🌊 Bitcoin Won't Stop Winning!

Plus: US' surprise surplus, Russia ultimatum, & North Korea's new resort

July 15, 2025

When Jack Dorsey launched Twitter on July 15, 2006


Do you think he expected #ElmoIsFascist to be trending 19 years later? Well, it turns out that Elmo took the PBS defunding really hard.

After getting hacked (allegedly), Elmo spouted antisemitic statements on X and called on President Trump to release the Epstein Files. Sesame Street issued an apology for his tirade, but they’re overreacting. We think Elmo will make a great new host at The Tucker Carlson Network.

📈 Bitcoin's record week

đŸ‡·đŸ‡ș A Russia ultimatum

đŸ‡°đŸ‡” North Korea's new resort

–Max and Max

KEY STORY

Bitcoin Won’t Stop Rising

Bitcoin surpassed $120,000 for the first time as the US House prepared to vote on cryptocurrency legislation during "Crypto Week"

  • Bitcoin’s value has fluctuated around $100,000 after surging following Trump's election victory

  • On Monday, it passed $120,000 as Congressional Republicans host a “Crypto Week” dedicated to advancing Trump's crypto-friendly agenda

  • The House is voting on three bills intended to advance Trump’s pro-crypto agenda: One to clarify regulation; another to prevent the Federal Reserve from creating a government-controlled digital dollar; and a third to allow private companies to issue stablecoins

Dig Deeper 

  • Confidence in Bitcoin has soared amid the expectation that new laws will provide clearer regulations and push cryptocurrencies, especially Bitcoin, into mainstream finance

  • Rep. French Hill, chair of the House Financial Services Committee, said lawmakers are "advancing landmark legislation to establish a clear regulatory framework for digital assets"

  • Investors poured $2.7B into Bitcoin ETFs last week alone, the fifth-largest inflow since their January 2024 debut

KEY STORY

America’s Surprise Surplus

The US recorded a surprise budget surplus in June as tariff revenue surpassed $100B for the first time in a fiscal year

  • Trump has substantially increased the average tariff rate from 2.5% in January to 20.6% today, bringing a surge in government revenue that scarcely existed before

  • Per new federal data, customs duties hit records in June, quadrupling to $27.2B compared to the same month in 2024, while tariff collections through nine months of fiscal year 2025 amounted to $113.3B

  • The revenue carried the federal government to a $27B June surplus compared to a $73B deficit in June 2024 – the government's first monthly surplus since 2017

Dig Deeper

  • Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent suggested calendar year 2025 tariff collections could reach $300B by December, and tariff rates are poised to rise further: Trump recently announced new tariffs of 50% on copper and Brazilian goods and 35% on Canadian products, with additional substantial tariffs threatened against other major trade partners

  • Despite the boosted tariff revenue, the year-to-date deficit still increased 5% through June, due to higher spending on healthcare, Social Security, defense, and debt interest

QUOTE OF THE DAY

The sun'll come out tomorrow

Martin Charnin

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KEY STORY

Federal Cuts Resume

The Trump Administration is preparing a renewed campaign to lay off federal workers

  • DOGE's initial attempts to slash the federal workforce were caught in legal limbo after a California judge blocked layoff plans. Last week, though, the Supreme Court lifted the block and allowed Trump to proceed with cuts, writing that the administration's arguments were "likely to succeed"

  • On Friday, the administration began renewed layoffs by firing around 1,300 State Department employees, with Secretary Marco Rubio saying the cuts would make US diplomacy "more efficient and more focused"

  • Further cuts are now expected at a range of departments, though the administration's path remains tricky as cuts must come from the agencies themselves and be reviewed by budget offices

Dig Deeper

  • The administration’s layoff efforts face significant legal constraints as DOGE lacks the authority to fire anyone – it can only make suggestions while actual cuts must be implemented by agency heads and follow specific procedures

  • Tens of thousands of workers have taken voluntary buyouts and early retirements, reducing the need for mass firings at some agencies

