I sat down with Amy Oldenburg, Head of Digital Asset Strategy for Morgan Stanley Investment Management, and she was wonderfully candid on the thing everyone's wondering about: why the price of Bitcoin hasn’t reached $200k+.

She talked openly about why Bitcoin has stayed stuck even as big institutions keep buying, what could finally move it, and why she wouldn't rule out much higher prices down the road — while being honest about what it would realistically take to get there.

What stood out most to me was how deeply she gets it. Amy understands the difference between Bitcoin and the rest of “crypto” — they’re not all the same thing — and she genuinely values self-custody and the right to hold your own keys, which isn’t something you hear from everyone in traditional finance. Her background is a big part of that: she came up in emerging markets, working in places where people couldn’t always trust the financial system around them, and it shapes how she sees Bitcoin today.

We’re also in a fascinating phase of adoption right now — that in-between stretch where the big institutions have arrived, but the story is still very much being written. This episode is a great window into where things actually stand, and where they might be heading.

Amy pulls back the curtain on the quiet, years-long effort it takes inside a firm like Morgan Stanley: the legal reviews, the regulatory hurdles, and the sheer operational lift of getting a traditional bank ready for an asset that trades 24/7. She walks through the launch of $MSBT — one of the most successful first-day fund debuts in Morgan Stanley’s history — and what it really took to get there.

But here’s a part I found especially interesting: even with huge demand from clients, a lot of financial advisors still aren’t recommending Bitcoin. Amy gives a thoughtful, refreshingly honest breakdown of why — the psychology and the culture behind the hesitation, and what it’ll take to finally close that gap.

We Get Into:

• Why the banks moved slowly. Because Morgan Stanley answers to the Federal Reserve, it had to clear hurdles that independent firms like BlackRock didn’t — which is part of why it had to watch competitors go first.

• Starting over from scratch. The partners and systems Morgan Stanley lined up back in 2020–2021 didn’t even exist anymore by the time they were ready in 2024, so they had to rebuild the entire plan.

• Borrowing against your Bitcoin. Amy explains how holding Bitcoin through Morgan Stanley’s platform can let clients borrow against it — up to half its value — to free up cash for things like a home or estate planning, and the trade-offs that come with it.

• Two very different worlds. Why the “winner-take-all” culture of Big Tech keeps colliding with the spread-the-risk, many-players nature of traditional finance.

Whether you’ve been in Bitcoin for years or you’re just starting to pay attention, Amy’s clarity is worth your time.

A Quick Note from the Road 🌍

I’m writing this from BTC Prague, and I have some exciting news: I got to sit down with Michael Saylor for a conversation that drops next week on the podcast, in partnership with the BTC Prague Podcast.

You won’t want to miss it - he responds at length to all of the recent criticisms about Strategy’s sale of bitcoin, confusion about MNAV guidance & the importance of the Bitcoin-per-share KPI, what it will take to get Bitcoin to $1+ million per coin and much more.

This week at BTC Prague I got to take part in several panels, sign copies of Bitcoin is for Everyone and I also attended a special Women of Bitcoin gathering — the SatoShe Soiree, organized by Lisa Tscherry — and it was a beautiful reminder of how much this community is growing, and how many incredible women are helping shape its future. More to come soon. Until then, thank you for being here and being part of this journey.

If you’re not already subscribed to The News Block — every week we break down the biggest stories in Bitcoin and macro in a way that’s fast, honest, and actually useful. New episodes drop every Monday in your inbox and wherever you listen to podcasts. Subscribe at thenewsblock.substack.com so you never miss a beat.

Subscribe now

⚡ The Stack: Tools I Use and Trust

These are the companies that power Coin Stories — and you’ll see why I use them myself!

💳 Earn Bitcoin on everything you buy Gemini Credit Card — Up to 4% back in Bitcoin on gas, dining, and groceries. No annual fee. → gemini.com/natalie

🏦 Borrow against your Bitcoin without selling it Ledn — The global leader in Bitcoin-backed loans. $10B+ issued since 2018. No credit checks, no monthly payments. 0.25% off your first loan. → ledn.io/natalie

⛏️ Fully-managed Bitcoin mining in the U.S with Abundant Mines — You own the miners. You keep 100% of the Bitcoin. Voted #1 mining company by peers. Get 1 month of free hosting → abundantmines.com/Natalie · Watch my episode with the founders

⚡ Send Bitcoin instantly over Lightning Speed Wallet — Low-cost Bitcoin payments and Bitcoin trivia (win up to 1M sats). Code COINSTORIES10 for 5,000 free sats. → speed.app/natalie

🔐 Self-custody your Bitcoin safely Bitkey by Block — Named to TIME’s Best Inventions of 2024 for Privacy & Security. Code STORIES for 10% off. → bitkey.world/STORIES

🧠 Get 1-on-1 help setting up self-custody The Bitcoin Way — Personal guidance to master your own keys and sleep soundly at night. → thebitcoinway.com/natalie

🏛️ Hold Bitcoin in a tax-advantaged retirement account BitcoinIRA — Buy Bitcoin 24/7 inside a Traditional or Roth IRA. → bitcoinira.com/natalie

🛡️ Also in My Personal Stack

Efani — The most secure mobile service in America. Protects against SIM swaps. Trusted by CEOs and VIPs. → efani.com/natalie

CrowdHealth — I ditched fiat health insurance four years ago and joined CrowdHealth. Discounted plan at my link. → joincrowdhealth.com/natalie

Thanks for subscribing, and if this newsletter resonated, forward it to one person who needs to read it.

