27 Burst results for "Cynthia Lummis"
Thinking Crypto News & Interviews
A highlight from BIG CRYPTO NEWS!! CITI BANK TOKEN & JUDGE DENIES SEC GARY GENSLER IN BINANCE US CASE!!
"Welcome back to the Thinking Crypto Podcast, your home for cryptocurrency news and interviews. If you are new here, please hit that subscribe button as well as the thumbs up button and leave a comment below. If you're listening on a podcast platform such as Spotify, Apple or Google or wherever you get your podcasts, make sure you hit that five star rating and review. It helps support the podcast and it doesn't cost you anything. Well folks, we've got big news coming out of Citigroup today. They have officially launched a token that will be used for deposits and the transference of money. Let me give you the details. Citigroup launches deposit city token services for institutional customers. This product will be based on a private blockchain controlled by the bank, converting customer deposit into digital tokens that can be sent instantly. Customers do not need to set up their own digital wallets and can be accessed through the bank's existing systems. This was reported by Bloomberg. This is huge news. There's many layers to this story. First it is further validation of this asset class and technology. And this technology is disruptive folks. And disruption is at the doorsteps of the banks, whether it be Citigroup, JP Morgan and many more. And they are trying to build their own versions, right? If the old system is working so perfectly, why are they trying to build blockchains and use blockchains and build tokens? Why? They know this new technology, this new asset class is the future. This technology is here to stay. It has many benefits. It will leave the old system in the dust. Folks, disruption is happening. Another major move here by a bank. And it's once again, further validation with technology. The other layer is that just about a week ago, reported on September 7th, JP Morgan was reported that they were building a deposit token themselves for settlements. JP Morgan is reportedly developing the infrastructure to run a new deposit token, allowing settlements between banks for corporate clients. Pretty clear what's happening here, folks. They know, especially with the likes of Ripple winning the lawsuit and XRP getting the clarity and not to mention CBDCs and stable coins and PayPal building their stable coins. This technology is here to stay and it's moving at a rapid pace. And look, I've been on record saying that I believe the TradFi incumbents, such as Citi, such as JP Morgan, Goldman, and these guys, weaponized Gary Gensler and the SEC to go and try to kill the stable coins, kill Ripple, kill whatever payment or crypto startup, right? Because Gary Gensler and the SEC are controlled by these TradFi incumbents. I had Caitlin Long on the podcast talking about the bias towards the TradFi incumbents, right? And we know how the political system works with campaign donations and much more. So it's pretty clear what's happening here. If you sit back and you look at the timeline, you look at the parallel of these things that are actually happening, right? We're not saying that we're not fabricating something here. It's clear what's been happening. It's clear what Jamie Dimon was saying since 2017 and what his bank was actually doing, right? Watch what they do, not what they say. Folks, first they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, and then you win. It's pretty clear that this tech is so disruptive. They're scared of it and they're trying to build their own versions. But the problem is these wall gardens that they're building on private blockchains, no one's going to trust it. Why would another bank want to trust your token that you control the blockchain, you control the nodes, and much more? There are going to be private blockchain systems, don't get me wrong, right? Citi may launch its token and within its own different branches move money and settle instantly, but don't expect JP Morgan to use their coin and vice versa. So this is what's happening. They're not going to be able to disrupt the market with cross -border payments and all the different blockchain systems that are out there, which provide more of a free market, trustless permissionless setup. So very bullish folks for the crypto asset class that these banks are so scared. They're trying to launch their own tokens. And once again, JP Morgan is trying to do the same thing. And as mentioned, this is being reported by Bloomberg and they're calling it Citi Token Services once again. Let me give you a quote here from Shamir Khalik, global head of the company's services division. The development of Citi Token Services is part of our journey to deliver real time, always on next generation transaction banking services to our institutional clients. Oh, but I thought the traditional way of doing things was working. I thought crypto and blockchain, all these things are scams and a Ponzi. I guess not. The move is the latest by an established banking giant to offer so -called tokenized deposits or transferable digital coins that can represent a claim against banks. Crucially though, these tokens are processed on blockchain reels, meaning settlement is instantaneous. Yep. Folks, I'm so glad I'm here early. I'm paying attention. I'm researching, I'm dollar cost averaging and I'm hodling. Now a great way to dollar cost average in is using Uphold, which is a great crypto exchange. They are one of the sponsors of this podcast. I've been using Uphold since 2018. They have 10 plus million users, 250 plus crypto currencies, and they're available in 150 countries. You can also trade precious metals and 37 national currencies where you can easily transfer between crypto to different Fiat currencies to precious metals. That's a pretty unique feature to Uphold. If you'd like to learn more about this platform, please visit the link in the description. Well, folks, we've got big news around the SEC versus Binance. The judge declined the SEC's request to inspect Binance US. So if you recall, there was news that the SEC rips into Binance US over a shaky asset custody asked court to order inspection. The regulator asked a US court to reject Binance's half -hearted objections to its motion seeking depositions and inspection and communication from the exchange. This is another big fat L for scumbag regulator Gary Gensler, and this is being reported by Bloomberg. Here's the headline. SEC fails to win immediate inspection of Binance US software. Regulator says it is not getting enough access in lawsuit. Magistrate judge didn't grant expedited discovery requests. So the SEC says it has been struggling to get information from Binance US since it sued the American exchange along with its international affiliate Binance Holdings Ltd and its chief executive officer Changping Zhao in June. So Gary is taking loss after loss after loss. And I think a big blow is coming with Coinbase. I think Coinbase has a strong case and just like the grayscale situation, a lot of legal analysts are saying, yeah, we think Coinbase is going to walk away with a victory. Now, it may not be a full victory, kind of like the ripple situation where the SEC did win on some grounds, but it will be the lion's share of the win, or if you were to count up the numbers here, and that is what we're looking for. And you may say, well, Tony, why are you bashing the SEC and Gary Gensler so much? Don't they have a job to do? You're absolutely right. They do have a job to do, but we know, and this has been confirmed by the crypto industry as well as members of Congress and other regulators, even SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce and Mark Ueda, the SEC and Gary Gensler have not been acting in good faith. They have not been abiding by the law. So this government agency, which is supposed to have integrity, which is opposed to abide by the law, are themselves not doing that. Well, you have Judge Sarah Netburn rip a lawsuit saying the SEC lacks faithful allegiance to the law. What a burn. What a statement, right? That a government agency is being called out by the judicial branch and you lack faithful allegiance to the law. And even Bill Hinman and his conflicts of interest with Ethereum. And the list goes on and on and on. Gary Gensler is a puppet on strings doing the bidding of the incumbents when he's supposed to be a neutral party just looking to protect investors and they are attacking good actors. So it's not like they are just going after bad actors and that's the end of it. They're attacking good actors. And it goes back to what we were talking about at the beginning of the podcast. Citibank and all these banking incumbents have weaponized Gary Gensler to kill the startups that are disrupting them. The other aspect is Gary Gensler is not working with Congress to provide clear regulations, right? And he's flip flopped over the years. He's a big hypocrite. He's a liar. We've seen him lie many times. And he continues to say there's hucksters and scammers and so on and so forth in the industry. I tweeted about it today. You have some of the biggest names entering the crypto market, such as BlackRock, Franklin Templeton and many others filing for Bitcoin spot ETFs. Earlier this year, Charles Schwab, Fidelity and Citadel launched a crypto exchange called ADX Markets. PayPal launched a stablecoin. Deutsche Bank just reported last week they will offer crypto custody. Mastercard launched a CBDC program. Visa expanded their use of USDC stablecoin on Solana. So Gary clearly tried to distract and attack the startups while his Wall Street TradFi buddies come in and take over and look at the facts, right? I just listed out a whole bunch of big names that are coming in. And remember, Gary met with Sam Beckman Fried and FTX officials, didn't do anything. Big collapse happened there. He didn't do anything about Celsius or three hours capital and a whole bunch of other things. He didn't stop Terra Luna or anything like that, right? He just sat back and waited. And I think that was part of his strategy. I think he knew of the things that are happening, but he let them collapse so that they would hurt the market, right? Let the flush out all these startups who look, they're not established like the banking incumbents. And then what happened this year? Oh, I'm going to go after the good actors. I'm going to go after Coinbase, right? I'm going to go after this company and that company and NFTs and many other projects. So it's pretty ridiculous what's happening. But guys, we will win the war. We've seen historically that the disruptive technology will progress. It will get adoption. And if these folks don't get on board and it looks like they're trying to with their tokens, they will get or have their blockbuster moment. Now, speaking of further adoption, blockchain capital raises $580 million for two new funds. Venture capital's firms, record funding comes as space is teeming with exceptional innovators, despite bear market execs says. So the capital keeps coming in investments into the crypto industry. These companies and these funds are investing in both the companies, building the infrastructure, as well as the tokens are very, very bullish. Despite all that happened last year with FTX and Celsius and so forth, there's looking beyond that. They're looking at the future and the horizon of the adoption of this technology and much more. So one is the San Francisco based companies, six early stage fund in line with such funds it has previously launched, while the other is its first so -called opportunity fund. The $580 million marks the company's largest raise in its 10 year history, according to blockchain capital executives, Spencer Bogart, Bart Stevens, and Jason de Piazza. Such funding coming during a bear market reflects our investors trust in our long -term perspective, they said in a Monday blog post, adding that innovation often thrives during tough economic times. Despite the downturn in liquidity prices, we see a space that is teeming with exceptional innovators and founders, each aligned with the first principles of open source innovation, credible neutrality, and censorship resistance, Stevens told block works. The firm's first opportunity fund was conceived as a post dislocation investment vehicle. According to blockchain capital, Bart Stevens, it was designed with a high conviction concentrated mandate to pursue financing opportunities at the later stage. Very bullish news here, my friends. And here we got some more quotes. We felt generalists and newcomers misjudged the opportunity set he added. In contrast today, the fundraising environment for late stage crypto companies is barren, creating a unique and compelling opportunity for targeted capital that understand web three technology. Pretty incredible folks. And this is a lot of capital and more is going to keep coming, right? We're just seeing some of the biggest trad fi names entering a lot of capital being raised by different funds and new funds popping up and they're going to invest in the market and we're going to see continued growth and the S curve adoption keeps moving higher and growing folks. It's happening day by day, week by week, month by month, year by year. Now we got news here in New York financial watchdog proposes strengthened crypto guidelines. The New York financial or the New York department of financial services published proposed guidelines on Monday aimed to strengthen how firms list or delist coins. It also proposed guidance on adding coins to the state's green list. So we're seeing states move in the direction of trying to figure out regulations while the federal government continues to drag their feet. Obviously we got two bills in the house and shout out to patch McHenry and those folks who have been trying to get things through. Even Senator Cynthia Lummis and Christian Gillibrand in the Senate also have a bill, but we need Congress to act, right? Things are moving really slow. They need to put the guardrails in place, but we're going to see a lot of states do this. And I think as they do this and with their grassroots movements and much more, it's going to put pressure on the federal government to eventually act. So I think this is a good thing. However, the devil's in the details. New York can sometimes be very heavy handed. They obviously have the ridiculous bit license, which they should get rid of. But I think that's Wall Street's gatekeeping to allow only companies that they want and much more. So it's tough for a lot of crypto companies to get that bit license in New York. So we shall see what they come up with, but let me give you some details. Since joining DFS, I have made it a priority to ensure the department's regulatory and operational capabilities keep pace with the industry developments to protect consumers and markets. And why DFS Superintendent Adrian Harris said in a statement on Monday, and why DFS has been active in regulating crypto in the state for years, having launched its bit license regime in 2015. A slew of firms have virtual currency licenses in the state, including Coinbase Incorporated, and according to its site, although some firms close up shop in the state. So let's see what they come up with and all the details as it comes out, and we'll have some of the legal experts review it. But I am for regulations. I think they're important. Now, I don't believe in draconian regulations. I believe there's a balance. You allow innovation to flourish, but you protect consumers. That's the balance. But we got to keep our guard up and push back on anything that's draconian. Finally, Malta, they seek to change their crypto rule book to get ready for MICA. So the EU MICA regulatory framework was passed. The EU and the UK are ahead of the United States right now. The country's financial watchdog wants to align its framework with the EU wide rules set to take effect in 2024. So once again, EU and UK ahead, and it looks like these countries and the European Union are going to look to align to this. So this absolutely makes sense. Now, this law and this regulation is not perfect, right? And there's still some fine tuning that's needed, but it's a really great start. And I'm glad they were able to get things through because it just once again shows crypto is not dependent on the United States. This in technology the digital world that we live in and everybody on the internet, it doesn't need the United States land and borders to operate. It can operate from anywhere. Now, obviously I say that, but the United States is the world's largest capital market. So matter of capital raising and funding and so forth, that is certainly a big factor for the United States, but for these projects to launch and to build and to grow, they don't need the United States. And living in the United States, I'm worried that the US is in danger of losing some of these companies and a lot of jobs and economic benefits, but hopefully they can get it right sooner than later. And this EU MICA bill will take effect in 2024. And I think we can expect to see other countries align with it. And that is really great because there's not going to be different rules for different countries, at least in the EU, they can online and provide clarity to the different businesses operating in the EU. So this is good news, I think all around. Well, folks, that's the news. Please let me know what you think about the Citibank token, the SEC taking another big fat L, the judge striking down their requests in the Binance US case. And what do you think about all these items? Leave your thoughts and comments below, hit the five star rating on the podcast platforms, and I'll talk to you all later.