  • At the Department of Veterans Affairs, leadership decided that enough people had voluntarily left that they no longer needed to proceed with a planned 15% cut

KEY STORY

Trump Issues Russia Ultimatum

President Trump threatened to impose 100% tariffs on countries that do business with Russia if no Ukraine peace deal is reached within 50 days

  • Trump has grown increasingly frustrated with President Putin as repeated phone calls have failed to make progress toward a peace deal, prompting a major departure from his past stances

  • During an Oval Office meeting Monday, Trump said he would impose "very, very powerful" tariffs of "about 100%" on countries that trade with Russia, while announcing a NATO deal for allies to purchase billions in US weapons for Ukraine

  • "We are very unhappy – I am – with Russia," Trump said, adding that Putin "didn't fool me" despite having misled other presidents

Dig Deeper 

  • Republican hawks are calling on Trump to go further

  • On Sunday, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), a close Trump ally, called for tariffs up to 500% on countries helping Russia, saying such costs would be a "sledgehammer"

  • Rep. French Hill (R-AR) also urged Trump to seize frozen Russian assets for Ukraine's benefit – something that has only ever happened to countries the US is at war with

RUNDOWN
Some Quick Stories for the Office

đŸŒ§ïž Parts of Texas remained on flood watch Monday morning after heavy weekend rains halted search efforts

đŸ‡ș🇾 Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced he will run in New York City’s general mayoral election as an independent

📈 The S&P 500 hovered near its all-time high despite President Trump’s 30% tariff threats against Mexico and the EU over the weekend

⚠ The EU’s chief negotiator warned of “a big gap” between the EU and the US as the countries near the deadline to reach a trade deal

đŸȘ– Fighting in southern Syria between Sunni Muslims and Druze, a religious minority that spun off from Shiism, has killed ~100 people since Sunday, sparking concerns about a return to conflict in the country

What does Roca Nation think?

đŸ€ Yesterday’s Question: Do you think people are making too big of a deal about the lack of Epstein disclosure?

I don't think a big enough deal is being made. This is one of those rare situations where regardless of how you feel about the case or the current administration, you should be passed off. Either there is a deliberate cover-up, or there has been a concerted effort to spread disinformation to sway the electorate.

Chris from Maryland

What if, just what if, there really isn’t anything else to this other than the following: Epstein was a monster like no other. He SA’d a countless amount of victims himself and Ghislane helped find and feed him his victims (thus, her sentencing is valid). He had a lot of money and ran in that "a lot of money" circle. There were whispers of him being a creep, at the minimum, but most people just held their nose and looked the other way. After his capture, he saw the walls closing in on himself and he killed himself. What if it was just that simple? I honestly don’t know, and haven’t had the mental bandwidth to spend a lot of time on this thing. What I do know is that the MAGA base is mad. The comments on Trump’s Truth post about this are that they’re disappointed at the minimum, while still trying trust him. Why such a smoke show with the white binders and media influencers just to say “look away, nothing to see here after all!”? People voted for Trump because they wanted him to clean house, drain the swamp and make bad people pay. This is not sitting right with folks, but I’m convinced that people won’t be satisfied until there is a list produced, regardless if there is one or not!

Amy from Tennessee


Yes and no. Honestly, I didn’t pay much attention to Epstein when he was first arrested—he just seemed like another terrible man finally being held accountable. But then his death came so suddenly, without closure for his victims or the public, and it left behind more questions than answers. Since then, it's mostly lived on in meme culture—“Epstein didn’t kill himself”—which, while dark and kind of gross, became part of the broader cultural response.

Now, years later, people are still asking, “What actually happened?” The DOJ’s latest findings are supposedly “exhaustive”—but to many, they feel underwhelming and sketchy. No “client list,” no major new names, no evidence of blackmail or broader criminal networks, AND the footage of his cell appears doctored?! Maybe the DOJ really did provide the truth—but after years of buildup and a nation primed to expect corruption, it’s hard for people to just accept that explanation at face value. Even if the investigation was thorough, we’re stuck in this moment where trust in institutions is so eroded that even a conclusive report doesn’t feel conclusive. Both sides of the political aisle talk like they’re fighting some shadowy power structure, even when they're the ones in charge. So where does that leave us? In a place where no one really believes anyone, and people are left to speculate in the absence of satisfying answers.