— Natalie

Disclaimer: This newsletter is for informational and entertainment purposes only and should not be considered financial, investment, or legal advice. I am not a financial advisor. Always do your own research before making any investment decisions. Information and opinions shared here may change without notice. Some links in this newsletter are affiliate or sponsor links, which means I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.

So why is the vast majority of public and private companies completely frozen on the sidelines?

This week on Coin Stories, I sat down with Ben Hunnewell, the CFO of Prevalon Energy — and one of the most genuinely interesting people I’ve met all year.

Here’s what makes Ben rare: he spent years building power plants and battery storage systems, so he understands how the physical world actually runs. And his company recently became the very first to hold STRC — the new Bitcoin-backed instrument from Strategy that’s quietly turning heads across the financial world. That combination gives him a perspective you won’t hear anywhere else.

What I loved most is that Ben doesn’t pretend he was always a believer. He used to make fun of people who bought Bitcoin. He’ll tell you exactly when that changed, and why — once he started holding Bitcoin himself — he still didn’t think it belonged on his company’s balance sheet. Most businesses simply can’t ride out Bitcoin’s wild price swings; they need their money to be there when payroll and projects come due.

Then STRC came along, and Ben describes the moment he realized it was, in his words, pivotal. We get into what STRC actually is in plain English, why it pays the kind of yield that makes people assume it’s “too good to be true,” and the surprisingly simple way he answers the skeptics who call it a scam.

We also went well beyond Bitcoin. Because Ben builds the infrastructure that powers our world, he had a lot to say about the so-called AI energy crisis — including why some of the scariest headlines you’ve seen are, as he puts it, really good propaganda. (Wait until you hear the “23 Hiroshima bombs” claim, and what’s actually true about it.)

A few of my favorite moments:

• The exact turning point when a lifelong skeptic decided STRC would change the financial world

• Why Ben thinks Strive might be the rare company that could actually challenge Strategy, because the daily-dividend structure lets them raise capital fast

• How Bitcoin miners can turn wasted, flared-off energy into something useful

• Why, as Ben says, you can’t print energy, data centers, or the things that matter most

One moment that meant the world to me

Near the end, the conversation turned personal. Ben recently read my book, Bitcoin Is for Everyone — and he admitted he picked it up assuming there was nothing in it he didn’t already know. What he says next genuinely caught me off guard. He talks about handing it to his own daughter, why he thinks it reaches people that even his favorite books can’t, and what happened when he got to the chapter on energy (the one subject he knows better than almost anyone). I’m including that clip below, because it’s a reminder of why I do this work in the first place. 🧡

If you’ve ever wondered how Bitcoin quietly moves from the fringes into the heart of the financial system — and what that means for regular people, not just Wall Street — this is the episode to watch.

We’re Heading to Europe!

I’m heading to Prague next week for BTC Prague, Europe’s largest Bitcoin-only conference. 8,000 attendees, 250 speakers, four stages, three days. Michael Saylor will be there for his fourth consecutive year. So will Jeff Booth, Jack Cruz, and yours truly.

I’ll also be attending a Women of Bitcoin event there on June 11 at the Mandarin Oriental — details coming soon. If you’ve ever thought about attending a Bitcoin conference in Europe, this is the one. Use code HODL for discounted passes at btcprague.com.

And if you’re not already subscribed to The News Block — every week we break down the biggest stories in Bitcoin and macro in a way that’s fast, honest, and actually useful. New episodes drop every Monday in your inbox and wherever you listen to podcasts. Subscribe at thenewsblock.substack.com so you never miss a beat.

Subscribe now

⚡ The Stack: Tools I Use and Trust

These are the companies that power Coin Stories — and you’ll see why I use them myself!

💳 Earn Bitcoin on everything you buy Gemini Credit Card — Up to 4% back in Bitcoin on gas, dining, and groceries. No annual fee. → gemini.com/natalie

🏦 Borrow against your Bitcoin without selling it Ledn — The global leader in Bitcoin-backed loans. $10B+ issued since 2018. No credit checks, no monthly payments. 0.25% off your first loan. → ledn.io/natalie

⛏️ Fully-managed Bitcoin mining in the U.S with Abundant Mines — You own the miners. You keep 100% of the Bitcoin. Voted #1 mining company by peers. Get 1 month of free hosting → abundantmines.com/Natalie · Watch my episode with the founders

⚡ Send Bitcoin instantly over Lightning Speed Wallet — Low-cost Bitcoin payments and Bitcoin trivia (win up to 1M sats). Code COINSTORIES10 for 5,000 free sats. → speed.app/natalie

