10th August 2024 > > Russia & memes.

tl;dr

Putin’s plans to liberalise Russia may not be all that they seem. Meme coins take out a big casualty.

Market Snap

Market Wrap

BTC trading in a very tight range overnight flirting with breaking $60k to the downside, which we don’t want to see, and breaking decisively above $61k, which would be very welcome.

Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – Russia

During their recent meeting, Putin and Xi not only discussed their most favoured topic of the best means and methods of controlling people, but they also touched on cryptos. I am informed that Putin had been wrong-footed by the growing Chinese acceptance of cryptos, beginning with the ambition of making Hong Kong the central global hub.

In response, Putin has signed into law a decree that legalises crypto mining operations within Russian borders, that also authorises cryptos as a valid means of international (though not domestic) payments for Russian entities. Putin has long recognised the inherent worth of cryptos, as evidenced by his various groups of hackers and scammers that rank second only to North Korea in the devastation and despair they cause to law-abiding individuals in the West.

Putin knows he needs more tax dollars to continue killing both Russians and Ukrainians in a futile attempt to subjugate yet more people, and crypto mining will help to fill some of that gap. I fear also that he is using cryptos to skirt the less easily policed sanctions, and wants to ramp up that operation too.

I do find it mildly amusing that two of the world’s most autocratic leaders are feeling forced into encouraging the crypto revolution, a revolution that is based upon principles of freedom and liberty so sadly lacking in their respective countries.

Still, on the upside, ever growing adoption of BTC is good for us.

Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – Memes can hurt

Lookonchain has reported a painful lesson hopefully well-learnt:

https://x.com/lookonchain/status/1821625976583057732

RTR (Restore the Republic) is one of the hundreds of meme coins issued on Solano daily. With locked liquidity at 99% of the total pool and a current market cap not dissimilar in size to the pool of $6mm, this pointless meme seems now to have reached a natural balance.

Soon after launch, rumours began that this was an “official” meme issued either by Trump or his campaign team. Trump has opportunistically pivoted to being crypto-friendly, with the result some people in the crypto community lent their support to this meme. In under four hours, the market cap ballooned to around $150mm.

An investor/gambler who is particularly wealthy, or who knows very little about cryptos in general, and memes in particular, spent close to $1mm on RTR at the highs, as shown by the green icons in the graphic below. Five hours later, they sold the stash for just $18k worth of SOL:

We are all quite capable of making bad trading decisions, but that one takes the biscuit.