00:00 Speaker A
Bitcoin is on track to close the first quarter in the red. It’s currently down around 7% year to date during 2025. The cryptocurrency falling from the all-time highs that we saw in the wake of President Trump’s election victory in November. Our next guest says the pullbacks we’ve seen so far are not atypical. Here to discuss is Chris Kline, who’s the CEO and co-founder of Bitcoin IRA. Great to have you back here in studio with us, Chris. Yeah, just give us some context with what’s happening with Bitcoin right now. Not atypical would still spell out something net positive, perhaps.
00:37 Chris Kline
Yeah, absolutely. So, uh, obviously there’s been a lot of short-term or near-term volatility in all markets. Uh, Bitcoin through its having cycles. This is about where we would expect it to be with peaks coming later this year, about 450 to 550 days after the having event that took place last April, uh, which is where people are expecting somewhere between $150 to $200,000 of Bitcoin. Uh, but that last piece really speaks to this retirement crisis that we have in America. 2033, that pretty much means you and I, I just turned 40 last Friday, we probably won’t see any social security in our lifetimes if the funding runs out.
01:14 Speaker A
Wow. Happy belated birthday as well to you. And so what is the setup now going into the next three quarters of the year, especially knowing how this is an administration now that had campaigned on what it would be able to do not just from a regulatory perspective and being more favorable to cryptocurrency, but also in building up strategic reserves and potentially purchasing. And it doesn’t seem like purchasing is going to be the way of going about building that reserve up.
01:45 Chris Kline
Well, it has to be net neutral. It was part of the decision in the, in the, that came through. But beyond just the United States, you see other nation states and sovereign, sovereign countries coming out. Qatar announcing last week that they’re planning on putting a reserve together and individual US states, Arizona and Texas are first on the list saying, we’re going to put some of this into our balanced budget or to help balance our budget. Taking kind of a book of a page from the book of Michael Sailor and what he did over at Microstrategy. But this has been a year where we really accelerated the legitimacy. So Bitcoin has persevered through now three different administrations. Our platform has been through two, and you’re watching it go from anti-crypto, pro-crypto. It’s, it’s showing that it’s a train on a track that’s headed to a direction of scarcity and store value that, uh, that can’t really be stopped.
02:49 Speaker A
And so with all of this in mind, how has this set up the price action for the other cryptocurrencies as well? Because that has been a larger kind of consideration around what this would mean, if a rising tide would lift all boats and the other altcoins or even the Ethereums of the world.
03:12 Chris Kline
Absolutely. So, uh, there’s this alt season that most people talk about post, uh, the, the peaks of Bitcoin. People will take their profits from Bitcoin and put it into alts. Last week, uh, there was a big change at the SEC with the XRP, uh, dismissal of their case. And that was, I was quoted saying it felt like a lead weight was lifted off of, uh, the marketplace and a lot of our platform, uh, users are really excited about that. Uh, it’s interesting also to think about that, even in these short-term aberrations, uh, clients on our platform in just four and a half short months since the, since the election, are celebrating 50 to 55% median gains on their, in that short time period on their platforms, or their retirements.
04:05 Speaker A
You have one of the other businesses that’s annexed to President Donald Trump in World Liberty that’s looking across stable coins right now. What is the broader cryptocurrency landscape’s kind of own perspective on pushing forward more stable coins versus pushing forward some of the existing cryptos that are the market leaders?
04:33 Chris Kline
That’s a great question. It actually brings that, you know, my schoolhouse rock tendency. It’s kind of like a conjunction junction between the crypto markets and the traditional fiat markets. Uh, stable coins have always been used as this bridge between the two. Um, and obviously there’s been times like Luna back in 2023, uh, where there was serious problems with the, with the peg on it, just like any other currency. Um, but this regulatory guidance and clarity that we’re getting from this new administration, I think that we’re going to see, uh, a lot of positive come from that and a lot less of the, uh, bad actors and unscrupulous activity that took place in the past with stable coins. But they’re, they’re a part of the overall ecosystem.
05:17 Speaker A
What does this mean as well for the underlying technology and blockchain? Is it reaching even more of an acceptance, not even just an acceptance points, but a utilization point across all of the different measurements beyond finance and the industry there, and financial services that were seen as some of the earliest benefactors of the underlying technology.
05:39 Chris Kline
Absolutely. I think it’s become more than just the buzzword. I remember back when we started this in 2016, and then in 18, it was all about IBM and these groups were, we’re a blockchain-friendly company.
05:52 Speaker A
Long Island Block, Long Island Iced Tea changed their name to Long Island Blockchain.
05:58 Chris Kline
Exactly. And they still kept their prices down.
06:02 Speaker A
They did, somehow. Yeah. But, I mean, that goes to show the technological shift that a lot of those companies.
06:08 Chris Kline
Yeah. AI’s become the new buzzword. I’d be, I’m excited, there’s the Bitcoin conference in Las Vegas in May. And I’m excited to go and just spend time on the floor seeing what kind of projects people are working on. Uh, there’s been these waves of adoption into blockchain technology. Uh, and I think we’re going to see it further perhaps even from the federal and state governments using it to do things like audit the Fed, or, um, audit tax dollars going in and out and spending and expenditures. So it should be a really exciting year ahead as we see this accelerated adoption of these things.
06:44 Speaker A
All right, there’s an ETF conference happening in Vegas right now. There’ve probably been several other conferences this year. It seems like it’s the new Mecca for all of these.
06:52 Chris Kline
Yeah. Last year we were in Nashville, and, uh, it was great. Uh, but Vegas is closer for me from Los Angeles.
07:00 Speaker A
I know you were. Oh, that’s good. Shorter flight. Chris, thanks so much.
07:03 Chris Kline
Thanks for having me.