🔐 Self-custody your Bitcoin safely Bitkey by Block — Named to TIME’s Best Inventions for Privacy & Security. Code STORIES for 10% off. → bitkey.world

🧠 Get 1-on-1 help setting up self-custody The Bitcoin Way — Personal guidance to master your own keys and sleep soundly at night. → thebitcoinway.com/natalie

🏛️ Hold Bitcoin in a tax-advantaged retirement account BitcoinIRA — Buy Bitcoin 24/7 inside a Traditional or Roth IRA. → bitcoinira.com/natalie

🛡️ Also in My Personal Stack

Efani — The most secure mobile service in America. Protects against SIM swaps. Trusted by CEOs and VIPs. → efani.com/natalie

CrowdHealth — I ditched fiat health insurance four years ago and joined CrowdHealth. Discounted plan at my link. → joincrowdhealth.com/natalie

Thanks for subscribing, and if this newsletter resonated, forward it to one person who needs to read it.

— Natalie

Disclaimer: This newsletter is for informational and entertainment purposes only and should not be considered financial, investment, or legal advice. I am not a financial advisor. Always do your own research before making any investment decisions. Information and opinions shared here may change without notice. Some links in this newsletter are affiliate or sponsor links, which means I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.

This isn’t a theoretical concept or an unbacked DeFi experiment. It is a massive financial milestone that is officially live on U.S. markets.

This week on Coin Stories, Jeff Walton, Chief Risk Officer at Strive and CEO of True North, pulls back the curtain on SATA: the first public security in U.S. history designed to pay daily dividends, with an effective yield of 13%.

We had a great conversation that covered a lot of ground, from the mechanics of how Strive pulled this off to Jeff’s personal story of how the 2008 financial crisis changed his family, betting his entire retirement savings and HELOC on MSTR call options for a 2,000% return — and how those experiences shaped everything he’s building today.

How SATA Actually Works

SATA is a perpetual preferred equity security that trades like a regular stock. You can buy it in any brokerage account under its ticker. It pays a 13% annual yield, distributed every business day starting June 16. SATA holders get a pure yield instrument while the company’s balance sheet takes on the risk of delivering it. Strive has zero debt, over 16,000 Bitcoin, and Jeff says they only need Bitcoin to compound at 5.7% per year to fund the dividend indefinitely.

Why Strive Could Do This — and Strategy Couldn’t (Yet)

Jeff said the reason Strive could go straight to daily dividends while Strategy is still moving to semi-monthly comes down to two things: Strive is domiciled in Nevada, not Delaware, which gave them legal flexibility to act without a shareholder vote.

The Trust Argument

Jeff made a point in this conversation that really stuck with me. He believes daily dividends aren’t just a financial innovation — they’re a step toward rebuilding trust in the financial system. Banks have become less transparent and more leveraged over the past few decades. Strive publishes its balance sheet, files with the SEC, and shows exactly how many years of dividend coverage their Bitcoin provides. Even in a worst-case scenario where Bitcoin falls 45% from today’s price, Strive would still have ten years of dividend coverage on the Bitcoin alone. That kind of transparency is something most financial institutions can’t offer.

The 2,000% Trade That Changed His Life

Jeff also shared the wild story of how he got here. In November 2022, after FTX and Celsius collapsed and Wall Street was convinced MicroStrategy was headed for bankruptcy, Jeff looked at Strategy’s debt profile and saw something everyone else missed: the debt wasn’t due for years, and Bitcoin’s fundamentals hadn’t changed. He waited for Bitcoin to break $19,000 as his signal, then put his entire portfolio — including his HSA, IRA, brokerage account, and even $7,500 from a HELOC — into long-dated MSTR call options. He still keeps the HELOC check in his wallet as a memento. That trade returned roughly 2,000% and gave him the financial freedom to leave reinsurance and go all-in on Bitcoin.

Why This Matters

Jeff thinks SATA is going after the largest addressable market on the planet — credit, equity, money market funds, and bank deposits combined, somewhere between $500 trillion and $700 trillion globally. If Strive captures even a basis point of it, the scale is enormous. And he believes daily dividends are just the beginning. The next frontier is daily rate adjustments, tokenized versions, and DeFi applications built on top of these instruments. The financial system is being rebuilt in real time — and most people haven’t noticed yet.

Full episode streaming now wherever you watch or listen to your podcasts.

I Took My First Bitcoin-Backed Loan!

I just walked through exactly how to take a loan against your Bitcoin on Ledn — the simplest Bitcoin-backed lending platform out there.

Here’s the backstory: I had some 0% APR promotional periods on credit cards that were about to expire, and I didn’t want to pay off the balances by selling Bitcoin. So I decided to try Ledn for myself and document the entire process.

This is not financial advice, just my personal experience. Everyone’s situation is different, and you should always do your own research. But if you’ve been curious about Bitcoin-backed loans, this walkthrough breaks down everything from the application to how rates work, custody, and repayment.