The Breakdown
A highlight from Coinbase Launches Crypto Policy Coalition as FDIC Warns of Crypto Dangers to Banks
"Welcome back to The Breakdown with me, N .L .W. It's a daily podcast on macro, Bitcoin and the big picture power shifts remaking our world. What's going on, guys, it is Wednesday, August 16th, and today we are once again talking about a day that shows on the one hand regulatory challenges and on the other hand, the crypto industry just keeping chugging forward. Before we get into that, however, if you are enjoying The Breakdown, please go subscribe to it. Give it a rating, give it a review. Or if you want to dive deeper into the conversation, come join us on the Breakers Discord. You can find a link in the show notes or go to bit .ly slash breakdown pod. Hello, friends. So as I said, today is a day of contrasts, which really, I think, sums up the moment that we are in in crypto right now. Let's start on what could be interpreted as the negative side with a new set of FDIC warnings. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the FDIC, has added crypto as one of the five most important categories of risk to the banking sector in this year's annual review. The FDIC report reflected on last year's calamities within the crypto industry and said the agency was prepared to engage in, quote, robust supervisory discussions with the banks it oversees in relation to crypto. Now, for completeness, the other four risks to the banking sector were credit risks, market risks, operational risk and climate related financial risk. But obviously, we are concerned mostly with the crypto risk here. The FDIC noted that it has, quote, generally been aware of some banks interest in crypto asset related activities through its normal supervision process. However, as that interest has escalated, the agency has desired to better understand the risks that crypto could impose on banks. In their accounting, the FDIC included a long list of potential risks, including fraud, legal uncertainties, misleading or inaccurate representations and disclosures, risk management practices exhibiting a lack of maturity and robustness and platform and other operational vulnerabilities, end quote. In addition, the report highlighted contagion risk due to the close interconnections within the crypto industry, which they said can present concentration risk for banks with exposure to crypto clients. While the report adds no new policy or supervision requirements, the FDIC did say that it, quote, continues to closely monitor crypto asset related exposures of banking organizations. Now, of course, this report comes just one week after the Federal Reserve introduced its new novel activity supervision program. This new policy provided a framework for banks to seek approval for crypto related activities and established a dedicated supervisory team to deal with issues related to crypto. The concern is, of course, that these statements from regulators are just a formalization of what has become known as Operation Choke Point 2 .0, effectively a sub legal way for regulators to financial institutions that they should not be dealing with the crypto industry. By not putting forward official restrictions, there are no formal crypto bans that could be challenged in court. The FDIC was careful to include in their report the now common phrasing that, quote, banking organizations are neither prohibited nor discouraged from providing banking services to customers of any specific class or type as permitted by law or regulation. And thus, regulators are making it clear that they are not legally restricting banks from dealing with the crypto industry, but simply working to better understand the, quote, novel and complex risks represented by crypto. The open question is whether the threat of enhanced regulatory scrutiny is enough to dissuade banks from working with crypto customers. Now, there is a lot of really interesting tension in this document, as well as in the statement from the Fed last week. On the one hand, there was never going to be an annual report that didn't include this. Two banks that did have crypto concentration risk blew up this year and tapped the FDIC to shoulder losses. And even if we believe that those were hit jobs, it's still a notable part of this year's review. The problem is the same that it always has been, that general warnings without specifics that banks and financial institutions can follow de facto mean a freezing process where banks just decide that it's not worth the risk to deal with this industry. Now, interestingly, the most recent Fed document seems to be nudging to a different phase in this, in which even if onerous and even if increasing regulatory supervision, they are nominally providing a path for banks and financial institutions to deal with stablecoins. In that case, they sort of have the have your cake and eat it to benefit of in the short term, still probably having something of a freezing effect on activity in that area, but in the more medium to long term, still providing some path for those in institutions that are willing to take on the risk, giving them cloud cover to say, look, we were never trying to freeze activity. These were just the important hoops to have to jump through. In many ways, it's hard to get too chuffed about this particular FDIC report in that it feels both inevitable after what happened over the last six months, as well as sort of in line with what we already knew. Now let's flip over to the other side of this coin and talk about how the crypto industry has continued to respond to these regulatory challenges. Coinbase has launched an independent advocacy group, the Stand with Crypto Alliance. The group is aimed at mobilizing support for legislation that would form the basis of a regulatory framework for crypto in the US. Coinbase says that the group will be quote crypto's first true grassroots movement that will be organized on chain. Now, of course, other lobbying groups focused on crypto have represented industry voices. However, this group is intended to be much more focused on getting real legislation done. Coinbase wrote in a statement, by providing a launchpad, the Alliance is mobilizing the is over. America's crypto constituency is strong and we'll be holding them accountable this fall when Congress votes on common sense legislation to protect consumers and their right to crypto. Varyar shares that Coinbase's chief policy officer said, I think a few politicians are seeing crypto as an easy shot to take. I don't think they have fully understood the passion in the community behind it. Now it's worth noting that previous mobilization efforts of crypto constituents have proved to have a powerful impact on influencing lawmakers. In August of 2021, passionate crypto voters contacted the representatives in an effort to soften reporting requirements in the infrastructure bill. Now the bill was ultimately passed without amendment due to an unrelated political move of one intransigent senator, but the mobilization effort was viewed as a success, with the crypto community frankly holding up efforts for weeks and many lawmakers recognizing for the first time just how large and passionate the crypto community is. In rallying this new group, Coinbase are attempting to remind Congress that this community is still here and still care deeply about the passage of functional crypto legislation. Now interestingly, this Coinbase group was not the only advocacy organization announced yesterday. I saw a tweet from Nick Carter that read, sorely needed excited to see where this goes. Proof of work has been an afterthought in crypto conversations in Washington for too long. What he's referring to is the fact that the crypto mining industry now has its own lobbyist group in Washington. The Digital Energy Council is designed to push Congress for sensible regulation that will allow Bitcoin mining to continue to grow in the US. The group said in a statement on Tuesday that will be advocating for policies that, quote, promote responsible and sustainable energy development, grid resilience, maintain United States competitiveness, and protect national security. Miners have of course faced a stream of criticism from Democrat lawmakers in recent years based on assumptions around environmental harm and concerns over excessive energy usage. The political attacks reached a crescendo in May when the White House proposed a punitive 30 % tax on the mining industry to account for the, quote, harms they impose on society. Tom Mapes, the founder of the Digital Energy Council, said that the organization will, quote, focus on how both the digital asset mining and energy industries can collaborate and work together to bolster energy infrastructure, increase resilience, and support energy sustainability and efficiency that has been lost in policy conversations, yet is critical during this pivotal moment of energy modernization. Mapes previously worked on energy policy at fellow lobbying group the Chamber of Digital Commerce and was also the chief of staff at the Department of Energy's Office of International Affairs. A key part of the lobbying group will focus on dispelling lawmakers' misconceptions around digital asset mining, and the group will also have a focus on cultivating economic development in rural and overlooked communities, which can benefit from investment by the mining industry. The goal, Mapes said, is to highlight that digital asset mining is a real -world tool that can be utilized to meet the United States' energy goals. Zach Bradford, the CEO of mining company CleanSpark, noted that the new lobbying group is, quote, uniquely focused on the intersection of mining and energy abundance. He said in a statement that, quote, politics is a team sport, and the broader our coalition and the more dedicated the efforts, the better. Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska was one of the first lawmakers to pay attention to crypto mining as a relevant industry. She said in a statement, in 2018, as the chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, I held the first hearing to explore digital asset mining and the applications and potential impacts on our nation's energy supply. In the past five years, this industry has grown exponentially throughout the United States, and I've seen this technology already bring new opportunities to rural states like Alaska. I look forward to working with the Digital Energy Council to develop best practices for collaboration throughout Alaska and the United States. Senator Cynthia Lummis, who of course has long been a staunch advocate for the crypto industry, said financial innovation will unleash new prosperity and opportunity for the next generation of Americans, and crypto asset mining is an important part of this future. Innovative mining technologies will allow us to harness underutilized energy sources and drive jobs in rural America while generating provably scarce wealth. All Americans should be paying attention to the important work being done by crypto asset miners. Now, one last note on this theme at this intersection of crypto regulation versus crypto lobbying. Republican allies have continued to push their efforts to figure out just how the hell Prometheum was granted a special purpose broker dealer license. Now, this new category of SPBD license was established in December 2020 in order to allow firms to custody and transact in digital assets. For over two years, FINRA, which is the industry oversight arm of the SEC, refused to issue any licenses to applicants. Prometheum was granted the first of its kind SPBD license in May, which was just in time coincidentally for the firm's co -CEO Aaron Kaplan to appear in a congressional hearing the following week. Kaplan promoted just how viable the SEC's existing path to regulatory compliance is for crypto firms, which was of course a distraction from efforts to engage with the table legislative efforts. However, as everyone noted, the appearance was incredibly weird. Following the hearing, it became clear that Prometheum couldn't actually legally offer any crypto assets for sale. It had no viable business model, and even had some strange ties to a Chinese megafirm. Despite multiple media appearances subsequently, Kaplan and Prometheum appeared to have no clear answers for literally any of these issues. This has led to much scrutiny, and now House Financial Services Committee Republicans led by Chairman Patrick McHenry have asked both the SEC and FINRA to explain themselves. In a letter made public on Tuesday, the lawmakers asked for documents and communications related to the approval of Prometheum's license. They noted that the timing and circumstances surrounding the approval of Prometheum as the first SPBD raised serious questions. The letter raised concerns that the approval was aimed at demonstrating that legislation is not needed and that regulators had touted the Prometheum approval multiple times in public statements to support their position that digital asset firms can comply with the existing regulatory framework. The lawmakers pointed out, however, that while Prometheum claims it has the silver bullet for regulated digital asset offerings, it has not yet served a single customer. They said, quote, It is unclear why FINRA would have chosen to approve a firm with no operating history and no track record of serving customers over all the applications that it has received. The letter also addressed the troubling ties between Prometheum and Chinese firm Shanghai Wangqing Blockchain, which has, quote, deep ties to the CCP. The letter claimed this raises, quote, serious national security and data privacy concerns. Senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama said, The SEC and FINRA are dragging their feet and failing at their core mission. It's past time they look into Prometheum's ties to China. Thank you to Patrick McHenry and the Financial Committee for keeping up the pressure on this issue and looking out for American investors. Now, as you might imagine, the crypto industry remains extremely skeptical of this company. Jared Klee tweeted, Besides not being able to settle transactions, a director with deep ties to the China Communist Party and zero customers, Prometheum looks like a great company. The SEC and FINRA have been given until Tuesday to produce the relevant documents and communications to explain this frankly baffling licensing decision. So, friends, that is the story from here. We are in a very in -between moment. It feels like the plates are shifting and like things are starting to line up in a productive direction for the industry. But there's still a lot of work before us. Appreciate you listening as always. And until next time, be safe and take care of each other. Peace.
The Breakdown
A highlight from A Flurry of Amicus Briefs in Coinbase vs. SEC
"Welcome back to The Breakdown with me and LW. It's a daily podcast on macro, Bitcoin and the big picture power shifts remaking our world. What's going on, guys? It is Monday, August 14th, and today we are talking about a wild set of amicus briefs filed in the Coinbase against SEC case. Before we get into that, however, if you are enjoying The Breakdown, please go subscribe to it, give it a rating, give it a review. Or if you want to dive deeper into the conversation, come join us on the Breakers Discord. You can find a link in the show notes or go to bit .ly slash breakdown pod. All right, friends. Well, today, as I said, the main focus of the show is a slew of amicus briefs filed in the Coinbase case at the very end of last week. But first, a quick update in the SPF saga. Now, I'm sure all of you guys are at least a little bit familiar with what happened at this point, but let's present it for completeness. TLDR, after months of playing fast and loose with bail conditions, Sam has been sent to jail to await his trial. Now, the big catalyst for this was, of course, last month's leaking parts of former Alameda CEO Carolyn Ellison's journal to The New York Times. Carolyn was the CEO of Alameda during the final months of operations, was at times Sam's girlfriend, and will also be a key witness in Sam's trial. Now, SPF had said through lawyers that he was merely trying to, quote, give his side of the story. This is something that he has done a lot of, apparently. Indeed, he has notched up over 100 phone calls with one New York Times journalist in particular, and that's just one of the many reporters that he has been in touch with. The prosecutor argued effectively that this was indirect witness tampering. They said that even though there hadn't been an overt communication with Ellison, the intention was clear, stating, I think the fact the defendant was more subtle in his methods than a mobster doesn't mean it was benign. Now, the judge ultimately sided with the DOJ, finding that Sam's conduct was closer to witness intimidation than constitutionally protected public defense. During the hearing on Friday, the judge said Sam had been willing to, quote, risk crossing the line in an effort to get right up to the line wherever it is. Of Ellison's writings, which Sam shared, the judge said, The documents are in part personal and intimate. They are personally oriented, not business oriented. They are something that someone who had been in a relationship would be unlikely to share with anyone except to hurt and frighten the subject. Ultimately, the judge said, My conclusion is there is probable cause to believe the defendant has attempted to tamper with witnesses at least twice. There is a reputable presumption that there is no set of conditions that will ensure Bankman -Fried will not be a danger. So the other witness tampering attempt that the judge was referring to came shortly after Sam's arrest and release on bail when he had reached out to former FTX U .S. General Counsel Ryan Miller, suggesting that they stay in touch, coordinate communications, etc. Sam had also previously broken bail conditions when he had used the VPN to access the Internet, something that he claimed was just to watch the NFL playoffs, which very few people bought as totally true. Part of Sam's argument for remaining out of jail had been that incarceration would make it more difficult for him to prepare his defense. Prior to locking Sam up, the judge ensured that he would have access to a laptop to continue his trial preparation, which it seems like is just about the only good thing about the facility that he is on his way to. The judge said, I am focused on the possibility that he will be detained at the MDC, not on anyone's list of five -star facilities. That said, I understand he could have a dedicated laptop at the MDC 9, 10, 11 hours a day. Sam's trial is set to begin on October 2nd. His legal team has, of course, appealed the decision to revoke his bail and requested that he remain on house arrest pending appeal, but were denied on that motion. Former journalist Dan Nguyen really captured, I think, the sensibilities of the entire Twitter sphere when he wrote, SPF got one of the sweetest bail deals in history, and all he had to do was chill at his parents' Stanford home, play with the new dog his parents bought for him, and not use a VPN to secretly commit more crimes on the Internet, and yet, clown face emoji. Anyways, guys, just another gross chapter in a bad story. But with that, let's move on to something much more positive. On Friday, Blockchain Association Chief Policy Officer J. Chivinsky wrote, Today is a fun day. The deadline for amicus briefs on Coinbase's motion for judgment on the pleadings of the SEC's enforcement action. I expect to see many excellent briefs on many different issues. They should start hitting the docket soon. And indeed, hit they did. On Friday, a slew of briefs were filed in support of Coinbase's motion to dismiss the SEC's lawsuit. Now, most crypto lawsuits from the SEC have seen numerous amicus or friend -of -the -court briefs filed, but the Coinbase lawsuit attracted more attention from the legal community than usual. The Coinbase motion for judgment on the pleadings was supported by venture firms Paradigm and A16Z, who filed a joint brief, crypto lobbyists including the Blockchain Association, the Chamber for Digital Commerce and the DeFi Education Fund, and perhaps most notable were briefs from Senator Cynthia Lummis, as well as a group of six legal scholars. Coinbase is, of course, being sued for offering the sale of unregistered securities. The SEC's lawsuit hinges on the claim that 13 tokens offered on Coinbase's centralized exchange are securities. In addition to alleging that the main trading venue requires registration as a securities exchange, the SEC also alleges that Coinbase's self -hosted wallet is an unregistered securities brokerage and clearing agency. Finally, the lawsuit also alleged that Coinbase's staking product is a securities offering. As usual, all of these claims rely on the Howey Test, which is a Supreme Court test to determine when a transaction is deemed to be the sale of an investment contract. Coinbase's argument is that none of the tokens they offer fully satisfy the test, and as such, the lawsuit should be thrown out without the court hearing any further facts of the case. In addition, Coinbase is arguing that the SEC has attempted to expand its jurisdiction beyond the authority it was granted by Congress. This argument, as we