WEBVTT - Can ‘Sango Coin’ Catch On in the Central African Republic 0:00:02.759 --> 0:00:06.080 This is Bloomberg Crypto, a daily Bloomberg I Heart podcast, 0:00:06.519 --> 0:00:09.680 and I'm Stacy Marie Ishmael, Managing editor of Crypto for 0:00:09.680 --> 0:00:27.120 Bloomberg News. It's Friday, September sixte by now you've probably 0:00:27.160 --> 0:00:30.639 heard and definitely on this podcast that El Salvador became 0:00:30.680 --> 0:00:33.400 the first country in the world to adopt bitcoin as 0:00:33.479 --> 0:00:37.040 legal tender, all the way back in September of one. 0:00:37.800 --> 0:00:40.520 But did you know that the Central African Republic has 0:00:40.560 --> 0:00:44.479 made a similar move in April, becoming the first country 0:00:44.520 --> 0:00:47.600 in Africa to welcome a cryptocurrency to its sovereign ranks, 0:00:49.880 --> 0:00:54.959 que to no one's surprise, almost immediate expressions of skepticism 0:00:54.960 --> 0:00:58.640 and concern from organizations like the International Monetary Fund and 0:00:58.720 --> 0:01:02.360 the World Bank, to say nothing of internal disagreement and 0:01:02.480 --> 0:01:07.560 confusion within cr itself. Why would a country with very 0:01:07.600 --> 0:01:10.959 low levels of access to electricity or the internet follow 0:01:11.040 --> 0:01:14.240 the path of a digital token? Who stands to benefit 0:01:14.520 --> 0:01:19.039 and who stands to lose? Joining me now is it's 0:01:19.080 --> 0:01:21.200 difficult to see how they're going to move forward. It's 0:01:21.240 --> 0:01:38.800 almost like they're learning as they're going. Katarina, welcome now. 0:01:39.040 --> 0:01:41.880 Our listeners will be more than familiar by this point, 0:01:42.000 --> 0:01:47.480 with the fact that last September one, El Salvador became 0:01:47.520 --> 0:01:49.880 the first country in the world to accept bitcoin as 0:01:49.960 --> 0:01:55.960 legal tender. Following the Salvadorian news, a number of politicians 0:01:56.000 --> 0:01:59.680 in Latin America, many of them younger on the millennial side, 0:02:00.080 --> 0:02:03.240 signaled their affinity for bitcoin as well. This is a 0:02:03.320 --> 0:02:07.760 really bold first move, very central American country. What it 0:02:07.760 --> 0:02:10.400 means for bitcoin is um there are businesses in El 0:02:10.440 --> 0:02:12.639 Salvador that will be required to accept this if they're 0:02:12.639 --> 0:02:16.799 technologically able. But now there's a number two. Yes. So 0:02:17.040 --> 0:02:21.440 the Central African Republic adopted bitcoin as legal tender in 0:02:21.480 --> 0:02:26.000 April this year. It was met with shock, confusion, and 0:02:26.080 --> 0:02:30.440 also a bit of enthusiasm from from some bitcoin experts 0:02:30.480 --> 0:02:34.000 and and enthusiasts. I guess that people you know sort 0:02:34.040 --> 0:02:38.320 of saw another country adopting bitcoin after El Salvador, but 0:02:38.360 --> 0:02:41.160 it probably didn't expect it to be a small African 0:02:41.160 --> 0:02:44.120 country that many have never heard of two to be 0:02:44.120 --> 0:02:47.560 the one to follow suit, especially as car might not 0:02:47.680 --> 0:02:50.680 have the paper it might look look like the country 0:02:50.720 --> 0:02:56.040 that would adopt bitcoin. With low internet connectivity and an 0:02:56.120 --> 0:02:59.880 ongoing conflict that has sort of both plagued the economy 0:03:00.080 --> 0:03:05.680 the country for the past basically for the past decade. 