A few things that made me comfortable using Ledn: your Bitcoin stays custodied and is never lent out, you can activate auto top-ups and alerts so you’re never caught off guard, and you can repay anytime with zero penalties. Ledn has processed over $10 billion in loans over the last eight years, and they just introduced their lowest rates ever — the larger the loan, the lower the rate.

Get .25% off your first loan at ledn.io/natalie.

We’re Heading to Europe in less than 2 weeks!

I’m heading to Prague for the first time this June for BTC Prague, Europe’s largest Bitcoin-only conference. 8,000 attendees, 250 speakers, four stages, three days. Michael Saylor will be there for his fourth consecutive year. So will Jeff Booth, Jack Cruz, and yours truly.

I’ll also be attending a Women of Bitcoin event there on June 11 at the Mandarin Oriental — details coming soon. If you’ve ever thought about attending a Bitcoin conference in Europe, this is the one. Use code HODL for discounted passes at btcprague.com.

And if you’re not already subscribed to The News Block — every week we break down the biggest stories in Bitcoin and macro in a way that’s fast, honest, and actually useful. New episodes drop every Monday in your inbox and wherever you listen to podcasts. Subscribe at thenewsblock.substack.com so you never miss a beat.

Subscribe now

⚡ The Stack: Tools I Use and Trust

These are the companies that power Coin Stories — and you’ll see why I use them myself!

💳 Earn Bitcoin on everything you buy Gemini Credit Card — Up to 4% back in Bitcoin on gas, dining, and groceries. No annual fee. → gemini.com/natalie

🏦 Borrow against your Bitcoin without selling it Ledn — The global leader in Bitcoin-backed loans. $10B+ issued since 2018. No credit checks, no monthly payments. 0.25% off your first loan. → ledn.io/natalie

⛏️ Fully-managed Bitcoin mining in the U.S with Abundant Mines — You own the miners. You keep 100% of the Bitcoin. Voted #1 mining company by peers. Get 1 month of free hosting: → abundantmines.com/Natalie · Watch my episode with the founders

⚡ Send Bitcoin instantly over Lightning Speed Wallet — Low-cost Bitcoin payments and Bitcoin trivia (win up to 1M sats). Code COINSTORIES10 for 5,000 free sats. → speed.app/natalie

🔐 Self-custody your Bitcoin safely Bitkey by Block — Named to TIME’s Best Inventions of 2024 for Privacy & Security. Code STORIES for 10% off. → bitkey.world

🧠 Get 1-on-1 help setting up self-custody The Bitcoin Way — Personal guidance to master your own keys and sleep soundly at night. → thebitcoinway.com/natalie

🏛️ Hold Bitcoin in a tax-advantaged retirement account BitcoinIRA — Buy Bitcoin 24/7 inside a Traditional or Roth IRA. → bitcoinira.com/natalie

🛡️ Also in My Personal Stack

Efani — The most secure mobile service in America. Protects against SIM swaps. Trusted by CEOs and VIPs. → efani.com/natalie

CrowdHealth — I ditched fiat health insurance four years ago and joined CrowdHealth. Discounted plan at my link. → joincrowdhealth.com/natalie

Thanks for subscribing, and if this newsletter resonated, forward it to one person who needs to read it.

— Natalie

Disclaimer: This newsletter is for informational and entertainment purposes only and should not be considered financial, investment, or legal advice. I am not a financial advisor. Always do your own research before making any investment decisions. Information and opinions shared here may change without notice. Some links in this newsletter are affiliate or sponsor links, which means I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.

This week on Coin Stories, we tackled this divide from two completely different, yet deeply interconnected angles. First, I sat down with macro investor and manufacturing consultant Craig Tindale to explore why the Western world is physically running out of time, resources, and manufacturing capacity.

Then, I hosted an exclusive live investor Q&A conversation with Strategy Executive Chairman Michael Saylor and CEO Phong Le to break down how a modern corporation is using innovative financial engineering to escape the fiat cage entirely.

The Hard Bifurcation: Why the West Can’t Print Its Way Out of a Material Crisis

For decades, Western economies have operated under a comfortable illusion: that we can financialize everything, move “up the value chain” into software and service, tell our domestic working class to simply “learn to code,” and outsource the “dirty work” of heavy manufacturing to nations like China and India.

Craig argues that we have hit a wall he calls the “Hard Bifurcation,” the point where the paper financial ledger crashes directly into the material ledger.

• The Supply Chain Chokehold: Craig used a chilling analogy, comparing the U.S. and China to “conjoined twins trying to choke each other.” Despite political rhetoric surrounding “decoupling,” our defense, technology, and agricultural sectors are so structurally intertwined with China that pulling apart threatens total systemic failure.

• The 3-Week Fuse: In a kinetic conflict, Craig notes the U.S. military possesses only about three weeks’ worth of artillery ammunition reserves. Worse, the supply chains required to replenish those stockpiles rely entirely on components sourced from our primary geopolitical rivals.