have discussed, is brought under the Major Questions Doctrine, which is a relatively recent legal doctrine put forward by the Supreme Court. The Major Questions Doctrine holds that administrative agencies must have explicit authority from Congress to oversee an industry which forms a major part of the U .S. economy. So now let's go through the set of different briefs kind of organized in the context that they came in. We'll start with the VC and lobbyist briefs. The joint brief from Paradigm and A16Z focused extensively on the damage that could be done to the industry if the SEC's view of the law was held to be correct. They wrote, The brief noted that the SEC claimed crypto tokens themselves embody the terms of an investment contract, so continued to carry a classification as securities into the secondary markets long after their initial sale. This approach was rejected in the recent Ripple case, but remains contentious among federal court judges. The brief warned that allowing the SEC to take this approach could extend their reach into an endless array of commonly sold assets including fine art, classic cars, and vintage wines. Now, a group of crypto lobbyists led by the Blockchain Association said in their brief that the SEC seeks to cast aside the nearly century -old understanding of an investment contract and usurp Congress's authority to decide how to regulate a burgeoning industry. They claimed that the statutory text, history, precedent, and common sense all foreclosed the SEC's attempt to rewrite the definition of investment contract to reach digital asset sales unaccompanied by any ongoing contractual obligations. In a Twitter thread discussing the joint brief, G. Kim, the General Counsel at the Crypto Council for Innovation, wrote, The SEC is trying to short -circuit the legislative process and seize the power to resolve questions of massive economic and political importance by presenting its flawed interpretation in enforcement actions. The Chamber of Digital Commerce echoed their fellow lobbyists in making the point that the SEC is exceeding their authority and using inappropriate methods to bring the crypto industry to heel. They wrote that the SEC is choosing to use the blunt and unpredictable tool of enforcement proceedings to the exclusion of all other methods. They characterized the lawsuit as Coinbase's turn on the SEC's roulette wheel. Now, the DeFi Education Fund took a different approach, focusing their brief on the technical side of the case and linking the underlying functionality of crypto products to the legal arguments. The DeFi lobbyist explained that both Coinbase's staking service and wallet are software products rather than regulated financial service products. They argued that a decision in favor of the SEC's overly expansive theories related to this software application would have a chilling effect on the developers and service providers that innovate in DeFi and consequently the users of this technology. With regard to the wallet, they pointed out that Coinbase does not route orders nor take control of customer assets, so it's difficult to see how they could be viewed as a broker in that context. In discussing staking, they noted that while Coinbase administers the validators which deliver staking rewards to customers, their, quote, function is squarely ministerial as an IT service provider. Put another way, Coinbase provides an IT product that leads to a financial reward, but that reward stems from the crypto protocols themselves rather than from Coinbase's efforts. Now, maybe the most striking brief in support of Coinbase was co -signed by not one but six law professors with expertise in securities law. This includes experts from UCLA, Boston University, Fordham Law School, Widener University, the University of Chicago Law School, and Yale Law School. And importantly, this isn't a group of outspokenly crypto -friendly professors. Between them, this group has written multiple textbooks and authored countless academic papers. Some of them quite literally wrote the book on securities law. Their brief focuses on the definition of the term investment contract and argues that it has a much more limited scope than the SEC seems to think. A key part of the SEC's crypto lawsuits has been the idea that a crypto token is one part of an overall investment scheme which does not require a formal contract between the parties. This would mean that a token could be considered a security even when the issuer doesn't make any promises to holders and doesn't take any direct investment from purchasers. The professors rejected this as ignorant of the history of securities law. Their opinion is that the Securities Act of 1933 used the very well -established language of investment contract to refer specifically to situations where, quote, the investor receives, in exchange for an investment, a contractual undertaking or right to an enterprise's income, profits, or assets. They argued that this definition of an investment contract had been present in state legislation and cases leading up to the passing of federal regulation in 1933. They added that this definition has been consistently used by the courts to decide lawsuits following Howey to this day. This historical argument flies in the face of SEC briefs, which have often discarded state legislation and cases prior to 1933 as irrelevant. The legal scholars wrote that nowhere in the Howey decision does the Supreme Court, quote, suggest that it was doing away with the court textual and historical anchor of the statutory term investment contract, i .e. contractual undertakings. Rather, Howey's reference to a scheme or transaction simply reflected the instruction that courts should consider the economic reality of a business venture to determine whether an investment contract exists. The law professors suggested that by agreeing with the SEC's definition of an investment contract, the court would be going against almost a century of case law. They urged that, quote, The court should adhere to the settled meaning of the term, consistently applied by the state courts interpreting state blue sky laws, as well as by the federal appellate courts before and since Howey. Under that settled meaning, an investment contract requires contractual undertakings to deliver future value, reflecting the income, profits, or assets of a business. Paradigm policy director Justin Slaughter writes, It takes real skill to so mismanage the situation that you have serious institutionalists like Professors Macy and Hammermesh filing amici briefs against the SEC in an enforcement case. This case is on track to blow up the SEC's powers and maybe weaken agency powers across the board. That people invested in the current securities regime are still siding against the current SEC position speaks volumes. Finally, Senator Cynthia Lummis has also filed an amicus brief addressing the question of whether the SEC has overreached its authority. Lummis began her brief by drawing the court's attention to the numerous bipartisan efforts currently underway in Congress to craft regulations for the crypto industry. She wrote that she, Has a special interest in upholding the Constitution's separation of powers by ensuring that federal administrative agencies do not exceed the authority conferred upon them or encroach upon Congress's ongoing legislative efforts. Amicus believes that the SEC's approach to enforcement in this case, and in the crypto asset industry more broadly, contravenes that separation of powers. Now given that the cornerstone of any major questions doctrine argument is that an administrative agency is exceeding the powers granted to it by Congress, it seems extremely relevant to be told by a sitting US Senator that they believe this to be the case. Lummis continued, When Congress created the SEC to regulate securities markets, it did not grant the SEC power to reimagine the definition of securities to expand the agency's sphere of influence into other asset classes or to encroach on other agencies and regulatory schemes. The SEC's attempt to shoehorn an entire new class of assets into the existing definition of a security and thereby add to the definition enumerated by Congress exceeds the SEC's authority, encroaches on Congress's lawmaking, and contravenes the separation of powers. Put simply, she said, Basically, the brief is an attempt to provide evidence to the court that Congress is not content with the status quo when it comes to crypto regulation. Much of the brief describes the various ongoing legislative efforts. And after outlining these bills, Lummis writes, The multitude of interests at stake require a holistic approach beyond the scope of a single agency. Ultimately, she says, Lummis urged the court to, Now, I think where most of the analysis lands, holding aside deep legal minutiae, which obviously will become very important in terms of how the case actually resolves, is from a sentiment shift it feels to people, of course, outside observers, that this is going to be a hard one for the SEC. Algorithmic trading firm CEO Xi Zhen writes, Now, I would never go that far given that Let's hope that these friends of the court are correct. Appreciate you guys listening as always. Until next time, be safe and take care of each other. Peace.
Thinking Crypto News & Interviews
A highlight from SEC GARY GENSLER APPEALS RIPPLE XRP RULING! COINBASE BASE & MAXINE WATERS STABLECOIN REGULATION
"Welcome back to the Thinking Crypto Podcast, your home for cryptocurrency news and interviews. If you are new here, please hit that subscribe button as well as the thumbs up button and leave a comment below. If you're listening on a podcast platform such as Spotify, Apple or Google, please leave a five star rating and review. It supports the podcast and it doesn't cost you anything. Well, folks, we got some very big news and the SEC versus Ripple lawsuit. So the SEC is looking to appeal some of the decisions from Judge Torres. Here James K. Filan or attorney James K. Filan, I should say, tweeted out the following SEC files letter outlining its basis for filing a motion for leave to file an interlocutory appeal regarding programmatic offers and sales to XRP buyers over trading platforms and Ripple's other distributions. He says the SEC seeking a stay of all proceedings pending appeal is not unexpected. So James actually spoke about this back in December 21st, 2022. And I think we all know the SEC was going to appeal, right? Because on one hand, even if they don't win the appeal, they want to do it from an optics standpoint. So they don't look weak because if they just took their loss and ran with it, the entire industry right now is really emboldened and feeling confident that they're going to be able to beat the SEC and the wins have been taken out of Gary Gensler's sales. Even Congress, members of Congress who have crypto bills like Patrick McHenry, Cynthia Lummis and these folks have been using this ruling to say, hey, we got to get crypto regulations pushed through, support my bill, right? We've seen those statements. So not surprised by this. Now something we need to keep in mind is that, look, as of right now, the law based on the ruling is that XRP intrinsically is not a security, secondary market sales are not a security. That's the law. What you're probably going to see tomorrow and over the next few days, a lot of fun. Ripples will be defeated. The SEC is coming back for XRP to make it a security, right? People are going to say a lot of negative things just expected, right? Could it click bait headlines? But this is where you leave your emotions to the side and you think about this logically. Now we have to see how things play out. I don't think the SEC has a strong case here. I think this is more for optics, but I could be wrong. But if we're looking at the possibilities or the percentages that are probabilities, I should say, of what scenario is to play out, I don't think the SEC has a strong case here. I think this ruling stands. Now here's Stuart Alder Roddy of Ripple. He's the chief legal officer. He tweeted out about this news. He said the SEC does not have the right to appeal just yet, which is why they are asking for permission to file an interlocutory appeal. Ripple will file its response with the court next week. Stay tuned. So of course, Ripple is going to push back on this, right? So this is not a done deal that they can just appeal. Like he said, they don't have the right to, but they're going to ask for permission to appeal. So that's an important factor there. Here attorney Jeremy Hogan said, and the SEC continues to make questionable decisions requesting an interlocutory appeal. Note that it is not appealing whether XRP itself is a security, just its losses on the programmatic and individual sales issues. So interesting thoughts here. Now one of the folks replied to Jeremy's tweet and said the Torres ruling on XRP programmatic sales is what led to XRP being a non -security and crypto exchanges relisting XRP, is in challenging programmatic sales, the functional equivalent of challenging the non -security status of XRP. That's a great question. Jeremy said two separate issues, XRP is not a security period, but if the SEC wins the appeal on sales, then Ripple couldn't use exchanges to facilitate sales. And the big question would exchanges keep XRP listed? He said, I think yes, as long as they can verify sales are not being made by Ripple. So to recap, the SEC is not appealing that XRP itself intrinsically is not a security. I think they would absolutely lose that, right? Because it goes back to the orange groves and oranges themselves were not securities in the Howey test. It was the packaging, how Howey put together that investment scheme, but they are going after those exchange sales. And I don't think they're going to win it, but they have the right to appeal. Well, I should say they can appeal, but they have to ask for permission as Stuart said. So let's see where things go. Ellie Tourette of Fox Business, she said the following, from everything I've learned about interlocutory appeals from brilliant legal minds in this space, they are notoriously tricky to get approved. The SEC will need to get blessings from both Judge Torres and the Second Circuit in order to do for this to be granted.
Simply Bitcoin
A highlight from Michael Saylor: Bitcoin is Winning | EP 796
"You Yeah to simply Bitcoin live that was a tongue twister We are your number one source of the peaceful Bitcoin revolution code breaking news culture medic warfare We will be your guide through the separation of money and say it's the Friday show Super excited. Oh, man. It's been it's been quite a week gonna start We're gonna end it with some bullish news Michael Saylor is going absolutely ham We we know that this week he announced that he was gonna sell 750 dollars 750 million dollars worth of micro strategy stock to stack more Bitcoin Then he's going also on CNBC to make you say that there's a universal consensus that Bitcoin is winning, right? It's a decentralized global asset has no issuer It's a digital gold standard of digital commodities Michael Saylor is going full balls to the wall And and again if it was just Michael Saylor by by himself, you know, it'd be a different story, but you also have Larry Fink Speaking wonders about Bitcoin also on legacy corporate financial media as well This is a crazy time to be alive. I could have never have expected this five years ago I can't even imagine where we're gonna be five years from now I think we're gonna see you know, a lot of fortune 500 CEOs have no choice But to put Bitcoin on their balance sheet I really think that this next cycle and the cycle after that you're gonna see this massive wave of global adoption So I could not be more bullish all the stars are aligning But at the same time while all this is happening, you know on the political front like we covered yesterday Or the day before All kind of mixes together these days we were talking about the senator Cynthia Lummis and the senator Warren bill and you know the the wording in that bill was was very troubling right that you had this idea of KYC miners KYC wallet providers KYC validators, like how is that even possible? How is that even enforceable we had the CEO of start 9 yesterday, you know They make some of the best Bitcoin nodes in the business and he was literally saying it right? He's like that's that's impossible They're not gonna be able to do this But doesn't mean they're not gonna try right? So just because of all this bullish news that's happening, you know Don't put your defense down. There's never been a better time to learn how to take self -custody, you know Write down your seed phrase put it on titanium with the seed seed plate and Yeah, you know do do do yourself a favor and learn how to take self -custody If you don't know how to do so check out BTC sessions. He has a has some awesome Awesome tutorials. All right Opti. Here we go Let's do this man. Let's do this Nico can't speak English. We already know this. It's stamped seed put your shit on titanium But like I don't know I don't know what's wrong with me today, bro You didn't have enough coffee I'm like literally shaking cuz I'm too much coffee today. I didn't drink enough water this morning. But hey, man, we're here It's a Friday show. We made it another week. I have lost a math I don't remember what week we are on so you guys can fact -check me what week out of the year Are we what week out of 52 are we that's what we're down anyways That's some titanium SMR bro. Anyways, anyways Nico before people say that we're too childish on the show again We have an awesome guest today Bert from Bitcoin Brabant. I think I said that wrongly but Bitcoin miner that uses the excess heat from the a sex to heat up your business. So this is gonna be lit I'm excited for this one. That's gonna be a great show Anyways, oh man yellow I said literally the same thing. I put on a polo and I look like a professional. Yeah Should we start talking professionally? I'm gonna wear a suit next week. I don't even have a suit start talking professionally Hi guys, welcome to simply Bitcoin. We have Bitcoin Brabant on the show today. We're For news and culture Anyways anyways anyways Oh Yeah, very good it's Great to be on the show first time. So happy to have here is what you will make of it because Friday show so We're a consummate professional. I'm bringing I'm bringing the tulip bubble, you know, all right, so So Opti, why don't you tell everybody what Bert does? Like I said, he's part of and actually forgive me. How do I say your company again? Cuz I Brabant okay, and He's a Bitcoin miner that uses the excess heat to heat up your business and we have a really cool Really cool example of this and we're gonna go down his rabbit hole story and we'll talk about all that stuff during the culture So you guys already know the deal. Yeah, it's gonna be an awesome. It's gonna be an awesome show guys looking forward to it Let's do this. Let's head straight into the numbers You The Bitcoin numbers is your Bitcoin in cold storage really secure is your seed phrase Really secure stamp seeds do -it -yourself kit has everything you need to hammer your seed words into commercial grade Titanium plates instead of just writing them on paper Don't store your generational wealth on paper papers prone to water damage fire damage You want to put your generational wealth on one of the strongest metals on planet earth titanium your words are actually stamped into this metal plate with this hammer and these letter stamps and once your words are in they Aren't going anywhere. No risk of the plate breaking apart and pieces falling everywhere Titanium stamp seeds will survive nearly triple the heat produced by a house fire They're also crushed proof waterproof Non -corrosive and time proof all things that paper is not allowing you to huddle your Bitcoin with peace of mind For the long haul stamp your seed on stamp seed guys You don't want to find yourself in a situation where you have to explain to your grandchildren why you lost your? Generational wealth because you didn't properly secure your Bitcoin wallet backup seed words So you want to put them on titanium you could scan the QR code on your screen right now and it'll take you directly to The titanium seed phrase storage kit from stamp seed and you can You know you could purchase one so you don't have to explain this to your grandchildren why you lost your seed Anyways at the time of recording the Bitcoin price is twenty nine thousand two hundred thirty five stats per dollar three thousand four hundred twenty -one block height eight hundred one thousand six hundred sixty nine blocks having thirty eight thousand three hundred thirty one having estimate April 20th 2024 total lightning network capacity four thousand six hundred eighty nine Bitcoin capacity value one hundred thirty seven million US dollars realized monetary inflation one point seven six percent market capitalization five hundred sixty eight billion dollars Bitcoin versus gold market cap four point three seven percent Anyways, I have a very interesting video for you guys from Adam back and shout out to documenting Bitcoin Which does an incredible job? Documenting Bitcoin so they say six years ago today Bitcoin proved itself as a decentralized system No one controls listen to Adam back explained.
