing some interviews. But like daily activities. Obviously you're grinding on the mission. You are taking calls. You're going to do business, of course.
Jack Mallers
>> Sure.
John Furrier
>> You're not going to take a side exit, but you're going to go straight in there, hardcore. What's it like? What's a day in the life like?
Jack Mallers
>> Day in the life is cool, man. So I'm the founder and CEO of Twenty One and Strike. So I have these two businesses that both express differently, but the same mission, which is I think if we can fix the money, I think we can fix the world. I fundamentally believe that. And I have two businesses that are expressing that in different ways. And so I wake up and I'm a big believer in, as humans, we all share the fact that we can't change the past, we don't know the future. And we share that reality. All we have is now. And I'm a big, what's the best thing I can do now? And so I wake up, I solve problems, I eat steak, I lift heavy things, I get in the sun, I spend time with people I love, and when it's time to get some shut eye, I sleep well. But here's what I'll say, if you'll give me a second. I think that human beings all innately want two things. They want to be a part of something bigger than themselves and they want to be a part of something that will last longer than they will. And the best expression of that and the most natural expression of that is something like family, right? Creating a family, find someone you love, producing your offspring, your kids, right? I think Bitcoin gives me that level of purpose and that Bitcoin is far bigger than any individual, any company, any government, and it will be around far longer than I will. And that's the blessing that I have every day is I get to contribute to the human story in a way that's rare. And I just feel so lucky to be a part of these businesses and to be born when I was. I mean, what a cool time. We got Bitcoin, and AI and it doesn't get better than this.
John Furrier
>> It's as historic as you're going to get. If data centers on the moon is coming soon, we'll see that happening in space. A lot of activity, just a great time. And congratulations. I have to ask you, what's it like ringing the bell? When the Solana ETF went out, they're pinching themselves. A lot of near death experiences in a lot of these worlds, but now you're gassing it hard. What was it like today?
Jack Mallers
>> It was cool. It's so surreal in many ways. I'm a college dropout that bought his first Bitcoin in his dad's basement. And so this moment is really special. But the speech I gave to the board and the founding group earlier before we rang that bell is this moment's bigger than any of us. As much as I appreciate the milestone for us as a company, I'm more thankful to be a participant in this milestone for Bitcoin.
Bitcoin was never built to be a part of rooms like this. It wasn't built for institutions or media, but Bitcoin was built to be honest. And despite all the attempts to take it down, blast FUD and lies about it, to destroy it's here, and Wall Street's accepting it and we've arrived. And that's what it feels like today is that we've arrived and this thing is valuable. This idea that an anonymous hero released on the internet 16 years ago is here to stay. And that was the coolest part of today is to go from the Reddit forums to ringing that bell is I'm just really proud of the entire Bitcoin community and the fact that we've championed such an honest asset to this point.
John Furrier
>> Yeah. Super. Congratulations. Thanks for coming on.
Jack Mallers
>> Thank you, bro. Thank you for having me.
John Furrier
>> Again, ultimate trailblazing going on here at the NYSE. Again, it doesn't lie. Bitcoin doesn't lie. It stores the value. And again, it's a generational moment as we start to look at the money problems being solved. You look at the future of wealth, the future of transactions, digital currency, and then future commerce. And this is what's happening in our world today. And again, we're doing our part here in theCUBE and bringing it to you. I'm John Furrier, your host. Thanks for watching.
>> Hello, I'm John Furrier with theCUBE. We are here at theCUBE's NYSE Studio on the East Coast. Of course, we've got our Palo Alto studio connecting Wall Street and Silicon Valley. This our Crypto Trailblazers series. We've got a great company here, just went public. Jack Mallers is the CEO and founder of Twenty One Capital, co-founder and CEO. Congratulations, ringing the bell this morning. Welcome to our studio.
Jack Mallers
>> Boom.
John Furrier
>> Boom.
Jack Mallers
>> Thanks for having me.
John Furrier
>> At the end of the day, you get the hammer, the mallet, you kind of close the market, but you guys open it up. Another successful crypto IPO.