• The Squeeze on Real Assets: From Elon Musk’s warnings of an imminent global electricity shortage to China halting critical industrial exports like sulfuric acid (causing a massive spike from $250 to $1,000 a ton in weeks), the physical world is striking back. You cannot print copper, transformers, fertilizer, or time. Wall Street models are currently “on acid,” pricing tech monopolies at trillions while ignoring the fact that the data centers powering the AI boom are hitting a literal brick wall of power grid capacity.

The Takeaway: Craig’s message is an urgent call for personal resilience. As modern systems become hyper-optimized to the point of extreme fragility, everyday citizens must disconnect from the purely speculative machine, relearn tangible skills, and understand what happens when the power goes out.

Inside the Flywheel: Saylor & Le Answer the Retail Shareholders

While Craig exposed the decay of traditional industrial systems, our live interactive Q&A with Strategy’s leadership showcased a radical blueprint for navigating it. Michael Saylor and Phong Le bypassed traditional, heavily scripted corporate earnings calls to answer questions submitted directly by you, the retail investor community.

Saylor didn’t hold back, taking aim at the systemic vulnerabilities of traditional capital allocation and explaining exactly how Strategy is rewiring corporate finance.

• Inside the Capital Allocation Engine: Saylor opened the books on how Strategy actually makes capital decisions — running multivariate models that weigh equity, credit, cash, and Bitcoin “minute by minute” and “second by second” to maximize Bitcoin per share. His admission that selling some Bitcoin before year-end is “not unlikely” wasn’t a reversal — it was a window into how the company’s been operating all along.

• Why the Preferreds Aren’t Going Anywhere: Phong delivered the clearest signal yet on STRF, STRK, and STRD — “We think they’re undervalued. We’re not selling them.” Saylor reinforced it, explaining why retiring the convertible bonds is the priority, while the perpetual preferreds remain strategic complements to STRC.

• The Path to a Higher mNAV: Asked how Strategy intends to “rip the wings off the shorts,” Saylor laid out the math: a 20% BTC yield doubles Bitcoin per share in three years — a growth rate that warrants a meaningful premium to NAV. The plan, in his words: “First, build the machine. Then make the machine capable of running the marathon. Then go communicate it to the market.”

• STRC as Bitcoin’s Layer 2: In one of the most striking reframes of the conversation, Saylor described STRC as “a nice layer two on Bitcoin” — and Strategy itself as “a Bitcoin reserve bank of sorts, buying Bitcoin and issuing credit against it,” drawing the comparison to the founding of the Bank of England.

The Takeaway: When asked what happens when Bitcoin hits $10 million per coin, Saylor’s response underscored a permanent paradigm shift. Strategy isn’t looking to play a speculative game; they are building institutional architecture meant to scale across generations on a global Bitcoin standard.

Connecting the Dots

Whether you are looking at Craig Tindale’s material ledger or Michael Saylor’s financial flywheel, the underlying message of this week is identical: The legacy system is living on borrowed time, valued on assets it physically cannot deliver. Survival (both personal and corporate) requires looking at the world through a lens of absolute reality. It means prioritizing hard, un-printable assets over paper promises.

As always, thank you for tuning in, supporting independent financial media, and being part of this journey. Drop your thoughts on this week’s episodes in the comments below!

We’re Heading to Europe!

I’m heading to Prague for the first time this June for BTC Prague, Europe’s largest Bitcoin-only conference. 8,000 attendees, 250 speakers, four stages, three days. Michael Saylor will be there for his fourth consecutive year. So will Jeff Booth, Jack Cruz, and yours truly.

I’ll also be attending a Women of Bitcoin event there on June 11 at the Mandarin Oriental — details coming soon. If you’ve ever thought about attending a Bitcoin conference in Europe, this is the one. Use code HODL for discounted passes at btcprague.com.

And if you’re not already subscribed to The News Block — every week we break down the biggest stories in Bitcoin and macro in a way that’s fast, honest, and actually useful. New episodes drop every Monday in your inbox and wherever you listen to podcasts. Subscribe at thenewsblock.substack.com so you never miss a beat.

Subscribe now

⚡ The Stack: Tools I Use and Trust

These are the companies that power Coin Stories — and you’ll see why I use them myself!

💳 Earn Bitcoin on everything you buy Gemini Credit Card — Up to 4% back in Bitcoin on gas, dining, and groceries. No annual fee. → gemini.com/natalie

🏦 Borrow against your Bitcoin without selling it Ledn — The global leader in Bitcoin-backed loans. $10B+ issued since 2018. No credit checks, no monthly payments. 0.25% off your first loan. → ledn.io/natalie

⛏️ Mine Bitcoin passively with tax advantages Abundant Mines — 100% passive income, massive tax benefits. 1 month of free hosting with my link. → abundantmines.com/Natalie · Watch my episode with the founders

⚡ Send Bitcoin instantly over Lightning Speed Wallet — Low-cost Bitcoin payments and Bitcoin trivia (win up to 1M sats). Code COINSTORIES10 for 5,000 free sats. → speed.app/natalie