Simply Bitcoin
A highlight from US Governor to PROTECT Bitcoiners and BAN CBDC | EP 795
"You Yeah, we're gonna submit Bitcoin live or your number one source for the peaceful Bitcoin revolution of car breaking news culture manic warfare We will be your guide through the separation of money and state we have been talking about this concept about It's not red versus blue it's not left versus right it's the party of orange versus the party of green and it's interesting that Predominant political candidates here in the United States on both sides of the aisle on the Democratic side. You have RFK jr. It Literally his speech at the Bitcoin 2023 conference was saying that he's gonna protect the right for Bitcoiners to take self -custody It's interesting on the other side on the Republican side in the second place for the presidential Republican candidacy is Ron DeSantis and he released a meme I would call it because that's really what it is an ad you could say better said and it was called the Declaration of Economic Independence and One of the tenants or one of the things and it was a list of ten things that he's gonna do if he gets elected President number eight it was rain in the Federal Reserve and in there There's a specific section that focuses exactly literally it says word -for -word. I'm not even kidding protect Bitcoin So I think that's interesting how this is heating up. This isn't a phenomenon that's only happening in the United States This is also happening in Canada You have Poulier Polyvar who is running against Justin Trudeau and he's also against central bank digital currencies And he's for Bitcoin So I find that really interesting how you know, this political debate is heating up at the end of the day These are politicians. I know I'm not a big fan of politicians I don't trust politicians, but look I you know, I'm I'm a fan of This happening during the transitionary period from a fiat standard to a Bitcoin standard I think the more people on our side the better Especially with you know, what we know the other side is doing on yesterday's episode We covered the proposed bill Bipartisan bill sponsored by Senator Cynthia Lummis and Senator Warren that would force validators miners wallet providers to KYC, which is Freaking crazy. So, you know the more people we have on our side of the football the better in my opinion And also we have a very special guest today. We have the CEO and founder of start 9 Matt Hill, how you doing, man? Hey doing good. Thanks for that meal. Thanks for coming today, and I'm a big fan of start 9 I think they make some of the best nodes in the space and you guys are all about that sovereign computing Which I'm a big fan of I got myself. I think you've rebranded it. It's not to start 9 Pro anymore But I got one of the founder additions and I'm absolutely loving it. What's the rebrand called? What do you guys call in it nowadays? The pure Start 9 pure and it's a it's a workhorse. I think it runs on an i7. Is that correct? Yeah, the reason why we renamed it is because it doesn't actually pack the punch that you would expect a pro device to pack So it is powerful. It's far more powerful than almost anything. People are running Bitcoin nodes and personal servers on but It's not It's not the most modern chip You know as you start talking about like AI applications, it doesn't have enough RAM It's it's a good powerful device But we have plans for what we're gonna call the pro and it's going to crush this thing from a performance standpoint but this thing is unique in that it touts a Ninety nine point nine percent open software stack through to the firmware, right? There are no proprietary drivers for Wi -Fi or graphics cards or anything like that It is a it is a very pure device that is based on some of the work that Purism put into opening up the firmware and excluding the Intel management engine and stuff like that So it's a privacy and security oriented device rather than a pro power device, even though it does pack a good punch So we renamed it to the pure gotcha. So you're gonna take even more of my money understand Very looking forward to the the new and what you're gonna call it Anyways, I see Opti laughing his ass off. What's up, man? Man doing good doing wonderful this morning and shouts out to everyone on yesterday's show You guys loved the lightning giveaway live we handled it but won't be happening again until I figure out exactly the The kinks on it because some of y 'all ruin all the fun for the rest of us, but I'm excited for this one Obviously, you know, we've been seeing Ron DeSantis talk about CBD seeds for a while now Hopefully he can get that conversation going in all circles and it's becoming very interesting that you know the CBDC and Bitcoin narrative is becoming a point of contention for political candidates and It's going to it's looking like it's gonna be a crazy ride and then we get the talk start 9 all day Which is I don't know Nico's Nico's been getting me on and I'm like, man I really need to get one of these these things are looking amazing. So I'm excited for this one Nico Let's get into this. It's gonna be great show. All right, everybody no more delay Let's jump straight into numbers. Let's do it The Bitcoin numbers is your Bitcoin in cold storage really secure is your seed phrase Really secure stamped seeds do -it -yourself kit has everything you need to hammer your seed words into commercial grade Titanium plates instead of just writing them on paper Don't store your generational wealth on paper papers prone to water damage fire damage You want to put your generational wealth on one of the strongest metals on planet Earth? titanium your words are actually stamped into this metal plate with this hammer and these letter stamps and once your words are in they Aren't going anywhere. No risk of the plate breaking apart and pieces falling everywhere Titanium stamped seeds will survive nearly triple the heat produced by a house fire They're also crushed proof waterproof Non and -corrosive time -proof all things that paper is not allowing you to huddle your Bitcoin with peace of mind for the long haul Stamp your seed on stamp seed our guys and you could scan the QR code on your screen right now I'll take you directly to the stamp seed website Don't put yourself in the position where you have to explain to your grandchildren Why you lost your generational wealth because you stored your seed phrase on paper Store your seed phrase on the titanium seed phrase storage kit available on stamp seed and you can use a promo code Simply to get yourself a major discount at the time of report at the time of recording the Bitcoin prices 29 ,250 sats per dollar three thousand four hundred nineteen block height eight hundred one eight hundred one thousand five hundred and thirty blocks to having thirty eight thousand four hundred and seventy having estimate April 20th 2024 total lightning Network capacity four thousand six hundred ninety one Bitcoin capacity value 137 million US dollars realized monetary inflation one point seven six percent The market capitalization is five hundred sixty eight billion dollars with the B Bitcoin versus gold market cap four point three eight percent Alright moving on to the video that I want to talk about today. You know, they're saying the quiet part out loud Let's check it. Let's check this out. This is Ron DeSantis at a political rally. It's a threat in Florida we've seen them talking about it. So I actually signed legislation where we don't recognize Central bank digital currency now Congress could override us on that but the Fed unilaterally I don't think they could override us on that. So we've protected Floridians, but as president on day one CBDC goes into the trash can we're not going to allow it And we are gonna let Americans invest in things like Bitcoin and cryptocurrency No one's forcing you to do it. If you want to do it, you can do it Biden's war on Bitcoin and cryptocurrency will come to an end when I become president. It's a threat. I mean look, it's very very interesting It's not just Bitcoiners that are like Hypothesizing and like, you know like that mean with the guy like pointing at the board with all the wires connected and stuff Like look what's going on? It's becoming apparent that operation choke point 2 .0 is not just some meme that Bitcoiners came up with on the internet like V moves by the current administration whether it's the custodia bank with Caitlin long We had her on the show the other day. Like it's clear that in the eyes of this current administration They don't see Bitcoin as money they want to push forward the central bank digital currencies and look at the Look at the launch of the CBT of the American version of the CBDC which they say is not a CBDC But it sure feels like a CBDC which is the Fed now, right? And here is the Declaration of Economic Independence I was mentioning in the beginning of the show and If he were to be elected president, he would block a CBDC and he would protect Bitcoin doesn't say crypto He says Bitcoin by name. And of course, he's not just doing this out of the kindness of his heart He's doing this because he's a politician. He wants to get elected and his direct opponent I would say rather than Biden really is RFK jr. On the Democratic side and he's been very vocal about Supporting Bitcoin and being anti CBDC. He had a speech at the Bitcoin conference They got a tremendous amount of press and then he had another announcement which he did on a podcast Where he would vow to bow Bitcoin He would vow to back the dollar by Bitcoin and he would exempt Bitcoin from taxes Of course, you know, I don't trust politicians But it's just interesting how it's like kind of like this forcing function Like one politician says something and the other ones like yeah, I want to get those votes too. I support Bitcoin, too This is this is very interesting. I think that by you know the end of the decade I think that it'll become politically unviable to be something to be against Bitcoin. That's that's my opinion. But again, you know never underestimate You know these people and the lengths that they are willing to go to In order to maintain their privilege of being able to create money for free that everyone else has to work for so Matt You're a builder is all of this stuff noise to you What's what's going on in the sidelines and I really want to focus that I wish we covered that on today's show, which is Yesterday we had a very very scary bill that that came out and in that bill it basically said That they were going to force validators and you could say validators or nodes to KYC their customers So it's very interesting that that wording that they use. So what's your take on that? The the first part or the the validator part let's Everything everything. What's your take on everything? I I care deeply about politics. I'm I read history. I Understand and read about politics and economics and but I spend most of my time writing code I am NOT up -to -date with every current event or which politician said what I Buy into the thesis of the sovereign individual that technology is the primary driver of political change throughout history And so I personally spend most of my time trying to Create and innovate on technologies that forcibly push power to the edges of the political system and thereby influence change From from a layer beneath where these politicians are operating So as I see people like Ron DeSantis or RFK Talking about Bitcoin I do not believe that this is coming from a place of them necessarily understanding or even caring but from a place of necessity right, like the the the Winds are changing and they are trying to say whatever they need to say to get votes and their polling is telling them that these Are the things that they need to say to get votes. And so we're it's working right? Like I don't believe them I don't trust them. But that is proof that Something is happening that is causing them to take this seriously and not only to take it seriously but to side with it right Bitcoin is forcing political change Not asking for it And so what I get annoyed by is when I hear them say things like we're gonna let you trade in Bitcoin and stuff like That and sure I get why they're saying that and I count that as a check mark in the win column But also I'm like fuck you, you know, you're not gonna let me do shit We're gonna do whatever we want and you're gonna go along with it because you have to because technology makes you comply I love that. I absolutely love that and we're big fans of the sovereign individual and simply Bitcoin We reference it at least once a week on the show and I completely agree and you know It's it's the but it's it you're just watching the state as they they lose, you know This this this they lose their control over society in a way You're seeing them kind of like go through this denial phase where they're like look we'll let you do it You know what? Actually, we're big fans of digital currencies, too. We like CBDCs. We're supporters of CBDCs Why don't you use that, you know, so it's just interesting watching them squirm around it in a way I feel like they're panicking a little bit like they they want this thing to go away, but it just won't go away That's that's correct. It's not going away. You cannot un -invent technology Technology that empowers people Doesn't want to be un -invented people are going to use it And it's great that it was designed the way that it was that's what made Bitcoin so innovative Is that it really is fuck you money and Good luck trying to get validators to KYC people. I mean it it's silly that they At this point do not understand it Well enough to refrain from saying such a silly phrase, right? Generally politicians speaking try not to look foolish, right? They don't want to take hard lines against things that they can't enforce because it just makes them look silly, right? That's the one thing they always try not to do is look silly they can lie They don't care if they're malicious whatever but they don't want to look foolish And so that's gonna make them look very foolish, right? If something like that were to come into into practice It will be un -un Done overnight as they realize what a mistake they have made 100 % and what I'm referencing everybody also is just a you know Just to kind of show everybody what I'm referring to it is the digital asset anti -money laundering act Which was included into this defense bill and it included extend bank secrecy act responsibilities Including KYC customer requirements the digital asset wallet providers miners validators and other network Participants that may act to validate secure or facilitate digital asset transactions. I agree with Matt 100 % I think that is unenforceable, but it doesn't mean that they're not gonna try anyways, so Opti What's your take and then we'll move on to the news? Yeah So first I think it's very interesting to hear dissent to say what Bitcoiners have been saying for a while that there is a war against Bitcoin coming from the Biden administration and Maybe it carries a little more weight because it's coming from the political class and not from you know us fringe conspiracy theorists on Twitter or whatever you want to call us but To Matt's point I was gonna say the same thing Like we don't need the president to let us do anything with Bitcoin its permissionless money and completely legal by constitutional standards So it's nice to hear And of course, I don't want friction in regards to Bitcoin like, you know, make my life easier as a Bitcoiner Would love to see it but honey bad you don't care this is a global phenomenon and America will continue to shoot themselves in the foot by fighting Bitcoin and of course as someone that lives in America I don't want to see us continue down this path and would like to see people embrace Bitcoin It really doesn't matter because of entrepreneurs like Matt out there that are building the freedom tools That will force the narrative like they've lost control as far as I'm concerned and now they're they're trying to pander to Bitcoiners So on the one hand just love to see it and on the other hand It's just like I don't know it just seems like lip service to me But I mean personally I know I know Nico you're in Florida and you have different views and we'd love to hear the conversation I don't really think that Santas has a has a chance to win but it's cool to have these conversations.
CoinDesk Podcast Network
We Need Regulatory Clarity to Keep Crypto Exchanges Onshore...
"Today's featured stories and opinion piece from Jack soloway and Jennifer Schultz. Mister soloway is a policy analyst at kato's institute center for monetary and financial alternatives while miss Schultz is the director of financial regulation studies at the same institute. Our piece today is entitled, we need regulatory clarity to keep crypto exchanges onshore and DeFi permissionless. At consensus 2023, senator Cynthia lummis, a Republican from Wyoming, and congressman Patrick mchenry, a Republican from North Carolina, voiced their goals of developing legislation to clarify crypto market structure in the united states, with a house proposal expected in the next two months. Last week, in a joint hearing of the digital asset subcommittee of the House agriculture and House financial services committees, work proceeds to resolve what congressman French hill, a Republican from Arizona, has referred to as an impossible situation where the same firms are subject to competing enforcement actions by the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, and the commodity futures trading commission or CFTC, which is in their words, pushing entrepreneurs, developers, and job creators offshore. This is an impossible situation, and it's manifestly unwise for the U.S. to show the door to those working on what may be the next generation of global financial infrastructure. Congress must bring regulatory clarity to crypto market structure, defining the bounds and appropriate legal treatment of crypto securities, crypto commodities, and the exchanges, both centralized and decentralized over which they trade. Notwithstanding the skepticism and evasions of SEC chair Gary gensler, crypto's core innovation decentralization is the proper criterion by which to rationalize digital asset market structure and determine whether applying traditional financial regulations to crypto tokens in exchanges make sense. The phrase, same activity, same risk, same regulation, is oft repeated by financial regulators. But as applied to crypto, it raises the question, are the risks the same. Specifically, do crypto projects present the risks that issuers in the primary market or intermediaries in the secondary market can exploit their position to harm token purchasers by, for example, abusing non public information, misleading market participants, breaking promises, or otherwise engaging in fraud.
CoinDesk Podcast Network
"cynthia lummis" Discussed on CoinDesk Podcast Network
"Well, I was listening to my now son in law, and my daughter described Bitcoin. It sounded interesting, but a little science fictiony to me at the time. So I bought one in hopes that I would learn more about it. I did. I bought two more, and then in 2017, when I left the U.S. House of Representatives, I was invited to speak at the satoshi round table. And I was invited to speak on the subject of how does Congress work. I was delighted to go because I don't know enough about Bitcoin at that point to even talk about it. But I did know enough to talk about Congress. I sat up that year, the satoshi round table was in cancun. And I thought oh, this would be great. I'll go get my little talk and then I'll sit on the beach. And I went there and gave my little talk, and I never went to the beach. And we were in a windowless room for two days, and I sat there and listened to miners and investors and the people who keep the algorithms and having this big dialog about forks and Bitcoin cash and all, I was fascinated by it. And that was the point at which I think I went down the rabbit hole. And you did it. Kind of got orange. What do you call it now, orange peeled? And after that, it generated the interest that I began to cultivate. Then when I was elected to the U.S. Senate and arrived there, I realized that this is a maturing asset class that nobody in the U.S. Senate knows anything about. And so it became a parent that if I could hone in my knowledge about this subject that it would be a valuable set of knowledge to the U.S. Senate. And so I've tried to learn more all along. I brought in some really, really brilliant staffers. And we put together the piece of legislation and worked with senator gillibrand and her staff on it. I think that between senator gillibrand and I, we've had this wonderful opportunity working with our staffs to elevate the knowledge and discussion in the U.S. Senate about this subject. Congressman McCann, the house and some of his colleagues, Democrat ro Khanna, for example, and others have done the same thing in the house. Tom emmer's, you know, there's good bipartisan effort being made. And now it's time to roll it out. It's really time to address it because Europe is doing it. Luxembourg is deeply involved. Switzerland is deeply involved. UK wants to become a center. And we still see pockets of tremendous innovation here in the United States. Miami, Florida, the state of Wyoming, created the first special purpose depository institution law and another set of laws state laws that are very robust and
CoinDesk Podcast Network
"cynthia lummis" Discussed on CoinDesk Podcast Network
"Protect ourselves from financial crimes, committed in cryptocurrencies. But you know, if you talk to companies that do forensic work in the cryptocurrency space, they'll tell you that they think it's easier to solve a crime that's committed in cryptocurrency than is committed in Fiat currency. That message has not sunk in. Wow, that's huge. In Washington, D.C.. So we continue to work with companies like chain analysis to help us educate our colleagues about the state of the art of solving crimes committed in cryptocurrency. That's very important and very informative. What is the staff accounting bulletin one 21 that I hear about and how is that impacting the industry? Now that's can not understand why the SEC has taken that approach. It seems to me that quite the opposite approach should be taken. This would allow for the continued inclusion of custody assets on the balance sheet of a custodian and the assets, the custody assets belonged to individuals. They don't belong to the company that is the custodian. They belong to the individuals. So I think that it's very important that we push back against that bulletin and probably do it legislatively or make it clear to us that custody assets belong to the asset holder, not to the custodian and should not be counted on the balance sheet as an asset of the custodian. Thank you for breaking that down. I appreciate that. Sidestep here. My family comes over as mostly everyone is immigrant historically, the early 1900s, Italian Jewish families that come over, persecuting somewhere else, other families do that as well to this day. You know, they work really hard. As you know, you come from cattle rancher in Wyoming. You understand about working extremely hard and saving up your money, doing due diligence, you know, providing for your family, et cetera. My father is 72 years old. And he just came to me last week, and he's still working. He's not retired. He's still working, came to me last week. And you know as I do this, I'm going to be coined us like that crypto stuff, you know, what is always asking me more information. Because right now on social media, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, there's all this fear out there when it comes to inflation and taxes and the SEC and Tapping to crypto. But he comes up to me and he asks me Michelle, do I need to be worried about my cash? I'm worried about my dollar. Should I buy that cryptocurrency in that Bitcoin? Is there anything you could speak to the fears that I can maybe share to someone like my dad or anything you can share with us? Well, I would say inflation is eating into the value of his U.S. dollar. And so while you need some liquidity in the form of U.S. dollars, it's also valuable to not have all your eggs in the same basket. So I advocate for very diversified asset allocation because when summer up, others are down. So I would say to your father, listen to your daughter and invest in some digital assets that she has confidence in and that will and have thus far withstood the test of time. There are digital assets that have not. Stood the test of time. FTT, which was a cryptocurrency that was a digital asset that was created by FTX. So we all know about failures, but let's look at the ones that have with the test of time. And for people who are not comfortable with the technology, I say, invest a little bit in everything, everything. Have some have some cryptocurrency, have some U.S. dollars. Have some exposure to bonds and stocks. Some of those will be a long-term store of value that you'll want to keep for a very long time. To me, that's the purpose of Bitcoin. It's a store of value. But I also keep some cash. I also have some investments in bonds and stocks, mostly through mutual funds, but I have a few that I own and individually and disclose on my Senate financial. So it's just good to have a diverse set of assets when you're approaching retirement. And even if you never retire, it's just good to have those that variety of assets in your portfolio. And I recommend to people my age that learn about digital assets from people who are young and knowledgeable. A lot of people my age, I'm a lot closer to your father's age. We just don't know about these. And I've always said to people, if you don't understand it, don't buy it. If you don't understand it, don't invest in it. But in the case of cryptocurrency, I think it's important even for those of us who are baby boomers. To talk to knowledgeable young people, get some advice from them about how to properly purchase and custody reliable digital assets and understand their use case, understand whether their store of value or whether they have other utility as a means of exchange.
