- 6 weeks ago
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00:00Great to have you guys with us. Eric, I'm going to start with you because there's a lot of crypto
00:04treasury companies out there at the moment. You think about Michael Saylor's strategy being the
00:08most prominent of them all. What differentiates American Bitcoin? Well, Katie, at its core,
00:16we have a great mining business, right? Right now we're mining Bitcoin at roughly, you know,
00:2050 cents on the dollar to the actual price of Bitcoin. We're mining a lot of it. We're using
00:24the honey infrastructure in order to do so. And so we've got an unbelievable advantage. I mean,
00:28we've got hundreds of millions of dollars of hard assets, data centers behind us,
00:32mining operations every single day, which allows you to kind of dollar cost average down the Bitcoin
00:37that you actually do take on your balance sheet and the ones that you go out and accumulate. And so
00:41while everybody has to accumulate at par, for us, we're able to mine at a substantial discount to
00:47par. And I think that gives us an unbelievable advantage. And so, you know, just simply put,
00:53you have probably the greatest asset in terms of appreciation over the last 10 years, averaging,
00:57you know, 60, 70% a year, year over year, that you're mining for, you know, a 50% discount to
01:03total value. You know, it's a pretty simple concept to figure out. So we're incredibly excited about
01:09the debut. You know, we have massive aspirations to be the absolute best crypto company anywhere on
01:16earth. I think, you know, how hard we all charge. And, you know, we're pretty known for that. And
01:19we're having a lot of fun doing this. Well, Asher, let's talk a little bit more about Hut8. So
01:24they, of course, provided all of the mining equipment to American Bitcoin. Give us the
01:29breakdown here. What does Hut8 get out of this arrangement? Hut8 is one of the largest shareholders
01:35of American Bitcoin. So to start, we want the equity value of American Bitcoin to appreciate.
01:40Hut8 is long infrastructure. We believe that all technologies that push humanity forward end up
01:46relying on additional consumption of energy. So how do we harness an electron and push those
01:51technologies forward, whether that be the blockchain and Bitcoin and or AI and data centers and other
01:56advanced manufacturing use cases? And so American Bitcoin helping us go long energy, develop more
02:02infrastructures core to the Hut8 business, where at American Bitcoin, we're long Bitcoin. And so that
02:07was something that became more and more of a hot item, where at Hut8, we were a Bitcoin mining business,
02:13a Bitcoin treasury, and an energy business. And so we had shareholders that were long energy,
02:17shareholders were long Bitcoin, and there started to be some conflict. And so we said,
02:21hey, it's about time that we think about carving out these assets. Eric and his brother were building
02:26American data centers. We brought those efforts together and thought we could build a bigger
02:30company together. And so today, we have Hut8, that's a listed company on the NASDAQ, and American
02:35Bitcoin that's making its public to be on the NASDAQ as well. Both companies are extremely synergistic,
02:40and what allows them to be successful is the relationship that they have that allows each of those
02:45businesses to be long Bitcoin or long energy together synergistically.
02:50I am curious, Asher, on the mining side of it, what did the economics actually look like in that
02:55space? I mean, we talk so much about it being energy intensive, but the ROI on that, of course,
03:00is not quite what it was a few years ago when people were first kind of discovering this space.
03:05What does it look like now?
03:07That's right. Our cost to mine of Bitcoin was about a 50% discount to the market. So all in cost of energy
03:13was around $37,000 a coin, all in costs on a cash basis, including operations, management was around
03:19$58,000 a coin. And so extremely competitive. And the reason we're able to do so is the site that we
03:25just built, for example, in Amarillo, Texas, we're behind the meter at a 205 megawatt wind farm. So
03:31we're directly connected into the wind farm at low cost power. We're connected into the grid as well.
03:35We're very good on trading around energy dynamics. And so the way to win in mining today is to be able to
03:41control your energy costs, but also be able to have efficient cost of capital. And by combining
03:46these two businesses in one strategic partnership, we're able to do so. And so I think historically,
03:52people invested in mining companies or people are investing in treasury companies. And the focuses
03:57of these businesses are on growth at all costs, where American Bitcoin is focused on Bitcoin
04:02accumulation and increasing Bitcoin per share. We will only invest in mining when it is profitable,
04:07and we will only raise capital to buy Bitcoin when it is accretive. Otherwise, we'll pause and be able
04:13to have a multi-pronged strategy in order to grow Bitcoin appreciation.
04:17So, Eric, when it comes to that accumulation strategy, right now, are you looking primarily
04:22for that accumulation to come through the existing coins that are out there now? Or is a good chunk of
04:28that actually going to come from some of the mining operations?
04:31Well, whichever is better at the time, right? I mean, we have both strategies and we're going to
04:35implement those two strategies. Well, there's only a certain amount of Bitcoin that can be mined every
04:38day. And we're going to harness that to the absolute fullest. And we've got the best facilities. You
04:43ought to see them. They're absolutely incredible. They're technological masterpieces. At the same time,
04:48we can be creative. We can go out and we can purchase Bitcoin, hold it on the treasury, and again,
04:53allow the mining to dollar cost average down. And so we're going to be implementing both strategies,
04:58whichever is best for shareholder value is obviously what we're going to prioritize. And,
05:03you know, again, we're, you know, we're sprinting at this with the mission to win. Everybody,
05:08everybody right now all around the world wants the asset, wants Bitcoin. You see it from the largest
05:12Fortune 500 companies to, you know, the biggest sovereign wealth funds to, you know, nation states,
05:17to states here in the United States, right? I mean, Texas, you saw what they just did, and obviously
05:22Wyoming. And, you know, it's really the hot asset of our time. It's an unbelievable store of value.