🔐 Self-custody your Bitcoin safely Bitkey by Block — Named to TIME’s Best Inventions of 2024 for Privacy & Security. Code STORIES for 20% off. → bitkey.world

🧠 Get 1-on-1 help setting up self-custody The Bitcoin Way — Personal guidance to master your own keys and sleep soundly at night. → thebitcoinway.com/natalie

🏛️ Hold Bitcoin in a tax-advantaged retirement account BitcoinIRA — Buy Bitcoin 24/7 inside a Traditional or Roth IRA. → bitcoinira.com/natalie

🛡️ Also in My Personal Stack

Efani — The most secure mobile service in America. Protects against SIM swaps. Trusted by CEOs and VIPs. → efani.com/natalie

CrowdHealth — I ditched fiat health insurance four years ago and joined CrowdHealth. Discounted plan at my link. → joincrowdhealth.com/natalie

Thanks for subscribing, and if this newsletter resonated, forward it to one person who needs to read it.

— Natalie

Disclaimer: This newsletter is for informational and entertainment purposes only and should not be considered financial, investment, or legal advice. I am not a financial advisor. Always do your own research before making any investment decisions. Information and opinions shared here may change without notice. Some links in this newsletter are affiliate or sponsor links, which means I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.

And the data fits almost perfectly.

Giovanni is a physicist and the director of the Scientific Bitcoin Institute. He’s also the creator of Bitcoin’s Power Law Theory. I’ll try to explain it the way he explained it to me, because I think it’s one of the most important ideas in the Bitcoin space right now.

Here’s the short version.

Most people who look at Bitcoin’s price history see chaos. Wild swings. Bubbles. Crashes. A chart that looks like it’s driven by emotion, speculation, and hype. But Giovanni looked at the same data and saw something completely different. He saw a precise, mathematical pattern that shows up everywhere in nature: a power law.

A power law governs things like gravity, the energy metabolism of animals, the growth of cities, the movement of planets, and the architecture of the internet. When Giovanni applied it to Bitcoin (plotting the price and time on a logarithmic scale) something almost miraculous happened. The chaotic, jagged price history of Bitcoin became a straight line.

Not roughly a straight line. A straight line with a 97% correlation coefficient. Meaning that one simple equation (price equals time to the power of 5.8) explains 97% of every price move Bitcoin has ever made.

“The chart you cannot unsee,” he called it. And he’s right. Once you see Bitcoin’s price history as a clean, straight line on a log-log chart, you can’t go back to seeing it as random.

What does that straight line predict? According to the power law, Bitcoin should be around $120,000 right now. We’re slightly below the midline, which is normal and historically common. In roughly eight years, the model predicts $1 million. In twenty years, $10 million. And by that point, Bitcoin’s market cap would be roughly equivalent to all the real estate in the world.

But this isn’t a price model someone invented to make Bitcoin look good. It’s a description of how Bitcoin actually grows. And the way it grows is identical to the way cities grow.

Corporations grow exponentially. They scale fast, saturate their market, run out of resources, and die. Almost no corporation has existed for more than 150 years. Cities, on the other hand, are nearly impossible to kill. Rome has existed for thousands of years. Hiroshima was destroyed and rebuilt. Cities grow as power laws: gradually, sustainably, self-organizing from the bottom up, without central control. And so does Bitcoin.

“Bitcoin is turning corporations into cities,” Giovanni said. And Michael Saylor, he believes, should start using exactly that language.

He also made a point I’ve been thinking about ever since. Bitcoin has gone up 100 million times since its first transaction. It is, almost certainly, the only system in the history of finance to do that. And according to the power law it still has roughly 100 times left to go.

We are not late. We are early.

This episode is unlike anything else we’ve done on the show. There are no price predictions based on gut feelings or cycle analysis. There are no vibes. There’s just data, equations, and one of the most rigorous scientific minds I’ve encountered in this space making the case that Bitcoin isn’t speculation — it is, quite literally, a law of nature.

Giovanni’s book, “The Physics of Bitcoin,” is out now on Kindle, with a print edition coming soon. You can order it at www.thephysicsofbitcoin.com and follow Giovanni on X at https://x.com/Giovann35084111

As always, this is not financial advice. But this might be the most convincing scientific argument for Bitcoin you’ll ever hear.

WATCH:

Upcoming Events

I’m hosting two can’t-miss live Q&A sessions this month. The first is with Strategy’s Michael Saylor and Phong Le called “Strategy Q&A with Retail Investors” on May 20th at 5PM ET. This is a rare opportunity.

Michael and Phong don’t often sit down for open, unscripted conversations with retail investors, the everyday people who have followed Strategy’s journey, bought MSTR, hold STRC, or are simply trying to understand what this company is building and why it matters for Bitcoin’s future.

What to expect:

This isn’t a polished press event or an earnings call. It’s a genuine conversation between Strategy’s leadership and the retail investors who have skin in the game. We’ll be taking your questions and putting them directly to Michael and Phong.

