Triggered - Donald Trump Jr - From Crypto to AI, There's a New American Energy Revival, Interviews with Asher Genoot & Sen McCormick

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July 24, 2025 - Triggered - Donald Trump Jr

01:11:58

From Crypto to AI, There's a New American Energy Revival, Interviews with Asher Genoot & Sen McCormick | TRIGGERED Ep.261

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	Into all things AI, tech, and crypto with Bitcoin mining pioneer Aster Janute from American Bitcoin and HUD8.
	We'll also then have Pennsylvania Senator Dave McCormick to talk about all the incredible things happening in the Keystone State and the recent AI energy summit there.
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	Joining me now, CEO of HUT 8, co-founder and board member of American Bitcoin, Asher Janute.
	Asher, how's it going, man?
	It's going great.
	Excited to be on.
	Well, yeah, I got to, you know, full disclosure, I'm also involved in American Bitcoin, but we had a lot going on in the last week as it relates to crypto.
	You obviously had the passage of the Genius Act.
	But before we get into those things, maybe can you introduce yourself to the audience, lay out sort of your mission within the Bitcoin ecosystem and perhaps crypto in general, where this story starts for you and where's it going?
	Yeah, definitely.
	Thanks, Don.
	So we started this business called US Bitcoin Corp back in 2020.
	My co-founder was one of the earliest miners out there, started mining Bitcoin really back in 2014 and 15.
	And the industry has grown and evolved.
	And ultimately, what we fell in love with is Bitcoin feels like this new digital gold is what people call it.
	But really what it's backed by is real large physical infrastructure.
	And so where we found our niche and where we've really built our careers in this industry is we've connected real physical assets to the digital ecosystem, to the crypto ecosystem.
	And so our data centers are the ones that are able to verify the blockchain and are able to create security around it.
	So when people transact and transfer Bitcoin from point A to point B, they know that the ledger is secure and that our facilities are actually running that security around it to protect it.
	And so we live in this intersection in between hard physical infrastructure and energy infrastructure and crypto, Bitcoin, and the whole digital ecosystem.
	And so that I think was a big driver behind American Bitcoin spinning off of Hut Aid to really have two businesses that embody both of those at the full extent.
	Yeah, I mean, talk about sort of that admission for American Bitcoin because it's not just sort of, it's not just custody of Bitcoin.
	And it's not, you know, just so people sort of understand it.
	Cause I think, you know, obviously you have the crypto bros that know all this stuff.
	And then there's people that are just kind of figuring out like, what is this funny thing?
	And can it just disappear?
	Because there's so many misconceptions about it.
	It's frankly so much more advanced than, you know, than conventional fiat, I guess, in many respects.
	You know, talk about that a little bit from the American Bitcoin standpoint.
	So Bitcoin is really the first and the oldest cryptocurrency and really brought blockchain into the center of conversation, right?
	The idea is, Don, if I want to send you money and I want to send it to you on a Saturday, why do I have to go through an existing banking institution or go through payment rails?
	Before, if you wanted to send a wire and ACH, outside of business hours, you're out of luck.
	But now, I guess you have Zell, you have Vemmo, you have all these other kind of tools that allow you to function, but that doesn't cross countries.
	When I go into Europe or when I go elsewhere, it's really hard to pay, right?
	You have to go to an ATM, you have to pull cash out of it, pay a fee.
	And so really what the blockchain allows for is you're removing the middleman.
	What you're saying is, I own my wealth.
	I own my dollars.
	If I want to send it to someone else, I have the ability to send it how I want and when I want.
	It'll be validated through a public ledger that basically records where money transfers from point A to point B. And you're not relying on a banking institution or a transfer agent in order to facilitate that.
	And so that's why Bitcoin and the blockchain in general and cryptocurrencies, I think has been so transformative, right?
	And we'll talk about, I'm sure, the genius bill and a little, the genius act in a little bit and what that means.
	But for Bitcoin itself, you have that initial layer of the blockchain.
	And then on top of it, you have this idea of digital gold.
	And what do I mean by that?
	When people buy gold, they're really hedging against the dollar, right?
	They're saying, okay, if there's inflation or if we think prices are going to run, we have this scarce asset, which gold for kind of the history of humanity has been this thing people have viewed as kind of having a scarce supply.
	And you say, you know what?
	I'm going to put a percentage of my portfolio here with for kind of a de-hedge.
	And then I'm going to put a percentage of my portfolio into equities and real estate and so forth.
	But the problem with gold is you can go mine more and more of it, right?
	This idea of kind of infinite supply or finance supply isn't necessarily there, where with Bitcoin, there's only ever 21 million Bitcoin that will ever be produced in existence.
	And mining and Bitcoin mining is the thing that produces the Bitcoin.
	So, what happens is we have these large data centers, and every time transactions happen, we're validating the ledger.
	So, instead of a third-party bank that gets paid, we are creating the infrastructure to support the transactions that happen to make sure that there's no fraudulent transactions happening.
	And so, ourselves, in addition to all the Bitcoin miners around the world.
	And so, why Bitcoin is, I think, so valuable for the normal person and why my parents are interested in who've never kind of understood cryptocurrencies, friends, is because you have this thing that will only ever produce 21 million units of this coin.
	And if you think about scarcity and supply and demand, you're not going to exceed and have inflation that kind of grows past that.
	And so really people see it as an alternative to gold in a digital era.
	People are not walking around carrying gold.
	They're holding their ownership in gold via digital currency anyways, via whether it be a ledger on their brokerage account or whatever else it may be.
	And so now you have this digital version of gold that allows you to own wealth and allows you to retain that.
	So I think when people think about kind of the whole crypto ecosystem, the way they should think about it is Bitcoin is really a store of value.
	It's an alternative to gold in the modern era.
	And then you have the blockchain, which is what drives kind of all of cryptocurrency, which allows you to transact from point A to point B on different systems that allow you to do so.
	You have Bitcoin, you have Ethereum, you have Solana.
	And then you have stablecoins, where stablecoin says, you know what?
	I don't want to take a bet on what this underlying coin is worth, right?
	I don't know what Bitcoin is worth.
	I don't know what Solana is worth.
	I don't know what Ethereum is worth, but I know what a dollar is worth.
	And I have trust in the value of a dollar.
	And so how do I engage into this new digital world, but trust that the value of that dollar will hold?
	And so that's kind of the value of the stablecoin and obviously a lot of the excitement around the world in what happened with the Genius Act this last wave.
	Yes, I mean, you're one of the leaders when it comes to Bitcoin mining and AI data centers.
	How exactly are you pioneering this use of energy?
	And what is it?
	Why does it matter?
	We keep hearing about China's pulling another coal-fire power plant.
	America's not doing these things.
	Talk about the importance of energy as it relates to not just mining, but obviously also the development of AI.
	Most definitely.
	So at Honey, the vision and the mission statement that we have is how do we harness power to support the technologies of the future that drive humanity forward?
	If you look back in the history of time, every new innovation we've ever had has increased our consumption of power.