0:03:06.360 --> 0:03:08.720 You've also reported on a You and your colleagues have 0:03:08.760 --> 0:03:12.680 reported on the fact that unlike in El Salvador, where 0:03:12.720 --> 0:03:16.800 you know, the government seemed to be unanimous with the 0:03:16.880 --> 0:03:20.280 central bank and maybe not all of the population, but 0:03:20.320 --> 0:03:23.120 they had a lot of internal support for we're going 0:03:23.200 --> 0:03:25.519 to do this thing, the story in car seemed to 0:03:25.520 --> 0:03:27.560 have shaken out a little bit differently, like what what's 0:03:27.600 --> 0:03:30.799 been happening. I mean, it was voted by by parliament, 0:03:30.919 --> 0:03:34.680 but if it also voted by by handclapping, and a 0:03:34.680 --> 0:03:38.160 lot of the lawmakers didn't really seem to know what 0:03:38.240 --> 0:03:41.080 they're voting on. Now. The one who's been pushing this 0:03:41.640 --> 0:03:45.880 this initiative through is the president for Santa Change, who 0:03:45.920 --> 0:03:49.160 has a pH d in mathematics and at least seemed 0:03:49.160 --> 0:03:56.040 to understand the logics of of cryptocurrencies and bitcoin. But 0:03:56.480 --> 0:04:00.920 the opposition was against the proposal from the beginning. Very 0:04:00.960 --> 0:04:04.720 early on, you had backlash from the center, the Central Bank, 0:04:05.000 --> 0:04:09.160 who noted that actually adopting bitcoin as a second currency 0:04:09.440 --> 0:04:11.640 next to the Central African Front, which is used by 0:04:11.720 --> 0:04:14.880 by six countries in Central Africa, would be illegal, and 0:04:14.960 --> 0:04:18.320 that could actually lead to the expulsion of the Central 0:04:18.320 --> 0:04:22.800 African Bank from the Regional Monetary Union. There's also been 0:04:22.839 --> 0:04:26.400 pushed back from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, 0:04:26.520 --> 0:04:29.320 who bold against the adoption of bit kind of legal 0:04:29.320 --> 0:04:32.960 tender in car, which they've been very consistent on because 0:04:33.000 --> 0:04:35.240 they told us alf the exact same thing that you know, 0:04:35.600 --> 0:04:37.560 like the the i m F and the World Bank 0:04:37.760 --> 0:04:44.200 are generally not keen on sovereign countries exposing themselves to 0:04:44.480 --> 0:04:48.520 a degree of you know, risk and volatility and currency 0:04:48.520 --> 0:04:53.279 fluctuations on top of everything that they're already dealing with. 0:04:53.640 --> 0:04:56.360 But let's talk a little bit more about in practice, 0:04:56.400 --> 0:04:58.839 like what does it mean for cars to accept bitcoin? 0:04:58.920 --> 0:05:01.360 Is legal tender? Is it now that you can walk 0:05:01.400 --> 0:05:04.600 into any shop and pay in bitcoin or people doing that? 0:05:04.680 --> 0:05:09.200 Like what has changed materially in the country. Not much 0:05:09.400 --> 0:05:13.240 underground as far as I am aware, only about eleven 0:05:13.320 --> 0:05:18.520 percent of the population actually has Internet connection, and I 0:05:18.560 --> 0:05:21.520 mean many people don't even have bank accounts. It's it's 0:05:21.600 --> 0:05:24.919 a very poor country on paper, and most people wouldn't 0:05:24.960 --> 0:05:29.520 be be able to invest in bitcoin at all. So 0:05:29.720 --> 0:05:31.800 from from the outlook of it doesn't seem like it 0:05:31.839 --> 0:05:35.599 has changed. Much underground of course a CAR. This hasn't 0:05:35.600 --> 0:05:39.280 stopped CAR from moving forward and also launching their own 0:05:39.320 --> 0:05:45.080 cryptocurrency and continuing to to promote investments in though countries 