In this YouTube video, Mark Moss recounts his experience at a Bitcoin conference where dozens of attendees approached him asking whether they should borrow against their Bitcoin holdings or take a home‑equity line of credit (HELOC) to invest in a product called “Stretch.” Moss warns that such impulsive actions are dangerous, emphasizing that borrowing cheap to earn a higher yield is only sensible when it aligns with an individual’s specific financial goals and time horizon. He illustrates the point with a concrete example: borrowing at 7% via a HELOC to invest in Stretch yielding 12% creates a 5% spread, which might seem attractive but could be counter‑productive for someone aiming for a three‑year target, as the capital would be better placed in higher‑convexity assets. Moss stresses the importance of clearly defining one’s goals before taking leveraged positions, noting that without this context, any advice about borrowing or investing is meaningless.
At the Bitcoin conference, I had so many people come up to me. That was encouraging but also scary. So many people came up to me, like dozens and dozens of people came up to me and like,
Mark, I'm doing it. I'm doing it. You know, I've been watching your videos and, you know, I'm borrowing against my Bitcoin and I'm going to do— I'm taking a HELOC against my house and I'm buying stretch. Is that, is that the right move? Is that, was that what I'm supposed to do?
And I was like, whoa, like, dude, like, you shouldn't be taking action like that. Like, man, it's very dangerous. So it was like encouraging that, like, I'm influencing all these people, but it was scary because like, bro, this is kind of dangerous. Shouldn't just be doing that. It's like, man, I watched your videos and
I got up, I bought a dirt bike and I just went and hit this 100-foot jump. It's
like, whoa, whoa, whoa, you're not ready to hit a 100-foot jump yet, right? Because you haven't got the other pieces. And so like, it just kind of made me think like two things. Number one, I have to be very careful because, man, people could blow themselves up if they just get a little bit of information. Number two, no matter what you're doing, while borrowing cheap and making more money is good, it's not really good. My definition of smart and good versus dumb or bad, those are relative terms. So for you, what's smart or good is something that takes you closer to your goal. So while borrowing cheap and making a spread on a productive asset is the right thing to do, it may not be the right thing for you to do because it could ultimately take you further away from your goal. So for example, I could borrow against my home equity line at 7% and put that into Stretch at 12% and make a 5% positive spread. Is that a good thing to do? I don't know. If you're trying to get to your goal in the next 3 years, putting that money into a, into a yield product could actually hold you back. You should probably put that into something with more high convexity. And so without knowing where you're trying to go, without you clearly identifying what your target is and what your goal is, none of these ideas make any sense.
