# I Woke Up Homeless With $75 When the Banks Took Everything | with Tony Yazbek

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-bitcoin-layer-7070444/i-woke-up-homeless-with-75-when-the-banks-took-everything-with-tony-yazbek
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-bitcoin-layer-7070444/i-woke-up-homeless-with-75-when-the-banks-took-everything-with-tony-yazbek.md
Podcast: [The Bitcoin Layer](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-bitcoin-layer-7070444)
Published: 2026-06-18T12:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://mysoundwise.com/soundcasts/1665708396190s
Audio file: https://cdn.simplecast.com/media/audio/transcoded/8ed6a33d-2ac9-4ae6-bdbb-334a1cbb3f52/93f29295-b98b-46ce-9822-223c512497e8/episodes/audio/group/c9ccb42c-f735-40c7-aeb4-cc79a2f41c3e/group-item/ee931823-2c66-4655-8080-9fe55151375b/128_default_tc.mp3?aid=rss_feed&feed=Y2219Riv
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Duration seconds: 2064

## Resource

In this episode, Nik welcomes Tony Yazbek, co-founder of The Bitcoin Way, for a conversation on why owning bitcoin yourself is the whole point. Tony argues that bitcoin is money rather than an investment, and that anything wrapped in legacy finance, from ETFs to exchange balances, is not the same as holding it directly. He recounts surviving Lebanon's 2019 banking collapse, when he woke up homeless with about $75 after the banks confiscated everyone's savings, and how it shaped his conviction. Tony and Nik also dig into what self-sovereignty does for people, how to think about hardware and air-gapped storage, the volatility myth, and jurisdictional sovereignty, with Tony drawing on 30 years in cybersecurity throughout. The Bitcoin Layer and its guests do not provide investment advice.

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## Transcript

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