	And so I think this idea of let's consume less power, let's be more efficient is not real, right?
	Because the more efficient you are, the more use cases you'll have for that power and the more you'll use on an absolute basis.
	And so I think that is something that is really a mindset that needs to shift because in the US, I think there was so much focus historically on let's reduce our consumption of power.
	Where you have places like China where they're building seven-seed nuclear plants, they're growing on generation.
	And in the US, and we've seen this in this administration, there's been a new revival of power in the US, right?
	With some of these executive orders.
	You've seen a revival of let's build and have entrepreneurs build manufacturing, build the digital ecosystem in the US.
	And so I think when we think about power, power, we believe, is kind of the fundamental driver behind pushing and empowering technologies forward.
	So starting with Bitcoin, how do you go and you produce a Bitcoin?
	Basically, what happens is there's this algorithm called SHA-256.
	And what that algorithm does is it says, I'm going to validate every transaction in the Bitcoin ledger.
	And I'm going to say, are these transactions accurate or are they inaccurate?
	And so every kind of miner around the world verifies what the last ledger was, what the new ledger was, and creates a uniform consensus that this is what should exist.
	And this is how we validate that there's no fraudulent transactions in the ecosystem.
	In order to power that, we have massive data centers that we build and they consume power.
	And they consume power.
	And in return, we're creating a more safe environment for people to transact on the Bitcoin ledger, but we're also consuming power.
	And I think that's a good thing, right?
	Because by us consuming power, we're driving economics to the people who produce the power plants.
	They're making money.
	The utilities are making money.
	In some areas, we're offsetting some of the bills for the local residents who are in those areas.
	And so I think power fuels data centers that fuel Bitcoin compute and help power the reliability and trust in the Bitcoin ecosystem.
	So I mean, it's definitely a different sort of energy philosophy than what you have today, which is like, do less, do nothing, don't do any of it.
	And like, you know, it'll be fine.
	I mean, it makes a lot of sense.
	That's right.
	And then, I mean, now you switch over to AI, which I think everyone has embraced, right?
	With Bitcoin, we can talk about this in a little bit, which is, I mean, we were scrutinized for years, right?
	This administration has really reinvigorated, I think, the entrepreneur who wants to build in the U.S., where before we were scared.
	We would tiptoe into new areas and be like, should we invest in here?
	We're investing hundreds of millions of dollars into neighborhoods and we're scared to even tell people because we don't want them to not like what we're building, right?
	And so there was this kind of taboo around it.
	And we can go into that.
	But with AI, you have the same problem.
	We need large-scale power to deliver compute at scale.
	With compute at scale, we're able to now drive better AI models.
	We're able to drive faster evolution of advancements of technology.
	And we're able to do so faster than the rest of the world.
	And so making sure we're able to have large-scale campuses that are able to produce large-scale data centers will help us stay at the forefront of technology.
	And I think it's really, really important that the U.S. continues to be at that forefront, whether it be in technology with AI, whether it be in technology driving innovations around cryptocurrencies.
	And that also drives to, I think, the fundamentals of how do you power these things.
	AI, cryptocurrency, it sounds great.
	It sounds like it's in the cloud.
	It's all digital, but they're really powered by real hard physical assets.
	They're powered by power plants, by data centers.
	And that's why I think manufacturing in the US and not relying on other places on these raw materials because these things can only happen when you have the physical infrastructure to support them.
	And so, here we have HUD8 that focuses on building the infrastructure that supports the digital world in Bitcoin and AI.
	And now, with American Bitcoin, we're trying to create the purest accumulator of Bitcoin.
	So people say, you know what?
	I want exposure to Bitcoin.
	I can either buy it or I can own an ETF, but I will only ever get, if I own one Bitcoin, I'll only ever get one Bitcoin return.
	If Bitcoin goes from $100,000 to $200,000, I made $100,000.
	The idea behind American Bitcoin is as we generate more Bitcoin through Bitcoin mining, being able to mine at a 50% discount in the market, being able to use different financing structures to accumulate more, instead of owning just one Bitcoin and gaining that appreciation, you might own 1.2 Bitcoin.
	And so you get that $100,000 lift, and then you get an additional 0.2 that you would have otherwise not have.
	And so there's this like dividend yield mechanism that we'd like to create through the operating business.
	Yeah, talk about that a little bit more because it's sort of interesting.
	Again, there's so many misnomers about how it now, but now as you've seen big banks start to adapt these things, you talked about stables a little bit, but obviously with American Bitcoin, it's Bitcoin focused.
	Talk about that because whether it's yield or staking, these sorts of things that you could create availability of people don't necessarily understand that.
	So it's not just holding gold, but you can actually hold gold that's earning an interest, not just going on the appreciation.
	That's right.
	And I think a good way to think about it is when you own, let's just say you own a ton of dollars.
	People who have large amounts, they own tens of millions, hundreds of millions, billions of dollars.
	They're able to take that money, reinvest it, generate yield, and be able to grow the absolute basis that they have.
	If you're smaller, you might say, you know what, I'm going to deposit my cash at the bank.
	And as we all know, there's very, very low interest that you get.
	The bank is now taking your money to go make money and you're kind of just stuck.
	I think with American Bitcoin, it's the same idea.
	People can either just hold their Bitcoin and they can just hold it and wait for the appreciation or they can invest and be a shareholder in American Bitcoin.
	What we can do is have a large reserve of Bitcoin that we own.
	And with that reserve, we can go and generate yield.
	And how do we do that?
	We go and we increase our yield by one, continuing to expand on the mining business.
	And we structured the mining business in a way that was really thoughtful.
	A lot of mining businesses, they have to invest in all this infrastructure.
	They have to invest in all these people to run these data centers.
	And because we spun American Bitcoin out of Hudaid, we said, you know what?
	Let's leave all of that with Hudaid.
	And every dollar we spend, we just buy the machines that generate Bitcoin.
	And so the dollar has the maximum amount of yield and impact with the lowest amount of burn.
	And so we have the most return on that investment.
	Then we say, okay, we're in the process of going public with American Bitcoin, right?
	And the idea is by going public, we have access to the capital markets.
	We can grow at a faster pace.
	We're able to democratize access to American Bitcoin so people can own it.
	I know since we launched it, people reached out from all around saying, how do I get be a part of this?
	How do I invest in this?
	How do I become a shareholder?
	And by going public, it allows us to do so.
	And so with that, once we're public, because of the volatility of Bitcoin and mining, now we have access to being able to raise low-cost dollars, whether it be through the convertible note market, through the ATM market.
	And we can say, you know what?
	What if I borrowed dollars today for 0% interest for the next five years?
	I put into Bitcoin.
	Bitcoin on average has grown double digit K-gear growth over a period of time.
	And so in those five years, you say, all right, I'm borrowing dollars for 0% interest.
	And now I'm investing it into Bitcoin that has a double digit compounding growth in terms of value.
	And at the end of that period of time, I pay those dollars back or they convert into equity.
	And now I own more and more Bitcoin.