05:26It's doing it better than anyone. And we're going to win the race.
05:30I am curious though, Eric, in terms of the business strategy itself, I mean,
05:33how much do you plan to use leverage, meaning debt financing or other types of financing,
05:38to make these purchases, as we know, particularly with strategy, which everyone sort of looks to as
05:43the pillar in this, a big part of their success, certainly in terms of their stock,
05:46has been Michael Saylor's creative use of financing.
05:50Yeah. Key here is being able to manage through bull and bear markets. We've lived through many
05:57bear markets and the companies that are able to survive through those, they get larger, they get
06:02bigger. And so being conservative, being risk-focused on how do we grow in a conservative manner where
06:08we're able to manage through any bear markets, any pull down in Bitcoin price is critical. And so as we
06:12think about leverage, where our main focus primarily is equity, but as we think about leverage,
06:17looking at our debt to equity ratios, making sure we can sustain large pull downs in Bitcoin,
06:22where we have the reserves to be able to pay those down, that is all key and critical. In 2022,
06:27I saw everyone around us going bankrupt from FTX to Celsius to other mining companies. And that's
06:32really stuck with us. We grew much larger during that period of time. And as we build American Bitcoin,
06:37the key for our shareholders to trust us is to be able to manage through the good times and through the
06:43bad times. And fast forward five or 10 years, we continue to increase their Bitcoin per share
06:48and the amount of Bitcoin that they own. And so we will always be risk-focused.
06:52Yeah, there were certainly a lot of hard lessons learned in 2022 across asset classes, not just
06:57in crypto. But Asher, my understanding is right now, American Bitcoin has stockpiled
07:02about 2,400 Bitcoin. Do you have a near-term target that you're trying or would like to reach?
07:08Look, we launched the company a little over five months ago. I think from start of company to
07:14public listing, probably a record somewhere there. We've publicly disclosed over 2,000 Bitcoin thus far.
07:20We're continuing to accumulate past those public disclosures. And so we look to be one of the
07:25largest. When we started this with Eric and Don Jr., there's a very key focus. Let's build the
07:31premier Bitcoin company of the world. And we are aiming and we will do so.
07:35And Eric, I want to talk about what this means for you personally as well, because my understanding
07:40is you own about seven and a half percent of American Bitcoin. Bloomberg estimates that your
07:45stake, that stake is worth about $600 million today. Would you say that this is the most valuable asset
07:51that you own at this point? Katie, we're incredibly fortunate people. I mean, you know what I've done
07:56my entire career. I've built some of the greatest buildings on earth. We have one of the greatest
08:00property portfolios anywhere. I want to do things that are creative. I want to do things that are great
08:04for humanity. I really believe that we're on the forefront of kind of this, you know, financial
08:08revolution. I got into this business, digital assets. I would have never gotten into it had
08:12we not been, you know, debanked like dogs just simply because of, you know, the political standpoint
08:17of a father who was running for political office. And I found some of the greatest people in the
08:22industry that you've ever met, some of the smartest people that you've ever met with one of the
08:25greatest products that you've ever seen. And honestly, I want to bring it to the masses. I want to be a great
08:31spokesperson for it. And, you know, listen, we're incredibly fortunate in life with or without
08:36this endeavor. But we want to win. Anything we do, we want to sprint at very hard. And again,
08:42I believe in Bitcoin. I've been long-term owner of Bitcoin. I've been buying it for, you know,
08:46several years at this point. And I see its adoption all over the world and how much it's being embraced
08:52globally. And the floodgates are just starting to open. And so it's kind of perfect time. So we're just
08:58really excited. I'm excited about our hard assets. And I'm certainly excited about American Bitcoin.
09:03And I think you can see, based on the ticker that's been on the screen the entire time,
09:07the success we've had today. It's really been an unbelievable day and a lot of hard work that's
09:11finally come to fruition. And today is the first of many great ones to come. But we're just excited
09:17to be here, guys. Of course, as a public company, Eric, I mean, there's obviously going to be a lot
09:20more scrutiny over the business practices, particularly given some of the criticisms, which I'm sure you're
09:25aware of, that this business venture, as well as others, are directly benefiting
09:30from your father's presidency. As you get deeper into this business with American Bitcoin,
09:35HUD-8 and others here, how do you plan to address those criticisms, whether legitimate or not?
09:41Well, they're totally illegitimate. I got into this business because I was illegitimately debanked from
09:46every financial platform, you know, in the country, which is not only wrong and un-American, but it's,
09:53you know, unconstitutional. You know, no different than we started Truth Social because my father got
09:59thrown off of Twitter. You know, we started this business because we were deplatformed and we
10:03needed to find our own way. And it made me see this kind of, you know, great financial revolution
10:09that's ahead of us. So, no, my father has nothing to do with this business. He has nothing to do with
10:14the Trump organization whatsoever. He's obviously running our country. But he's always been a proponent.
10:19In fact, I think being a proponent of cryptocurrency probably helped get him elected. He's always
10:26been one of those guys who could see the trends far in front of him. And he knew China was pursuing
10:31it. He knew the Middle East was pursuing it. He knew every other country around the world was going
10:33to pursue it. And he wanted to win this battle for America. And, you know, I plan on doing something
10:40totally, obviously separate and distinct. But I plan on doing the exact same thing.
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