0:05:45.520 --> 0:05:50.159 mintal sectors. CAR has large natural resources of gold, diamonds 0:05:50.200 --> 0:05:54.920 and other mintals, even timber, and one one objective of 0:05:55.240 --> 0:05:58.080 launching or adopting bitcoin as legal tender was actually to 0:05:58.080 --> 0:06:02.440 be able to to at act investors to those sectors. Well, 0:06:02.480 --> 0:06:05.479 before we talk about whether they've been successful in attracting 0:06:05.520 --> 0:06:08.360 external investors, let's talk about the fact that they also 0:06:08.440 --> 0:06:11.280 launched their own cryptocurrency. You say, say a little bit 0:06:11.279 --> 0:06:13.520 more about that. So this was a product that was 0:06:13.600 --> 0:06:17.760 launched in July. That's when the CAR launched the single coin, 0:06:18.320 --> 0:06:22.520 and the president for Santa Seanstrada said famously at an 0:06:22.560 --> 0:06:26.960 online event marketing the crypto project that for them, the 0:06:27.000 --> 0:06:30.640 formal economy was long an option and the cryptocurrency was 0:06:30.680 --> 0:06:34.200 the future. For CAR and obviously have a very young population, 0:06:34.360 --> 0:06:36.880 so if if they could invest in benefit from it, 0:06:36.680 --> 0:06:39.839 it would be it would be a good solution. CAR 0:06:40.080 --> 0:06:42.560 then moved on very quickly to to open up the 0:06:42.839 --> 0:06:46.520 sale of sanle coin, which would allow well you could 0:06:46.520 --> 0:06:49.760 get an e residency. There was the possibility of acquiring 0:06:49.920 --> 0:06:53.560 land through through the single coin, but it was also 0:06:53.640 --> 0:06:56.080 done at very high risk. No one really knew what 0:06:56.160 --> 0:06:59.440 it was. Pegg two was actually securing that this currency 0:07:00.080 --> 0:07:03.880 and some of these investments would require a ten era 0:07:04.800 --> 0:07:09.360 locking period of your investment. So so far, investment has 0:07:09.400 --> 0:07:13.560 been slow. Investment hasn't fluent into sango coin. What does 0:07:13.560 --> 0:07:19.440 sango mean? Sango is the actually the local language which 0:07:19.520 --> 0:07:25.600 is spoken across car So there's kind of an idea 0:07:25.760 --> 0:07:28.640 in addition to what you're saying about this being something 0:07:28.640 --> 0:07:31.160 that folks can feel proud of, feel attached to, that 0:07:31.280 --> 0:07:36.680 like represents the country in this digital forum. But to 0:07:36.720 --> 0:07:40.320 your point, it does seem to be have been pitched 0:07:40.440 --> 0:07:44.480 to external investors more and than necessarily the people in 0:07:44.520 --> 0:07:48.680 the country itself. Right, with eleven percent internet penetration, sporadic 0:07:48.720 --> 0:07:51.160 access to electricity, they're probably not a lot of people 0:07:51.240 --> 0:07:53.080 day to day who are going to add this to 0:07:53.120 --> 0:07:56.800 their list of things that they're super keen on. Have 0:07:57.080 --> 0:08:02.160 international investors shown interest and appetite for any of this, well, 0:08:02.200 --> 0:08:05.320 approtetite has been slow so far. I think that the 0:08:05.400 --> 0:08:09.360 last time I checked, single coin had sold for about 0:08:10.000 --> 0:08:14.320 one point six million dollars, and the initial value that 0:08:14.360 --> 0:08:16.680 they put on the market in the first round it's 0:08:16.680 --> 0:08:21.000 going to be twelve sales in total was about twenty 0:08:21.040 --> 0:08:25.680 one million, so again very slow interest. That they extended 