Jack Mallers
>> Yup.
John Furrier
>> You guys are different in terms of how you categorize. First, explain the company category. I know you have a unique narrative on this. I want to get that out there.
Jack Mallers
>> Yeah. Well, I'm watching our banners fall from the New York Stock Exchange outside and it says Twenty One, a Bitcoin company. And it's simple, elegant, but it's different. And what's interesting is that we get sized up as a treasury company because the amount of Bitcoin we hold. We have over 43,500 Bitcoin on our balance sheet as we list today. And so people say, oh, that's a smaller version of MicroStrategy. We think we're categorically different than MicroStrategy because we're building a real business with cash flows and Bitcoin focused products more similar to a Coinbase. But we think we're fundamentally different than Coinbase because we already own more Bitcoin than they do. And it's specifically about Bitcoin. We think Coinbase, Robinhood, Kraken, these aren't Bitcoin companies. We see Bitcoin as the forest through the trees, the opportunity, and no one's building financial services on top of it, these high margin, high growth, cash flow generating products specific to Bitcoin. And then the other side of the spectrum, you have Bitcoin treasury companies, which are accumulating a lot of the asset, but don't have as much of a focus on cash flow. And Tether and I figured let's live in the intersection of that. We were shocked that there wasn't a Bitcoin company in the capital markets that was purpose built to give you both blue chip credibility and startup upside with cashflow. And so we're a Bitcoin company, and I think the market is going to have to take their time and digest who we are because I'm not sure they've seen anything like us yet.
John Furrier
>> Well, you're out there publicly. It's this huge news. And I think categorically, one of the big trends, Jack, that's happening, you see it, you're living it, the mainstreaming of decentralized infrastructure and Bitcoin is opening up massive opportunities for wealth creation, entrepreneurship, products. You're seeing financial products emerging that I've never seen in my lifetime. If you were a hustling entrepreneur back in the day, yeah, you get some payment rails, ride someone else, parasitic to get some prepaid cars, make some bunch of money, buy a boat, get rich, but nothing structurally impactful. There's structural value happening. Explain your view on this because when you say Bitcoin company, you're looking at it differently, not just, "Hey, I got a lot of Bitcoin, we're going to leverage this treasury." Then what? Like you guys are different. You're structurally a foundational pillar.
Jack Mallers
>> Yeah. Well, so our focus is specifically Bitcoin financial services. So we look at an industry like credit and lending. Here you have an asset that doesn't have a liquid scaled credit market on top of it where someone can get a loan against the asset. Listen, Bitcoin's compound annual growth rate, over the last 5 to 10 years, call it 50% a year, an easier way to conceptualize that level of growth is it doubles every 18 months. People want to create a cash liquidity event with their Bitcoin without selling it, without having a capital trigger on that. And so the fact that there isn't a market for them to borrow against it for different credit products, lines of credit, termed loans, we think we can live in that space. We are shocked that this is a $2 trillion asset class going on what we believe to be 20 trillion and 200 trillion, and there are fundamental financial services that no one of our scale and size is focused on. We look at a Coinbase and we're like, "What a successful business in earnings and in net profit," But nobody's focused on Bitcoin credit. And we look at a Strategy, acquired a lot of Bitcoin, but nobody's building products. And so again, it's this financial services where we fundamentally believe Bitcoin will be the next reserve asset of the world. The world has to recollateralize itself on something, because it doesn't look like it's going to be treasuries and government debt. And so we think they're going to need tools.
John Furrier
>> All right. So what's the hot use cases out of the gate? Because obviously people who are holding obviously see value in that. What are some of the things you see out of the gate that you're going to jump on?
Jack Mallers
>> At Twenty One?
John Furrier
>> Yeah.
