Feelings Check-In: Louis Vuitton NFT utility reveal, BlackRock Bitcoin ETF, Natasha's personal revelation about decision making, Deana's new show idea

[00:00] Last week, BlackRock filed for a big man with a lip flip. The bees are really jerking. [00:09] Welcome to the Feelings Check-In, a feelings first look at the news of the week. Takes no one asked for on topics everyone's talking about. I'm Natasha Hoskins. I'm Dina Burke. And this is Boys Club. Wait, is it just Boys Club? It's just Boys Club. The Boys Club podcast? No, no. [00:27] Just boys club. [00:29] How's it going? [00:30] Good. So this week... [00:33] I, in preparation for this show, I have felt like I'm on the TV show industry. Oh, wow. [00:41] I'm... [00:41] So for those who don't know, industry is an incredible. [00:47] show on... [00:49] HBO I guess Max no I don't know HBO HBO we refuse we refuse and um it's about a bunch of [00:59] kids working in finance in London and... [01:03] the [01:05] you know, trials and tribulations. Traders. Yeah, they're traders. And so I have one friend who works in TradFi and it's so funny because you call her my TradFi friend. And she is a commodities trader. Okay. And I've asked her so many times about her job and I find it fascinating. But in my head, [01:25] She is industry. It's the same job. She's there. [01:29] she's there she's doing the same thing that's where she's like yeah i'm not like on the sales side and and she's told me that like a few times like to the point where i'm like the last time she told me i was like i know you told me this before but i don't the problem is not that i'm not listening is that i don't know what that means like i don't know what that means and i'm starting to learn more because now i'm like sort of getting it but um i just think she's like a

[01:55] like dollars so many screens the phones ringing like actual phones that have yes headsets all recorded anyway yeah [02:05] Shout out to Kate. [02:08] I have like a real fantasy about the TradFi lifestyle. It's funny working in crypto, [02:15] having not come from finance because... [02:19] I have no bearing for that world. I don't understand it at all. But all of a sudden, [02:25] were like adjacent to it. Like people think that we work, like people who don't know, understand crypto and ours will be like, oh, well they like work in finance. [02:34] which is hilarious hilarious um anyway i will say that i'm learning a little bit more and anyway [02:42] story is going to be about the BlackRock Bitcoin ETF. So I was like on Bloomberg charts and prices. And I pull your iPad out for another screen. Anyway, how are you doing? I'm good. I'm talking about something a little lighter. We're doing round two on the Louis Vuitton treasure trunk story because it's in development. So mine's where I'm in Paris. I'm high fashion, I'm [03:09] Pharrell. Oh, we're espressos and croissants and dreaming about doing that in a few weeks. I'm blocking out all of our dinner reservations and lunch reservations. And honestly, we're going to have a great time. And I'm really excited about Paris, all to say. [03:25] Yeah, so just shout out to Luxo, who is coming in on the Anon Ball with us. We're very excited about the Anon Ball, which was going to be happening during ECC. There are hundreds upon hundreds of people that have signed up for the waitlist. And if you're one of them.

[03:40] My only tip is to ask us nicely if you could be pushed off the wheel. [03:52] Okay. Black Rock, you go first. You go first. Okay, great. Mine's going to be probably shorter than yours. [03:58] Here's the deal. Okay. So last week's episode of the feelings check-in, [04:03] You talked about Louis Vuitton's Via project, their treasure trunk design. [04:09] Fidgetal NFT drop. So this was a 39,000 euro card. [04:14] Fidgetal. [04:15] experience. You ever seen those tweets that are like, if a pilgrim heard you say that sentence, they'd like combust. [04:24] That's what I feel about the words that you were just saying are like, so like, I don't know, deeply modern that like I, it's crazy. Totally. It's we're in the, in the future. [04:37] A lot of controversy. I mean, mild controversy, not like big deal controversy around this last week. [04:43] It's been out for about two weeks. It's a very tight list to be able to buy it. And the first utility of the Via program and the treasure trunks came out this week. So a lot of things are coming together at the same time right now, not by accident. Like Louis Vuitton has very thoughtfully sort of timed all of this to happen, which... [05:05] Really a big question people have been asking is why would Louis Vuitton drop this NFT right now in a crypto winter bear market NFT market?