0:08:25.720 --> 0:08:28.160 the period I was supposed to actually end last month 0:08:28.280 --> 0:08:33.160 until end of this month, stating that the enormous interest 0:08:33.840 --> 0:08:36.280 would needed to extend the period. But if you look 0:08:36.320 --> 0:08:38.880 at the sales, it doesn't really match what they're saying 0:08:38.960 --> 0:08:42.959 in in statements because the numbers are not reflecting kind 0:08:42.960 --> 0:08:47.440 of the same enthusiasm, not not at this point. And 0:08:47.559 --> 0:08:50.080 I guess that's I mean, that's a risk part of 0:08:50.080 --> 0:08:52.960 the project effected. Again you have a long locking period. 0:08:52.960 --> 0:08:54.800 And it was also said that the single coins that 0:08:54.840 --> 0:08:59.680 you used brought either by through ethereum or a bitcoin, 0:09:00.040 --> 0:09:06.440 couldn't be traded back. Wow, okay, so very significant constraints 0:09:06.559 --> 0:09:08.960 on your ability to get in and out of a 0:09:09.000 --> 0:09:11.800 single coin position. In other words, I want to ask 0:09:11.840 --> 0:09:14.880 you a little bit because I saw a story that 0:09:15.400 --> 0:09:19.000 you and one of your colleagues published around the end 0:09:19.040 --> 0:09:24.800 of August around the country's highest court, saying that an 0:09:24.800 --> 0:09:27.600 incentive program the government was trying to offer to people 0:09:27.600 --> 0:09:32.319 who bought single coins was unconstitutional. What was that program? 0:09:32.360 --> 0:09:36.360 The CAR has been offering people to buy land for 0:09:36.480 --> 0:09:39.880 investing in sanle coin. There was also an e residency 0:09:39.920 --> 0:09:46.120 program and also the possibility of getting Central African nationality 0:09:46.120 --> 0:09:49.320 by investing sixty tho dollars and then the locking period 0:09:49.320 --> 0:09:54.000 of up to five years. Now, obviously the Constitutional Court 0:09:54.559 --> 0:09:58.040 said that this is not how we allocate land in CAR. 0:09:58.280 --> 0:10:00.280 Just need to go through a government to decision of 0:10:00.320 --> 0:10:04.920 the Parliamentary Parliament actually has to be in there the decision. 0:10:05.400 --> 0:10:08.720 And also our citizenships are not to have for grab 0:10:08.920 --> 0:10:13.040 food investing in cryptocurrency. And thirdly, the option of the 0:10:13.160 --> 0:10:16.520 residency doesn't exist in the CAR at this moment, so 0:10:16.559 --> 0:10:20.560 it wouldn't be a possibility. Now CAR is actually in 0:10:20.600 --> 0:10:24.720 the process of adopting a new constitution and it seems 0:10:24.720 --> 0:10:30.520 like authorities could be changing that document into possibly fitting 0:10:30.640 --> 0:10:35.360 the Sango projects objectives. Got it. So this is one 0:10:35.360 --> 0:10:37.440 of those we'll just have to wait and see, you 0:10:37.440 --> 0:10:41.360 know what actually what actually shakes out there exactly, And 0:10:41.400 --> 0:10:45.199 that's only the residency and the and the land acquisations 0:10:45.280 --> 0:10:47.800 is only up in the in the following it rounds. 