GM frens,

Here's what I'm serving this week:

The legacy media loves to portray crypto skeptics. These skeptics often have a background in traditional finance and a poor understanding of crypto. Yet they get a lot of airtime because of their credibility in their field. Here’s an example from this week:

In today's newsletter I want to talk about a basic principle when dealing with people: Do not listen to what they say, look at what they do. People will go to great lengths to make a point about something when, knowingly or not, they are actually doing something completely different.

And some crypto skeptics out there say one thing about bitcoin when someone sticks a microphone in their face, but do another when the camera is turned off.

Let's look at some examples.

1. Warren Buffett

Whether you’re in finance or not, you've heard of Warren Buffett. He's a household name. A living legend. An icon of shareholder capitalism.

After reading his biography "The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life," I came to the conclusion that Warren Buffett:

• is really funny. He is constantly churning out highly quotable lines.

• is comfortable going against the grain. He founded his company, Berkshire Hathaway, in Omaha, Nebraska, far from Wall Street and its herd mentality. (That's why he's often called "The Oracle of Omaha").

• is also a rather stubborn man. He lives on Coca-Cola and hamburgers, even when traveling to culinary havens like Japan, which says something about his willingness to try new things.

Of course, Warren Buffett is best known for his style of investing known as value investing: He invests in solid companies that consistently generate cash and holds on to them for the long haul, letting his returns compound. His company, Berkshire Hathaway, has grown to a market cap of more than USD900 billion, making it the 8th most valuable company in the world.

This made Warren Buffett the 6th richest person in the world.

Here is what he is saying about bitcoin

But when it comes to bitcoin, Warren Buffett is a real downer. He has a long history of shitting on the largest cryptocurrency by market cap. One of his most recent comments on bitcoin came from Berkshire's 2022 shareholder meeting, where he said:

I've mentioned in this newsletter that it's a bit pointless to criticize bitcoin for not being a stock. But it seems that Warren Buffett has a limited appetite to try new things.

But here is what he is actually doing

But Buffett's company, Berkshire, is actually heavily invested in Brazilian fintech company Nu Holdings. And, oh, the irony, the investment was the strongest performer in 2023.

Simply put, Nu is a digital bank that offers bank accounts and personal loans. But it also allows customers to buy and sell cryptocurrencies. And its customer base is growing.

Long story short, while the crypto business is only a small part of Nu's revenue, and while Nu is only a small part of Berkshire's portfolio, don't buy into the notion that Warren Buffet is wholesale anti-crypto.

2. Jamie Dimon

Jamie Dimon is the CEO of JPMorgan Chase, the largest bank in the US and the largest bank in the world by market cap.

In other words, he’s a big deal.

Some banks are considered systemically important and therefore "too big to fail". But JPMorgan Chase is the first among equals. They are the largest bank. So they.

Can. Not. Fail.

Here is what he is saying about bitcoin

Jamie Dimon has dumped on cryptocurrencies for years. In a US Senate hearing in December, he said:

This statement is hilarious in two ways: First, it is factually incorrect, as I pointed out here. Second, you can't just "close down" bitcoin.

But here is what he is actually doing

However, JPMorgan has been dabbling in blockchain technology for some time. In 2020, the bank launched Onyx Digital Assets, which it says is "a blockchain-based platform for wholesale payments transactions, helping to rearchitect the way that money, information and assets are moving around the world."

So far, so hypocritical.

But in December, just weeks after the aforementioned Senate hearing, JPMorgan also agreed to play a key role in BlackRock's bitcoin ETF. The bank was named one of the "authorized participants" in BlackRock's bitcoin ETF, "ensuring that ETF prices are accurate, and that trading is smooth, in all market conditions," according to BlackRock.

In the multi-trillion dollar ETF industry, few jobs are more important than the one JPMorgan is playing for BlackRock's bitcoin ETF.

Decide for yourself: Either Jamie Dimon has no idea what his company is doing. Or he is trying to fool you.

3. Jim Cramer

Jim Cramer is a madman. He is the host of CNBC's "Mad Money". He is...shall we say intense? I basically can't watch his show without getting a headache.

On Twitter, Jim Cramer is known for having the anti-Midas touch. Just to refresh your memory, the Midas touch is when everything you touch turns to gold. So the anti-Midas touch basically means that everything Jim Cramer talks about turns to 💩.

So people make a lot of fun of Jim Cramer. For example, if he says something negative like "Mr. bitcoin is about to go down big," people read that as a positive.

There is a Twitter account called “Inverse Cramer” that, following the anti-Midas touch logic, inverts everything Jim Cramer says.

And between 2022 and 2024, there was even an ETF called "Inverse Cramer," which gave investors a way to bet against Jim Cramer.

Here is what he is saying used to say about bitcoin

Jim Cramer has a track record of being negative on bitcoin, despite owning some. In 2021, he sold most of his bitcoin following China's crackdown on crypto miners. In October, during the trial of former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, he proclaimed that "Mr. bitcoin is about to go down big". (A clear buy signal!)

But here is what he is actually doing saying today

However, a few days before the bitcoin ETFs were approved in the US in January, Jim Cramer made a spectacular turnaround. On live TV, he said this about bitcoin:

Needless to say, this was very bad news for the Inverse Cramer camp. 😉 

I hope you have enjoyed today's newsletter. Remember, do not listen to what they say, but look at what they do.

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