22nd August 2025 > > Satoshi, CBDCs, & tokenisation.

tl;dr

Wow! And probably Wow! again. CBDCs remain a concern. State Street joins the tokenisation revolution, but does it the wrong way.

Market Snap 

Market Wrap

The hapless Jerome Powell, Chair of the Fed, is scheduled to give a speech at the annual jamboree being held at Jackson Hole today. This is yet another chance for him to introduce more uncertainty into the markets by displaying the full extent of his incompetence, thus gaining plaudits from central bankers worldwide whilst simultaneously raising the cost of capital for all business, lowering productivity, and making us all poorer.

Great, I just can’t wait.

Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – Wow!

And just like that, decentralisation – perhaps the greatest invention since the wheel – was created.

At the time this email was sent, I was in Les Houches in the Chamonix valley with my daughter Robin, my mate Rob, and his two boys, Reuben and Orlando. We’d done a little bit of rock climbing the day before, and on this day, we had a beer or two at Hotel du Bois. Rob and I that is. Not the kids obvs, ‘cos they were a bit too young for that.

20^th August 2008 must be celebrated, for that is the day we reclaimed our rights to our privacy, to our freedom, and to our liberty, from those who wish to deny us our humanity.

Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – Just say no

… to CBDCs.

There are plenty of folk whose knee jerk reaction to the US is to criticise and complain. I am not getting into that debate, but on one point we must surely agree – the US is a leading light in the fight against CBDCs.

For the time being, the Fed is not allowed to research or make any progress in the sphere of developing a dollar CBDC without Presidential or Congress approval, and that isn’t coming anytime soon. But the safeguards against a CBDC do need strengthening, for there are plenty of politicians who would love nothing more than to gain the liberty and privacy denying powers that a CBDC would bestow upon them.

The Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act was introduced to the House earlier this year by Tom Emmer who made clear the need for this measure:

“… CBDCs are government-controlled programmable money that, if not designed to emulate cash, could give the federal government the ability to surveil Americans' transactions and choke out politically unpopular activity."

Despite its obviously good intentions, the act only just passed muster with a vote in favour of 220 -219, demonstrating the partisan split on this issue of strategic importance, which is a real shame. One wishes it were not so.

Fearful that further politicking might jeopardise the safe passage of this stand-alone act, it has now been added to the annual NDAA (House's National Defence Authorization Act) which will undoubtedly gain approval. Responding to a threat of politicking by engaging in politicking is sadly a feature of life today, but in this particular instance the motivation is true and good. Once passed, as it surely will be, the US will be the very first country to legally outlaw this pernicious tool of oppression loved by tyrants globally.

Next up is to persuade the UK and Convicted Criminal Christine Lagarde on behalf of the EU to follow suit. I do like a challenge.

Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – State Street and tokenisation

In related news State Street has announced it has joined J.P. Morgan’s private blockchain Kinexys as a custodian for tokenised assets starting with a $100mm CP (commercial paper) issued by Oversea China Banking Corporation. This development raises three mightily interesting issues.

Firstly, it is a small step on the road to tokenisation of all financial assets, a process that is predicted to total many tens of trillions of dollars in a few short years. Tokenisation promises a step-change for the better in terms of access to assets for all investors however small, more visibility and transparency on the pricing of assets and their associated risks, and an almighty improvement in the liquidity of all asset markets. The associated reduction in the cost of capital will be an unexpected (to most) but welcome windfall for us all.

Secondly, OCBC would not be doing this without explicit approval from the dictator President Xi and his murderous henchmen. Just as Hong Kong is being used to trial an opening up to crypto markets for institutions and retail investors on the mainland, this initiative is an exploration of the benefits that tokenisation will bring to the banking sector.

Despite all that good news, the third issue is most worrisome.

Kinexys is a private blockchain, configured the same way as a CBDC. It is a glorified database, undoubtedly an improvement on normal database practice, but without any of the real benefits of blockchain technology. We must hope that investors truly understand the difference between permissioned and non-permissioned blockchains, and that they vote accordingly by avoiding the trap of using Kinexys in favour of the real deal. Persuading them to do so is my second challenge of the day.