[05:14] industry is at an all-time low. Yeah. Exactly. Why would they do it? And then this week, the story kind of became clear. [05:23] A huge part of that story is Pharrell Williams. He was crowned the creative director of the men's line of Louis Vuitton. This is a huge deal in the fashion industry because he's filling the very big and beloved shoes of Virgil Abloh, who... [05:44] passed away sadly last year and is very, very loved. And so Pharrell is filling his shoes as a creative director. So this is a big moment for Louis Vuitton. It's a big moment for fashion. The timing of the treasure trunk, the reason that it's happening now is because of this moment that's happening with Pharrell. Because Pharrell is like sort of this perfect figurehead for a crossover web to web three persona. He's the chief brand officer for Doodles. He's been very active [06:14] He's good friends with Alexander Arnault, which is Bernard Arnault's son, who leads Tiffany's and has also been very open about being into NFTs and into the metaverse and experimental within Web3. So Pharrell is like this very loved figure and also someone who has been in both worlds. Yeah. [06:33] All of these things are converging at the same time. The reason why it's significant this week is that his... [06:38] first [06:40] show his first fashion show happened this week so the men's spring summer 2024 fashion show happened in paris this week during men's fashion week and it's pharrell's debut as the creative director

[06:51] Big deal. People are talking about it. People are excited about it. Kim Kardashian's there. Everybody's there. Kim K, Rihanna, A$AP Rocky, J-Lo, Beyonce, everybody. Not J-Lo. [07:03] Jay-Z. Jay-Z. I was like, that's the wrong Jay. Jay-Z. So huge deal. It's like star studded. It's big time. So everybody's like, okay. [07:15] The treasure trunk thing is happening in this time because Pharrell is debuting and all this energy is happening together. [07:23] So a few things come together at this fashion show. So first of all, it is iconic. It's on the Point Neuf, which is the famous bridge in Paris. They shut it down. The fashion show's on there. It's like cameras. It's, you know, models. Zendaya. Everybody's there. And the show is really cool. Like, he does a great job. Knocks out of the park. All the press is, like, so for him. The looks are bright. Some... [07:49] Very bold looks. One is like this really cool, like you and I would love it, like this really cool oversized, very bright jacket with big lettering that says the Louis Vuitton lovers presents and like the name of the show is lovers. Very fun. A ton of these very pixelated patterns throughout. Minecrafty is what I saw. Minecraft. Yeah. So sort of like internet culture pulled into these looks. [08:11] and [08:13] A few days before this fashion show, Rihanna's campaign with Louis Vuitton comes out. And this campaign is...

[08:22] bringing back a very iconic speed bag that Louis Vuitton has had for years and comes in and out of their collection. So it's back. The campaign for it is Rihanna, like pregnant, exposed belly, super cute, holding all these bags. Like, great. These bags are also debuted at the show. [08:38] So the culmination of... [08:40] NFT trunk situation, Pharrell, this Web 3, Web 2 crossover figure debuting, and this bag coming back all come together in the final look of the show where this very beautiful man is walking down the runway carrying this iconic speedy bag Louis Vuitton in this bright orange that feels very Louis Vuitton. [09:00] walking down the runway. [09:01] Okay. [09:02] Where it all comes together is this orange bag is only available in this colorway to holders of the treasure trunk NFT. So this is the first moment that you're seeing as a holder. And in this VIA world, in the VIA program, if you're a holder, you're getting a first look at... [09:23] what you can actually buy and it's like very it's very striking this bag so anybody who sees it is going to know okay that bag is only available to holders right now there are only 90 holders [09:36] There's only 201 of these [09:40] soulbound NFTs available. [09:43] and there's a lot we can talk about there but it's a big reveal it's a big moment wow so the final look of the show the final with this like the nft utility nft utility displayed it's not it's incredible it's very cool in the show it was not obvious like they didn't it wasn't like nft but the reporting from it from megan mcdowell who is a writer and contributor at

