Trump's Crypto Amnesia: Either He's Lying, or We're All Screwed
Okay, so Trump claims he doesn't know Changpeng Zhao, the "CZ" guy from Binance, even after pardoning him? 'I don't know who he is,' says Trump after pardoning crypto tycoon Give me a break. Either the dude's memory is worse than I thought, or he thinks we're all idiots. Probably both.
"Witch hunt," he says. Karoline Leavitt, the White House Press Secretary, parrots the same line, calling Zhao's prosecution an "overly prosecuted case by the Biden administration." Right. Because enabling money laundering is just a minor infraction, apparently.
And what about the "significant harm to US national security" that government prosecutors were talking about? Did that just magically disappear because Trump decided to play crypto savior? I'm not buying it. This stinks worse than a week-old fish.
The really galling part is this whole charade is so transparent. Trump's people halted a fraud case against Justin Sun after his investments in the Trump family's crypto firm, World Liberty Financial. Coincidence? I think not. This is how the swamp actually works, folks. It's not some abstract boogeyman; it's blatant self-interest masquerading as justice.
I mean, come on, his sons are even sitting on the board of advisers for Dominari Holdings, a company partnering with CZ-linked firms in Trump Tower. Is this really about correcting some imaginary injustice? Or is it about lining pockets and keeping the crypto gravy train rolling?
And speaking of crypto, let's not forget the supposed savior complex around crypto ETFs. October was supposed to be the month of crypto ETFs, but then the government shutdown screwed that up. Now they're saying November might be the new October. Maybe.
See, issuers are trying to sneak these things through by filing updated S-1 registration statements with "no delaying amendment" language. Basically, if the SEC doesn't actively block it, they automatically go live after 20 days. Sneaky, I guess.
Fidelity already submitted an updated S-1 for its spot Solana ETF, and Canary Capital did the same for its XRP ETF. If the SEC keeps twiddling its thumbs, we could see the first XRP fund as soon as November 13th. But, like, are we really supposed to trust the SEC to do its job here? I'm not holding my breath.
And here's the thing: the SEC hasn't really engaged with the XRP application. So, there's a good chance they'll step in and halt the automatic approval. James Seyffart, some ETF analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, says that some funds simply haven't received any feedback from the SEC on their S-1s (prospectuses), and they probably can't launch without the government reopening.
So, yeah, a bunch might launch next month, but some are just SOL without the government getting back to work. Which, knowing our government, could be never. Offcourse, the real question is, should we even want these things to launch? I'm not convinced.
Trump says the US needs to be a leader in crypto, or China and its rivals will gain an advantage. Okay, boomer. Let's be real, crypto feels more like a digital casino than the future of finance. All this talk about "emerging technology" just sounds like marketing hype for something that's mostly used for speculation and, let's be honest, money laundering. Then again, maybe I'm the crazy one here.
And let's not forget Trump has also pardoned founders of the crypto exchange BitMEX, who faced charges related to money laundering, and Ross Ulbricht, founder of the Silk Road, the dark web marketplace known as a place for drug trade. So what's the message here? Crime pays as long as you're in the crypto world and have connections?
This whole thing is a mess. Trump's blatant disregard for ethics, the SEC's incompetence, and the crypto industry's inherent sketchiness... it's a perfect storm of corruption and incompetence. We're either being played for fools, or the people in charge are completely clueless. Either way, we're screwed.