0:10:47.840 --> 0:10:49.720 It's not on the table or not for sale at 0:10:49.720 --> 0:10:53.040 the moment when we talk about the residency. As far 0:10:53.040 --> 0:10:55.400 as I'm aware, Estonia was one of the first places 0:10:55.440 --> 0:10:58.280 in the world to offer this, and the idea is like, 0:10:58.559 --> 0:11:00.200 you know, for the folks in the US world saying 0:11:00.240 --> 0:11:03.679 to this, it's like a digital green card almost where 0:11:03.760 --> 0:11:06.520 you don't become a citizen, but you get access to 0:11:06.800 --> 0:11:10.640 to certain elements of the economy, to stat us. You know, 0:11:10.679 --> 0:11:13.360 you kind of get like an identity card. Does that 0:11:13.480 --> 0:11:16.439 framework even exist at all in car for them to 0:11:16.480 --> 0:11:18.320 be able to offer something like this or is it 0:11:18.360 --> 0:11:21.080 more like if you buy this, at some point in 0:11:21.120 --> 0:11:24.040 the future, you may have access to something that looks 0:11:24.080 --> 0:11:28.000 like this. I mean, at the moment, this doesn't exist, 0:11:28.040 --> 0:11:31.720 but the Constitutional Court was was very clear about again 0:11:31.760 --> 0:11:34.000 this is this is something that they're hoping to offer 0:11:34.000 --> 0:11:36.280 in the future. So it's still not up for sale, 0:11:36.520 --> 0:11:39.199 but it seems like the framework to even offer any 0:11:39.320 --> 0:11:42.960 residency is not there at the moment. Coming up, more 0:11:43.000 --> 0:11:46.360 from Bloomberg reporter Caterinaa on how bitcoin is shipping up 0:11:46.360 --> 0:11:57.959 in the Central African Republic. We'll be right back for 0:11:57.960 --> 0:12:01.000 folks who have you know, maybe this is the first 0:12:01.000 --> 0:12:04.720 time they're encountering Car in the wild. What are some 0:12:04.800 --> 0:12:08.679 of the key things that they should understand about the 0:12:08.760 --> 0:12:12.600 challenges that the government is facing in trying to drive 0:12:12.679 --> 0:12:16.559 adoption of these policies. Well, I mean, first of all, 0:12:16.600 --> 0:12:21.320 the internet connectivity. Again, car is one of the least 0:12:21.320 --> 0:12:24.560 connected countries in the world. It also has one of 0:12:24.600 --> 0:12:29.640 the lowest GDPs about two point three billion according to 0:12:29.720 --> 0:12:33.800 World Bank. The population for the most part is kept 0:12:33.840 --> 0:12:38.440 outside of the financial system, while they do use the 0:12:38.640 --> 0:12:42.200 mobile money service providers. That was just four pc of 0:12:42.240 --> 0:12:45.200 the Placian eight fifteen years or more, again according to 0:12:45.280 --> 0:12:48.200 World Bank data. And if you want to compare, the 0:12:48.200 --> 0:12:51.040 percentage of El Salvadose population with access to the banking 0:12:51.080 --> 0:12:56.120 system was around this is in twenty seventeen. So already 0:12:56.120 --> 0:12:59.439 indicators that are a bit lower than the than El 0:12:59.520 --> 0:13:05.319 Salvador or this little infrastructure in general, again the Internet connectivity, 0:13:05.400 --> 0:13:08.760 but even things like like Rhodes, they don't have enough electricity. 0:13:09.080 --> 0:13:11.280 If they want to tax to set up a bitcoin 0:13:11.400 --> 0:13:14.320 mining operations that that probably wouldn't be possible in card 0:13:14.320 --> 0:13:16.840 and you would then the whole country would go go 0:13:16.960 --> 0:13:20.120 black or whatever it split up would probably be in darkness. 0:13:20.880 --> 0:13:24.080 Social indicators are pretty dire. People don't, like you pointed out, 0:13:24.120 --> 0:13:26.959 people don't have the money to invest in in bitcoin 0:13:27.000 --> 0:13:32.800 and crypto. What's interesting hearing from you is these are 0:13:32.960 --> 0:13:36.800 very similar to some of the concerns that places like 0:13:36.840 --> 0:13:38.880 the I m F and the World Bank and cryptos skeptics. 