	And so the idea here is we are creating the democratized Bitcoin bank where we are allowing people instead of just depositing their Bitcoin and saying, all right, now you can just hold it and you can sit on your Bitcoin.
	You're a shareholder in the bank.
	And we're able to now use our treasury, use our access to the capital markets and drive yield and continue to grow and grow that reserve.
	And look, someone who's pioneered this is Michael Saylor, right?
	Michael Strategy has been one of the top performing stocks over the last five years.
	And they've really, really shown that this model works.
	And I think we're excited because we're able to have that model in addition to having the Bitcoin mining business to bring those two worlds together.
	And we talked a lot about this a little bit, but when we met you and we met your brother Eric Trump, we talked about how Michael Saylor was telling us, hey, you guys got to start running the strategy to accumulate Bitcoin.
	Stop just mining.
	Stop just creating data centers for AI.
	Start accumulating.
	And so American Bitcoin is really the influence of everything coming together to create one of, in our opinions, the best Bitcoin accumulators for people to have ownership into.
	Well, we're super excited about it.
	I'd like to get your thoughts sort of about the Genius Act.
	My father recently signed it into law.
	It was, you know, I guess last Friday.
	It establishes sort of the regulatory framework, not just for Bitcoin, but for stablecoins and really the regulatory framework that all of crypto was sort of junching for.
	What should we know about the bill, what it entails, what it does for the industry, et cetera?
	So the analogy that we like to talk about internally is the Securities Act of 1933, right?
	During that period of time, you had basically a crash in the stock market and regulators said, we need to come in, we need to regulate securities and we need to put structure around this ecosystem.
	And what that in turn created and allowed for was one of the biggest booms.
	If you think about it, the U.S. today is the leader in the capital markets, right?
	It is the leader in the world.
	When people want to list their companies, they come to the U.S. They come to the NASA, the New York Stock Exchange.
	But the Securities Act of 1933 is really what created that framework for people to be able to build and to know what the rules and the regulations were.
	If we think about cryptocurrencies, I think it's one of the only ecosystems that has actually asked for regulation.
	We've asked for regulators to say, please, everyone wants less.
	We just needed something.
	We needed to do it.
	We just needed to say, tell us what the rules are.
	We'll navigate within those rules and we'll go build great businesses.
	And I think what the Genius Act has done, and it's kind of the first of a series of these regulations, one of the first modern regulations that is put down for the crypto industry.
	And it's created a very clear and easy way to understand this primarily around stable coins, right?
	And what a stablecoin is, it says, all right, if I own one unit of this token, right now it's backed by the dollar and you have a one-for-one backing.
	The problem historically with stable coins is people will say, okay, well, does this thing actually, is this thing actually worth a dollar?
	Are people holding the dollar in a bank?
	Are people using it?
	What actually exists?
	So now this regulation says, we'll give licenses out.
	We'll make sure that we're regulating this industry.
	And so now when you're buying these stable coins, you know that they get audited, that the money is actually there.
	And so when you own a token, you know that behind that stable coin, you actually have a real dollar that backs it.
	And I think that's really, really important because what I've seen is you have entrepreneurs that have really been driven internationally to go build in the crypto industry, right?
	Because they're scared to build in America.
	In the last administration, people were getting, were getting attacked.
	The regulatory regime was coming after them and they were just saying, tell us how you want us to operate and we'll build business that framework.
	I saw it.
	I mean, with the guys from World Liberty, which is just stablecoin side of what we're working on in crypto, it was like that.
	You could hire the finest lawyer in America and be like, this is what we want to do.
	It's like, it probably works, but we don't actually know because there was nothing.
	And so, I mean, you literally took five years, six years where you were sending people to other places that they knew they just weren't going to jail for doing that.
	And again, it wasn't that they were trying to do something shady.
	They just, there was nothing.
	It's like, you know, again, lawfare.
	You could have one of these guys decides, yep, we don't like that guy, but we like that guy.
	They're doing the same thing, but it's different.
	You're going to jail.
	And it's wild.
	And we don't want to offshore those kind of businesses.
	We want that to be here because I think it's the future of finance.
	And I think that is what's so key.
	I mean, the U.S. is the financial engine of the world.
	And the genius that is building on that framework of the modern equivalent of the Securities Act and being in ensuring that the U.S. is a place that entrepreneurs and people in this industry want to build.
	And also the dominance of the dollar for hundreds of years to come, right?
	Having the dollar backing these stable coins and really having that be the currency that's supporting a lot of these.
	I think when we look back in history, this will be a really, really important and huge milestone in time and in history because people will see where was crypto really let go and how did it really start impacting the world and impacting financial systems, businesses.
	And you'll see entrepreneurs.
	I mean, look, when your dad signed the bill, you had some of the biggest leaders within the crypto segment in the White House behind him.
	And you couldn't imagine that five years ago, right?
	That wasn't even four years ago.
	That wasn't even in kind of the mindset.
	And so now I'm seeing more than ever my colleagues, entrepreneurs, people who are building internationally coming back to the U.S. and saying, you know what?
	Let's build here because the U.S. will be the crypto capital of the world.
	Yeah, watching those guys sort of all get behind this, it just, it makes so much sense.
	And again, I think there's probably a lot of resistance because at least even in Congress and whatnot, because the banks and the traditional way of doing things, not so efficient, not so simple, not so quick.
	A lot of people getting paid a lot to do things that blockchain is going to make obsolete.
	I mean, it's a brave new world and that's probably scary for a lot of people.
	And there are lobbyists who are paid really well to protect those industries that, again, could probably use a little bit of a shakeup.
	I think that's definitely right.
	I mean, I'm sure everyone has been in a situation where they have money in their bank account and they're trying to take money out of the ATM or they're trying to transfer something they can't do.
	And you're like, what is going on?
	This is my money.
	Why can't I have access to it?
	And this really unlocks financial freedom, right?
	And I think this is not just for the crypto industry.
	This is for the everyday person.
	This is for everyone who wants control of their own wealth.
	I know, Don, when we kind of got together and really formed American Bitcoin, you and your brother were saying that like a big part of you guys coming into the space and adopting the space was after the first administration where the debanking started to happen and you couldn't get access.
	And it's crazy to think about that these should be service providers that first and foremost take care of the people that have their wealth in these institutions.
	And they've become these massive powerhouses where people don't have control over their own access to their own wealth anymore.
	Yeah.
	No, it was wild.
	It wasn't like we were all that innovative.
	I mean, we were old school real estate guys, you know, again, doing some cool stuff, but not exactly, you know, a leading edge tech kind of business.
	And then all of a sudden, you know, we get into politics, that, you know, switch gets turned off.
	You can't do anything.
	You can't get, you literally couldn't get a mortgage for a house.
	Not that we didn't have the money in the bank to back it, but they just wouldn't lend to you.
	So it's like, well, I want to just take advantage of at the time, 3% interest.
	This made a lot of sense.
	Didn't matter.
	And so we adapted it really out of necessity.
	But then once you actually get familiar, that's why it's like, you know, for some of the people who are just like, I don't understand this funny thing.