[10:13] like whole live around it and the bag, [10:16] ordinarily retails for $9,000. It hasn't been revealed how much this new bag will be. One big aspect of being a part of the program and holding... [10:25] one of these treasure trunk NFTs is you can resell [10:31] the specific items that are for purchase. So I believe you will have my understanding of it at this point is that you will have basically like a mint pass or a pass to buy specific items and you can sell those to specific people. [10:47] So that provides a secondary market for holders to make... [10:52] some honestly they could like make their money back totally you [10:55] You buy, you have the Via Pass, you buy the Speedy Bag, [11:00] for nine grand [11:02] you sell it on secondary for [11:04] 20. Yeah. Because it's, there's so much demand and it's, [11:08] The supply is so constrained. And you do that a couple times. And then you've made back your money on the min-pass. Totally. So very interesting stuff happening. I'm keeping a close, close eye on Louis Vuitton and what they're doing there. I think one of the things that as I continue to research and understand it more is... [11:32] The soul bound aspect of it and the limited amount and high price point all comes down to basically clearing out anybody who's buying for secondary and basically any degen behavior, which is... So exactly what I just said. No, no, no. For the soul bound aspect of it. For the core asset of which...

[11:56] They've only sold 93 of them. I'm so here for it, and I'm such a homer for it that I feel... [12:02] As a journalist. [12:06] Oh my gosh. I love that joke. I hope everybody knows that that is, I'm joking every time I'm saying that. Totally. Totally. Yeah. I hope people get that too. If they don't, I don't know what to say. I don't know. You shouldn't be here. This is not hard hitting news. Anyway, wow, that's really low in terms of how many people have purchased it. But at the same time, I have to believe that demand is just going to, every time they put something out like this, demand is going to skyrocket. And I'm just here for it. I just love it. And part of that is like watching videos of [12:36] point neuf after this fashion show. And it's all there together and they've done this great storytelling around it. [12:42] that if you're really looking at it from... [12:45] a fan of the brand it's amazing and if you're looking at it as a marketer it's so impressive the way that they incredible yeah architect architect [12:53] The whole thing. So that's that. [13:01] Okay, so... [13:02] hard pivot to... [13:06] Streets of New York City finance industry. We're in Friday. I first... [13:11] word fight I, I first want to say [13:15] This isn't Bloomberg. [13:16] So if you're like looking for some real financial news... [13:23] You got to call someone else. Yeah. You got to do some clicking around. Go somewhere. Go find someone else. We're going to be giving a real...

[13:33] 30,000 foot view of what's happening with this for people who don't know anything and who want to know a little bit of something to take into their weekend. So I just want to caveat with that. So, okay. [13:45] Bitcoin... [13:47] spot ETF. [13:49] If you have been on crypto Twitter this past week, [13:52] you'll have likely encountered the conversation around the Bitcoin ETF. Did you? I'm just curious if it came across your radar. It came through my desk, which is my Twitter feed. So the finance corner of crypto Twitter is freaking out about it. It's a pretty big deal for a few different reasons, which we'll get into in the story. The first big sort of theme is this idea of institutional money coming into crypto. Okay. So that's kind of the first big concept that [14:22] then the second [14:23] interesting story [14:24] and compelling part of the story is the coin base of it all. So it's a very curious but very relevant detail that we'll dig into as well. But before I get started on both of those, just a little background on what an ETF is and what purpose it serves. So ETF stands for exchange [14:42] Traded. [14:43] Fund. [14:44] This is a very traditional financial vehicle that can basically be bought and sold and traded on a traditional stock market. [14:53] We're not [14:55] on Binance were on NASDAQ and it's something that [14:58] traditional investors institutional money are comfortable with they understand the sort of tax structures around it the liability structures around it they have