CoinDesk Podcast Network
"cynthia lummis" Discussed on CoinDesk Podcast Network
"Michelle, it's great to be with you. Thanks for having me. You were here last year. Consensus 2022. And the feeling was completely different. You were here with a fellow counterpart senator gillibrand. After announcing that bill that you put into play, it was on the cusp of the crypto winter, which is starting when that happened. We were going into a bear market. And the times have changed so much since then. The fall of FDX, the dynamics in the crypto industry. What is your take? What are your feelings on this past year where we are today? We used last year to roll out the financial innovation act. Responsible management of crypto assets. Laying our traditional regulatory framework and layering it with crypto assets. So in the last year, what we've seen in Washington is a very slow thaw in that crypto winter that you just described. Because of that, we are reworking the bill in ways that provide additional layers of consumer protection and will be rolling it out again in about four to 6 weeks. Oh, that's exciting. I have more statutory language to that to that Bill. That's correct. Okay. I read through it about consumer protection and offsetting the cost of digital asset regulation. And it was very uniquely bipartisan. The two of you coming together from different parties to be able to create this, being women in Congress. It was very powerful when you did that. And I think it made a statement. Most people are, I mean, I'm sure you're going to be asked this question over and over and over again. Regulation regulation regulation. You have Japan, put web three, and it's national economic plan. The EU just approved landmark Mika regulation. The UK is making moves to become a crypto hub. What is the status of regulation in the U.S.? I know you said there's a cooling off period. But to put it bluntly and most people want to know, what is the holdup? It's a fair question. And in fact, we're having European countries say we want you to regulate. We want you to legislate. Oh, really? Yes. Yeah. So we need to move forward. And we need to do it by statute. Right now, regulation by enforcement action through the SEC is something we're seeing. We're seeing efforts to work with the OCC, the office of comptroller of the currency, to create stonewalls. And they're in the executive branch seems to be strong resistance to moving forward in a positive way. With regulating digital assets or even allowing digital assets to find avenues into the U.S. economy. So it's very important that we legislate sooner rather than later. We're seeing the House financial services committee. Taking positive steps towards putting out a legislative product, I continue, of course, to work with senator gillibrand in the Senate and with other senators on a very bipartisan basis in the Senate it has to be bipartisan. In the house because the house is sort of a winner take all legislative body. It's possible to legislate on a one party basis. You can't do that in the Senate. So we've worked extremely hard to keep it bipartisan in the Senate. And my staff and senator gillibrand staff are trying to bring more staffers into the discussion. So regardless of whether our Bill moves first, meaning the Senate bill, or the house moves first on this subject, we need to make sure it remains bicameral and bipartisan. It's powerful. Last week, maybe a little over a week ago, representative mchenry spoke directly to SEC chair, Gary gensler, and there was quite a few dramatic clips from that. And when you speak to resistance, why do you feel that Gary gensler in particular did not give a straight answer to mchenry's question? Whether, you know, if you're putting any regulation to play or if you're not. Just let the people know because the public is watching that. Please answer. Please answer. Give us some kind of guideline. I mean, if I'm driving down the road, I want to know what the speed limit is. I want to know if I can pass and it's a passing lane. It keeps us safe and protected. And the same thing goes in the crypto industry. We're looking at begging for regulation. So is there anything you could speak to that as to why he didn't give him a direct answer? You know, and it's very theatrical. Now, I'm speculating here now too. Okay. Because I'm a Republican, the administration is in Democrat hands. And so I'm an outsider as to what is driving their agenda, agenda. But from an outsider, it looks to me like they are still trying to formulate their agenda, but their agenda right now is to slow walk everything. And to keep everyone out of the traditional financial sector in the United States when it comes to digital assets to cryptocurrency. It's a terrible approach, especially when we're seeing globally other entities get ahead of us and we're playing catch up ball. So it's incumbent upon the legislative branch to provide the executive branch guidance to give them the statutory framework to legislate in this area. So I think if anything, senator gillibrand and I are going to be in a position working with congressman mchenry and his Democrat counterpart, congresswoman waters, we need to come up with something that's bicameral and bipartisan and get it passed because globally we're putting businesses, businesses that are here at consensus in a position where they're going to vote with their feet. They're going to take their businesses to Europe to Australia to Bermuda. And find a friendly jurisdiction to their business model. That is so contrary to what has been the American approach to innovation in the past. Absolutely. And so senator gillibrand has been a strong partner, a strong advocate for legislation for not deferring to the executive branch to create policy here. It is our responsibility as legislators to create policy. We are still very devoted to that notion. And so we are going to continue to work in that way. One of the things that senator gillibrand and I are doing is trying to work really carefully to listen to the feedback we're getting post FTX failure as we come out of the so called crypto winner. So we're adjusting the bill in ways that are sensitive to the concerns that people have. And yet move it forward in a way that doesn't stifle innovation. Speaking to what you're just talking about, you know, offshoring crypto. The former U.S. intelligent officials have flagged the national security risks of doing so. Do you see similar risks or have similar concerns for that? I do, and so do other members of Congress. But they also are, in some cases, pushing back on our efforts to move forward legislatively without more robust financial technology undertakings that protect our national security. So we're also working with the intelligence committee, members of the intelligence committee, and the executive branch as they see concerns in cryptocurrency as to our security as a nation to
CoinDesk Podcast Network
"cynthia lummis" Discussed on CoinDesk Podcast Network
"By the way, Powell kind of caught this from the other side of the aisle as well. Senator Kennedy started by pressing on the Republican talking point of out of control fiscal spending, suggesting that reducing government spending could assist the fed and bringing down inflation. But then he put to Powell quote when you're trying to slow the economy, you're trying to put people out of work. That's your job. Is it not? Agitated Powell responded. We're not trying to raise the unemployment rate. We're trying to realign supply and demand. That could happen through a bunch of channels. For example, job openings. Kennedy came back at Powell, presenting the history of periods where the fed has achieved disinflation, which typically came with rises in unemployment alongside recessions. Kennedy said if history is right unless you get some help in order to get inflation down from 6.4% to 4.4%, the unemployment rate is going to have to rise to 7% based on history. Powell agreed, stating that is what the record would say. Kennedy reached a crescendo suggesting quote, the only way we're going to get the sticky inflation down is to attack it on the monetary side, which you're doing and on the fiscal side, which means Congress is going to have to reduce the rate of growth of spending and reduce the rate of debt accumulation. The more we help on the fiscal side, the fewer people you're going to have to put out of work. Seemingly tired of the line of questioning Powell conceded it could work out that way. Now, what about other topics of interest from this long hearing? Crypto did make a few appearances. Senator Brown was the first to break up crypto during the opening salvo of questions for the hearing. He asked Powell how the fed is going about evaluating the risk of crypto related activities within the banking sector. Powell responded that the fed had been quite active in that area, but warned that the fed does not want to stifle innovation. Noting that this would have the effect of favoring incumbents. He did not mince words saying quote, we've been watching what's been happening in the crypto space. What we see is quite a lot of turmoil. We see fraud. We see a lack of transparency. We see run risk. He characterized the actions of the fed as simply ensuring that regulated banks are being careful and giving regulators notice of their crypto related activity. Senator Cynthia lummis asked about the paradox of the fed's position on stablecoins. She noted that the fed is a member of the president's working group on financial markets, had called for bank like regulation of stablecoins in 2021. Then this year published the guidance that a bank issuing a stablecoin on a public blockchain is highly likely to be inconsistent with safe and sound banking practices their words. How attempted to clarify the fed's view? Quote, I think there are real concerns about permissionless public blockchains. The reason is that they've been so susceptible to fraud to money laundering and all of those things. Lummis asked if there was a place for well regulated stablecoins to which Powell said I think in a world of appropriate regulation or stablecoin activity gets the same regulation as comparable products, there could be a place for stablecoins in our financial services sector. Let me just point it out that many other jurisdictions are standing up crypto regulations. She asked if the U.S. is at risk of being a rule taker rather than a rule maker when it comes to digital assets. Pal responded, I do think it would be important for us to have a workable legal framework around digital activities. I think it's important in something Congress and principle needs to do because we really can't do that. It's nice to see senator lummis pushing here a little bit, especially given that the fed has taken an active role in operation choke .2, given their recent joint statements about why banks should be cautious servicing crypto companies. Anyway, trying to sum this up, I think the big thing is that higher for longer is finally sinking in. Powell seemed to forecast 50 basis points as in range for the march 16th FOMC meeting, and that a higher terminal rate forecast is coming. Totally unexpectedly, bipartisanship is completely gone. Dems blame corporate profits, the GOP blames fiscal excess and both seem happy to wield inflation as a cudgel rather than actually addressing it. Now in terms of whether that 50 basis points could be walked back and whether we might see only a 25 basis point hike, most market commentators think that we're going to need to either see a cooler than expected jobs report, which is due next Friday or a pretty significantly cold CPI report, which is also coming out next week. Until then, the hawks are ruling the roost. All right guys, that's the macro outlook from here. Appreciate you listening as always in until tomorrow be safe and take care of each other. Peace
Simply Bitcoin
"cynthia lummis" Discussed on Simply Bitcoin
"Senator Markey, representative Huffman, announced legislation to crack down on cryptocurrency on crypto energy consumption as Markey holds first ever Senate hearing, focused on industries. That's not true either. It was never a fur. It was never the first Senate hearing on this. They've done this before. There is a Senate hearing called, quote, cleaning up cryptocurrency, we've been here before. So again, what I believe this is about is that they're trying to accumulate enough political willpower. They're trying to convince the uninformed that proof of work mining is bad. That's what this is really about. And again, look at Elizabeth Warren. Anything that the Bitcoin industry does is bad, she attacks it, any opportunity she does, I don't think it has to do with the environment. I don't think it has to do with the energy usage. It has to do with the fact that they can't control it. I think that this is always stems down to that. And really what convinced me the most was the example in Norway, which we've brought up on the show many times. In Norway, the vast majority of energy produced comes from so called renewable energy sources. There were certain political parties in Norway they still wanted to ban Bitcoin mining. So I don't think it has to do with the type of energy that Bitcoin mining uses. I think it has to do with a lot of people want to choose what you can use with energy and what you can not use with energy. And Cynthia lummis does a really great job at pointing this out and I'm going to play you a clip of her at this hearing and then we'll talk about it. First question is for mister altenburg. What does a, what does a digital asset mining operation look like? I mean, are there shovels digging in the ground? What does it look like? It depends where the location, though the mining sites that are being placed at our frac gas wells, they're essentially semi trailers that have methane gas powered generators that are plugged into the well and big shipping containers full of racks of Bitcoin miners. Okay, and a Bitcoin miner is actually a computer. Yeah, it's about the size of a toaster and it uses three times the energy of a house. Okay, so there is a bunch of toasters in a line, sometimes they're dipped in fluids, so they run cooler. They can be air cooled. They can be water cooled. But it's basically just a computer. Yes. So is that computer? That's mining Bitcoin. Directly emitting pollutants. No, it's energy source. It's electric sources, what's emitting? Okay. So now let's take an EV charging station.
Simply Bitcoin
"cynthia lummis" Discussed on Simply Bitcoin
"Yeah, welcome to another episode of simply Bitcoin live. You're a number one source for the peaceful Bitcoin revolution of codebreaking news culture medical warfare. We will be your guide through the separation of money and state. And today is one of those episodes where the incumbents state is fighting back. We've been covering this for quite a bit. Remember the propaganda piece, it was a former get the actor's name. It's slipping my mind right now. Anyways, we've been covering it the last two weeks, right? Very, very well produced videos coming out of the crypto handle, which is the Bloomberg crypto. They own it. And yeah, they hired an actor who was part of the Biden administration Kal Penn. Thank you, Jacob. Thank you producer Jacob, best producer in the game. Part of Harold and Kumar. And they've been using him to come out with these very well made propaganda pieces. It would call it, right? We also had the Biden administration in the various executive orders, questioning proof of work specifically. They're very specific in this, proof of works, energy usage. And we know since Ethereum migrated to proof of stake, it's really Bitcoin when they're talking about that. So this is a direct attack on Bitcoin. If you ban Bitcoin mining within the United States, that's where they want to go with this, right? So they held a hearing. We have all the details, and then we had the Bitcoin senator Cynthia lummis of Wyoming or Loomis. She fought back. So we're going to play you the entire clip, her for four or 5 minute sound bite. We're going to play it. We're going to discuss it. And then we're going to go through what it is they're saying, what it is they're talking about this, but this is make no mistake. This is very well orchestrated. They've been doing this for quite a while. This is a well planned out move. And what I think they're doing very similar to change the code, that movement that was funded by one of the founders of ripple. This is a social attack. They're trying to accumulate enough political will from the people, you know, convincing them that Bitcoin is terrible. It uses all this energy without getting into the nuance without getting into the fact that Bitcoin uses stranded energy. Bitcoin mining doesn't make sense in a city. It's too expensive, but they don't talk about that, right? Not to mention in Texas, right? What Bitcoin miners are doing over there. They're buying all that, all that stranded energy. They're actually helping the grid. But of course, all of that is lost, right? There's this very strong narrative that using energy is somehow a bad thing. When the ability for human beings to capture and use energy has been is a direct correlation with wealth, right? And you can see that. It's very, very obvious. So I mean, this is gonna be a crazy fight, but I don't think the fight itself is against people that hate Bitcoin necessarily. I think really the fight is the fact that somehow, you know, 30, 40% of the population is convinced that using energy is a bad thing.
