Swan Signal Live - A Bitcoin Show

Why Smart Money Isn’t Afraid of This Bitcoin Crash with Cory Klippsten

Episode Summary

Brady, Cory, and John break down why today’s macro and institutional backdrop for Bitcoin is worlds better than 2021, even with choppy price action. They cover sovereign and Wall Street adoption, CFTC-regulated spot markets, MicroStrategy’s moves, Bitcoin’s energy role, and deliver a sharp moral and economic critique of prediction markets and the gambling economy.

Episode Notes

• Contrast between today’s macro backdrop and the 2021 Bitcoin peak, with tighter liquidity, higher rates, and far stronger structural support for Bitcoin
• Cory’s base case: no classic 80% “crypto winter” drawdowns anymore and a strong chance of new all-time highs in 2026
• John’s “yearly lows” chart framing: rising annual Bitcoin floors as proof of real accumulation and diminishing panic selling
• Larry Fink, Harvard, sovereign wealth funds, and major banks (BofA, Vanguard, Schwab, Citi) as long-term Bitcoin buyers, not momentum tourists
• Discussion of CFTC-approved spot Bitcoin trading on designated contract markets as another on-ramp for pensions and endowments
• Big critique of prediction markets and “scambling” (scam + gambling) as an extractive, nihilistic, fiat-era attempt to financialize everything
• Cory and John argue that crypto casinos, meme coins, and prediction markets are a giant gambling funnel that ultimately pushes people toward Bitcoin’s seriousness
• Bitcoin and energy: riffing on Elon Musk and Jensen Huang’s comments about Bitcoin turning stranded or excess energy into a universal monetary battery
• MicroStrategy’s new USD reserve is framed as a cosmetics move to soothe institutions and make their Stretch preferreds more attractive, not a change in core strategy
• Cory pushes back on “Operation Chokepoint 2.0” de-banking narratives, distinguishing between true systemic exclusion and individual risky accounts being dropped