	You know, once you actually get into it and you get a little vested or you buy a tiny fraction of a Bitcoin, you start paying attention to all these things and you figure out like, oh, once you get through the acronyms and the nonsense and everything like that, it's actually pretty simple to understand.
	And once you get rid of that fear, it's easy to kind of get on board.
	And so once we saw it and our eyes were open, I'm like, oh, my God, like this is going to make so many things, even in the old school world of stuff that we did simpler.
	You know, when I think about real estate, I think about, you know, title insurance ending up on the blockchain.
	Why am I paying points for something?
	Like, I'm buying the house from this guy who's lived there for 20 years.
	I have a feeling it's probably his house, but I'm paying points to figure that out.
	Like that can be on the blockchain.
	You could check it in two seconds for $0.
	You know, there's just all of these middlemen and stuff that, I mean, I think this is going to make it obsolete.
	Like AI is going to make a lot of things obsolete as well.
	And you integrate AI with the blockchain and you unlock so much opportunity.
	And I think that's the thing is, look, being in this industry, well, I'll be honest in College of Fame and Spade.
	In any new industry, there are good actors and there are bad actors, right?
	And so as you think through kind of crypto over the years, because there was no regulatory framework, you had people coming in trying to build great businesses and you had people coming in trying to make money quickly.
	And so when someone gets burned, they go to the other extreme and say, this whole thing is bullshit.
	This is not a real industry and so forth.
	But when you look at the dot-com era back in the 90s, think about how many of those companies kind of came up overnight, disappeared because they didn't try to Create true value.
	But today, the most valuable companies in the world were companies that were born in that era.
	And so I think we're living through this same moment in time where you'll have some of the largest companies born now that in the future, when we look back, and you'll have all the noise of companies that don't drive value.
	And I think that's where, as a consumer, like the Genius Act is one of the first steps into that regulatory framework of how do we make sure that people are building great businesses, that we can rely in good actors.
	And then by doing so, we allow this industry to really get uncuffed and really grow and blossom.
	And look, I'm so excited.
	I couldn't, I think, be more thankful to kind of the U.S. and what it feels like today.
	We're working on a project in Louisiana.
	And I was out there and I was talking to people there.
	And they're like, we feel like America's back again.
	Like we're building again.
	We're growing again.
	We want to be energy dominant.
	We want to be the frontier of these industries.
	And I think as builders and as entrepreneurs, I mean, that's what the U.S. was built on.
	And we're coming back to just the fundamental building blocks and foundation of what this country was built on.
	Yeah.
	I mean, it's great to see it.
	And I mean, every day, I mean, I talk about it on the show all the time.
	It's like, you know, here's another $10 billion from this company.
	And like, why wasn't this already happening?
	Like, it didn't seem like it was that hard to actually incentivize people to actually do things in the United States.
	But like, when you're an idiot and you don't do anything and you don't, you've never built anything and you've only signed the back of a paycheck, never the front, it's like, I don't know, this guy told me to do it.
	So it's amazing how quickly we could turn that around.
	But talk a little bit.
	You know, you sort of touched on it before, but American Bitcoin structure really allows for mining at low cost.
	I think people who were looking at this stuff years ago remember when you could mine Bitcoin on a laptop.
	And that ain't happening anymore.
	I mean, you're basically using supercomputers.
	So I'd love to actually hear you talk about the evolution of that.
	But I know you've said before that it's not just about being the biggest, it's about being the most efficient.
	You know, what are the key indicators and benchmarks to assess that when people are looking at doing this, if they're looking into getting crypto this way through American Bitcoin?
	How do they figure that out?
	So today, when we go and we mine Bitcoin, our cost of energy to mine a Bitcoin is under $40,000 of Bitcoin.
	And so if you think about it, that's not too bad.
	If Bitcoin right now is getting close to $120,000 a coin and we're being able to mine that at a cost of under $40,000, that's a pretty good margin, right?
	And so how do we think about kind of the cost structure that goes into mining a Bitcoin?
	First, you got to go build the data centers and you got to go buy the chips.
	In the structure with American Bitcoin, Hade is building the data centers, not American Bitcoin.
	So that money can be saved.
	That money can go into buying more chips.
	And then in terms of the team that operates it, Hade has like 250 people, right?
	We have a big payroll.
	We have to operate the facilities.
	We have software teams, data science teams, et cetera.
	American Bitcoin doesn't need that.
	We provide a service agreement where American Bitcoin keeps light SGNA so it can toggle in and out based on need rather than just a fixed cost that has to burn every single month just keep the lights on.
	And so from a Bitcoin perspective, then really our major cost is that cost of electricity, where are we able to consume electricity at a low cost relative to the price of Bitcoin?
	And so we've been very, very good on controlling that.
	And the way that we think about it is this.
	If we spend money buying these supercomputers, if we bought Bitcoin instead, are we generating more Bitcoin by buying these supercomputers than having just bought Bitcoin itself?
	And that's really the metric we hold ourselves to.
	Because the better your supercomputers are, the newest generation, the better efficiency they are.
	You can run at a higher energy cost because you have higher margins, because you're producing more Bitcoin for less computer power.
	And so with that, why that's really important is I think sometimes people say, all right, which company has the lowest cost of energy or which company has the most amount of exahash, the most amount of Bitcoin that they're mining?
	And sometimes these metrics are skewed because if you have a massive margin, I'd rather spend a bit more money on energy, be online a bit more and produce more Bitcoin, right?
	Or if I'm producing a ton of Bitcoin and my average cost to produce Bitcoin all in with everything is $130,000, I'm really losing $10,000 mining that Bitcoin, not making a big margin.
	And so when we think about it, scale matters, but being really, really efficient matters and making sure when we spend the dollars, we're actually driving a yield more so than buying Bitcoin itself.
	And I think one way that allows us to do that is HUD8 now is kind of the low volatility energy infrastructure company.
	So when we invest into a project, we think about it as a real estate investment.
	We can look for a much longer term return.
	We can have a lower year-on-year IRR because we're investing in infrastructure.
	When we're investing in Bitcoin and supercomputers, we need a much faster rate of return because computers are coming out every single year and we need to make that payback better.
	And so we've really separated and I think created one of the best balances in terms of cost of capital.
	And so now American Bitcoin, I think, allows people to say, okay, I get the best of micro strategy in MetaPlanet where I can, the company will go and accumulate Bitcoin and tap into the capital markets.
	But it also takes the best of the largest Bitcoin miner in the world by saying, I'm just going to go get the highest margin Bitcoin that we can mine without all of the other costs that go into this business because of the relationship with Hade.
	And look, if American Bitcoin and Haraid, if Hade is one of the largest shareholders of American Bitcoin, right?
	And so we're economically incentivized for American Bitcoin to do really, really well.
	Without that synergy, other companies wouldn't create that type of structure because that wouldn't make as much sense.
	And so that's where I'm really, really excited with American Bitcoin because I think what we've all built here is we've built this great business.
	And look, it's been a fast period of time.