Jack Mallers
>> Our sooner rather than later is this credit lending space. We think that there is a massive opportunity for us. Listen, Tether, my co-founders, are one of the largest, if not the largest Bitcoin backed lender in the world. Strike, my other business, we're one of the biggest, if not the biggest retail distributor of these loans in the world. So we come with an immense amount of market expertise, and there's no one in the capital markets sourcing cheap costs of capital that gives transparency, credibility to this industry. And so a sooner rather than later for us is lending, but we see the opportunities as evergreen. I mean, you're talking about a co-founding group, a board, and a management team that's been doing this for over a decade.
John Furrier
>> Yeah. Yu definitely qualify as a crypto trailblazer for sure. What's the learnings coming out of the dark times now that we have kind of like sunny skies ahead right now, smooth sailing? What's it been like for you guys? Because outside the United States, it's been thriving.
Jack Mallers
>> Sure.
John Furrier
>> Okay. What's it been like now here? What's that transition been like for you guys?
Jack Mallers
>> Listen, I've been in Bitcoin for 13 years. What some people ... I remember some of my early meetings on Wall Street with some of the investment bankers we were working with, the markets moved 3% and everyone needed to cancel the calls because things were too volatile. I said, "3%? Add a zero to that, and that's an average day for me. Come on guys, where's your chest hair?" And so for us, I plan on being the CEO of this company forever until I die.
John Furrier
>> Yeah.
Jack Mallers
>> And we've got plenty of time and we're building for the long term. We're building for decades. And so the volatility is nothing other than, listen, if you go to the doctor and they're showing your vitals when they check your pulse, your heart rate, and if your heart rate has no volatility, that's probably not good. You might not be alive. Volatility's life. It's a heartbeat. It's a pulse. And so we have no problem with that. And we're accustomed to it. And we've been successful in building through that.
John Furrier
>> The long game is definitely a great vision to have. Look at the success of Amazon, for instance. I always talk about Jeff Bezos, never really got with stock price. They play the long game and look at what they've done in their business. Is there an equivalent Bitcoin version of that? Because what are some of the numbers in your mind? Because I love Saylor's approach. The numbers are tiny compared to other asset classes. If you look at digital transformation, true digitization of our world, digital currency, it's such a no-brainer.
Jack Mallers
>> That's right.
John Furrier
>> Scope the how small it still is.
Jack Mallers
>> Yeah.
John Furrier
>> Because I think this is really speaks to the long game.
Jack Mallers
>> Yeah. Well, so my mental model is us humans collectively, so you talk about long game at high level, us as humans, we own about $900 trillion worth of stuff. So you've got currencies, sovereign debt, real estate, equities, precious metals, fine art. Okay? Half of the stuff we own, we've monetized, meaning we're using it as money. Someone owns the $10 million art painting, not because it's hanging in their kitchen wall where the toddler's going to throw spaghetti at it. They own it and it's sitting in a vault because they want it to persist their wealth through time. And so if you look at the size of the market, where humans have created wealth and all they want to do is bring it with them tomorrow and then later use it to exchange for the things they need in their life, that's about 400, $500 trillion in today's purchasing power. We view Bitcoin as going after that market. To us, this is not a DeFi play, this is not an NFT play. This is a money play. And if you're looking at a $2 trillion asset, you've still have ... I mean, the upside is enormous.
John Furrier
>> It's enormous.
Jack Mallers
>> We say often, fix the money, fix the world. I fundamentally believe if we can fix the money, we can solve half the world's hardest problems. And so that is the long term for us and what we're going after.
John Furrier
>> Yeah. It's such a great point. I mean, people don't understand how small it is capitalized with Bitcoin. The things people don't understand, it's kind of funny. There's an old expression, "People who are pioneering have to be misunderstood for a long time and be okay with it."
Jack Mallers
>> Sure.
John Furrier
>> As you say, was your chest hair on volatility. Same with being misunderstood. What would be things that people misunderstand about your business right now? Obviously, you're a Bitcoin company, you clarified that. What are some of the misunderstandings that you believe quickly will be eliminated?
