Why Bitcoin Can't Be Separated from Crypto

Don’t believe the ‘maximalists’: bitcoin can’t be separated from crypto

The real reason bitcoin maximalists want to separate bitcoin from the rest of crypto is to create the illusion of scarcity in a world where there is none. CoinMarketCap now lists more than 21,000 different crypto tokens, which bitcoin maximalists call “shitcoins”. Of course they do — if there is infinite supply, how can there be any value? This is still the core problem of crypto, and bitcoin cannot solve it.

This is not to say that there aren’t some crypto projects and tokens that are better than others. But a spade, no matter how shiny, is still a spade. And bitcoin, I’m afraid, is still crypto.

What Would Jesus Buy: Investor Charts Course for $2 Billion Fund

It’s a good day on Wall Street, high temple of Mammon, when Robert Netzly proclaims the power of God.

At 4 p.m. New York time, 2 p.m. here in Idaho, Netzly takes a break after the market close, gathers his analysts and sales reps and turns to the Book of Romans. He’s been praying on a question you never hear on the Street: What would Jesus buy?

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Here in Boise—a fast-growing city of Brooklyn-esque lattes and out-of-state transplants grafted upon deep-red America—Netzly is positioning himself as an evangelical answer to big money. His idea is that the US is so riven by politics, culture, faith and more that even the stock market can tear us apart. Netzly’s small firm, Inspire Investing—which follows a strategy that he calls biblically responsible—is part of something larger: a Republican backlash to the trillions of dollars committed to environmental, social and governance investing.

JPMorgan CEO Calls Crypto Tokens Like Bitcoin ‘Decentralized Ponzi Schemes’

Jamie Dimon didn’t mince words when a US lawmaker mentioned the executive’s history of criticizing cryptocurrencies.

“I’m a major skeptic on crypto tokens, which you call currency, like Bitcoin,” the JPMorgan Chase & Co. chief executive officer said in congressional testimony Wednesday. “They are decentralized Ponzi schemes.”

Crypto Remains a Priority for UK Under New Leader, Drawing Industry Excitement

The U.K. said it still plans on becoming a crypto hub despite a recent leadership shuffle, and industry advocates are thrilled.

Even with all of the change in its leadership, the U.K. government is set to press forward with former Finance Minister Rishi Sunak’s plans to turn the country into an international hub for crypto, Richard Fuller, the country’s new economic secretary to the Treasury, said at the U.K.’s first-ever crypto debate in Westminster last week.

Enemy of the SPAC: Law Professor Takes Deal Sponsors to Court

Stanford Law Professor Michael Klausner toiled in academic obscurity for decades until 2020, when he wrote a paper slamming special purpose acquisition companies as a rip-off of everyday investors.

Now he’s taking his newfound cache to Delaware Chancery Court. He’ll argue in a Friday hearing that blank-check company GigCapital3 Inc. did what SPACs across the industry do—hide from investors how much money they give to insiders through the promise of nearly free shares.

“Somebody’s got to say, I’m paying $10 to invest $5 or $6,” Klausner said in an interview. “If that’s fully disclosed, which I think it should be and will be, there might be” fewer SPACs. “It will be scaled back a lot.”

Klausner’s lawsuits targeting GigCapital3 and two other SPACs highlight potential legal risks for investors, known as sponsors, who launched blank-check vehicles during their recent boom years. He seeks to claw back for ordinary investors the millions of dollars sponsors made in closing deals.

Why the Crypto World Flinches When the SEC Calls Coins Securities

7. What coins are or aren’t considered a security?

The short answer is that beyond the very biggest cryptocurrency there’s a lot of ambiguity. US regulators including the SEC agree that Bitcoin, which is by far the largest digital asset, isn’t a security. It was started by an unknown person or persons going by the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto and does not exist as a way to raise money for a specific project. The second-biggest token, Ether, was deemed not to be a security during the Trump administration by a senior SEC official who signaled that while Ether may have started out qualifying as a security — the Ethereum Foundation used it to raise money — it had grown into something sufficiently decentralized that it probably no longer was one. But after Ethereum changed to a system in which coins that are “staked” play a role in recording transactions, Gensler said that the fact that staked coins can earn interest might lead regulators to start treating it as a security. The CFTC deems Ether a commodity, and the CME lists futures on it as well as Bitcoin.

Trump’s social media company threatens to sue SEC over delayed DWAC SPAC deal

Former President Donald Trump’s social media company, Trump Media & Technology Group, threatened on Wednesday to sue the Securities and Exchange Commission over the delayed merger with SPAC Digital World Acquisition (NASDAQ:DWAC).

“In light of the obvious conflicts of interest among SEC officials and clear indications of political bias, TMTG is now exploring legal action against the SEC,” TMTG said in a regulatory filing.

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The SEC has stalled its review of our planned merger with DWAC, having failed to act despite DWAC having filed its registration statement more than four months ago,” TMTG said in the filing. “This inexcusable obstruction, which directly contradicts the SEC’s stated mission, is damaging investors and many others who are simply following the rules and trying to expand a successful business.”