	If we think about it, we launched American Bitcoin to the world April 1st.
	I'm excited for us to share with them how much Bitcoin we've accumulated in a very short period of time before we go public.
	And hopefully we're sprinkling towards getting this company public in the short while here.
	And so I think.
	Talk about the significance of that.
	Again, going public, what is it as it relates to scalability, achieving everything you've been talking about?
	What enables going public, what does that enable you guys to do that you couldn't do right now?
	Right now, when we think about growing and raising capital, really the way we raise capital is we go to investors, they invest into the business.
	And there's some information that Came out through our recent filing on a private capital raise that we just did as well.
	But in the public markets, you have so much more access to different instruments.
	And this goes back to my bank analogy.
	As an individual, you don't have access to all these different yield generating opportunities.
	But as a bank, you have way more optionality of where you can deploy that capital to derive a yield.
	And so when you think about a company, when we're private versus when we're public in the public markets, we can look at the volatility of our stock and we can get 0% or 1% convertible note paper because they're able to say, I'm able to trade around your volatility.
	So I'll give you really cheap capital.
	As a private company, you never get that.
	Your cost of a convert may be 8% to 10%, right?
	And so you drive down that cost of capital.
	And why that's important is when you have really low cost money and you're able to invest that into Bitcoin, which has been an appreciating asset over the tenure, one of the highest appreciating assets in the world during the life cycle of Bitcoin, now you have this really, really interesting mismatch.
	You have TradFi and traditional finance giving you cheap dollars for you to deploy into Bitcoin that is an appreciating asset at a double digit appreciation with a longer tenure.
	And so by going public, we are able to continue to build the great business we have today in mining Bitcoin at a low cost.
	And now we're able to add this layer of this financial engineering that MicroStrategy has done so well.
	I think what we're excited by is, look, they're over a $100 billion company.
	When they started to accumulate Bitcoin, they're around $1 billion.
	So they have 100X in terms of their market cap.
	And right now, for them to go from 100 billion to $1 trillion, that's a big jump, right?
	That's just a 10X.
	For us to go from where we are to 100 billion, there's a lot of that ramp.
	And look, I think kudos for Sailor for setting the track, for honestly convincing us all into the beautiful opportunity that's here.
	And I think we brought kind of what we knew very well.
	We brought the Bitcoin world together and you and your brother having really embodied and I think now being kind of spokespeople for this industry, creating this great business and this American business.
	I think that was a key to American Bitcoin as well, right?
	We didn't want to just be in a Bitcoin company.
	We want to be a Bitcoin company that's built and based in America, hence the name American Bitcoin and really embodying this new digital era and this new currency that people can be a part of and can be owners of as well, not just customers of.
	And so we want people to have access as a public company to own a part of the business and be a part of this journey with us.
	So Asher, as people sort of start to, they're watching this, they're trying to wrap their head around the concept of things like mining, decentralized finance, blockchain.
	How do you go about educating others about the importance of all of this?
	I think that's a fundamental thing.
	I mean, how do people take those first baby steps that they can sort of figure it out?
	Because it was complicated for me at first, but then it's like, oh, then it just clicks, but you got to, where do you start?
	I think that's a great question because it is really complicated, especially when you get into DeFi and now you're swapping and you're going into and you're having your wallets.
	And so I think to start, people just just start accumulating some of their own coins, right?
	The main coins today are stablecoins, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana.
	It's these coins that are really kind of standing the test of time.
	I think stablecoins, the right ones are backed by US dollars.
	So you have comfort there that you're really just saying, all right, instead of owning a dollar in the bank, I'm owning a dollar via stablecoin.
	And now I'm a part of this ecosystem.
	Yeah, and that stablecoin is backed by U.S. Treasuries.
	It's what we're doing with World Liberty Finance.
	That's, you know, the stablecoin side of, you know, the DeFi platform of what we're doing, which is the, you know, sort of, again, sort of the oil, the transactional stuff.
	And then you have the gold on the Bitcoin side with American Bitcoin.
	And it allows you to start getting involved into the ecosystem without actually taking risks on the underlying asset, right?
	Because everyone is already taking exposure to US dollars.
	You're saying, all right, I'm just holding a different form of this currency now.
	And so I think that's a great way to start dabbling.
	Then Bitcoin has stood the test of time.
	Bitcoin has had an unbelievable appreciation cycle.
	If anyone's bought and held Bitcoin, they haven't lost money, right?
	And so Bitcoin is that store of gold is the first and I think the longest cryptocurrency out there.
	Ethereum, people kind of put as like the, if Bitcoin's a digital gold, Ethereum is like the digital oil where you have transactions and things that are built on the Ethereum network.
	And Solana has come in and has really built a great technology as well, where a lot of developers are building on top of that.
	And Solana and Ethereum are competing right now.
	And Solana has grown a ton as well.
	And you have a lot of other coins as well and different projects and companies that people like to bet on.
	So I would say start simple, start with the key main ones that you know.
	And the reality is when Bitcoin goes up by 5%, everything else goes up by 20%.
	But when Bitcoin goes down by 5%, everything else always also drops by 20%.
	And so if you don't want to take that much risk and you don't want to gamble as much, go in with the more larger, trusted, stable coins.
	So just understand how to interact with the ecosystem, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, where you have a little less volatility and you already have a lot of adoption to those coins.
	And then you can start dabbling, right?
	I'm sure you and I, when we have a friend tell us, oh, there's this interesting company or this early stage company, why don't you write a check?
	That's what some of these coins are, right?
	They're early venture checks and most of the time they don't work out.
	And sometimes they do and you make a ton of money and it's great.
	But I think people need to know what they're putting their money into.
	Am I investing into a blue chip company that has a lot less volatility and is not going to drop and go to zero overnight?
	Or am I investing into a startup that has a ton of upside, but could also disappear overnight as well?
	And so I would say people should start dabbling.
	And you can open a wallet on, I mean, there's Coinbase, there's Genesis, there's Anchorage, there's all these platforms that you can open a wallet onto, or you can buy just some with your ETF, right?
	There's all these ETFs now.
	And now you have companies like American Bitcoin going public.
	You can own a little bit of American Bitcoin.
	And so I think there's so many ways where through traditional finance, you can get exposure.
	And then if you want to start getting a bit more into it, then you start owning the actual wallet.
	You start owning the stablecoin or the cryptocurrency itself.
	And then you can get into DeFi.
	And then that world gets crazy once you get in there.
	Yeah.
	Very nice.
	Well, Asher Janude, thank you very much, man.
	Guys, keep an eye out.
	As we progress with everything with American Bitcoin, we'll definitely keep you apprised.
	But awesome work, man.
	Thanks a lot.
	Hopefully, just getting people to understand exactly what's going on because it's no question that it's the future.
	And there's also no question in my mind that just because you're not in it right now doesn't mean you've missed out.
	This just still feels like it's just the beginning to me.
	Yeah.
	And with American Bitcoin coming out, I mean, I think we are one of the most well-packed talent startups in the world and are at the very beginning.