If you watched my recent episode with Phong on STRC — the perpetual preferred stock paying 11.5% monthly yield that grew from zero to $5 billion in just seven months — you know there’s a lot to dig into. And with Michael, there’s always more to explore on the macro case for Bitcoin, Strategy’s treasury philosophy, and where all of this is headed.

This is exactly the kind of access and conversation I built Coin Stories to create — bringing the most important voices in Bitcoin directly to the people who matter most: the ones paying attention, doing the work, and building their financial futures around sound money.

And by now you’ve heard: the U.S. government has created a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. Let that sink in for a moment. The same government that spent years skeptical of Bitcoin is now officially accumulating it as a strategic national asset. And if that doesn’t make you think about your own financial strategy, I don’t know what will.

That’s why on Thursday, May 28th at 2PM ET I’ll be sitting down live with Chris Kline, co-founder of BitcoinIRA, the platform that has helped tens of thousands of Americans get Bitcoin exposure inside a tax-advantaged retirement account.

The question we’ll be exploring together is simple but powerful: if the U.S. government thinks Bitcoin is worth holding as a strategic reserve, should you be building one for your retirement?

This is a free, live conversation open to everyone — and we’ll be covering:

• Why Bitcoin may deserve a place in your retirement portfolio

• Why right now could be one of the best Bitcoin accumulation windows in years

• How to actually get started with a Bitcoin IRA — step by step, no jargon

Whether you’re brand new to Bitcoin or you’ve been stacking for years and want to understand the tax-advantaged angle, this conversation is worth your time.

Reserve your spot here: streamyard.com/watch/xRTAvysyCPiX

See you there!

We’re Heading to Europe!

I’m heading to Prague for the first time this June for BTC Prague, Europe’s largest Bitcoin-only conference. 8,000 attendees, 250 speakers, four stages, three days. Michael Saylor will be there for his fourth consecutive year. So will Jeff Booth, Jack Cruz, and yours truly.

I’ll also be attending a Women of Bitcoin event there on June 11 at the Mandarin Oriental — details coming soon. If you’ve ever thought about attending a Bitcoin conference in Europe, this is the one. Use code HODL for discounted passes at btcprague.com.

And if you’re not already subscribed to The News Block — every week we break down the biggest stories in Bitcoin and macro in a way that’s fast, honest, and actually useful. New episodes drop every Monday in your inbox and wherever you listen to podcasts. Subscribe at thenewsblock.substack.com so you never miss a beat.

Subscribe now

⚡ The Stack: Tools I Use and Trust

These are the companies that power Coin Stories — and you’ll see why I use them myself!

💳 Earn Bitcoin on everything you buy Gemini Credit Card — Up to 4% back in Bitcoin on gas, dining, and groceries. No annual fee. → gemini.com/natalie

🏦 Borrow against your Bitcoin without selling it Ledn — The global leader in Bitcoin-backed loans. $10B+ issued since 2018. No credit checks, no monthly payments. 0.25% off your first loan. → ledn.io/natalie

⛏️ Mine Bitcoin passively with tax advantages Abundant Mines — 100% passive income, massive tax benefits. 1 month of free hosting with my link. → abundantmines.com/Natalie · Watch my episode with the founders

⚡ Send Bitcoin instantly over Lightning Speed Wallet — Low-cost Bitcoin payments and Bitcoin trivia (win up to 1M sats). Code COINSTORIES10 for 5,000 free sats. → speed.app/natalie

🔐 Self-custody your Bitcoin safely Bitkey by Block — Named to TIME’s Best Inventions of 2024 for Privacy & Security. Code STORIES for 20% off. → bitkey.world

🧠 Get 1-on-1 help setting up self-custody The Bitcoin Way — Personal guidance to master your own keys and sleep soundly at night. → thebitcoinway.com/natalie

🏛️ Hold Bitcoin in a tax-advantaged retirement account BitcoinIRA — Buy Bitcoin 24/7 inside a Traditional or Roth IRA. → bitcoinira.com/natalie

🛡️ Also in My Personal Stack

Efani — The most secure mobile service in America. Protects against SIM swaps. Trusted by CEOs and VIPs. → efani.com/natalie

CrowdHealth — I ditched fiat health insurance four years ago and joined CrowdHealth. Discounted plan at my link. → joincrowdhealth.com/natalie

Thanks for subscribing, and if this newsletter resonated, forward it to one person who needs to read it.

— Natalie

Disclaimer: This newsletter is for informational and entertainment purposes only and should not be considered financial, investment, or legal advice. I am not a financial advisor. Always do your own research before making any investment decisions. Information and opinions shared here may change without notice. Some links in this newsletter are affiliate or sponsor links, which means I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.

Hey everyone,

When I booked James Sexton on the show, I wasn’t sure how it would land with this audience. He’s a divorce attorney, not really a Bitcoiner. No macro thesis, no price predictions, no talk of the Fed.

But I had a feeling this conversation would hit home for so many listeners. And I was right.

James has been practicing divorce law in New York for 26 years. He’s represented billionaires, celebrities, and ordinary people going through the hardest moments of their lives. And after all those depositions, trials, late-night calls from people whose marriages are falling apart — he’s arrived at a surprisingly simple conclusion about why it all goes wrong.

