The Bitcoin Layer

In this episode, Nik welcomes back Brent Johnson of Santiago Capital for a wide-ranging global macro conversation. Brent breaks down the dollar's behavior during geopolitical crises, the deglobalization thesis and fracturing supply chains, and his Rise of the American Empire framework drawing parallels to Rome's transition from republic to empire. They cover the Office of Strategic Capital's push to secure critical minerals and semiconductors, the US-China power competition over chips and rare earths, Persian Gulf risks including fertilizer disruptions and famine, and close with stablecoins, bitcoin as a pure play on global liquidity, and why digital assets are here to stay.
The Bitcoin Layer and its guests do not provide investment advice.

In this episode, Nik welcomes back Yaël Ossowski, Fellow at the Bitcoin Policy Institute, to break down the escalating standoff between Anthropic and the Pentagon. They examine how Claude was reportedly used in the Venezuela raid, why Anthropic is drawing a hard line against warrantless surveillance and autonomous weapons, and the political fault lines forming between AI safety and permissionless innovation. Yaël unpacks the third party doctrine and its direct implications for Bitcoiners’ financial privacy, and they close with a look at how the massive AI capex buildout is reshaping the U.S. economy and what it means for Bitcoin in the broader macro picture.
The Bitcoin Layer and its guests do not provide investment advice.

In this episode, Nik breaks down why Anthropic's Claude has displaced Donald Trump as the single most important force driving global macro and financial markets, walking through the system-level evidence including IBM dropping 12% on a single AI headline, Block cutting 40% of its workforce, trucking capacity sold out from data center buildout, and Treasury yields falling in direct response to new model releases. He connects the AI arms race to US economic statecraft, the fight to outpace China, and what a disinflationary labor market shock means for Fed policy, credit spreads, and Bitcoin.

📊 The Bitcoin Layer is a bitcoin and global macroeconomic research firm.

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Nik Bhatia's Twitter: https://twitter.com/timevalueofbtc

Researcher Demian Schatt's Twitter: https://x.com/demianschatt

Lead Statistician Augustine Carrasco Twitter: https://x.com/AugustineCarrB

The Bitcoin Layer and its guests do not provide investment advice.

In this episode, Nik sits down with Sam Baker, Research at River, to break down River's second annual Bitcoin adoption report, covering how institutional ownership, registered investment advisors, sovereign holdings, and small business adoption all accelerated in 2025 despite price weakness. Sam explains why individual ownership likely peaked in 2024, why RIAs managing $146 trillion hold less than one basis point in Bitcoin, and what the ownership distribution trend implies for the decade ahead. Nik connects the data to his framework of Bitcoin as a tool of American economic statecraft in the US-China competition for global capital dominance.
Episode links:
https://river.com/learn/files/river-bitcoin-adoption-report-2026.pdf
https://x.com/River/status/2026322299595432323?s=20
https://btcmap.org/
https://x.com/macromule
📊 The Bitcoin Layer is a bitcoin and global macroeconomic research firm.
▶️ Subscribe and turn on notifications for TBL on YouTube.
📚 Subscribe to TBL’s research letter: https://thebitcoinlayer.com/subscribe
🎧 Subscribe to The Bitcoin Layer on your favorite podcast platform.
📱 Follow TBL on X: https://twitter.com/TheBitcoinLayer
📩 Join the official TBL channel on Telegram: https://t.me/thebitcoinlayerofficial
🧢 Use code TBLYT10 for 10% off all The Bitcoin Layer Merch at http://TheBitcoinLayer.com/merch
⛓️ ₿lock Height 938184
⚡ Contribute to The Bitcoin Layer via Lightning Network: [email protected]
Nik Bhatia's Twitter: https://twitter.com/timevalueofbtc
Researcher Demian Schatt's Twitter: https://x.com/demianschatt
Lead Statistician Augustine Carrasco Twitter: https://x.com/AugustineCarrB

The Bitcoin Layer and its guests do not provide investment advice.

In this episode, Nik walks through our TBL proprietary liquidity index, explaining why the red signal flagged in late December and confirmed in January preceded Bitcoin's sharp decline below $70,000. He breaks down the four inputs driving the current liquidity contraction, with focus on dollar volatility and bond stress, the US-Japan currency relationship, and why early-cycle US credit growth remains the structural argument for improving conditions ahead.
📊 The Bitcoin Layer is a bitcoin and global macroeconomic research firm.
▶️ Subscribe and turn on notifications for TBL on YouTube.
📚 Subscribe to TBL’s research letter: https://thebitcoinlayer.com/subscribe
🎧 Subscribe to The Bitcoin Layer on your favorite podcast platform.
📱 Follow TBL on X: https://twitter.com/TheBitcoinLayer
📩 Join the official TBL channel on Telegram: https://t.me/thebitcoinlayerofficial
🧢 Use code TBLYT10 for 10% off all The Bitcoin Layer Merch at http://TheBitcoinLayer.com/merch
⛓️ ₿lock Height 937304
⚡ Contribute to The Bitcoin Layer via Lightning Network: [email protected]
Nik Bhatia's Twitter: https://twitter.com/timevalueofbtc
Researcher Demian Schatt's Twitter: https://x.com/demianschatt
Lead Statistician Augustine Carrasco Twitter: https://x.com/AugustineCarrB

The Bitcoin Layer and its guests do not provide investment advice.