19th September 2023 > > The US.

tl;dr

The US remains riven by the pro- and anti-crypto camps, but we can be sure that liberty and freedom will win the day.

Market Snap

Market Wrap

BTC remains stable in this region for which recent speculative money moves from loss-making into profit. These weak hands will be selling into stronger hands, to probably find themselves buying back again with a 3-handle at some indeterminate point in the future.

Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – XRP (Ripple)

Just for fun:

According to @egragcrypto:

“Check out this Monthly Time Frame chart! Monthly wicks give us insightful hints, but it's those rock-solid candle bodies that really define market structure. Since June lows and #XRP has been chugging along the tracks, and guess what? The train has officially left the station and is on its way to Valhalla! Sure, we might see a pit stop around 0.40c-0.33c, but personally, I'm not too fazed. I keep dollar-cost averaging to stay cool”.

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My only comment is that it’s a cable car, not a train.

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OK, just one more comment.

Social media influencers who are also techies often go by names such as Rekt Capital, or Wrong Again. Their legions of supporters believe these are ironic names.

You and I know otherwise.

Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – God save America!

Oh, and Switzerland and Slovenia too.

The last two of those countries have already banned the issuance of a CBDC by their government in their respective currencies.

It has been made clear that the Fed cannot issue a USD CBDC without explicit approval from Congress. But lawyers can be slippery types and to rein in such potential malfeasance there are now TWO bills making their way through the legislative process.

Representative Tom Emmer and 49 other co-sponsors have re-introduced the “CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act”:

https://emmer.house.gov/_cache/files/b/5/b55fb1d4-4220-4bca-bacb-c9d46b2aabd8/B8E3DAD03DF34502832A2C8E54138CAB.cbdc-anti-surveillance-state-act.pdf

Two key provisions in this bill are these:

“… A Federal Reserve Bank shall not … issue a CBDC or any digital asset … directly to an individual”.

“… A Federal Reserve Bank shall not offer a CBDC or any digital asset … indirectly to an individual through a financial institution or other intermediary”.

In a surprising twist there is some form of bipartisanship for this bill. Two Presidential candidates from across the divide are supportive of this stance – Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Ron DeSantis. Ron has already banned the use of CBDCs in Florida, so he is serious about the concerns he rightly holds about the threats to liberty and privacy engendered by CBDCs.

Unfortunately for us, the most likely outcome of the election will be the choice of either Biden or Trump. Biden has already publicly declared support for a US CBDC, and Trump is no less authoritarian.

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The second piece of legislation is the “Digital Dollar Prevention Act” which specifically prevents the Federal Reserve from “… establishing, carrying out, or approving a program intended to test the practicability of issuing a CBDC.”

Some have argued that the Federal Reserve has already conceded that until Congress approves otherwise, no test program will take place. That may be true but that did not stop the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco from recruiting personnel for a CBDC project:

https://www.indeed.com/viewjob?jk=693350f24c197b6a

Currently the posting says that “… the employer is not accepting applications, is not actively hiring, or is reviewing applications”.

Having defunded the police, legalised hard drugs for personal use, and decriminalised the theft of goods under $950, San Francisco is facing a hollowing out of its tax base greater than that seen during the de-industrialisation of the Rust Belt. This perhaps explains its leaders’ urgent desire to control how money moves amongst its own citizens.

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On the other side of the debate we have anti-crypto warrior Elizabeth Warren who has introduced her own legislation.

Disingenuously named the “Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act”, this bill has only one purpose – to drive all crypto businesses off American soil:

https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/118/s2669

The core tenet of this bill is to apply anti-money laundering rules to miners, protocols, software engineers, almost anyone who provides some sort of crypto service to individuals. The draconian nature of these rules is such that with the notable exception of Coinbase, no other crypto business will operate in the US, or offer its services to US citizens.

Warren is a danger to us all.