0:13:38.920 --> 0:13:41.840 More broadly, we're raising about Al Salvador. Obviously, as you've mentioned, 0:13:41.840 --> 0:13:45.559 Al Salvador is significantly further along on several of those indicators, 0:13:45.600 --> 0:13:50.280 including internet penetration, consistency of electricity. You know, Salvador is like, well, 0:13:50.280 --> 0:13:52.720 we have a volcano, so we have a totally different 0:13:52.720 --> 0:13:56.680 way of thinking about the possibility of of bitcoin mining. 0:13:57.080 --> 0:14:01.280 But despite them being more ahead on on many indicators, 0:14:01.760 --> 0:14:06.480 they still haven't seen widespread adoption of bitcoin among you know, 0:14:06.559 --> 0:14:09.000 the rank and file of the population. Right, They too 0:14:09.040 --> 0:14:14.680 have really seen an influx in tourism, in foreign investor interest, 0:14:14.760 --> 0:14:17.520 and sentiment, but not so much your average person in 0:14:17.559 --> 0:14:19.560 the market trying to buy something being like, hold on, 0:14:19.600 --> 0:14:22.200 let me whip out my bitcoin wallet and and pay 0:14:22.280 --> 0:14:27.040 for this thing. Do you expect from your knowledge of 0:14:27.080 --> 0:14:29.760 your previous experience of the region that this will be 0:14:29.840 --> 0:14:32.280 something that two years from now, you know, the government 0:14:32.360 --> 0:14:34.040 is like, Okay, we tried it, it was an interesting 0:14:34.080 --> 0:14:36.160 marketing campaign. We're going to move on to something else. 0:14:36.560 --> 0:14:38.600 Or is there any indication that this is something they 0:14:38.640 --> 0:14:41.720 have actually really high conviction around and they're going to 0:14:41.840 --> 0:14:45.800 keep trying to make successful despite the challenges you've identified. 0:14:46.960 --> 0:14:49.400 I mean, maybe it's a letter challenge again that not 0:14:49.440 --> 0:14:53.280 a lot of people in government understand its prodict totally. 0:14:53.440 --> 0:14:56.200 The president he seems to know what's going on, but 0:14:56.200 --> 0:14:59.280 but at a government officials don't. I don't want to 0:14:59.320 --> 0:15:02.560 out rule the projected yet, but I mean, so far 0:15:02.600 --> 0:15:07.160 with interesting being low, I I don't. Yeah, it's difficult 0:15:07.160 --> 0:15:09.400 to see how they're gonna move forward. It's almost like 0:15:09.440 --> 0:15:12.960 they're learning as they're going. And of course another obstacle 0:15:13.160 --> 0:15:15.040 is the fact that they are part of the c 0:15:15.200 --> 0:15:18.920 IF A franc zone which is packed to the Euro 0:15:19.520 --> 0:15:23.360 and also controlled by the French Treasury, which means that 0:15:23.400 --> 0:15:27.200 they have limited the say over the monetary policies for example, 0:15:27.800 --> 0:15:34.000 and again, launching bitcoin or cryptocurrencies could possibly go against 0:15:34.000 --> 0:15:37.480 this system, which would which would then cut them out 0:15:37.480 --> 0:15:41.000 of the regional monetary union. It's interesting though, however, that 0:15:41.160 --> 0:15:45.360 since cars adoption of bitcoin the regional monetary union has 0:15:45.400 --> 0:15:49.200 actually started looking at possibly a digital currency, so it 0:15:49.240 --> 0:15:52.600 seems like they're warming apotlune idea, but but so far 0:15:52.800 --> 0:15:55.800 nothing has really moved forward on that end. So there 0:15:55.800 --> 0:15:57.360 are two things that you said that that are really 0:15:57.360 --> 0:15:59.360 interesting that I want to hold in on. One is, 0:16:00.040 --> 0:16:02.680 you