	And hopefully people will have an ability to be a shareholder with us and grow with us at the start of this journey as we come out and become a public company.
	Awesome, man.
	Asher, thanks a lot.
	Look forward to talking to you soon.
	Thanks, Tom.
	And coming up, guys, we'll get into much more on all the energy investment going on in the great state of Pennsylvania with Senator Dave McCormick.
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	Joining me now, Pennsylvania Senator Dave McCormick.
	Dave, good to have you back, man.
	How are you?
	Hey, Don.
	Thanks for having me.
	I appreciate it.
	Well, thanks for being back on the show.
	You know, there was a huge AI, tech, and energy summit in Pennsylvania recently.
	You were a big part of it.
	You know, tell us about that.
	I love seeing that as someone, again, who's spent a lot of time in Pennsylvania and nine years of school and a farm still currently.
	Great to see this kind of innovation coming back to Pennsylvania, right?
	I grew up.
	It was an exciting day.
	When President Trump won, he called me a week or two after and he said, what can I do to help?
	You ran a great campaign.
	He was in Pennsylvania about 15 times, Don, as you know.
	You were with him a bunch of times.
	So thanks for all you did there.
	But I said, Mr. President, two things.
	One, come to Pennsylvania for wrestling.
	I want you to come for wrestling.
	It's the heart of Pennsylvania.
	I ran as somebody wrestled in high school and college.
	He came to the national championships, which was incredible, as you know.
	Second thing, I said, I want to have an energy and innovation conference in Pittsburgh.
	In 2017, President Trump said, I'm more worried about serving the people of Pittsburgh than Paris.
	And I said, here's the chance.
	And the reason is that Pennsylvania is the crossroads of the energy revolution and the AI revolution.
	And we're uniquely blessed.
	We're number two energy producer in the country, number four natural gas reserves in the world, huge energy.
	See, I don't think anyone really knows that other than, you know, but, you know, huge reserves.
	Obviously, you have all the shale, you know, natural gas that's all over the state.
	I mean, that's been incredible.
	But people don't think of Pennsylvania that way.
	I mean, a lot of sort of, frankly, a lot of sort of the ideology of my political background was going to, I went to boarding school.
	So it was a great school, but it was in Potsdam PA, which was sort of this former industrial town.
	And it was the home of Firestone Tires and Mrs. Smith's Pies.
	And that was all gone.
	That was shipped abroad by the time I got there.
	So I sort of had my formative years, eighth grade through graduation of high school, in these towns where you could see just the ruins of what used to be incredible America.
	And you see what so many politicians did at taking those American dreams and just shipping them to China.
	I had the same experience.
	I grew up not far from Pottsville.
	I grew up in Bloomsburg.
	When I was a kid in high school, the biggest employer in town was the McGee Carpet Mill.
	2,000 employees.
	Kids in my high school class went to public high school, worked in the mill.
	Today it's 200.
	And when you have an 8,000-person town, that just guts it.
	So that energy, the shale revolution, the coal and the anthracite in the northeast, bituminous in the south, the nuclear power capability, that's a huge advantage.
	But then the second thing is we got this incredible skilled workforce, welders, pipe fitters, steam fitters, electricians.
	And in the AI world, you need to build these huge data centers.
	You need skilled workers who can build them.
	And it's all about speed.
	And the third thing we've got is we got these great universities.
	You went to one of them, Penn, but we got Carnegie Mellon.
	It's probably the best university in the country for artificial intelligence.
	So I made the pitch to your dad, to the president, hey, hey, listen, Pennsylvania is where the action's at.
	And by the way, you and I both promised when we ran that we're going to bring opportunity to these working families.
	This is what it's about.
	So we create this summit.
	Your dad's the main star, obviously.
	And we invite 60 major CEOs, energy, investment, technology, invite the labor leaders, college presidents.
	And we said, listen, we're going to have a roundtable with the president.
	His cabinet came, Besant, Lutnick, Bergham, Wright, Lee Zeldon, David Sachs.
	And we said, listen, if you want to be at the table, use this as a catalyst for the investment you're going to make.
	And they committed, I think largely because of the energy dominance agenda, $92 billion of investment.
	$92 billion.
	I mean, for Pennsylvania, biggest announcement ever.
	And so it was great in that way.
	Two other brief points.
	Second, you know, we had 100, because your dad's there, we had 150 media outlets.
	So we got all these people, Bergham, Wright, Lutnick, all these CEOs telling the story of why Pennsylvania is at the crossroads of the energy revolution, the AI revolution.
	Then finally, I said to the president, Hey, listen, Mr. President, look what's happening here: $92 billion, at least tens of thousands, probably 75,000 construction jobs, tens of thousands of permanent jobs.
	This is what we promised.
	These working families have real opportunity.
	So it was a home run.
	And, you know, just probably the best day I've had since I was in the Senate.
	That and Mark Fogel coming home.
	Those are my two best days.
	Yeah, that was another big one.
	But so, you know, Senator, talk about what's at stake here, right?
	We've heard at times, you know, AI is a threat to jobs, but it honestly seems to me like maybe there's actually a lot more opportunity, right?
	AI is not really a threat to the guy that's a welder and the construction guy.
	It's probably more a threat to the, you know, the bureaucrats that are probably not voting our way.
	But, you know, there has to also be a lot of sort of new sector jobs that are going to evolve from this technology.
	You know, what does that mean for the working people of Pennsylvania?
	Yeah.
	You know, well, first of all, the stakes couldn't be higher in the threat the battle we're having with China.
	I mean, if China wins the AI race, I mean, it affects global infrastructure, it affects data, it truly could risk our very way of life.
	So the stakes couldn't be higher.
	And as you said, so from a national security perspective, it couldn't be more important.
	But from an economic perspective, this is happening.
	So we can either resist it or embrace it.
	And I think in Pennsylvania, we are embracing it because just as you said, this is much more opportunity for blue-collar workers than risk.
	These data centers will create huge opportunity for these skilled labor.
	I think you're right.
	I think journalists, I think software developers, I think people that traditional white-collar jobs, highly educated, I think that is where you're going to see more turmoil and more change.
	But I think this is the next industrial revolution as part of President Trump's reindustrialization of America strategy.
	This is the key part of it.
	It's next generation technology, these huge data centers and energy innovation.
	You probably know this, but the prediction is that energy demand will triple in the next 15 years.
	The only way to do that is drill, baby, drill, frac, nuclear.
	One of the big announcements directly tied to the president's energy dominance strategy was Westinghouse announced they're going to build 10 new reactors beginning by 2030.
	Meaning they go online by 2030 or are they starting online?
	They're in production by 2030.
	I mean, it takes a long time.
	And what the CEO said at the summit with your dad at the table was, Mr. President, I wouldn't have done this except for the executive order that you put forward on nuclear power.
	This is a total transformation.
	So, Senator, when you drive through Western Pennsylvania and central Pennsylvania, do you see signs of an American revival?
	For far too long, we've let sort of the globalists, the globalization destroy critical manufacturing.
