Global Macro, AI Market Impacts, Bitcoin VC | BMTV Sep. 24, 2026

Grace Remington (0:00)

Good morning and happy Thursday. Welcome in to BMTV. I'm Grace Remington with Sean Hagan, ready to get you ready for another exciting day ahead. We got a few guests coming up on today's show. Jeff Booth of Ego Death Capital, Saifedean Ammous, the author of The Bitcoin Standard and Kosta Ouzas of Minotaur Trading Systems. So, fun day ahead, Sean. How you feeling?

Sean Hagan (0:22)

It's gonna be an awesome show today. I'm excited to have Saifedean and Jeff with us today, and should be exciting conversations.

Grace Remington (0:28)

Yeah, definitely. Let's get into our headlines first. President Donald Trump is welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping to the White House for a major summit focused on trade, AI and defense. The two leaders are expected to discuss ways to bring greater stability to U.S.-China relations amid ongoing economic and geopolitical tensions. The yield on the 30-year US. Treasury has climbed to 5.44 percent, its highest level since 2004, as the months-long bond sell-off continues. The move comes as stronger US growth and rising inflation pressures have led traders to increase their bets on future Federal Reserve rate hikes. The US. Treasury is set to buy back up to $6 billion of longer-dated government debt today, with the operation covering Treasury's maturing between 2046 and 2056 The buyback marks the first operation under Treasury Secretary Scott Besson's expanded program, as the government looks to help manage long-term borrowing costs. Japan's 10-year government bond yield has surged to 3.055 percent, its highest level, since 1996, as global bond markets continue to sell off. Japan's 30-year yield also climbed above 4 percent, with rising US. Treasury yields and a weaker yen adding to inflation concerns. And Bloomberg is reporting that the Trump administration is considering an initiative to promote dollar-backed stable coins around the world. According to people familiar with the plans, the effort could include partnerships with private companies with the goal of strengthening the dollar's global role and boosting demand for US. Treasuries.

European financial watchdogs are warning that advanced quantum computers could eventually undermine the cryptography used to secure blockchains. The authorities say the threat could materialize before quantum computing has a viable commercial application. But the report does not provide a specific timeline for when that could happen.

And with that, let's take a look at the markets today.

Bitcoin having a great week, but down 2.2% today, sitting just under $84,000 per coin. Gold sitting at $4,309 per ounce. A look at the stock market after almost the Nasdaq hit an all-time high earlier this week. The S&P getting close to that. But today, the SPY down four-tenths of a percentage point, sitting at 764.43. And QQQ down over half a percentage point, sitting at 736.40. And the 10-year Treasury sitting at 5098 It was 511 yesterday, its highest rate since 2004 Sean, what's standing out to you today?

Sean Hagan (3:09)

Well, the bond market. And we've covered bonds a lot in this show, but yeah, things are getting hot, and people are selling off all their bonds. And the vigilantes are betting against Besant, who dared them to do so. And so we'll see what happens from here.

Grace Remington (3:25)

All right. Well, let's bring in our first guest of the day. And that is Jeff Booth, author of The Price of Tomorrow and co-founder of Ego Death Capital, a Bitcoin-only venture capital firm.

He's also the co-founder of Orange Juice, a long-term focused private equity firm backed by Bitcoin. Jeff has been at the forefront of the convergence of technological deflation and fiat debasement, arguing that Bitcoin is necessary technology to resolve the tension between those two forces. Jeff, good morning.

Jeff Booth (3:54)

Good morning. Thanks for having me.

Grace Remington (3:56)

Yes. Thank you. So you've been vocal about the economics behind the current AI boom. Can you summarize the current state of the sector's valuations and if those valuations are defensible, given what you're seeing?

Jeff Booth (4:08)

Well, in a free market, prices fall to the marginal cost of production. So AI, a line of code creating other lines of code, following that access in a free market would have to be free. That's why I run a frontier model on my computer that four months ago was the best model for free.

So the economics underlying the entire path require regulation to protect a monopoly or prices fall. Now, the abundance gained from those prices falling should flow to us in a free market. But what ends up happening on the other side of that ledger, you have to create regulation or protection for a monopoly to stop the free market from acting.

Sean Hagan (4:55)

And to that point, tech in general, especially AI is deflationary, and this is something you've spoken on several times. What do you see happening as that collides with our current debt-driven system that requires monetary expansion?