[15:08] processes and systems for dealing with ETFs and they can be traded on places where they're already working. Bitcoin, crypto generally, but Bitcoin specifically has always been hard for a lot of very traditional conservative financial players. It's been hard for them to work with it because of the buying and the custody of it. And the tax is complicated. It sits outside their system so much so that I just don't even want to deal with that. There's different like liability [15:38] The Bitcoin ETF tracks the price of the asset. Okay. [15:43] without having the people who are buying the ATF need to hold Bitcoin itself. It's basically like kind of a mirror to it. We're going to track the price. Yeah. [15:53] And... [15:54] the fund is going to hold the Bitcoin and the price will be tracked and then you as an investor in that fund get [16:00] what's called like exposure to Bitcoin price action through that ETF without having to buy it or custody it yourself. So it's basically putting Bitcoin into a little box that these institutional investors can and will work with. Just to make sure I understand, they're getting exposure. [16:19] to the asset of Bitcoin without having to custody it or take on the risk of trying to figure out how to manage it since it's a different... [16:28] vehicle than a currency or a traditional investment. Okay. Exactly. Cool. Exactly. So what are some of the [16:37] What's drawbacks of holding an ETF versus holding Bitcoin?

[16:42] So great question. There's a few. First of all, management fees. [16:46] So these funds are charging for the... [16:51] The buying... [16:52] selling in custody of the Bitcoin at around 1%. [16:56] Bad news if you're a retail investor. Great news if you're BlackRock. Okay. So that's one drawback if you're just like a normal person who's considering this ETF. Okay. [17:06] Second one is like, not your keys, not your coin. You're not actually holding the Bitcoin. So purists will say that... [17:13] It's not true. It's not pure. And then two things which are like probably even the most important one is the rigid trading hours. So it's a traditional vehicle. It's traded on the stock market. The crypto market's 24 seven. And we're like constantly degenning around and the price is here and there. And like that is tricky. I just had the thought of me like in my bed at like 1245 just scrolling Twitter being like I'm on the clock. [17:38] 24 7 365 24 7 markets are alive 24 7 so that's a big thing and also related to the the the fourth drawback which is inaccurate pricing so okay there's always going to be like little weird things and and when you're trading at the level of billions of dollars like that starts to make a big difference so that's etf background i also want to say for anyone who's listening and they're like well blackrock filed a trust it's not a spot etf [18:06] They're basically the same thing. I don't want to talk about it for the purpose of this conversation. We're talking about it as an ETF. Don't at me about any of this bullshit. Okay. So there's been about 30 different filings for Bitcoin ETFs over the past couple years. All have been rejected. Oh, okay. So no one's gotten a Bitcoin ETF through the door of the SEC. A lot of people have tried. A lot of people have failed. Big mistake.

[18:29] Massive players. Enter BlackRock. Mm-hmm. [18:32] BlackRock has a huge pile of money, basically. Man, I love that for them. Huge pile of money that they're pushing around and dealing with. They have $10 trillion of assets under management. Think pension funds, endowment funds, that type of money. Last week, BlackRock filed for a Bitcoin ETF and huge for a few reasons. Okay. First of all, BlackRock [18:57] has done 576 [19:00] filings with the SEC for different ETFs. And they have only been rejected one time. Wow. They have an incredible record of getting things. Wow. Okay. Is that because... [19:12] they know the game so well, or is it because they own the game? [19:17] I think the cynical take would be [19:20] they own the game and it's all rigged. And they definitely have a special relationship with the SEC. [19:25] BlackRock does not like, does not want anything. [19:28] And... [19:30] arguably will not be rejected, right? Like they... [19:33] It's just not... [19:36] part of the brand and the store it's not their vibe to get rejected yeah so that's the first interesting thing bullish okay [19:44] Yeah. [19:45] The second thing is that's interesting about this is they came in like guns blazing, did their homework, dotted all the I's, crossed all the T's. Big reason why a lot of the other applications were rejected was because of this idea of market manipulation. And basically, like they took the list of the 30 rejections and looked at all the different ways and reasons why they were rejected, answered all of them and addressed all of them so that it feels really airtight.