Jack Mallers
>> So the focus as a Bitcoin company, I think is fundamentally different than a Coinbase or a Robinhood or a Kraken because these businesses are monetizing speculation. Speculation in an environment where the currency is constantly being debased is a great business. Because whether we all know it or not, everyone is a speculator if they are printing the money that you own. And so allowing people to speculate, all these companies, they're going to arrive at the same place. Equity speculation, crypto speculation, prediction market speculation. They're going to arrive at the ultimate place to go speculate once your paycheck hits. As a Bitcoin company, we're building the future financial services that we think society lands on in this new era post whatever this fiat experiment is right now. So we are not building a speculative world. We're not going to list any other tokens. We're not going to get into any of the noise. We fundamentally believe that the opportunity of our time is Bitcoin and someone has to focus on it and harness it, and there's no better group than Tether and I.
And so we, as a financial services firm, we're actually building tools and products to make people's lives better with Bitcoin as opposed to speculation. And again, there's nothing wrong with one or the other, but we are categorically different in that way. And I think the market will have to truly digest and appreciate the size and scale and muscle that a SoftBank, Tether, our leadership group and that level of focus on probably the biggest financial opportunity of our lifetime.
John Furrier
>> So talk about why Tether and you guys were successful. What were some of the key things? Just holding the line, staying on mission? If you look at the past, say eight years, what's transpired has been pretty remarkable actually. So it's been pretty amazing. Talk about that dynamic because shit did crash. I mean, there was stuff crashing all over the place.
Jack Mallers
>> Sure.
John Furrier
>> What was the key to success? Just fortitude, just staying on mission? What was the key to success?
Jack Mallers
>> Mission, vision, principles. Listen, as a Bitcoiner, proof of work. You cannot achieve anything worthwhile with shortcuts, with a high time preference. You got to do the work. And Tether and I view the world and what we want out of our species and our future the same way. You're talking about a founding group that was a material part of the El Salvador story. You're talking about my co-founders are probably the biggest story in financial inclusion ever. And these guys are outearning Goldman Sachs in net profit. And so to us, it's as long as we are philosophically aligned and we're going to commit to making sure that Bitcoin is well represented in the capital markets, that's it. And we're willing to stomach the volatility because we've been there and we've done that. We've got the capital and the muscle to achieve all of our hopes and dreams. And so it just starts at that philosophical and principled alignment. We're not interested in adding flame to the fire of a speculative mania in society. I don't want a prediction market on if I'm going to have to take a piss before noon. I don't want that level of hyper financialization. I want to give people hard savings that no one can dilute and print, and financial services that's going to fundamentally make the world better. And we are both aligned on that and that is all it takes at the founding level.
John Furrier
>> It's a great culture. And also you guys were eating glass, spitting nails out there in the tough times. Now that you've got the mainstreaming of crypto happening, what's your take on the path forward for you guys? Because you're starting to see collaboration with the Goldmans of the world now, even though you guys have surpassed that. But just it's next level now. So as the mainstreaming comes in, the store of value, I think that's going to happen. So I think you're on the right side of this one for sure.
Jack Mallers
>> Yeah.
John Furrier
>> What else happens? There's a lot of entrepreneurial activity, folks watching that are looking at their career saying, "Hey, you know what? I've been working at XYZ firm doing this. I could replicate that department. I could just start a company." So as you see the entrepreneurship comes in, money is a big part of that.
Jack Mallers
>> Yeah.
John Furrier
>> So, okay, I make money, I want to store money. So what's your view on the whole entrepreneurial landscape?
Jack Mallers
>> For Twenty One, when you have a team like SoftBank and Tether and our management group, our biggest competition and our biggest enemy and what we need to struggle with every day is ourselves. I don't think that there's a company in the capital markets that can pound for pound compare to what we've put together and what we will do, and we just have to do our jobs. So to be totally candid, banks that want to work with us, I'm picking up the phone, right? Institutions that want to work with us, I'm picking up the phone. But it's not our sole focus. I don't wake up every day and look around my ... We know where we're going, it's straight, and we're going to do it the right way, and we're going to move as fast as we can. And to us, that's all that matters. And we'll get to a point where some of the strategics will make more sense, we'll spend more time on it. But to us, there's such evergreen opportunity. Again, we were, as Bitcoiners, going on 14 years now, we were appalled that there was no Bitcoin company listed in the capital markets giving people the right way to participate in this technology. And so that's the mission, that's the focus. And as an entrepreneur, it's really hard to do a lot of things well. There's one simple thing we want to be the best at, and that's Bitcoin and that's it.