know, much like Al Salvador, which uses the US dollar, 0:16:03.240 --> 0:16:06.080 lacked control over its on monetary policy, like cars, facing 0:16:06.120 --> 0:16:09.360 something very similar there, except they're using the euro uh 0:16:09.400 --> 0:16:12.200 instead of the dollar. But the other thing is that 0:16:12.320 --> 0:16:15.480 idea of this being a learning experience, not just for 0:16:15.560 --> 0:16:19.920 them but potentially that monetary union as a whole. That 0:16:20.200 --> 0:16:23.200 me in you know, twelve twenty four, Who knows how 0:16:23.200 --> 0:16:26.240 many months from now lead to something that looks more 0:16:26.320 --> 0:16:29.880 similar to like a digital euro, but for that union 0:16:29.920 --> 0:16:35.200 specifically exactly. I mean that sort of fits into the 0:16:35.240 --> 0:16:38.440 whole narrative across this region. That the fact that they 0:16:38.640 --> 0:16:41.480 need to keep at least fifty centers foreign assets with 0:16:41.760 --> 0:16:46.520 the French treasury. Again, the former colonial power has been 0:16:46.520 --> 0:16:52.280 facing growing criticism, partly for holding back economic development, so 0:16:52.480 --> 0:16:56.840 creating creating a single or even as a national currency 0:16:56.960 --> 0:17:00.520 or even a regional courtesy. I mean South Laftrican Authorities 0:17:00.680 --> 0:17:07.720 has promoted as a pan Affrican project could potentially attract 0:17:07.720 --> 0:17:11.879 other countries and you know, offer a bigger pickup at 0:17:11.960 --> 0:17:15.440 least give countries the idea that if going into crypto 0:17:15.640 --> 0:17:18.199 is a way to sort of move away from the 0:17:18.280 --> 0:17:23.080 from the French dependency and the dependency on the Euro. Well, Katharina, 0:17:23.160 --> 0:17:24.960 thank you so much for joining us and helping us 0:17:25.040 --> 0:17:27.760 understand what's been happening with car and crypto. A pleasure 0:17:27.760 --> 0:17:32.440 to have you on the show. On the next episode 0:17:32.440 --> 0:17:35.439 of Bloomberg Crypto, we're going to talk about exchange traded 0:17:35.480 --> 0:17:39.640 funds and specifically crypto et f s. These are products 0:17:39.640 --> 0:17:42.199 that are designed to give people exposure to things like 0:17:42.280 --> 0:17:45.199 bitcoin or to ether or two broader companies in the 0:17:45.240 --> 0:17:49.760 market without actually having to hold those things directly. There's 0:17:49.760 --> 0:17:53.639 some interesting and perhaps unhelpful stuff that's happening with their 0:17:53.680 --> 0:17:56.080 performance these days, and you'll hear more about that on 0:17:56.119 --> 0:18:02.200 the next episode. They is Bloomberg Crypto, a daily podcast 0:18:02.200 --> 0:18:05.320 from Bloomberg and I Heart Radio. For more shows from 0:18:05.320 --> 0:18:08.679 i heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, 0:18:08.880 --> 0:18:12.359 or wherever you get your podcast. Send us your comments, 0:18:12.480 --> 0:18:15.480 questions or suggestions for the show to Crypto at Bloomberg 0:18:15.520 --> 0:18:18.600 dot net or find us on Twitter. We're at Crypto. 0:18:20.680 --> 0:18:24.359 The supervising producer of Bloomberg Crypto is Vicky Verglina. Our 0:18:24.400 --> 0:18:28.160 senior producer is Janet Babin. Our producer is Sharon Barriro. 0:18:28.680 --> 0:18:32.920 Associate producer is Thi Butla Desta wonder At is our engineer. 0:18:33.440 --> 0:18:37.800 Original music by Leo Sidrn. I'm Stacy, Marie Ishmael. Have 0:18:37.920 --> 0:18:38.600 a great weekend.