[20:15] ETF filings is because it's just too easy to move this price around and it's too risky. So BlackRock came in with their surveillance sharing agreement, which is some technique tool way that they're looking at all the different prices in action across like a bunch of different places. [20:29] so that they'll be able to do some reporting if there's any market manipulation going on. I do not understand this part of the story really at all. If anyone does that's listening and wants to explain it to me, I'd love to hear it because my thinking is like, why aren't they just doing that anyway? Like that's kind of feels like something that like people should be doing. But that's basically this idea of the surveillance sharing agreement was a big part of the application and a big part of like, why they're like, no, this is different. We're doing it a different way. And this is why you should prove us. The last like kind of funny detail is that they said that they [20:59] urgently. That was the story of it. Which... [21:03] was really triggering for me because I had a boss once who always, I know like made up him. [21:11] Yeah. [21:11] He will not be named, but you know who he is. He would always make up urgency around deliverables. And when I'd be like, do you really need this? [21:19] document by end of day or like can so i personally feel triggered by that but because i'm i'm like what's going on here but that's a kind of funny part of the story okay the last piece of the story is [21:31] the Coinbase of it all. So Coinbase is listed as the custodian on the filing. [21:37] So they're basically the one, they're in cahoots with BlackRock and they're like, we're going to come in with you guys and we're going to do the Bitcoin custing piece of it.

[21:46] So they'll be holding the actual Bitcoin? Yes. Okay, cool. Yeah. So they're going to be doing that side of the equation. And they're like listed in the application. It's their front and center. They were in all the headlines that I was reading. And... [21:59] of course [22:01] We know that from our podcast last week that the SEC is claiming that Coinbase is actually operating an unlicensed security exchange that's operating illegally, right? Like that's their whole case in their lawsuit is that they're like, this is illegal. So this could be huge for Coinbase because if they get approved, if BlackRock gets approved by the SEC, they're... [22:23] for this ETF. [22:25] then it's going to make their case a lot harder if they've approved this other thing with BlackRock. [22:31] Yeah. So that's kind of the heart of the conspiracy theories around this, which is that Coinbase and BlackRock and the SEC are all in cahoots. [22:43] that there's like a million different takes on this that are really like span the spectrum of tin hat conspiracy theories down to like whatever illuminati you can imagine how far and it also actually comes full circle to the pharrell louis vuitton show exactly it's like the sec and black rock and bitcoin were all in the front row [23:13] is manipulating the SEC. Okay. And to do its bidding. Okay. And so the Coinbase lawsuit's a sham because it's really just for them to do this other thing with Binance and like clear them out of the market. Okay. There's like a lot of different takes on this. What's your take? My take is that

[23:30] I'm like, yeah, of course, there's some backdoor dealings. Yeah, of course. As I've aged, I have grown to trust people. [23:37] No one. The government. Trust no one. Yeah, I'm not surprised. I mean, I'm mostly not even... [23:43] thinking about that side of it as much. I'm more just like, what does this mean for the industry? I think it's [23:48] hugely... [23:49] optimistic at a moment where [23:52] everything has felt like it's, [23:54] been going very badly. It could really turn things around if this gets approved. And so I'm kind of just more thinking about that. I mean, the Bitcoin maxis have this sort of really funny thread within them, which is don't sell your Bitcoin to BlackRock. [24:08] we're not going to sell. [24:09] Oh, and so there's this hyper Bitcoinization thing that's going on in that corner of Twitter where they're all like, [24:15] we're not going to sell, we're going to push the price up. [24:18] Yeah. Okay. It was kind of interesting. A hopeful story for the industry. There it is. Kind of a hopeful story. What feelings come out for you in the story? I love. [24:24] I am so not a purist. So I love a big institution with a, [24:31] boatload of money coming into the industry celebrating. I celebrate it. Let's celebrate it. So I feel great about it. [24:38] Great. [24:39] *music* [24:46] Okay, so I had some personal feelings. I had a bit of a revelation this week. I've been having this... [24:54] perspective of boys club, which is there's a right decision and a wrong decision.

