6:00

and business leaders alive today. Bloomberg

6:02

ranks him as the 11th wealthiest person in

6:04

the world with a net worth of around

6:06

$118 billion. But

6:10

okay, these are just a couple of tweets, right? What

6:12

are the odds Dell is actually a true

6:15

Bitcoiner? Well, let's just say the cookie

6:17

crumbs are there. In 2014, Dell

6:19

Technologies offered to host Bitcoin miners.

6:22

In 2015, the company began accepting Bitcoin

6:24

for payments. And in 2021, Michael Dell

6:26

was quoted in an interview saying that

6:28

if he were a teen today, he'd

6:31

be all over crypto. More

6:33

importantly, Dell has shown time and time again

6:35

that he is an innovative leader who is

6:37

not afraid to try something new. In

6:40

1996, Dell began selling PCs online, which

6:42

was a very groundbreaking move at the

6:44

time. And then he made a

6:46

very bold decision to take his company private in

6:48

2013. It's apparent with

6:50

this move that Dell understands how to leverage

6:53

cheap debt to buy real assets. And in

6:55

this case, the asset was his own company.

6:57

But why did he do this? Dell

7:00

said he wanted to focus on long-term investments,

7:02

and that's easier to do when you don't

7:04

have shareholders breathing down your neck every quarter.

7:07

Low time preference, anyone? It

7:09

turned out to be a masterful move.

7:11

Dell went on to more than quadruple

7:13

Dell's valuation in the coming years, as

7:16

he successfully pivoted the company from PCs

7:18

to becoming a leader in cloud computing,

7:20

AI, and IT infrastructure. But

7:22

maybe most importantly, after he took his company

7:24

private, Michael regained more than 50% ownership

7:27

of the company and has majority control

7:29

over the board, similar to Michael Saylor.

7:32

This is an important factor when it

7:34

comes to a CEO's ability to implement

7:37

a corporate Bitcoin strategy, which is one

7:39

reason why Bitcoiners are so excited. So

7:41

let's recap. Dell has a

7:43

history of supporting Bitcoin, check. He

7:45

prefers to think long-term, check. He

7:48

isn't afraid of new ideas and technologies,

7:50

check. He knows how to leverage cheap

7:52

money to buy assets, check. And he

7:54

controls the board of his company, check.

7:56

Sounds like a Bitcoiner to me. Dell,

7:59

the company. is currently sitting on billions of

8:01

dollars worth of cash just melting away. So

8:04

are we looking at the next micro strategy here?

8:07

As the saying goes, be like Mike.

8:09

Let's hope so. Alright, the last

8:12

story had me in a great mood

8:14

this week. Julian Assange has been freed

8:16

after spending five years behind bars in

8:18

a UK maximum security prison after his

8:20

company released classified documents that exposed war

8:22

crimes committed by the US in Afghanistan

8:25

and Iraq. Report documents filed

8:27

Monday show that a plea deal has been

8:29

struck and since Julian has already served five

8:31

years in prison, he is now free. Freedom

8:34

advocates around the world celebrated the

8:36

news. One of those was presidential

8:38

candidate RFK Jr. but he also

8:40

provided some sobering context, saying quote,

8:42

Julian Assange struck a plea deal and

8:45

will go free. I am overjoyed. He's

8:47

a generational hero. The bad

8:49

news is that he had to

8:51

plead guilty to conspiracy to obtain

8:53

and disclose national defense info, which

8:55

means the US security state succeeded

8:58

in criminalizing journalism and extending their

9:00

jurisdiction globally to non-citizens. The security

9:02

state has imposed a horrifying precedent

9:04

and dealt a big blow to

9:06

freedom of the press. We're

9:09

all happy that Assange gets to walk free

9:11

and return to his family. I had the

9:13

chance to introduce Julian's wife Stella Assange on

9:15

stage at Bitcoin Amsterdam 2022,

9:18

where she gave a keynote presentation

9:20

describing the parallels between Bitcoin as

9:22

a permissionless way to transact value

9:24

and WikiLeaks mission to disseminate vital

9:26

information to the public. Assange

9:28

has long been a proponent of Bitcoin and so when

9:30

it was announced that he would likely have to go

9:32

into debt to afford the $500,000 flight from London to

9:35

sign the plea deal,

9:37

an anonymous Bitcoin donor was quick to

9:39

step in and donated more than eight

9:41

Bitcoin to cover the costs. This

9:44

entire case has shined a spotlight on freedom

9:46

of speech and freedom of press in the

9:48

digital age. In the future, I believe that

9:50

Bitcoin will be seen as a technology that

9:53

empowers the individual to fight back against a

9:55

corrupt state that is increasingly infringing on our

9:57

freedoms. It'll be interesting to see

9:59

what Assange does. next and I have a feeling

10:02

he will continue to support freedom technologies like Bitcoin

10:04

as he always has in the past. That's

10:08

it for the News Block powered by

10:10

BitDeer, your weekly Bitcoin and economic news

10:13

update. I'm Natalie Brunel. Make sure you're

10:15

subscribed to the show and to our

10:17

free newsletter at nataliebrunel.substack.com. This show is

10:20

for educational purposes and should not be

10:22

construed as investment advice. Until next time,

10:24

keep stacking.