Everyone Bends the Knee to Bitcoin in the End

everyone bends the knee to Bitcoin in the end because you can ignore Bitcoin, but you can't ignore

the consequences of ignoring Bitcoin. So last year when the Bitcoin ETFs were launched,

the second largest asset manager in the world, Vanguard, I think they managed something like $11

trillion, they chose not to launch their own Bitcoin ETF to compete with nine other competitors

like BlackRock, but Vanguard also went a step further than that when they refused to even list other

Bitcoin ETFs on their platform, meaning Vanguard clients could not buy them at all. They said

it's too volatile, it's too speculative, some paternalistic BS like that, which of course was

not surprising at all. It was basically a PR stance, a virtue signal, if you will, because Vanguard is

known for being stuffy and conservative, which is fine for many, many people, and they thought

their stuffy and conservative investor base would appreciate they were sticking to their values

and being very stuffy and conservative about Bitcoin. Personally, I have nothing against Vanguard.

Long-term low-risk, low-expense ratio index fund investing is perfectly good for a lot of people,

and they are probably the best in the business at that kind of thing, but they clearly made a large

miscalculation. Because as we know, you can't ban Bitcoin, you can only ban yourself from Bitcoin,

and the problem with that is banning yourself from Bitcoin is a very, very stupid idea,

and sooner or later, everyone who tries it comes to that realization eventually.

So several years ago, the Vanguard CEO said they would never consider Bitcoin product,

and then last year, they said, we don't plan to, and we're not going to change our minds around this.

And to me, very ironically, some of the reasoning was it's too speculative and it doesn't

belong in a long-term portfolio, which, in my opinion, is quite literally the opposite of reality.

Bitcoin is only speculative and too volatile over the short term, and the only time period in which

it's ever gone down is the short term. But over the long term, Bitcoin has only ever gone up.

So no person who's ever consistently botaneled this highly-volatile speculative asset has actually lost

any money or purchasing power miraculously over the long term. So the Vanguard CEO said,

we're not going to change our minds around this unless the asset class changes.

Fast forward one year, and guess what? Big time shocker, Vanguard's benthani, and they've changed

their mind. They're now listing Bitcoin and other crypto ETFs on their trading platform.

So did the asset class change or something about Bitcoin changed? Clearly not, but do you know what

has changed? Vanguard's biggest competitor, which is BlackRock, they launched a Bitcoin ETF,

and it became the fastest-growing ETF in history, and within less than two years, it became BlackRock's

most profitable product. 13 trillion dollar asset managers, largest in the world, and Bitcoin ETF

is their most profitable product. So Vanguard tried to take their moral stand against Bitcoin,

and they ended up just cutting off their nose despite their face, giving their biggest competitor

a huge advantage, and of course, BlackRock stole Vanguard's lunch money and gave them

a swirly in the cafeteria bathroom. And this Vanguard move was so bad, they didn't just pivot

to reverse it to allow Bitcoin ETFs. They are now allowing customers to buy dog **** like Ethereum

and XRP and Solana ETFs. But I thought they were in the business of protecting investors from

highly volatile speculative assets with no intrinsic value, but clearly not anymore.

Just one year later, and they're practically going full-on coinbase **** and casino.

So they are a perfect example of why everyone eventually bends the knee. To Bitcoin, I'm going to

explain why that's going to happen to everyone else in just a second. Real quick, you're watching

this SadStacker show, a Bitcoin show for people who think deeper about money. My name is John,

I'm your host, aka the SadStacker. So if you're interested in learning how to stack smarter and

grow your conviction in Bitcoin, hit the subscribe button, and we'll get into the rest of the video.

So what actually happened with SolVanguard thing? Well, it's simple game theory, really.

Everyone bends the knee to Bitcoin in the end, and the longer you fight or resist Bitcoin,

the more you just let your competitors eat you for lunch. Vanguard clearly never actually had

a principled stance on this. They just tried to check with the way the wind was blowing,

and they clearly got it wrong, and they didn't realize how badly they'd get their buck kicked

by miscalculating this. They tried to ignore Bitcoin, but they can't ignore the consequences of

ignoring Bitcoin. And that is how Bitcoin wins. In the end, pure economic gravity. This whole

entire thing reminds me of a quote from Safedinemous, the author of the Bitcoin Standard,

when he said that Bitcoin is financial gunpowder. When I talk about Bitcoin adoption,

people think of it as being like, say, Apple iPhone adoption. It's very nice and very cute,

and then people will buy it. But I think that's not the model for Bitcoin. Bitcoin is more like

gunpowder adoption. Did the French army have a choice whether they should adopt gunpowder or not?

