4th December 2023 > > The UK & Qatar.

tl;dr

The pushback against CBDCs is gaining support from unlikely sources. Ignore the siren calls – the Qataris are not about to buy BTC.

Market Snap

Market Wrap

That supply shock that I have been banging on about for months is starting to play out. Any metric of long-term holders just keeps rising, and BTC held on centralised cryptocurrency exchanges just keeps getting lower. With the potential for large new buyers of spot to back the issuance of BTC ETFs potentially looming on the January horizon, I simply do not see a correction anytime soon.

Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – Digital Pound

The Bank of England, in cahoots with the Treasury, issued a report in February this year that concludes “At this stage, we judge it likely that the digital pound will be needed in the future” without ever addressing what that need might be. I guess it comes down to whether you think the potential for financial coercion and control by faceless bureaucrats trumps personal financial freedom, and therefore which is the greater need. I know which side I support in that debate.

But there is now some pushback. We saw in the CCC of 29th November that EU lawmakers are beginning to rail against the EUR CBDC. Remarkably, this outbreak of liberalism has spread to the UK too:

https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/158/treasury-committee/news/198770/development-of-a-bank-of-england-retail-digital-pound-should-proceed-with-caution-mps-warn/

This new report addresses core concerns regarding privacy, the crowding out of the use of cash, and the stability of the commercial banking system. Its scepticism is encapsulated in its title: “The digital pound: still a solution in search of a problem?”

Though it does not go so far as to overly criticise the technocrats, the politicians behind this report make their views plain. Chair of the Treasury Committee, Harriet Baldwin, said:

“While we support the Bank of England's plan to continue working on the design of a potential retail digital pound, I would urge them to proceed with caution and maintain a genuinely open mind as to whether one is actually needed.”

…

Perhaps one day we will be able to add the EU and the UK to the current list of the three countries leading the vanguard against CBDCs. That’s the US, Switzerland, and Slovakia if you have forgotten.

Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – Qatar

Rumours abound that the Qatari sovereign wealth fund is looking to buy $500bn of BTC.

This rumour is nonsense.

The QIA (Qatar Investment Authority) has assets of $500bn. They are not about to go all-in on BTC.