3rd November 2025 > > Warren & Lagarde.

tl;dr

A CCC prediction has sadly come to pass. The implementation of MiCA takes a turn for the better.

Market Snap

Market Wrap

Trump’s loose talk about tariffs and potential military action in Nigeria and Venezuela raises the intriguing possibility of dusting off those cheeky bids at $99k, $95k, and $89k. You never know, I might get lucky.

Occasional Series – Johnny Ball

Comedy legend Johnny Ball has not been paying attention:

“Bitcoin? I may be wrong, but I wouldn’t touch it with a bargepole”.

Come on Johnny, you can do better than that.

Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – Trump’s pardon of Zhao

The CCC team were less than impressed when news of Trump’s pardon of man-child Zhao (https://www.curiouscryptos.com/post/26th-october-2025-mica-warren-zhao) first surfaced. In an interview, Trump has stated “I don’t know who he is” which is a strange basis for pardoning someone who deliberately set out to evade money-laundering rules. Instead of pardoning Zhao, he should have demanded a dramatic increase in Zhao’s paltry four-month sentence.

Two things were of concern. The first was that, probably for the only time in history, I found myself in agreement with Senator Elizabeth Warren, who rightly identified the stench of corruption surrounding this pardon of Zhao. Agreeing with Warren would make anyone who values liberty and freedom feel uncomfortable, but there it is, there is no getting away from it.

The CCC also warned that this sordid affair would allow liberty deniers such as Warren to attack cryptos from the moral high ground, a position she has never experienced before now. Unfortunately, this sad prediction has come to pass.

…

Senator Ro Khanna stated on Friday:

“I think that people think this is a tech issue. This is not a tech issue. This is a corruption issue. This is money that's going into someone at the White House and the White House having official acts like pardons in exchange.”

This is not entirely true, for Zhao is supporting World Liberty Finance, which is owned and run by Trump’s sons, but telling the truth is not a trait that anyone ever associates with politicians, so he gets away with it.

In response, Khanna has put forward a piece of legislation that bans lawmakers from owning cryptos.

Such a ban would have zero impact on the potential corruption issue he has identified, and he knows that. It is simply a spiteful attack on the crypto industry, one which may well get traction because on this narrow matter alone, the moral high ground had been ceded to those who wish to strengthen not weaken the forces of coercion and control.

What a mess.

Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – The EU

Fresh from agreeing with Warren, my sense of being uncomfortable has now multiplied, for I find myself in support of an initiative that has the backing of Convicted Criminal Christine Lagarde. What is going on with the world? I might have to lie down for a bit.

Now deeply into the implementation phase of its world-leading crypto regulation MiCA, the European Commission headed up by Useless von der Leyen, has made a sensible decision according to the FT:

“The European Commission is drawing up plans to expand central supervision over key financial markets infrastructure, including stock exchanges, crypto exchanges and clearing houses, in an effort to eliminate fragmentation in one of the single market’s core areas.”

The FT goes on to state that:

“The move is backed by ECB President Christine Lagarde …”

Lagarde’s love of CBDCs knows no bounds (https://www.curiouscryptos.com/post/1st-november-2025-scary-stuff) which is very scary indeed. On her watch, the ECB’s official policy stance towards cryptos is quoted in “Compliance Stuff” below, and repeated here for good measure:

“… and (we) reiterate that the fair value of Bitcoin is still zero.” ECB, 23^rd February 2024.

But however uncomfortable it makes me feel, formalising supervision of crypto exchanges under one central entity is a mighty fine idea, and will help drive wholesale crypto adoption, and so I must concede that I agree with Lagarde.