Cryptocurrency has officially reached the Big Leagues.
- The SEC is losing every case (except Binance who hands-down deserved to lose).
- Political candidates are making promises to voters based on crypto.
- Regulators are cracking under the pressure (example: ETH ETF approval)
- Typical propaganda (like BTC wastes energy) is fading away.
- Banks, hedge funds, and governments are wetting their beaks on the action.
- It's not even 2025 yet; none of these are top signals.
U.S. House Passes Bill Banning Federal Reserve From Issuing a CBDC
Four days ago this news broke that the House of Representatives passed a bill that bans the Federal Reserve from making a CBDC. I didn't want to report on this at the time because I have very strong feelings about CBDCs (aka they basically aren't real and there is no meaningful incentive to actually create them). In addition to this, the fact that the House passed this bill is also completely meaningless because that's not how laws work. It needs to be passed by the senate and also not vetoed by the president. Wake me up when it's real and not just obvious political fluff.
Republicans expressed concerns that a U.S. CBDC could be used to control Americans.
I will admit that this has been a weird and interesting theme.
The core Bitcoin cult has always been barking and crying wolf about CBDCs and this seems to have awoken politicians. So while the law has not been passed yet and CBDCs are not an actual threat... it is noteworthy that lawmakers are suddenly taking these issues seriously to acquire votes. The Bitcoin cult is full of meat-only ice-bath seed-old-hating republicans who have never been catered to in this way. And they do seem to be responding to this special treatment in a positive way... which is funny because the entire grassroots movement was completely anti-establishment. I liked the thing before it was cool; now they are all sellouts it seems.
Democrats said during debate before Thursday's vote that the concerns were overblown and a ban would block public sector innovation and research. Overall, 213 Republicans and three Democrats voted for the bill, while 192 Democrats voted against it.
So democrats want a CBDC eh?
You know it's actually not that obvious what they want because it's just their literal job to disagree with the other side. Welcome to politics. Then again if I was a politician why wouldn't I want the power to just print money out of thin air? So I guess we'll see where this all goes but I'm guessing absolutely nowhere. The current environment is completely inhospitable for a CBDC. USD needs to collapse before that happens, and if USD collapses you won't be worrying about a CBDC you'll be worrying about martial law, curfews, marauders, and starving to death. CBDC won't be high on the list I assure you. In fact I'm sure we'd all welcome it at that point.
Industry participants hailed Wednesday's vote, the first for a bill focused solely on crypto market issues, as a sign that the sector was finally receiving recognition as being significant.
And that's exactly why I chose to report on this issue. Not because the issue matters but because it's actually getting attention now. This definitely all signals that politicians are going to take crypto far more seriously from here on out. I mean imagine what it will be like in 2025 if everyone in this space is x10+ richer than they are now. There's a lot of money and power being thrown around, which is catnip to the politician.
Single issue voters
They are starting to realize they can get votes just based on the one thing. A lot of these crypto enthusiasts don't care about left vs right dynamics. Tell them CBDCs are banned or that ETFs are approved or that Ross Ulbricht will be released and you've got them.
Ross Ulbricht
Yep, Trump is talking about pardoning him... AGAIN. And people are taking him much more seriously this time for whatever reason. Personally I know his case was riddled with corruption. From the federal agents that stole Bitcoin to the botched frame job that claimed he hired literal assassins. The guy created the infrastructure for a free-market and got a life sentence for his troubles, which clearly was not deserved and they just wanted to make an example out of him. Still I'm not voting from Trump because he made some BS pinky promise. In fact I'm not voting for anyone nor have I never voted for anyone in this completely corrupted and broken system. However I will admit that it would be nice if he was released. Ten years is more than enough. I just hope he's got some BTC stashed away somewhere.
Funny how all the powers-that-be have to do is dangle something in front of a Bitcoiner's face and they forget all their principals. Hilarious even. Oh well, these things happen. There are a lot of single issues voters in crypto that have absolutely nothing to do with the whole left vs right dynamic. Instead these people are going to vote for whoever's supporting crypto... unless it's a Bitcoin maxi in which case they might support someone who attacks everything but BTC. So that's fun.
However, both the market structure and the anti-CBDC bills seem headed toward similar fates in the Senate – going nowhere – given that half of congress does not have a counterpart for either piece of legislation.
Conclusion
The bill to ban CBDCs is completely meaningless, but the reporting and attention given to crypto is not. Jerome Powell has already stated his intentions multiple times that the Federal Reserve has no need for this technology, and while we shouldn't necessarily believe that statement at face value the incentives seem to align in that exact direction. The FED doesn't need this tool and it would even serve to undermine what they already do have. But also the FED is a private bank and the ones who actually might want that type of control are the politicians and government themselves, so we'll see how it plays out.
It's interesting that crypto has entered the political arena. It's a surreal experience and by all accounts this type of thing is going to escalate exponentially alongside the spot price. It would seem that money and power and linked at the hip. Crypto is about to gain a lot of power within this cycle. Whether that's a good thing has yet to be decided.
Return from Political Intrigue to edicted's Web3 Blog