	I think of many companies like Pennsylvania House Furniture, which had all their jobs shipped overseas.
	It feels like now we actually have an opportunity to really write a new chapter that's about growth, about righting these wrongs.
	Every day I open up, here's another billion dollars into America from a company that's an American company theoretically, but was doing everything overseas.
	But now they're, you know, whether it's tariff policy or otherwise, they're like, nope, now we're going to put that money here because it makes sense.
	Yeah, I feel it.
	I feel the energy.
	I feel the investment.
	I think there's a couple of things.
	I think, number one, think of the economy as like a big aircraft carrier.
	You've got a couple of big dials.
	The first big dial was deregulation.
	Every business that I met on the campaign trail, 500 stops in 24 alone, they basically said, listen, regulation is killing us.
	So the deregulation agenda under the Trump administration is going to be the biggest deregulation push we've had since 1981 when Ronald Reagan came into office.
	Number two, energy dominance.
	I mean, we are embracing it, not only eliminating the subsidies on wind and solar, but doubling down on fossil fuels, whether it's coal or natural gas or oil and nuclear.
	All of these things are pro-growth, pro-economy.
	It reduces prices for consumers.
	It also creates lots of jobs and economic activity.
	Third thing is the Big Beautiful Bill.
	You know, we have now made permanent the tax cuts, and they're not just individual tax cuts.
	Every American, particularly working families, have a much better situation.
	They've saved somewhere between $7,500 and $15,000 on taxes.
	No tax on tips, no tax on overtime.
	But more than that, you have accelerated depreciation for small businesses.
	This helps create jobs.
	So you have those three big things.
	And then the fourth thing that's happening, I think, on tariffs, if you believe we have unfair treatment, which I believe, and you believe that the tariff strategy of the president reciprocity is going to ultimately end up in fair trade for America, we're now seeing that start to come to fruition, whether it's the deal with Vietnam or the deal that will ultimately come to be with Europe or Canada.
	We're seeing, I think the markets are looking through that and seeing when the dust settles, it's going to be a fair trading.
	That's all great for businesses.
	And so I think you're starting to see the capital investment, the green sprouts that result from businesses believing that things are moving in the right direction.
	I agree with you.
	I mean, it's sort of amazing to see.
	I wish we had been doing it for years.
	It doesn't seem like it was all that hard to actually accomplish.
	You just need a little bit of that resolve.
	I mean, you know, when you talk about some of those things in the big, beautiful bill, I think one of the things I like to point out on this show, you know, it felt like for a long time, sort of the conventional sort of Republican dogma was, hey, corporate tax cuts, corporate tax cuts.
	But I mean, one big beautiful bill, and I know my father spent sort of a lot of political capital making sure that a huge part of those tax cuts actually translates not to the corporate guys, but to the real workers of America.
	Can you talk about that a little bit?
	Because again, that was not traditional GOP dogma.
	It wasn't about the little guy.
	It was about doing for the corporations and the guys who have the lobbyists and they get their tax cuts and everyone else may get a benefit from that.
	Probably not.
	Maybe the shareholders do, but no one really else.
	I thought that was such a big part of what we were fighting for.
	And it was great to see guys like yourself actually, again, break away from sort of traditional Conservative dogma, which is all about corporations and actually make it all about the people.
	Yeah, no, listen, President Trump felt that on the campaign trail.
	He zeroed in on that.
	And frankly, it was an education for me.
	You go town to town, family to family, you hear this over and over again, and you realize how the economy had not been working for working families, particularly under Joe Biden, because prices went up by 20 plus percent and wages, real wages didn't keep up.
	So you've got this squeeze that working class Pennsylvanians are feeling.
	The median income in Pennsylvania is $52,000 a year, Don.
	So this really matters.
	And what the Big Beautiful Bill did, first of all, the 2017 tax cuts, I mean, regardless of all this nonsense that Democrats say, was highly, highly progressive.
	By that, I mean most of the tax benefit, the reduction of taxes went to the lower part of the income.
	And the people at the higher end of the income bracket got less of a tax cut.
	So just as a general rule, the 2017 tax cuts helped working families.
	But then on top of that, what the Big Beautiful bill did, it eliminated tax on tips.
	It eliminated tax on overtimes.
	It eliminated tax on Social Security for 88% of the recipients of Social Security.
	But beyond that, what people are struggling with now is having kids.
	So it has a child tax credit in it.
	It doubles the child tax credit.
	So if you're a family that makes $50,000 a year and you can't afford to have a kid, this gives you another $2,500 in your pocket.
	It has a child care tax credit for families that have two working parents.
	So this was designed to help people that are struggling to get by, that live paycheck to paycheck, have the opportunity that America has to offer.
	Now, the last piece of the puzzle, which President Trump is hammering on right now, and I think appropriately, is interest rates, because a big part of the American dream is to be able to have a home and to be able to afford rent.
	And rent's going crazy.
	Rent's gone up by more than 11% last year in Pennsylvania alone.
	House prices are more expensive because of interest rates.
	So if we can get interest rates down, which I hope the Fed will do because it's clear that inflation is under control, that's going to round out the puzzle for working families.
	And I think you're going to see a continued just explosion of opportunity for people across our country.
	Yeah, I think that's a really good point.
	I mean, for those who watching who may not know your background, I mean, you know, you ran some serious businesses on Wall Street.
	I mean, this is what you did for a long period of time.
	So, you know, you're not just one of these politicians talking about things.
	You actually did this stuff in the real world at a, you know, pretty much the ultimate level.
	It was interesting when I watched, you know, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, you know, he cut interest rates, what was it, 50 basis points right before the election when inflation was not under control, when it was rampant and egg prices were through the roof and everything was.
	I mean, that to me, as a business guy myself, was about as politicized as you get.
	And it was like, well, we got to control inflation.
	That's number one.
	That's the excuse they're using now.
	It didn't stop them back in November or end of October, whenever that was, that they did that cut for no real fundamental reason.
	Now we have the evidence, and not from Donald Trump, but from government agencies who are still probably fairly left-leaning.
	Hey, inflation is actually under control.
	It is not going up this way.
	Food prices have come down.
	Oil and gas prices have come down.
	I mean, all of these things are demonstrably there.
	And yet, there hasn't been that movement to do any kind of cutting, which to your point, I think, really benefits really everyone.
	But certainly those people who are trying to start families and buying first homes.
	And I look at what's going on in mortgage rates just for the stuff I'd be buying.
	And then it's like, wow, that's wow.
	It costs me twice as much as it did a couple of years ago or under my father's first term.
	And yet for no real reason.
	Yeah.
	Well, listen, I think there's no doubt that the Fed risked becoming very politicized.
	And I think it's not new for a president to be pushing the Fed to move rates.
	But I think what's clear here is that the belief the Fed missed the inflation bubble.
	They didn't raise interest rates quickly enough to keep it in check under Joe Biden.
	And then they've been very slow to acknowledge that inflation is under control.
	So I'm hoping we'll see a rate cut in July.
	I agree with your dad.