Did they decide, no, you know what? We like to keep it real with sticks and stones and swords,

and we're not going to use gunpowder. If any army that decided to do this didn't matter,

because then another army with gunpowder would come and take over France. So eventually,

everywhere in the world ended up with gunpowder, either because people adopted it or because

it was used against them. And I think Bitcoin is like that. Bitcoin is like financial gunpowder.

It's the safest way of sending money halfway around the world, the most secure way.

And it's the hardest money that we've ever invented. At the end of the day, this is economic

reality. It's not optional. You will either move there or you will watch your wealth lose its value

as the people who put their money there appreciate. The harder money will win, you know. Gold

beat silver. Not because, you know, there was better marketing for gold or there was better

propaganda for gold. Beat silver because of economic reality. Gold grew at a much slower rate than

silver. The value of silver declined. This is really the case with Bitcoin, I think, in the long run.

The invention of gunpowder was a superior technology in warfare. So you could try to ignore

gunpowder, but you couldn't ignore the consequences of ignoring it. Money works in the same way.

Money is a technology and history shows us that there is such thing as superior monetary

technology. Namely, that comes in the form of harder money. If one group of people or society

stores their value in a harder money and another group stores their value in a weaker money,

the outcome is inevitable. The harder money out competes and eventually demonetizes the weaker

money. Over time, the purchasing power of the weaker money erodes towards zero as the harder

money absorbs its value. In simple terms, hard money sucks the value out of the weaker money

over time. Look up the history of Native American Wampum or the Rye Stones on Yap Island,

or even China and India remaining on the silver standard while the West adopted the gold standard

in the late 1800s or early 1900s. The key to remember in all these situations is that holding

the weaker money is actually economically devastating. Every time this happens in history,

the story is the same. Those holding the weaker money see their purchasing power vanish

while those who adopt the harder money see their relative wealth explode. By the way,

quick tangent, this actually is what I believe people who call Bitcoin a Ponzi scheme,

fundamentally misunderstand. They think it's some scheme where early adopters only profit by

recruiting and dumping on new entrants. But that's not what's happening. The purchasing power gains

of a harder money come from weaker monies losing their purchasing power and the value migrating

from one to the other. It's the same thing as gold and foreign currencies demonetizing the German

mark during hyperinflation in Y-Mart Germany in the 1920s. But of course, nobody said gold is

a Ponzi scheme because the mark is hyperinflating. That would make no sense. It's not a Ponzi or

a pyramid scheme. It's a monetary transition. And the next evolution in the technology of money

is Bitcoin. Again, hard for people to see because we haven't had a real innovation in the technology

of money in most of our lifetimes. But Bitcoin is a superior monetary technology. It's monetary

gunpowder. So if you're holding a weaker money or a weaker store of value like dollars or bonds

or even real estate, which is all inflated by fiat and debt, over time, the value and more specifically

the monetary premium of those monies or those assets leaks out and gets absorbed in to Bitcoin.

And I'd argue this analogy extends to anyone else who attempts to ignore Bitcoin. If you're a

financial firm that refuses to offer Bitcoin products, your competitors who do will eat your lunch.

If you're a financial advisor who won't talk about Bitcoin to your clients, well, your clients

will ultimately leave you for an advisor who will because they're outperforming you. And eventually,

if you're a corporation without Bitcoin on your balance sheet or you're a merchant who doesn't

accept Bitcoin payments or a government without Bitcoin as part of your reserves or even worse,

a country that tries to ban Bitcoin, ignoring Bitcoin can't protect you. It just guarantees

you get left behind. Call it monetary Darwinism. Every system or institution that tries to ignore

Bitcoin ends up bending the knee or they will choose catastrophic failure instead. And Vanguard is

just the latest example. BlackRock didn't embrace Bitcoin because they love Austrian economics.

They did it because of incentives and profit motives. They did it to make money. Vanguard didn't

reverse course because they suddenly believe in the principles of sound money. They did it because

not offering Bitcoin was costing them money. That's how Bitcoin wins. One capitulation at a time.

You can try to ignore Bitcoin, but you can't ignore what happens to you when everyone else doesn't.

So don't be surprised when you see the next institution or country than the knee to Bitcoin.

Those who are paying attention know that the opportunity cost of ignoring Bitcoin is paid

in purchasing power. So remember, it's just about incentives and incentives as we know are

undefeated. If you want to keep learning to sex smarter and grow your conviction in Bitcoin,

you hit subscribe button. You watch one of my other videos right here. And as always, you never

forget quit slacking and start stacking. Quit slacking and start stacking. Quit slacking and start stacking.