It’s not money. It’s not infidelity. Those are symptoms.

The root cause is disconnection.

“Happy people don’t cheat,” he told me. The affair, the hidden bank account, the secret spending — those are almost never the actual problem. They’re what happens after two people have already lost the plot on each other.

We talked about what money really means in a marriage — not the dollars and cents of it, but what it symbolizes. Security. Safety. The feeling that someone has your back. He told me about clients who had everything — hundreds of millions of dollars — and were still miserable, still keeping score, still chasing a number that would never feel like enough.

“There are only two amounts of money,” he said. “Enough and not enough. And if a billion isn’t enough, five billion isn’t going to be enough either.”

We also got into territory I wasn’t expecting. Bitcoin in divorce court — it’s more common than you’d think, and the stories are wild. One client was so devoted to his Bitcoin that he let his wife take the house so he could keep his stack. The divorce finalized right at the bottom of a dip, and James watched the whole thing thinking: this guy just made out like a bandit. Another client claimed she’d lost access to a hard wallet — and then settled suspiciously fast when the other side started pressing her on it.

New York, by the way, only added cryptocurrency to its mandatory financial disclosure form in 2026. It took the court system that long to catch up.

But the part of this conversation I keep coming back to is the end. James talked about the small, free, completely unglamorous things that keep relationships alive. Leaving a note. Sending a text in the middle of the day that says you were thinking about someone. Asking your partner once a week: what are three things I did that made you feel loved?

“There’s nothing to buy,” he said. “No course to sign up for. No grift you can attach to it. So you’re never going to see an ad for it. But it might be the thing that puts guys like me out of business.”

I hope so. Don’t miss this episode — regardless of your relationship status.

WATCH: World’s #1 Divorce Attorney on Money & Love: High-Stakes Bitcoin Divorces and Fixing Broken Marriage

This is not financial advice. But it might be relationship advice worth taking.

And a big thank you to James Sexton for joining a Bitcoin show while making the rounds on some of the biggest mainstream podcasts in the world, including The Diary of a CEO and The Mel Robbins Podcast. Huge nod to our amazing producer, Matt Marlinski, for the introduction. I loved hosting James in NYC!

We’re Heading to Europe!

I’m heading to Prague for the first time this June for BTC Prague, Europe’s largest Bitcoin-only conference. 8,000 attendees, 250 speakers, four stages, three days. Michael Saylor will be there for his fourth consecutive year. So will Jeff Booth, Jack Cruz, and yours truly.

I’ll also be attending a Women of Bitcoin event there — details coming soon. If you’ve ever thought about attending a Bitcoin conference in Europe, this is the one. Use code HODL for discounted passes at btcprague.com.

And if you’re not already subscribed to The News Block — every week we break down the biggest stories in Bitcoin and macro in a way that’s fast, honest, and actually useful. New episodes drop every Monday in your inbox and wherever you listen to podcasts. Subscribe at thenewsblock.substack.com so you never miss a beat.

Subscribe now

⚡ The Stack: Tools I Use and Trust

These are the companies that power Coin Stories — and you’ll see why I use them myself!

💳 Earn Bitcoin on everything you buy Gemini Credit Card — Up to 4% back in Bitcoin on gas, dining, and groceries. No annual fee. → gemini.com/natalie

🏦 Borrow against your Bitcoin without selling it Ledn — The global leader in Bitcoin-backed loans. $10B+ issued since 2018. No credit checks, no monthly payments. 0.25% off your first loan. → ledn.io/natalie

⛏️ Mine Bitcoin passively with tax advantages Abundant Mines — 100% passive income, massive tax benefits. 1 month of free hosting with my link. → abundantmines.com/Natalie · Watch my episode with the founders

⚡ Send Bitcoin instantly over Lightning Speed Wallet — Low-cost Bitcoin payments and Bitcoin trivia (win up to 1M sats). Code COINSTORIES10 for 5,000 free sats. → speed.app/natalie

🔐 Self-custody your Bitcoin safely Bitkey by Block — Named to TIME’s Best Inventions of 2024 for Privacy & Security. Code STORIES for 20% off. → bitkey.world

🧠 Get 1-on-1 help setting up self-custody The Bitcoin Way — Personal guidance to master your own keys and sleep soundly at night. → thebitcoinway.com/natalie

🏛️ Hold Bitcoin in a tax-advantaged retirement account BitcoinIRA — Buy Bitcoin 24/7 inside a Traditional or Roth IRA. → bitcoinira.com/natalie

🛡️ Also in My Personal Stack

Efani — The most secure mobile service in America. Protects against SIM swaps. Trusted by CEOs and VIPs. → efani.com/natalie

CrowdHealth — I ditched fiat health insurance four years ago and joined CrowdHealth. Discounted plan at my link. → joincrowdhealth.com/natalie

As always: my content does not offer financial advice. Do your own research. And if this resonated, forward it to one person who needs to hear it.

— Natalie