CoinDesk Podcast Network
"cynthia lummis" Discussed on CoinDesk Podcast Network
"By the way, Powell kind of caught this from the other side of the aisle as well. Senator Kennedy started by pressing on the Republican talking point of out of control fiscal spending, suggesting that reducing government spending could assist the fed and bringing down inflation. But then he put to Powell quote when you're trying to slow the economy, you're trying to put people out of work. That's your job. Is it not? Agitated Powell responded. We're not trying to raise the unemployment rate. We're trying to realign supply and demand. That could happen through a bunch of channels. For example, job openings. Kennedy came back at Powell, presenting the history of periods where the fed has achieved disinflation, which typically came with rises in unemployment alongside recessions. Kennedy said if history is right unless you get some help in order to get inflation down from 6.4% to 4.4%, the unemployment rate is going to have to rise to 7% based on history. Powell agreed, stating that is what the record would say. Kennedy reached a crescendo suggesting quote, the only way we're going to get the sticky inflation down is to attack it on the monetary side, which you're doing and on the fiscal side, which means Congress is going to have to reduce the rate of growth of spending and reduce the rate of debt accumulation. The more we help on the fiscal side, the fewer people you're going to have to put out of work. Seemingly tired of the line of questioning Powell conceded it could work out that way. Now, what about other topics of interest from this long hearing? Crypto did make a few appearances. Senator Brown was the first to break up crypto during the opening salvo of questions for the hearing. He asked Powell how the fed is going about evaluating the risk of crypto related activities within the banking sector. Powell responded that the fed had been quite active in that area, but warned that the fed does not want to stifle innovation. Noting that this would have the effect of favoring incumbents. He did not mince words saying quote, we've been watching what's been happening in the crypto space. What we see is quite a lot of turmoil. We see fraud. We see a lack of transparency. We see run risk. He characterized the actions of the fed as simply ensuring that regulated banks are being careful and giving regulators notice of their crypto related activity. Senator Cynthia lummis asked about the paradox of the fed's position on stablecoins. She noted that the fed is a member of the president's working group on financial markets, had called for bank like regulation of stablecoins in 2021. Then this year published the guidance that a bank issuing a stablecoin on a public blockchain is highly likely to be inconsistent with safe and sound banking practices their words. How attempted to clarify the fed's view? Quote, I think there are real concerns about permissionless public blockchains. The reason is that they've been so susceptible to fraud to money laundering and all of those things. Lummis asked if there was a place for well regulated stablecoins to which Powell said I think in a world of appropriate regulation or stablecoin activity gets the same regulation as comparable products, there could be a place for stablecoins in our financial services sector. Let me just point it out that many other jurisdictions are standing up crypto regulations. She asked if the U.S. is at risk of being a rule taker rather than a rule maker when it comes to digital assets. Pal responded, I do think it would be important for us to have a workable legal framework around digital activities. I think it's important in something Congress and principle needs to do because we really can't do that. It's nice to see senator lummis pushing here a little bit, especially given that the fed has taken an active role in operation choke .2, given their recent joint statements about why banks should be cautious servicing crypto companies. Anyway, trying to sum this up, I think the big thing is that higher for longer is finally sinking in. Powell seemed to forecast 50 basis points as in range for the march 16th FOMC meeting, and that a higher terminal rate forecast is coming. Totally unexpectedly, bipartisanship is completely gone. Dems blame corporate profits, the GOP blames fiscal excess and both seem happy to wield inflation as a cudgel rather than actually addressing it. Now in terms of whether that 50 basis points could be walked back and whether we might see only a 25 basis point hike, most market commentators think that we're going to need to either see a cooler than expected jobs report, which is due next Friday or a pretty significantly cold CPI report, which is also coming out next week. Until then, the hawks are ruling the roost. All right guys, that's the macro outlook from here. Appreciate you listening as always in until tomorrow be safe and take care of each other. Peace
Simply Bitcoin
"cynthia lummis" Discussed on Simply Bitcoin
"Senator Markey, representative Huffman, announced legislation to crack down on cryptocurrency on crypto energy consumption as Markey holds first ever Senate hearing, focused on industries. That's not true either. It was never a fur. It was never the first Senate hearing on this. They've done this before. There is a Senate hearing called, quote, cleaning up cryptocurrency, we've been here before. So again, what I believe this is about is that they're trying to accumulate enough political willpower. They're trying to convince the uninformed that proof of work mining is bad. That's what this is really about. And again, look at Elizabeth Warren. Anything that the Bitcoin industry does is bad, she attacks it, any opportunity she does, I don't think it has to do with the environment. I don't think it has to do with the energy usage. It has to do with the fact that they can't control it. I think that this is always stems down to that. And really what convinced me the most was the example in Norway, which we've brought up on the show many times. In Norway, the vast majority of energy produced comes from so called renewable energy sources. There were certain political parties in Norway they still wanted to ban Bitcoin mining. So I don't think it has to do with the type of energy that Bitcoin mining uses. I think it has to do with a lot of people want to choose what you can use with energy and what you can not use with energy. And Cynthia lummis does a really great job at pointing this out and I'm going to play you a clip of her at this hearing and then we'll talk about it. First question is for mister altenburg. What does a, what does a digital asset mining operation look like? I mean, are there shovels digging in the ground? What does it look like? It depends where the location, though the mining sites that are being placed at our frac gas wells, they're essentially semi trailers that have methane gas powered generators that are plugged into the well and big shipping containers full of racks of Bitcoin miners. Okay, and a Bitcoin miner is actually a computer. Yeah, it's about the size of a toaster and it uses three times the energy of a house. Okay, so there is a bunch of toasters in a line, sometimes they're dipped in fluids, so they run cooler. They can be air cooled. They can be water cooled. But it's basically just a computer. Yes. So is that computer? That's mining Bitcoin. Directly emitting pollutants. No, it's energy source. It's electric sources, what's emitting? Okay. So now let's take an EV charging station.
Simply Bitcoin
"cynthia lummis" Discussed on Simply Bitcoin
"Yeah, welcome to another episode of simply Bitcoin live. You're a number one source for the peaceful Bitcoin revolution of codebreaking news culture medical warfare. We will be your guide through the separation of money and state. And today is one of those episodes where the incumbents state is fighting back. We've been covering this for quite a bit. Remember the propaganda piece, it was a former get the actor's name. It's slipping my mind right now. Anyways, we've been covering it the last two weeks, right? Very, very well produced videos coming out of the crypto handle, which is the Bloomberg crypto. They own it. And yeah, they hired an actor who was part of the Biden administration Kal Penn. Thank you, Jacob. Thank you producer Jacob, best producer in the game. Part of Harold and Kumar. And they've been using him to come out with these very well made propaganda pieces. It would call it, right? We also had the Biden administration in the various executive orders, questioning proof of work specifically. They're very specific in this, proof of works, energy usage. And we know since Ethereum migrated to proof of stake, it's really Bitcoin when they're talking about that. So this is a direct attack on Bitcoin. If you ban Bitcoin mining within the United States, that's where they want to go with this, right? So they held a hearing. We have all the details, and then we had the Bitcoin senator Cynthia lummis of Wyoming or Loomis. She fought back. So we're going to play you the entire clip, her for four or 5 minute sound bite. We're going to play it. We're going to discuss it. And then we're going to go through what it is they're saying, what it is they're talking about this, but this is make no mistake. This is very well orchestrated. They've been doing this for quite a while. This is a well planned out move. And what I think they're doing very similar to change the code, that movement that was funded by one of the founders of ripple. This is a social attack. They're trying to accumulate enough political will from the people, you know, convincing them that Bitcoin is terrible. It uses all this energy without getting into the nuance without getting into the fact that Bitcoin uses stranded energy. Bitcoin mining doesn't make sense in a city. It's too expensive, but they don't talk about that, right? Not to mention in Texas, right? What Bitcoin miners are doing over there. They're buying all that, all that stranded energy. They're actually helping the grid. But of course, all of that is lost, right? There's this very strong narrative that using energy is somehow a bad thing. When the ability for human beings to capture and use energy has been is a direct correlation with wealth, right? And you can see that. It's very, very obvious.
The Breakdown
"cynthia lummis" Discussed on The Breakdown
"It is posturing for these politicians and obviously an especially Elizabeth Warren to position themselves to be the main characters in whatever actual legal process their might or might not be. That doesn't mean that everything contained herein is dismissible FUD. It could be that DoJ charges are coming. I'm just saying that as of right now, Elizabeth Warren saying the same things that Reuters said just more loudly and angrily doesn't make them actually any closer to a DoJ action. Zooming out, I don't know how it all plays out for binance. I think my base case right now is that binance U.S. days are probably numbered. It feels fairly likely to me from where we are now that at some point in call it the next 6 months, we get a tweet from CZ that basically says, you know what? Screw the U.S.. We're out. I mean, nexo effectively said this when they announced their settlement with the SEC. That all of this just isn't worth it and the rest of the world is big. Not to mention other jurisdictions recording. Europe is actually getting its crap together and some common sense and clear regulations? And if it gets extremely notable that China seems to be giving its tacit approval to a slight loosening of crypto restrictions in Hong Kong. It wouldn't at all surprise me if that's something of a nod to geostrategic realignment. Join coin desks consensus 2023. The most important conversation in crypto and web three. Happening April 26th through 28th in Austin, Texas. Consensus is the industry's only event bringing together all sides of crypto, web three and the metaverse. Immerse yourself in all that blockchain technology has to offer creators, builders, founders, brand leaders, entrepreneurs, and more. Use code breakdown to get 15% off your pass. Visit consensus about coin desk dot com or check the link in the show notes. Anyways, bringing you back to binance and then being likely to leave U.S. shores. This morning CZ retweeted a piece about binance U.S.'s attempt to buy bankrupt voyagers assets and said, maybe we should pull out, we're still in support of the deal and helping return funds to users as quickly as possible if allowed to do so. So what's going on there? Well, the judge hearing the Voyager bankruptcy case yesterday said he was, quote, absolutely shocked by the SEC's objection to voyagers deal with binance U.S. to conclude the bankruptcy. The Voyager deal has battled through rounds of objections over recent months. Initially, the Justice Department's representative, the U.S. trustee, objected on grounds that binance U.S. may not have sufficient funds to close the deal, while the office of foreign assets control scrutinize the deal due to binance's offshore ties. The latest objections, though, came last week from the SEC and the New York department of financial services in New York attorney general, and came after 97% of creditors approved the deal. The SEC objected on the grounds that the $1 billion deal should be blocked because Voyager could not guarantee that the associated sale of assets would not violate securities laws. In particular, the SEC suggested that Voyager's native token was a security, albeit without providing any analysis or precedent. At a hearing on Thursday the judge addressed counsel for the SEC saying, you come here and tell me that I should stop everybody in their tracks because you might have an issue, it's kind of a weird objection. The judge's main complaint was that the SEC had asked Voyager to prove a negative with little guidance from the regulator. That is the SEC declined to provide rulemaking or a lawsuit proving that Voyager token was a security, instead of asking Voyager to prove that it was not. The judge continued, quote, I get the feeling that this objection has been made as a kind of cover. So you can say later that seaweed these issues. You haven't really done nothing. I need to know specifics. Counsel for the SEC suggested that creditors had not been sufficiently warned of regulatory risks, but declined to take a definitive position on whether the Voyager token was a security. Counsel for Voyager, meanwhile, reported to the court that the binance U.S. deal could see creditors recover 73% of their claims. An upward revision due to recent improvements in crypto markets. Jack schickler a regulatory reporter for coin desk said, the SEC is kindly stop all crypto until we figure out what our job is spiel, spiel got extremely short shrift from a judge today. At jammers 2012 says there comes a day when because I said so just doesn't cut it anymore. Today is that day for the SEC. Judge wiles is pushing back hard on the SEC who are attempting to further punish Voyager creditors just because they weren't warned of risks. James Murphy at metal lawman writes, regardless of the merits of the proposed plan to sell Voyager assets to binance U.S., it is refreshing to see a judge who gets it. Now of course the question becomes, is there anyone in Congress who will actually step in and stop a rogue SEC? Two Republican lawmakers have recently written to assorted government agencies question the accounting treatment of custody crypto assets specifically when it comes to bankruptcy. The two Republicans are representative Patrick mchenry, the chairman of the House financial services committee, and senator Cynthia lummis, who co authored the responsible financial innovation act last year with senator Kirsten gillibrand. These Republicans have asked several banking agencies how they're dealing with a controversial bulletin from the SEC last year, which directed firms to hold customer assets on their own balance sheets. The bulletin in question is staff accounting bulletin one 21. It was published by the SEC in April last year, and according to the letter from mchenry and lummis, the bulletin quote upends decades of precedent regarding the accounting treatment of custodial assets for banks, credit unions and other regulated financial institutions. This has a particularly concerning effect for banks, which are required to hold adequate reserve capital to offset their liabilities. Effectively requiring them to hold their customers crypto assets and then double up with additional bank capital and reserve. The letter claims this bulletin would effectively, quote, deny millions of Americans access to safe and secure custodial arrangement for digital assets. When instead the lawmakers say, quote, we should be encouraging prudentially regulated financial institutions like banks and credit unions to provide digital asset services precisely because they are subject to the highest standards of capital, liquidity recovery and resolution, custody, cybersecurity, and risk management. This issue came to a head recently during the Celsius bankruptcy, were deposited customer assets were ruled to be the property of the Celsius bankruptcy estate, rather than allowing customers to retain ownership. This ruling quote classified all Celsius customers as unsecured creditors, and therefore at the back of the line to recover their assets, highlighting the legal risk of effectively forcing customer custodial assets to be placed on balance sheets. The letter also attempted to discover whether the bank regulators had interactions with the SEC, informing this policy, and if they view the SEC's position as in conflict with their own policies. A chair Jerome Powell said last year that the Central Bank was evaluating the SEC's directive, which he noted changes long-standing practice that customer assets would be kept off of a financial firm's balance sheet. And as an indication of how these lawmakers view the action of Gary gensler's SEC, the letter said this bulletin quote places customer assets at greater risk of loss if a custodian becomes insolvent or enters receivership, violating the SEC's fundamental mission to protect customers. Now, overall, I think it's pretty noteworthy that we've reached the point where mchenry and lemmas are just directly saying that the SEC is ignoring its mandate to protect customers. But candidly, I'd like to see to quote Toby Keith a little less talk and a lot more action here. So will Congress step up, I do not know. But at least some of these battles are coming to the courts. I guess that's the best we can hope for right now. Anyways, guys, I hope you are heading off into a wonderful weekend as always I appreciate you listening until tomorrow be safe and take care of each other. Peace
CoinDesk Podcast Network
"cynthia lummis" Discussed on CoinDesk Podcast Network