So whether it’s “too big” of a deal? I don’t know. But I do know that the way it’s been handled only makes people more curious, more skeptical, and more frustrated. And when someone like Trump, who has built a political brand on stoking public outrage, suddenly wants people to “let it go”? That just adds to the hypocrisy. You can’t have it both ways.

Caitlyn from Missouri

✈ Today’s Question: How sick do you have to be to sit out a flight? Max T is flying home with a big-time cougher one row back.

POPCORN
Some Quick Stories for Happy Hour

đŸŽ¶ Surprise, It’s SWAG: Justin Bieber dropped his surprise seventh studio album, SWAG, on Friday – his first full-length record in four years

đŸ–ïž Isolation Vacation: Touted as a grand showcase project by Kim Jong Un, North Korea officially opened a massive luxury beach resort, complete with high‑rise hotels, a water park, restaurants, and a 2.5‑mile sandy beach built for up to 20,000 guests

đŸ”ïž Up, Up, and Awaste: Nepal has begun deploying heavy-lifter drones to haul trash off Mount Everest, dramatically reducing the dangers for Sherpas

🇹🇩 Screening Made Simple: A Canadian startup is developing menstrual pads embedded with nanotechnology to detect human papillomavirus (HPV) – a leading cause of cervical cancer – without the need for invasive procedures

đŸ“± Kids Dim Their Screens: Increasingly, children aged 12 to 15 are choosing to limit their own smartphone use to protect their mental health, focus, and personal safety

ROCA WRAP
Tariff Disaster

Lesotho

This country declared a "state of disaster" after Trump threatened 50% tariffs that could destroy its garment industry.

Lesotho is one of only three countries in the world completely surrounded by another nation – in this case, South Africa. This mountainous kingdom sits high in the Drakensberg range, earning it the nickname "Kingdom in the Sky" with most of its territory above 1,000m elevation.

Despite being landlocked and having just 2.3M people, Lesotho has become an unlikely success story in global manufacturing, transforming itself into Africa's largest garment exporter to the United States through favorable trade agreements. Yet Lesotho now faces a 50% US tariff, prompting the country to declare a "state of disaster."

Particularly poised to suffer is Lesotho’s textile industry, which supplies major brands like Levi's and Wrangler and is the largest private sector industry in the country. Since Trump first announced the tariff threat in April, layoffs have rippled through Lesotho's garment factories, hitting a nation already poised to suffer from cuts to US aid.

The government’s disaster declaration calls for all ministries to contribute 3% of their budgets to a $22.2M fund to fast-track the creation of 60,000 jobs in construction and agriculture over two years. Some officials are holding out hope that alternative markets, particularly South Africa, will absorb the loss; however, others have said that American tastes won’t be easily replaced.

It’s unclear if Trump – who recently referred to Lesotho as "a country nobody has ever heard of" – will grant any lenience to Lesotho. The dangers are real when your entire economic success story hangs on trade preferences from a president who doesn't know you exist.

EDITOR’S NOTE
Final Thoughts

Sacrebleu! A heated French fry debate! After we claimed in yesterday’s newsletter that the French gave us French fries, a few of you write in to say that French fries were actually invented in Belgium, not France. The Belgium story goes that in the cold winter of 1680 the citizens of the French-speaking region of Namur invented them. The locals there loved fried fish, and when the River Meuse froze over one cold winter in 1680, people fried potatoes instead of the small fish.

The only problem with that story according to food historians is that
 potatoes weren’t introduced to that region until 1735! Instead, fries more likely originated in Paris in the late 18th century, they argue. Now we want to investigate the origin of Belgian waffles!

–Max and Max