Michael Saylor

We had 10,000 public companies in the US 25 years ago. We got 4,000 now. So the fact is we have a choking, onerous regulatory regime which makes it so obscenely risky, difficult, and expensive to engage in the capital markets. Nobody can afford to do it. And if you choose to do it, It's illegal to do every cool, interesting thing that we can now do.

And so the person that's in the best position to offer that framework would be the head of the SEC. And Gensler has refused. And you've heard him. He says right there, he doesn't think it's his responsibility. He put it back on Congress. But I think that there was a dysfunctional relationship between the Republicans and the Democrats for the past four years.

And so the person that's in the best position to offer that framework would be the head of the SEC. And Gensler has refused. And you've heard him. He says right there, he doesn't think it's his responsibility. He put it back on Congress. But I think that there was a dysfunctional relationship between the Republicans and the Democrats for the past four years.

And there's not really any constructive dialogue to create that digital assets framework.

And there's not really any constructive dialogue to create that digital assets framework.

And that's been holding us back. Yeah, and Mark Cuban was interested in that job. If you remember, he wanted to be the head of SEC. He made that clear that that's what he wanted in one of the interviews. I remember when I took my Series 7 back in 01, and this lady from Kaplan, I think it was Kaplan, could have been Dearborn. It's probably not. It's Dearborn.

And that's been holding us back. Yeah, and Mark Cuban was interested in that job. If you remember, he wanted to be the head of SEC. He made that clear that that's what he wanted in one of the interviews. I remember when I took my Series 7 back in 01, and this lady from Kaplan, I think it was Kaplan, could have been Dearborn. It's probably not. It's Dearborn.

I don't know if you remember when Dearborn studies or manuals you would take. The lady told the stories about SCC, and she said, you know, the first person that was the chairman of SCC was Joseph Kennedy. I'm like, oh, okay, interesting. So you're like, Joseph Kennedy? Yeah, Joseph Kennedy. Do you know why we did fingerprinting?

I don't know if you remember when Dearborn studies or manuals you would take. The lady told the stories about SCC, and she said, you know, the first person that was the chairman of SCC was Joseph Kennedy. I'm like, oh, okay, interesting. So you're like, Joseph Kennedy? Yeah, Joseph Kennedy. Do you know why we did fingerprinting?

Once he asked everybody, if you want to sell stocks, you've got to come to New York to get registered and all this stuff. Nobody showed up. He says, you know what? You can't sell moving forward if you don't do fingerprinting, and you've got to come to New York. That's the story she's telling us. Till today, we did fingerprinting because you were controlling money.

Once he asked everybody, if you want to sell stocks, you've got to come to New York to get registered and all this stuff. Nobody showed up. He says, you know what? You can't sell moving forward if you don't do fingerprinting, and you've got to come to New York. That's the story she's telling us. Till today, we did fingerprinting because you were controlling money.

What the hell are we doing fingerprinting for today? For getting job applications or applications to fill out the client account form? It's a very outdated system the SEC is. And it'll be interesting to see what Trump's going to do with this. He said day one firing. It'll be, again, we have a few days till day one. I'm curious to know who he replaces him with.

What the hell are we doing fingerprinting for today? For getting job applications or applications to fill out the client account form? It's a very outdated system the SEC is. And it'll be interesting to see what Trump's going to do with this. He said day one firing. It'll be, again, we have a few days till day one. I'm curious to know who he replaces him with.

I think it's constructive to note that my company came public in 1998. And in 1998, our stock could trade on NASDAQ from 9.30 in the morning till 4 in the afternoon with banker's hours and not on holidays. And in the 26 years that have followed, there's not been a single functional upgrade. Like there's not one innovation.

I think it's constructive to note that my company came public in 1998. And in 1998, our stock could trade on NASDAQ from 9.30 in the morning till 4 in the afternoon with banker's hours and not on holidays. And in the 26 years that have followed, there's not been a single functional upgrade. Like there's not one innovation.

Like you would think after 26 years of infinite money that we would figure out how to trade the stock on Saturday at 4 p.m. No, right? So what you have is you have a 20th century, what I'll call antiquated oligopoly that's reinforced by a regulatory regime where, I'll give you another example. You own a bunch of Apple stock. You don't really own it. You can't take custody. It's like your bank,

Like you would think after 26 years of infinite money that we would figure out how to trade the stock on Saturday at 4 p.m. No, right? So what you have is you have a 20th century, what I'll call antiquated oligopoly that's reinforced by a regulatory regime where, I'll give you another example. You own a bunch of Apple stock. You don't really own it. You can't take custody. It's like your bank,

JP Morgan or Morgan Stanley has it. They might lend it out, but you can't just take custody. And so the idea of self-custody, the idea of freedom, the idea of an open competitive... What if someone in Singapore offered you 3% yield on your Apple stock? How do I pull it out of the bank, send it to them? Oh, there's like one monopoly network that moves the stock around.

JP Morgan or Morgan Stanley has it. They might lend it out, but you can't just take custody. And so the idea of self-custody, the idea of freedom, the idea of an open competitive... What if someone in Singapore offered you 3% yield on your Apple stock? How do I pull it out of the bank, send it to them? Oh, there's like one monopoly network that moves the stock around.

So we have a system which made sense in the 20th century maybe, but the point with Rothbard is it was always about restraint of trade. It was to create a cartel and to centralize power, centralize access to the capital markets to just a small set of big companies. They were locking out the entrepreneurial bankers and the entrepreneurs in 1933.