"Anyways, bringing you back to binance and then being likely to leave U.S. shores. This morning CZ retweeted a piece about binance U.S.'s attempt to buy bankrupt voyagers assets and said, maybe we should pull out, we're still in support of the deal and helping return funds to users as quickly as possible if allowed to do so. So what's going on there? Well, the judge hearing the Voyager bankruptcy case yesterday said he was, quote, absolutely shocked by the SEC's objection to voyagers deal with binance U.S. to conclude the bankruptcy. The Voyager deal has battled through rounds of objections over recent months. Initially, the Justice Department's representative, the U.S. trustee, objected on grounds that binance U.S. may not have sufficient funds to close the deal, while the office of foreign assets control scrutinize the deal due to binance's offshore ties. The latest objections, though, came last week from the SEC and the New York department of financial services in New York attorney general, and came after 97% of creditors approved the deal. The SEC objected on the grounds that the $1 billion deal should be blocked because Voyager could not guarantee that the associated sale of assets would not violate securities laws. In particular, the SEC suggested that Voyager's native token was a security, albeit without providing any analysis or precedent. At a hearing on Thursday the judge addressed counsel for the SEC saying, you come here and tell me that I should stop everybody in their tracks because you might have an issue, it's kind of a weird objection. The judge's main complaint was that the SEC had asked Voyager to prove a negative with little guidance from the regulator. That is the SEC declined to provide rulemaking or a lawsuit proving that Voyager token was a security, instead of asking Voyager to prove that it was not. The judge continued, quote, I get the feeling that this objection has been made as a kind of cover. So you can say later that seaweed these issues. You haven't really done nothing. I need to know specifics. Counsel for the SEC suggested that creditors had not been sufficiently warned of regulatory risks, but declined to take a definitive position on whether the Voyager token was a security. Counsel for Voyager, meanwhile, reported to the court that the binance U.S. deal could see creditors recover 73% of their claims. An upward revision due to recent improvements in crypto markets. Jack schickler a regulatory reporter for coin desk said, the SEC is kindly stop all crypto until we figure out what our job is spiel, spiel got extremely short shrift from a judge today. At jammers 2012 says there comes a day when because I said so just doesn't cut it anymore. Today is that day for the SEC. Judge wiles is pushing back hard on the SEC who are attempting to further punish Voyager creditors just because they weren't warned of risks. James Murphy at metal lawman writes, regardless of the merits of the proposed plan to sell Voyager assets to binance U.S., it is refreshing to see a judge who gets it. Now of course the question becomes, is there anyone in Congress who will actually step in and stop a rogue SEC? Two Republican lawmakers have recently written to assorted government agencies question the accounting treatment of custody crypto assets specifically when it comes to bankruptcy. The two Republicans are representative Patrick mchenry, the chairman of the House financial services committee, and senator Cynthia lummis, who co authored the responsible financial innovation act last year with senator Kirsten gillibrand. These Republicans have asked several banking agencies how they're dealing with a controversial bulletin from the SEC last year, which directed firms to hold customer assets on their own balance sheets. The bulletin in question is staff accounting bulletin one 21. It was published by the SEC in April last year,
Markets Daily Crypto Roundup
"cynthia lummis" Discussed on Markets Daily Crypto Roundup
"Today's featured stories and opinion piece by Boyd Cohen, who's the CEO and cofounder of IO mob. Our piece today is entitled, I'm American, but my crypto startup won't be. Yes, bear markets are for building in crypto, so called. Yes, I am bullish on 2023 being the year more builders start to impact the real world through the growing interest in bringing real world assets or RWA on chain. And importantly, the explosion of interest in projects in the regenerative finance or refi space. Yet, I am extremely bearish on the U.S. as a place for builders to launch crypto projects, especially if there is or could be a token tied to their business. While jurisdictions such as Dubai are bringing regulatory clarity and direct support for builders to set up shop in this crypto oasis, the U.S. remains an outlier in embracing regulation through enforcement. This has been true for years when it comes to the never ending question about whether and which token should be classified as a security or commodity. Obviously, if the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Gary gensler had his way, everything in crypto would be a security by default, and he would have the power to be the judge, jury and executioner. Instead of regulatory certainty that creates predictability and the ability for the crypto ecosystem to move forward knowing its operating within the bounds of legality, the U.S. for far too long has opted for scare tactics through threats and fines in the absence of well defined regulation. There are many in Congress, including senator Cynthia lummis, a Republican from Wyoming, and members of the congressional blockchain caucus, such as representatives Tom emmer or Bill foster, who actually understand the consequences of an action. They see that this lack of regulatory clarity poses a fundamental risk of the U.S. being entirely left behind as crypto rails become more ubiquitous, and adopted by every industry in the world. Yet the failure of Congress to act has left a regulatory vacuum that gensler is managed to capitalize on. In the latest stunner, the SEC has forced crack into shut down its staking business in the U.S., representing some 10% of its annual revenue and pay a $30 million fine, because apparently the SEC or at least gensler has decided to yet again place a heavy hand on a centralized and highly regulated U.S. exchange. As countless industry experts have noted, it's ironic that companies like kraken and coinbase, which have been operating legally in the U.S. for years and are in compliance with every law that was knowingly applied to them, are so frequently the subject of the ire of the SEC. The result has been that fraudulent companies and actors like Sam bankman fried and FTX succeed by moving offshore where they're out of reach of all U.S. regulators and the SEC's regulation by enforcement regime. But let me ask you this. If you are a founder considering where to set up your legitimate crypto business and you have the world to choose from, why would you even put the U.S. in your top ten places to consider? I can tell you from firsthand experience as a crypto founder myself. Every single lawyer we've met with has advised us against considering the U.S. due to the regulatory uncertainty. And of course, when crypto companies outside the U.S. decide to participate in token generation, they're always advised to leverage know your customer or KYC processes to avoid directly selling tokens to the U.S.. No one really knows what constitutes a security in the U.S. crypto space. So this creates difficulties for builders everywhere in the world, as they deploy tokens, but try to avoid the wrath of the SEC. Not because the founders aim to be fraudulent or intentionally self securities to U.S. retail investors because no one actually knows what the U.S. regulators or even the SEC actually consider a security. Given the well documented challenges of applying these so called howey test, two digital assets on crypto rails. My own company is in the process of evaluating where to incorporate our token generating entity. And yes, Dubai is now very high on our list, along with Singapore, Switzerland, the UK, and other jurisdictions that have much cleaner regulations for token issuers. Meanwhile, there is no jurisdiction in the U.S. that would make sense for us to consider, despite my being an American citizen, and our project already having ecosystem participants here in the United States. The U.S., historically the birthplace of venture capital and global innovation, better get its act together soon and develop regulation by rules that all builders can transparently adhere to. If not, the country and its innovation ecosystem is in great peril of losing the best and the brightest to emerging crypto hubs the world over, who have recognized the need and acted to create regulatory certainty. And that's our show for today. Thank you very much for listening. If you have any questions or comments, send the show an email at podcasts at coin desk dot com or you can email me directly at Adam Levine at coin desk dot com. If you like what we're doing, we always appreciate reviews on Apple podcasts or your preferred listening platform. This episode was produced by Adrian blossom myself with further support from the podcast team over at coin desk dot com. Have a great rest of your day and we'll be back tomorrow with another episode of markets daily.
Bloomberg Radio New York
"cynthia lummis" Discussed on Bloomberg Radio New York
"Network to knock it offline. For the fourth time this year, Elon Musk is unloaded Tesla's stock, the electric carmaker CEO, sold almost $3.6 billion worth of shares this week. That stock is plunged 55% this year. Investors are concerned that must $44 billion purchase of Twitter could have an impact on Tesla. And Ford and a Chinese company may build a battery factory in Michigan despite current U.S. China tensions. The automaker and CATL are trying to take advantage of a complex arrangement to read new tax benefits. Bloomberg news has learned that Virginia is also a possible home for the multi-billion dollar facility. And as the Bloomberg stem report, Nathan. No, that'll be one to watch. Thank you, Karen. We're coming up to 6 44 on Wall Street and it's now time to check what's going on in D.C.. Some of the top stories in our nation's capital include the ongoing fallout on Capitol Hill over FTX. The Senate voting to ban TikTok on government owned phones, the house passing a one week stop gap to avoid a government shutdown and President Biden encouraging fair elections in a meeting with African leaders. Let's bring in Bloomberg government congressional reporter Jack Fitzpatrick's for more on some of these stories. Of course, Jack, we've been following the FTX hearings very closely over the last two days on Capitol Hill. Have you heard any minds change from lawmakers about crypto? Not really among the enthusiasts, the enthusiasm is still there. It may be the case that some Democrats who had concerns see those concerns as ramped up, Brad Sherman, the Democrat from California, described crypto as a garden of snakes, but some of the people who work on these issues on the Republican side is still seem to be pretty enthusiastic. Senator Cynthia lummis is sort of went on defense and said, you know, there's a separate conversation about FTX versus broadly about cryptocurrencies. She's worked on a bill regulating cryptocurrency. Patrick mchenry, who's in line to be the financial services committee chair in the house next year, Republican from North Carolina that he's still a believer in digital assets. So it doesn't seem like the kind of situation that's fundamentally changed where the support and where the concern is. Maybe it just ramped up the pressure for those who already had concerns. Well, where does this leave the possibility for further regulation around crypto? Are we saying that same kind of bipartisan split when it comes to that? You know, there has been some bipartisan work on regulation, senator lomas has worked with and proposed a bill with senator Kristen gillibrand, a Democrat to set up a regulatory framework. That's one of a few things that have been proposed. It's not the simplest conversation to get into and it's difficult to see exactly how Congress works together with very narrow majorities in the House and Senate with different parties in the next Congress. So you can't exactly guarantee a lot of progress on this issue going forward, but there definitely are still key lawmakers who are interested in taking this up. They're not just trying to wash their hands of it and say, well, clearly crypto is terrible. We have to simply crack down. They're probably is some bipartisan interest still in creating that kind of regulatory framework. Now, speaking of bipartisan Jack, we don't often get to say bipartisan passage in the Senate, but man, did we see that when it comes to TikTok? Yes. So on unimportant bills usually they manage to pass things by unanimous consent in the Senate that might be renaming a post office or something along those lines. They actually took up and agreed to by unanimous consent pass a bill to ban TikTok on government owned phones, clearly a bipartisan and unanimous reflection of the concerns about the Chinese owned app being on government phones, the security concerns about that pretty significant. So that was relatively sudden in terms of it coming up to the Senate floor and being passed, but clearly that at least that limited measure on government owned phones was something there's a lot of support for. And it looks like you've got a limited measure when it comes to keeping the government funded. What's the update on averting a government shutdown? Well, they're buying an extra week tomorrow night Friday night is the deadline currently. They are the house just passed a weeklong stopgap, the Senate is supposed to take that up probably today unless they want to work late and wait until the last minute and do it Friday. But likely today, they have a framework agreement on how to do a real government funding bill. And so now they essentially just need to finish writing it, which takes a little bit of time, but the goal is to be able to do that and enact it by December 23rd next Friday and lately it's been good news in terms of the progress on that. So they're buying an extra week and crossing their fingers that they can finish what I'm sure would be more than a 2000 page Bill by them. About a minute left here, Jack, President Biden has been focused the last couple of days on Africa, the leaders summit. What's some of the highlights from that? Well, the emphasized fair elections, Jake Sullivan brought this up and said that it's not about a specific warning, but they wanted to express that there are elections coming up and they want to emphasize the importance of free and fair elections. A lot of talk about investment about more than $50 billion in U.S. investment in Africa over the next three years. And of course, you saw the president stay at the hotel where this happened to watch the Morocco France World Cup game, not exactly the most important part, but investment and free and fair elections, really the big two prongs there. Yeah, and Morocco is part of Africa, of course. So the focus certainly there as well. Bloomberg government, congressional reporter, Jack Fitzpatrick, joining us live from the nation's capital. Read more on all these stories at Bloomberg dot com or on the Bloomberg terminal and follow all the latest on Bloomberg radio in Washington, Bloomberg 99 one, and one O 5.7 FM HD two. S&P futures
Bloomberg Radio New York
"cynthia lummis" Discussed on Bloomberg Radio New York
"I'm Julie Ryan. This is Bloomberg daybreak weekend, our global look ahead at the top stories for investors in the coming week. I'm Nathan Hager. Volatility in cryptocurrency is putting the spotlight on attempts to regulate digital coins. For more, let's head to our Bloomberg 99 one newsroom in Washington and Amy Morris. Amy. Thank you, Nathan. Cryptocurrency is a hot topic on Capitol Hill in part because it is so volatile, and there are some new efforts to regulate crypto, one bipartisan measure comes from democratic senator Kirsten gillibrand of New York and Republican senator Cynthia Loomis of Wyoming, joining me now to talk about all of this. Bloomberg's Alison versus Bill Allison, thank you for taking the time with me today. Thanks for having me. Now, I want to just go back to ten, 12 years ago when crypto first came on the scene, and the big attraction was that cryptocurrency wasn't regulated. You couldn't regulate it. It was the wild west. People really seemed to like that. What's changed? So I think what's changed is the fact that now crypto is growing and it's starting to become a real asset that people are investing in There are a lot more individuals that own cryptocurrency. There are a lot more companies propping up. So that's happening and then we're also seeing some instances where coins are failing. For example, there was a stablecoin. This is the type of asset that's supposed to be pegged to the U.S. dollar or other stable assets. It was called Tara USD and it actually collapsed recently. So those types of events are capturing the attention of regulators as well as the growth that we're seeing. Despite obviously the last couple of weeks where we've seen some declines in the market and cryptocurrency and stocks as well. I love it when you anticipate my next question because I wanted to ask about how cryptocurrency finally did catch the attention of lawmakers of Capitol Hill so that now they're taking it more seriously for a while these sort of treated it like funny money. You know, definitely I think the events of the last couple of weeks have caught their attention. Like I mentioned, we have this popular stable planned collapse, which definitely had a lot more lawmakers calling for regulation. We've also had some other instances where popular platforms have had to freeze withdrawals and other things that might hurt consumers. So lawmakers are definitely paying more attention. I think there is a lot of momentum, especially if you come to setting up guardrails for stablecoins for instance. So maybe we could see something at the end of the year. Obviously, the midterm elections? Pose some challenges there with timing. But I think definitely the beginning of next year, a lot of people are anticipating something to happen here. Now, Allison, we started this conversation talking about senators Kirsten gillibrand and Republican senator Cynthia Loomis, and how they've been working together on this legislation about cryptocurrency. And one part of this bill clarifies who would regulate cryptocurrency. I hadn't thought of that. What does it specify? So it would provide some guidelines of when a digital asset is regulated by the commodity futures trading commission, which currently mostly regulates derivatives, so this bill would say, actually, the CFTC also gets to regulate directly any digital assets that are commodities. The two senators specifically mentioned Bitcoin and ether. And that's very important to note because these are the two largest cryptocurrencies that we have out there. They make up more than half of the global market cap for all of crypto. So that's a big responsibility. And then on the flip side, we also still have a role here for the Securities and Exchange Commission. They would be able to regulate digital assets that are securities. So essentially ones that are issued to the public to note and fundraising attempts and then with the expectation that there will be profits on the back end. And Alison, why is it these two senators? Why are they so interested in cryptocurrency? So, you know, these two senators obviously Cynthia lummis is interesting. She started investing in Bitcoin herself in 2013. So she's been deeply involved in this space even before it was super popular. She also comes from a state Wyoming that has been very crypto friendly. They've passed a series of laws that are friendly to the industry. They also have these special charters that you can get as kind of a crypto bank. A financial institution that holds digital assets on behalf of their customers. So that's where she sort of comes in. And then on the other end, we have senator Kirsten gillibrand who obviously represents New York. Which some would say is the financial capital of the world. And obviously crypto is becoming more important there. She's also, you know, she told me in an interview that when she started working on the Senate intelligence committee that this was becoming more of an issue that they were having hearings on. And so she was really starting to increase our interest in this particular space. And we are talking with Alice and vers brell she covers crypto and regulation for Bloomberg news. Would regulating it actually change the nature of crypto and how it works for us. So it would change in the sense that I guess some Bitcoin purists would say would change in that. They think this is supposed to be a space that's unregulated. That's not really touched by the government. But then you have folks on the other side, consumer advocates, for instance. Who say putting in these guardrails with just really add in protections for investors So if you have situations like the Tara USD collapse, that stablecoin I mentioned before, then you would have a way for investors to kind of get their money back. And potentially you wouldn't even be able to have those types of cryptocurrencies exist. So it's kind of two sides of the argument here, but I think it's pretty safe to say that at some point there is going to be some sort of regulation. And we just have to wait to see what lawmakers do. And is lawmakers don't act, see what these other agencies do. And the bill also includes a proposal that would analyze the environmental impact of crypto mining. So sort of a study versus an actual piece of regulation to tell us about how that would work because when you think of crypto mining, you don't normally think of the environmental impact. So this study that they would require would come from the federal energy regulatory commission in conjunction with the CFTC and the SEC. And basically, basically, it would look at energy consumption and the digital asset market as a whole. But crypto mining comes up specifically in this measure as well because that's been a concern of a lot of progressive Democrats. We've seen a lot of reports showing that the mining of Bitcoin in particular uses a lot of energy. And so we've seen some actions in states like New York to actually cut back on this type of activity. I think it's interesting that this provision, as opposed to a real regulation or a real crackdown on crypto mining, it's really just directing further study to look at the issue. I think it's probably safe to say that this was probably a compromise between the two senators. We've seen senator lummis say she's not concerned that this is really that big of an issue. I think on the other hand, though, this is an issue that senator gillibrand really cares about. So I think this was probably a good middle ground for the two of them. What sort