[25:00] And [25:02] I am in... [25:04] a [25:06] Game. [25:07] where [25:09] I am... [25:10] looking for [25:12] The right decision. I'm... I'm... What's that thing where you... [25:15] Rubik's cube. I'm in a Rubik's cube and I'm trying to get it to have all the colors matching and it's binary. It's yes or no. It's either right or it's wrong. It's right or it's wrong. Yeah. And the decisions I'm making every day are either getting me closer and closer to the right thing or further and further away from the right thing. And that puts a lot of pressure on. [25:38] on the work. And I had this revelation this week around... [25:43] that there actually isn't a right or wrong for boys club. [25:47] It's [25:48] more of like a matrix where... [25:51] There are areas of resiliency within Boys Club. There are areas where we're... [25:57] Best in class? [25:58] where we're really strong, where we have the right talent, like all of these different things. [26:05] across a board, [26:06] where we spike. [26:08] in an area of resilience or an area of excellence. And really, [26:13] all [26:14] that we need to do in our work [26:17] is [26:18] find where there's an intersection of that spike [26:22] with [26:23] where we have interest and energy and excitement to do work. And that is, [26:29] intersection and that those points across the spectrum of boys club is where there's going to be most opportunity for success. And it like really helped me sort of change the way that I'm looking at the work of not is this right or is this wrong, but is this right?

[26:46] giving me life and energy and opportunity and, um, [26:50] If so, then... [26:52] There's a spike of opportunity and a potential to succeed. Beautiful. It was great. Beautiful. What do you think? I love it. I really love it. Great. I would love that reminder daily that... [27:03] It's not a binary right or wrong. It is... [27:06] just following... [27:08] the path as it reveals itself and that path like being... [27:11] Thank you. [27:12] best when it's true to things that we... [27:15] are good at and like to do. Yeah. It reminds me, I had an idea this morning for... [27:20] a show. I don't know what to call this. As... [27:23] Someone who's in media. Uh-huh. Tell me. [27:26] Okay. [27:27] I actually think it's a really good idea and I'm afraid that I'm going to pitch you on it and you're going to think you're not going to be into it. Oh, I thought you were going to say I'm afraid I'm going to share it and someone's going to steal the idea. [27:36] Oh. [27:37] If they do... [27:39] Good for them. [27:41] I think that it's actually... [27:42] quite challenging to execute okay so the show is called work okay [27:47] And, [27:48] It's an eight-hour... [27:51] Twitch stream. Okay. Okay. [27:53] We're on it the whole day. Okay. Okay. [27:56] And we're like literally just doing our work where it's streaming. [28:01] our screens, [28:03] It's streaming our conversation. [28:05] And it's like an eight hour. Nice. Nice. [28:09] show of work. Cool. [28:12] And the key to it and the reason that it works is because

[28:17] It's not recorded. [28:19] So it's ephemeral. Nice. You know what I mean? You have to be there. [28:23] You have to be there. Either you're there when... [28:26] we were talking about [28:27] A problematic tweet. [28:29] Or you weren't. Since it's not recorded, it's like... Capture it. You can't capture it. [28:33] You can't capture it. And we're able to be a little bit freer. Because I think the concern with this type of show is that you do it and then you have like... [28:40] a mountain of stuff that if anything were to happen or people that you're negotiating against could use it [28:46] in their negotiation against you. So... [28:49] that's the idea i am very interested i'm very interested i think it's great i'm nervous it feels do one thing every day that scares you or eight hours of something that scares you i love it okay all right on that note bye dina where are we going to be in september we are going to be at permissionless in austin texas permissionless too it's happening and we're [29:19] about here.