John Furrier
>> So you guys have to straighten out, you're going to gas it, pedal to the metal.
Jack Mallers
>> Yes.
John Furrier
>> Take me through a day in the life. Okay, well, today's a unique day. Doing a lot of media, doing some interviews. But like daily activities. Obviously you're grinding on the mission. You are taking calls. You're going to do business, of course.
Jack Mallers
>> Sure.
John Furrier
>> You're not going to take a side exit, but you're going to go straight in there, hardcore. What's it like? What's a day in the life like?
Jack Mallers
>> Day in the life is cool, man. So I'm the founder and CEO of Twenty One and Strike. So I have these two businesses that both express differently, but the same mission, which is I think if we can fix the money, I think we can fix the world. I fundamentally believe that. And I have two businesses that are expressing that in different ways. And so I wake up and I'm a big believer in, as humans, we all share the fact that we can't change the past, we don't know the future. And we share that reality. All we have is now. And I'm a big, what's the best thing I can do now? And so I wake up, I solve problems, I eat steak, I lift heavy things, I get in the sun, I spend time with people I love, and when it's time to get some shut eye, I sleep well. But here's what I'll say, if you'll give me a second. I think that human beings all innately want two things. They want to be a part of something bigger than themselves and they want to be a part of something that will last longer than they will. And the best expression of that and the most natural expression of that is something like family, right? Creating a family, find someone you love, producing your offspring, your kids, right? I think Bitcoin gives me that level of purpose and that Bitcoin is far bigger than any individual, any company, any government, and it will be around far longer than I will. And that's the blessing that I have every day is I get to contribute to the human story in a way that's rare. And I just feel so lucky to be a part of these businesses and to be born when I was. I mean, what a cool time. We got Bitcoin, and AI and it doesn't get better than this.
John Furrier
>> It's as historic as you're going to get. If data centers on the moon is coming soon, we'll see that happening in space. A lot of activity, just a great time. And congratulations. I have to ask you, what's it like ringing the bell? When the Solana ETF went out, they're pinching themselves. A lot of near death experiences in a lot of these worlds, but now you're gassing it hard. What was it like today?
Jack Mallers
>> It was cool. It's so surreal in many ways. I'm a college dropout that bought his first Bitcoin in his dad's basement. And so this moment is really special. But the speech I gave to the board and the founding group earlier before we rang that bell is this moment's bigger than any of us. As much as I appreciate the milestone for us as a company, I'm more thankful to be a participant in this milestone for Bitcoin.
Bitcoin was never built to be a part of rooms like this. It wasn't built for institutions or media, but Bitcoin was built to be honest. And despite all the attempts to take it down, blast FUD and lies about it, to destroy it's here, and Wall Street's accepting it and we've arrived. And that's what it feels like today is that we've arrived and this thing is valuable. This idea that an anonymous hero released on the internet 16 years ago is here to stay. And that was the coolest part of today is to go from the Reddit forums to ringing that bell is I'm just really proud of the entire Bitcoin community and the fact that we've championed such an honest asset to this point.
John Furrier
>> Yeah. Super. Congratulations. Thanks for coming on.
Jack Mallers
>> Thank you, bro. Thank you for having me.
John Furrier
>> Again, ultimate trailblazing going on here at the NYSE. Again, it doesn't lie. Bitcoin doesn't lie. It stores the value. And again, it's a generational moment as we start to look at the money problems being solved. You look at the future of wealth, the future of transactions, digital currency, and then future commerce. And this is what's happening in our world today. And again, we're doing our part here in theCUBE and bringing it to you. I'm John Furrier, your host. Thanks for watching.
John Furrier