Discussion on Bitcoin and Digital Assets

Great to be back.

So when they were a seller for the first time in a while, strategy that is, that got a lot

of notice.

Do you think that started something?

I think it definitely started something.

And I think the challenge is it added some excitement on the way up and now that's compounding

on the way down as well.

And so as we have seen, crypto is going to go through its cycles, many asset classes

do that.

I think because they were using leverage, you know, they, Michael Saylor would characterize

it differently than leverage per se, but at the end of the day, it was leverage.

And then you start to see that in a place that can actually compound negatively.

I mean, seeing their, uh, the particular thing they have pegged at a hundred now trade, I

think 25% below par is a pretty damning indictment.

And I don't think that's helped the market.

Yeah.

Ticker, if the booth is wondering, that would be STRC, which we're watching closely.

I mean, there have been, there's been a lot of ink spilled on how Saylor protects the

preferred, protects the currency and protects.

the equity, do you think one should come first?

Look, I actually think what should come first

is focusing on what's gonna drive long-term value.

And I think that financial engineering

does not drive long-term value.

I said actually on CNBC five or six years ago

that I thought the long-term value of any digital asset

is gonna be driven by utility.

And if it's solving a problem at scale for real customers,

you're gonna see liquidity, you're gonna see demand,

you're gonna see trust in that asset.

Those things compound in a positive way.

And I think if you're just trying to financial engineer

and leverage and borrow more money.

to buy more Bitcoin. It's kind of like, you know, look, I'm bullish on Bitcoin. I think I subscribe

to the Warren Buffett expression of be fearful when others are greedy and be greedy when others

are fearful. Now is the time, I think, to be greedy. But I also think, I think team Michael

Saylor wasn't focused on the right stuff and that has hurt the overall market. So what do you think

the utility of Bitcoin is now? Well, Bitcoin is definitely carved out, I think, a space as digital

gold. And, you know, there's all kinds of funny stories about when the central bank of Germany

was moving $300 billion of gold, it took two years and billions of dollars to move it.

it. If you wanted to move $300 billion in Bitcoin, you could do that pretty straight in a pretty reasonable, quick way. So I

think about Ripple's digital asset that we focus on as kind of our technology stack, XRP. The utility there is really

focused on payments and leveraging the speed and efficiency of that blockchain in a way for institutions. And we've seen

tremendous demand. I mean last year, partly through acquisitions, we cleared $16 trillion of payments or clearing on the

prime brokerage business. But last year, the percentage of that

that went through a digital asset was close to 0%.

So the opportunity is to introduce and bring traditional finance, and Ripple's strategy

from the beginning has been, how do we bring traditional finance into the modern architecture

of blockchain?

And now through some acquisitions, we have a tremendous opportunity to bring that in.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you.