Raoul Pal: Former Goldman Sachs and GLG hedge fund manager turned macro strategist. Founder of Global Macro Investor, Real Vision, Web3 firm Thirdweb, and crypto fund Exponential Age Asset Management; one of finance's most-followed voices on crypto and macroeconomics.
What this episode covers
Raoul Pal explains why a 30-year-old today is far worse off than one in 1983, blaming wages that haven't kept pace and an 8-11% annual 'debasement' of currency that erodes savings. He argues houses are a 'lifestyle bank' rather than a wealth builder, and that the only assets outrunning debasement are technology stocks and crypto. He walks Steven Bartlett through how blockchain solves the centuries-old 'Byzantine generals problem' of trust, demonstrating banks vs. blockchains with a physical suitcase and chain. He lays out a practical crypto playbook: allocate to Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana, dollar-cost average, self-custody on a hardware wallet, avoid leverage and meme-coin gambling, and hold for roughly ten years toward a thesis of crypto growing from $2 trillion to $100 trillion. He closes on AI as the biggest innovation in human history that will make knowledge worthless, and on quality-of-life experiences as the ultimate 'trade.'
Recommended on this episode
Bitcoin
Satoshi Nakamoto
“Buy Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana. One of those three, preferably all three. And that will stop you going to zero.”— Raoul Pal
Ethereum
Ethereum Foundation
“Buy Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana. One of those three, preferably all three. And that will stop you going to zero.”— Raoul Pal
Also referenced (named, not recommended)
Sui
Mysten Labs
“I've now been switching part of my Solana into Sui, SUI, and as a disclaimer, I'm actually on the board of the foundation, but it's like the next big chosen one.”— Raoul Pal
Ledger
Ledger
“a little USB stick will secure that you can go and put in a safe... can secure your money that is only yours and nobody can take it out.”— Raoul Pal
Coinbase
Coinbase
“You just open a crypto account. Um with one of the big crypto providers, Coinbase, Kraken crypto.com, who are at Gemini.”— Raoul Pal
Kraken
Kraken
“You just open a crypto account. Um with one of the big crypto providers, Coinbase, Kraken crypto.com, who are at Gemini.”— Raoul Pal
Crypto.com
Crypto.com
“You just open a crypto account. Um with one of the big crypto providers, Coinbase, Kraken crypto.com, who are at Gemini.”— Raoul Pal
Gemini
Gemini
“You just open a crypto account. Um with one of the big crypto providers, Coinbase, Kraken crypto.com, who are at Gemini.”— Raoul Pal
Revolut
Revolut
“the easiest on-ramp is the best. Revolut, whatever, I don't care. Do it. Get a feel for what it's like to own an asset.”— Raoul Pal
Character.AI
Character.AI
“Have you seen Character AI?... Character AI builds bots which are characters like anime characters and they're really specific”— Raoul Pal
Quest
Quest Nutrition
“So him and his partners built Quest, which is now everywhere. So what you found is a trend.”— Steven Bartlett
DocuSign
DocuSign
“everyone knows like DocuSign and Adobe like e-sign... every time like a contract is signed on DocuSign... there's a hash on the blockchain.”— Steven Bartlett
Toyota Land Cruiser
Toyota
“3 weeks off-roading in Zambia living on a tent on the roof of a Toyota Land Cruiser that is off-road prepared”— Steven Bartlett
The Psychology of Money
Morgan Housel
“the psychology of money book talks about that as well. It like case studies, Morgan Housel's book, case studies, the guy who like bet against the like the contrarian”— Steven Bartlett
Barbarians at the Gate
Bryan Burrough and John Helyar
“there was Gordon Gekko, the film Wall Street... There was Barbarians at the Gate, there was famous stuff happening.”— Raoul Pal
Wall Street
Oliver Stone
“if you remember I talked about when I got into finance, there was Gordon Gekko, the film Wall Street”— Raoul Pal
Big reveals from this episode
- Claims 'about 6 years before everything changes' and that money in the bank and your house aren't truly safe.
- Predicts crypto goes from ~$2 trillion to $100 trillion by 2032-2034, twice the value the S&P 500 built in 100 years.
- States the NASDAQ is down 99.97% versus Bitcoin since 2012.
- Reveals 100% of his liquid net worth has been in crypto for 5 years.
- Refuses to give price predictions anymore because people build false comfort around his numbers.
- Admits that despite getting Bitcoin right, he 'f***ed it up' by trading in and out and would have made 25x more by just holding.
- Tells young people to abandon work-life balance in their 20s and 'work day and night.'
- Says Bartlett's passive, hold-one-coin Ethereum strategy will beat his own most crypto-obsessed friend who made the least money.
Worth remembering
- Home ownership for 30-year-olds fell from 50% in 1983 to 32% today; marriage from 80% to 47%.
- Estimates currency debasement (~8%) plus inflation (~3%) means your money loses ~11% of purchasing power yearly.
- Bitcoin has averaged ~145% per year since 2011 despite falling 80% three times.
- The entire world is now around 400% of GDP in debt; the US around 380%.
- Only 21 million Bitcoin will ever exist, creating engineered digital scarcity.
- The ledger accounting system dates to the Renaissance (1400s-1500s) and Bitcoin solved its unsolvable 'Byzantine generals problem.'
- Roughly 95-98% of gambling addicts are men, which Pal ties to crypto's male-dominated, breadwinner-driven culture.
- US obesity ticked down for the first time in 50 years, which Pal attributes to the Ozempic effect.
- Soft-commodity trading houses quietly moved shipping contracts and letters of credit onto Ethereum back in 2020.
- Pal's 'don't f*** it up' rule: keep 80-90% in Bitcoin/ETH/Solana, no leverage, and gamble at most 10%.