	Your dad just spoken out publicly in the last week or two.
	I don't think it makes sense for him to remove Jerome Powell.
	I mean, he hasn't said conclusively he's not going to do that.
	I think the independence of the Fed is an important thing.
	However, the president's going to have a chance to put his imprints on this pretty quickly because he's going to have a chance to pick a new Fed chair and two new Fed governors.
	And listen, I think it's very appropriate to criticize the Fed for missing both ways.
	It was too slow in raising rates to counter inflation under Joe Biden.
	It's been too slow to acknowledge that inflation is under control under President Trump.
	The first benefited the Biden administration.
	The second is a negative for the Trump administration.
	I'm hoping that gets corrected here in the next couple of weeks when the Fed has a chance to reduce rates.
	So, Senator, we've also been talking a bit about the Genius Act on the show.
	From your perspective in the Senate, what will it help to do to drive innovation?
	Well, I think it's a really important step forward.
	Just stepping back, I know you've been active in this area as well.
	Crypto and blockchain are the next big wave of innovation.
	This is incredibly important that America remain on the forefront of that to be at the center of financial markets.
	If we don't, others will.
	And you go to the Middle East or Europe and you see lots of innovation happening.
	And blockchain essentially disintermediates the government.
	It takes the financial institutions and the regulators out of it.
	It's inherently conservative because it's for independence and freedom.
	And so crypto is a great driver of that.
	And Stablecoin, which is regulated and established through the Genius Act, is essentially a risk-free payment source because it's backed by the U.S. dollar.
	But what it allows people to do is be able to transact in a way that is much more cost-effective and much more streamlined.
	And crypto in general, despite what some of the critics have said, Elizabeth Warren and others, actually is a much clearer way to inform and guard against money laundering and other things because blockchain has a clear collection of all the transactions and actions.
	It doesn't identify the end users, but it creates that track record.
	If you're a prosecutor or the FBI, it allows you to follow the breadcrumb trail of where bad things may be happening.
	The most important thing about it, in my mind, is that stablecoin is backed by the U.S. dollar.
	I think most Americans don't understand the importance of America being the reserve currency.
	Having reserve currency status gives us privilege around the world.
	Everybody wants to hold dollars.
	That's a great opportunity for us.
	It keeps our prices low.
	It keeps inflation in check.
	It's a great source of economic strength.
	Because digital payments are growing so rapidly and stablecoin will become the digital currency of use for many around the world.
	That means that there's going to be even a greater demand for dollars.
	And with that greater demand in dollars, that strengthens America's dollar and its position as a reserve currency of the world.
	Yeah, and I think that's so fundamentally important.
	You've seen sort of the attacks, whether it be from China or other actors around the world trying to basically knock sort of dollar hegemony, where dollar is the dominant currency out there.
	They've been shying away from it.
	They haven't been buying it the same way.
	People are like, don't you think that crypto is a threat or stablecoins?
	It's a threat to dollar hegemony.
	And I think it's exactly the opposite.
	I mean, when you look at these things being backed by U.S. treasuries, they're going to replace a lot of the big actors that were traditionally the buyers of these treasuries, which then enabled us to borrow and do some of the things that not always good.
	Sometimes we borrow a little too much and funded billions of dollars for trans surgeries in Guatemala, whatever the hell we were doing.
	So maybe not all of it was good, but I think it still allowed America to be a dominant player in the world.
	I think these staples are going to be actually the ones bolstering that as other countries try to get away from that.
	I think that's hugely important from a sort of macroeconomic perspective.
	Couldn't agree more.
	I think it's both a huge driver of innovation.
	Pennsylvania alone, we have thousands of jobs that are tied to crypto.
	It's a burgeoning industry.
	And as you said, stable coins and then stable payments will be a growing source of dollar-denominated transactions, which is great for liquidity, great for opportunity, and great for the reserve, the hegemony of the U.S. dollar.
	So last time we were on, we talked a little bit about your book, Who Believed in You.
	It was also right after you were with my father at the NCAA Wrestling Championships that you mentioned in the beginning.
	What was it about the wrestling culture in your state that helped shape the character of the people you represent?
	Yeah, when your dad was coming to the Nationals, I wrote an article that day that actually got published in the Wall Street Journal.
	And the title of it was, When I Watch Wrestling, I see America.
	And I really do.
	I see the best of America and the best of Pennsylvania because wrestling, you know, there's a new league being started, amateur wrestling, but wrestling is a combat sport.
	It's basically you and the opponent under the spotlight, nowhere to hide.
	When they say, you know, fatigue makes cowards of us all, there's nothing more exhausting than seven minutes on the mat with an opponent of strength and endurance and caliber.
	And it's up to you.
	And it's a test of will.
	It's a test of skill.
	It's a test of strength.
	And it's more than anything else, a mental game.
	And through that, you learn perseverance, dedication, hard work, grit, determination, toughness.
	And, you know, the people of Pennsylvania have been at the forefront of America for 250 years, whether it's been the founding of the country or the Civil War, the arsenal of democracy during World War II.
	Pennsylvania has proven itself always to be at the forefront of America's toughest fights and at the forefront of America's innovation.
	And so I see that connection to this moment we're in where the future is unknown, but our leadership will depend on us being able to find that grid and hard work and determination that we see on the wrestling mat, we see in the steel mills, we see in these data centers.
	Well, as someone who dabbled myself in my youth, I couldn't agree more.
	I mean, incredible sport.
	I mean, yeah, you know, no excuses, no team, just you.
	And you figure out what you're made of.
	I think it's really important and something we could all probably use a little bit of throughout our lives, especially our youth.
	Yeah, no doubt about it.
	I said during the campaign that, you know, in college, I always knew that if I could get into the third period within a point or two, that I'd persevere because the last two minutes is not about skill.
	It's about heart.
	It's about staying on offense.
	It's about just summoning the will to win.
	And, you know, this was sort of campaign commercials.
	And I said this in front of your dad a number of times at rallies.
	And my brother was a wrestler too.
	He was a captain of the West Point team and I was the co-captain of the West Point team.
	And I called him the next day after I won and I said, oh my God, that worked.
	Exactly.
	I found it somewhere.
	I found it.
	I still got it.
	I still got it, baby.
	Senator Dave McCormick of the great state of Pennsylvania, thank you very much.
	Really appreciate it.
	We'll continue covering this.
	And just great work for America and the people of your state.
	It's really awesome to see it happening.
	Thank you, Don.
	Thanks for having me.
	Well done, man.
	Thanks a lot.
	Hey, thank you for having me.
	This summit was unfucking believable.
	And your dad was great.
	And in a classic Trump move, he leans over to me at one point.
	He goes, you got all the big guys.
	You got all the big guys.
	He goes, this is so big that Larry Fink doesn't get introduced and he doesn't get to talk.
	Exactly.
	I gave it.
	It went from an A to an A plus.
	A plus.
	Awesome, man.
	Well, hey, give my best to Dina.
	I'll talk to you soon.
	Talk to you soon, buddy.
	See you all.
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