Mark Levin
Josh Mandel: J. D. Vance Has Been Camped out in Silicon Valley
"Today and in the past you've been backed by Tea Party organizations You've been backed by gun rights organizations You've been backed by outsider organizations You've been the outsider fighting all the time when you were treasurer You were the outsider fighting the entrenched government in Ohio and so forth I'm just asking you a straight question Was JD Vance anywhere to be seen or heard No word I mean literally this guy's been camped out in Silicon Valley for years his personal bread his business bread and his campaign bread is all buttered by Silicon Valley I mean like I said earlier I think he's a Silicon Valley sleeper cell And that's what he'll be in Washington as well And I think a lot of the people here in Ohio see JD advance and that's why they're going to reject them at the ballot box tomorrow And for any of you listeners that want to learn more about Ohio or their other parts of the country the websites real easy It's Josh mandel dot com J O S MAN to EL dot com It's not too late to pitch in if you want to go on there and pitch in ten bucks 20 bucks 50 bucks whatever it is We'll use the vote activities tonight and tomorrow We've got a huge get out the vote operation through churches and through pro gun groups and through pro life groups As you mentioned Mark I am the only candidate in the race that's endorsed by the national association of gun rights which is a no compromise not given an inch constitutional rights gun group I'm also the only candidate in the race endorsed by the right to life action coalition of Ohio who are the pointy tip of the spear leaders in the right to life movement and as mentioned been endorsed by senator Ted Cruz of Texas senator Mike Lee of Utah senator Cynthia lummis of Wyoming these are all senators who were endorsed by Jim demint in the Senate conservatives
Mark Levin
Josh Mandel: We Have an Army of Constitutional Conservatives in Ohio
"Josh mandel it's a pleasure to have you with us How's it going there It's going well Mark We have this army of constitutional conservatives throughout the state that are fueling our campaign The political big brain say that whoever has the most money wins especially in a state like Ohio 7th largest state in the nation But we are defying political wisdom and we are winning this race because we have this army of constitutional conservatives and I think Mark that people in my state Ohio And frankly people throughout the country they're looking to send backbone steel spine constitutional conservative fighters to Washington People like Ted Cruz people like Mike Lee People like Cynthia lummis Jim Jordan and others And so when people look at my campaign they see that that is who I am I am a fighter And like you referenced I had no problem taking on John Kasich when he was acting like a Democrat in Columbus and I'll have no problem taking on Republicans who are acting like Democrats in Washington
The Charlie Kirk Show
Senators Urge Biden to Add More H-2B Seasonal Worker Visas
"17 Republicans just signed a letter to Joe Biden. I'm reading from breitbart dot com demanding saying we need more foreign workers. So there are 12 million Americans out of work, there's 35 to 40 million members of my generation that are underemployed. Let me say that again. They are underemployed. So you're not even looking at unemployment. Let's talk about underemployment. Now, what is underemployment? Well, it's someone that went to Wichita state university, and they got a degree in Central American migratory bird studies. And they're working as a barista or they're working as some sort of social media manager, but they are clearly underemployed. But don't worry, Senate Republicans are on the job. Senate Republicans believe that while Biden is trying to bring more people into the country, they want to help them do that. Senators asked Biden to speed up the process, so employers could get more foreign workers into blue collar American jobs. So while we have inflation and while things are more expensive, they want to bring in more foreign workers so that you could depress wages. So prices are going up, so let's try to get our own carpenters and plumbers disenfranchised from ever being able to have meaningful work. Why are they doing this? Well, the 17 Republicans who signed the letter, and I respect some of these people, and I philosophically see where Rand Paul is coming from on this. I totally disagree with him. He's more libertarian when it comes to immigration. I am not. But some of these other people, Kevin Kramer, Mike rounds Lindsey Graham, James rish, Lisa Murkowski, Roy blunt, Cynthia lummis, John cornyn, Mike crapo, John thune, Susan Collins pat toomey, roger wicker, Jerry Moran, Rand Paul, who I'm going to exempt Rand Paul because he's been so amazing on Fauci and honestly, he's a friend of mine, and he's just been awesome on many other things. John barrasso and Tim Scott, but they sign it alongside 17 Democrats. And it says, quote, The White House and congressional Democrats, that's a separate quote. This is from RJ hauman from the federation for American immigration reform, saying quote, Republicans say they're great on the illegal front due to the border crisis, but why not also oppose programs that a rife with abuse displace American workers and depressed wages, of course they do.
77WABC Radio
"cynthia lummis" Discussed on 77WABC Radio
"This'll is Maura money with economists Steve Moore. Now, Steve More welcome back. Folks is more money out. 77 talk radio WBC and we have affiliates throughout the country, including on the West Coast in California. So thank you, everyone for joining us, but Our home base is, of course, right in the heart of Manhattan in New York City, one of the greatest cities in the world. You all know I'm from Chicago. So I kind of think Chicago by be the greatest city in America. But I love New York. I worked there for many years and we've got to get our cities up and running before I get to my guest star out of breath and I wanted to run remind people You have to get the committee to unleash prosperity. Hotline Every morning. You can eat, We melt right to you. So it's at your doorstep. When you get up in the morning, and you want to find out the most important things that were going on. You can read it in five minutes. A lot of times. It's just a headline or graft or chart showing you a lot of the data that the fake media is not providing yourself. You want that, By the way, I'm not selling anything spokes. It's free. It costs zero. We want you to have it. It's just going to committee to unleash prosperity. Click on. I want the hotline. Give us your email and we'll send it to you every day. Okay, I want to get the Adam Brown and he is a great friend. He's a colleague. He's one of the great grassroots activist in this country. He's a solid free market conservative, and he is also What's importantly, a new father Adam, Congratulations on the new baby. I hope Mom and the mom and your new son are doing well. They're doing great, Steve. In fact, I'm so glad when you get married. You reached out to have me on today because this is five minutes. I don't have to be on diaper duty. But not Adam about Chicago. You're talking about New York. Can I nominate my hometown in Cleveland as the greater Okay, You got it, My friend. You've got one of these days. The Cleveland Browns are even gonna make the world the Super Bowl. By the way. This is Super Bowl Sunday. You well know that by the way out of I can ask you a personal question that we're gonna get the policy. Have you changed any diapers yet? Steve. I have Well, since my wife did have a C section. She couldn't get up. So I have changed. Probably the majority of the diapers are about a week ago, but I am sure she is quickly going to surpass And I'm Yeah, I'm getting quite good at it. And And I mean, no one ever told you that when you're when you're changing a little boy, Sometimes they decide that's a great opportunity to use the restroom while you are changing a diaper. So when you're remember that Rainbow P that comes out of that little looking. All right, let's get into it. Adam. Congratulations. Also on your new TV show, which airs I believe for the first time tomorrow morning news, Max. Tell me about it. I'm really excited. Thanks, Steve. You know it's at 11 o'clock on Newsmax, and you can either tune into Newsmax or you just go to the website and they've got a great app that you can watch their programming if you don't have to be to have it. Are you your cord cutter and don't have cable. Save our nation. Right? Save our nation, Our nation save the nation. The whole point of the show for me is that there was something missing from a lot of the debate on Sundays. We here meet the press and all the other shows. There's not one with the center, right? Perspective, so I wanted I fill that gap, and the other thing I wanted to do is very much inspired by the work that you, Steve do and Larry Kudlow has done and it is these guys. They're happy warriors, and I think it's important. I'm getting so tired of always arguing like we're in the morally inferior position. Free market economics and conservatism is the pro person pro human being policy position. We are on the on the on the moral high ground, right? I couldn't agree more. And you know, I think this is so important because I do watch a lot of those Sunday new show, So they're all the same. They all petal kind of left wing nonsense. They are fake news and a lot of cases, not all of them, but many of them are and they don't support the free enterprise system. As you do so well at Freedomworks and s. So tell me about who you have. I know you have Steve War on this week cause I mean, taking yesterday that makes a lot of it to be I'm honored to be on that panel. But tell me who's your Who's your newsmaker of the week? Well, thank you decided to go with Cynthia Lummis, the newest senator from Wyoming. And part of our goal is, you know a lot of these different people. You see Jim Jordan on television, but I wanted to start the highlight Some of these new folks that would bring in, uh, names you know, he was now in the second term. Chip Roy of Texas joins us. David Schweikert congressman from Arizona. You know, we also have Scott Rasmussen, the pollster who was on it. And, of course, the head of the network, and I have a conversation on our goals of the show, Chris Ruddy, but I think as time goes on, but we've got incredible people. I believe you have one coming up on your program soon. Maria Salazar, we've gotten Nancy Mace out of South Carolina. This last election actually was fantastic for our movement when it comes to adding new people to the house and the Senate who are going to be our flag bears for a long time to come, so we want to make sure we're introducing those folks to our audience. I think it's so important and you're right about Maria Salazar shall be on our show in this show in about 15 minutes, folks, so and not she's great. She's bilingual. She's Cuban. American beat up She'd be Donna Shalala. Remember that name? She was a chalet Low. Well, obviously was was the HHS secretary for Bill Clinton. And it was a great victory for freedom and free enterprise. But I wanted to ask you about What is the strategy? You're the strategist to was going to help us beat this $1.9 trillion spending bill, which I believe is the worst spending bill in the history of the United States. And I've been in this game a long time and I came to Washington 1984. And I've never seen anything like this. I think it is going to bankrupt our country. I think it's going to cause interest rates and inflation to go through the roof. If they go forward with this. I think it's going to discourage people from working. If we just give people more and more money for not working. How do we defeat this can wait. I was listening to your show earlier and you said something that was so important. We see the light at the end of the tunnel. Now is not the time to pay corrupt the country and we're paying as you continue to disincentivize work. That's what you get. You don't get work. If you incentivize work, you get employment, and And so the more we consider the just continue to shut the economy down and subsidizing states like In New York and California to not reopened..
860AM The Answer
"cynthia lummis" Discussed on 860AM The Answer
"Consumer access to the corporate animal is number 13 35 record unless number six 233 Clousing London relations in Alaska, Hawaii Gorge in Massachusetts, not to go to South Dakota or you don't Ladies are taking the stage on Capitol Hill. There will be 118 women in the 117th Congress. 89 Democrats 29 Republicans. That's five Maura than the previous record of 25 back in 2000 and five While still in the majority. Democrats will have the slimmest margin of power in decades because most the seats lost in November were won by GOP women. The Senate will have only one new female member, this term Republican Cynthia Lummis of former representative from Wyoming. That's correspondent Rhonda Ross to rescue teams searching for survivors. Four days after a landslide carried away homes and a Norwegian village found no signs of life yesterday amid the ruins and debris three bodies have been recovered with searchers are still looking for seven more people believed to be missing. A landslide in the village of Ask is the worst in modern Norwegian history. It shocked citizens of the Nordic nation. Using analysis town hall dot com. I'm Michael Harrington. Disabled dog that went missing from Bourbon, Missouri in February, is reunited with its owner and the New Year 60 Miles away. We get the story from national correspondent Julie Walker Athena was recovering from having her back leg amputated after being hit by a car. When she disappeared from Dylan Summers yard. He thought she was gone for good. It turned out his friend with looking for a dog online and just happen to come across Europe contacted him. He's like, Hey, whatever happened your dog, Gateway Pet Guardians Program director Alicia Vianello. Says they posted Athena's picture on their website so she could be found or adopted. Everyone was super excited and I've talked to him a few times since then, and he's so happy and he's really thankful, and he said she's doing awesome. Vianello says They got Athena from animal control after she was rescued from a property last year, they took in more than 800 dogs and reunited 25 with owners. I'm Julie Walker more on these stories of town hall.
WCBM 680 AM
"cynthia lummis" Discussed on WCBM 680 AM
"Trump and his allies to challenge the results of the election. 11 Republicans announced that they would support challenges to the electoral college results unless there was a 10 day on it, Bernie better than Washington. The Christmas Day bombing in downtown Nashville, which led to communications outages all across the Southeast US his raising concerns about the general fallibility of U. S networks. Widespread service outages followed the explosion, which damaged a major, a TNT network hub. The impact extending hundreds of miles to at least four neighboring states is dropping 911 call centers, hospitals and flights out of the Nashville airport. Nearly all services where restored three days after the blast. Some outages remained a while longer as two questions about what the U. S conduce to prevent future disruptions from attack or natural disasters. Rich commerce in reporting. India has authorized a pair of Corona virus vaccines, paving the way for a huge inoculation program to stem the spread of the pandemic in the world's second most populous country. China says it's going to take counter measures in response to the New York Stock Exchange is announcement that it will delist three major Chinese telecoms and the latest flare up of tensions between Beijing and Washington. More on these stories. A town hall come Meanwhile, relief factor is so successful in lowering or eliminating pain. I'm often asked that question beatings Have Talbot, the father and son, founders of really Factor tell me they believe our bodies were designed to heal. That's right. Designed to heal on now I agree. The doctors who formulated really factor for Pete and self selected the four best ingredients 100% drug free ingredients. But each help your body deal with inflammation. That's correct. Each of the four ingredients deal with inflammation on a different metabolic pathway that right they're approaching your pain from four different angles may very well be. Why so many Americans find such wonderful pain relief if you have back pain, shoulder, neck, hip, knee or foot pain from exercise, or even just getting older. You must order the three week quick start now discounted the only 1995 to see if it will work for you, too. I think it could give your body what it needs to heal itself. Got to really factored outcome. Call 805 183 84 early factor dot com. Ladies are taking the stage on Capitol Hill. There will be 118 women in the 117th Congress. 89 Democrats 29 Republicans. That's five Maura than the previous record of 25 back in 2005. While still in the majority. Democrats will have the slimmest margin of power in decades because most the seats lost in November were won by GOP women. The Senate will have only one new female member of this term Republican Cynthia Lummis of former representative from Wyoming. Correspondent round The rocks trip. Rescue teams searching for survivors four days after a landslide carried away homes and a Norwegian village about no signs of life yesterday amid the room buildings and debris. Three bodies have been recovered, but searchers they're still looking for seven more people believed to be missing. Landslide in the village of Ask is the worst in modern Norwegian history and a shocked citizens of the Nordic nation News and Analysis. Town hall that calm Disabled dog went missing from Bourbon, Missouri in February, is reunited with its owner in the New year. 60 Miles away. We get the story from national correspondent Julie Walker Athena was recovering from having her back leg amputated after being hit by a car. When she disappeared from Dylan Summers yard. He thought she was gone for good. It turned out his friend with looking for a dog online and just happen to come across your it contacted him and he's like, Hey, whatever happened your dog, Gateway Pet Guardians program director Alicia Vienna. Says they posted Athena's picture on their website so she could be found or adopted. Everyone was super excited and I've talked to him a few times since then, and he's so happy and he's really thankful, and he said she's doing awesome. Vianello says They got Athena from animal control after she was rescued from a property last year, they took in more than 800 dogs and reunited 25 with owners. I'm Julie Walker. More on these stories of town hall that calm Rainy and here to the weekend periods of.