Issue 91 – GDP on the blockchain
The regulator set to take on primary crypto oversight is down to a single Commissioner, and new pro-crypto PACs focus on installing more Republicans in the midterms
Issue 91 – GDP on the blockchain
The regulator set to take on primary crypto oversight is down to a single Commissioner, and new pro-crypto PACs focus on installing more Republicans in the midterms
The Trump family's web of crypto businesses is growing ever more tangled, as they've announced yet another crypto treasury company (this one in partnership with Crypto.com). This is either the fifth or sixth the Trumps are involved with.
(Full-size image: https://storage.mollywhite.net/trump-family-crypto-projects.png
Zoomable graphic: https://www.mollywhite.net/etc/trump-family-crypto-projects/)
Well, this will be a topic of conversation with cousin Jimmy G (ray)b.
they want to put more cash into their #CRO treasury than any "digital asset treasury" company other than MSTR w/the bitcoins.
wtf?
I know they're in El Salvador doing stuff. I know they're coming back to the US now that Trump is back and fraud investigations have stopped. I know they want to at least add USDT as an alternative to USDC.
I have a feeling they're in El Salvador because they're trying to implement Yarvin's ideas of bringing back the City States, which would be largely implemented by crypto governance.
How in with Trump are they and where would they be in this map?
These are great notes for when the revolution comes.
The normally five-person CFTC Commission will soon be down to just one Commissioner, Acting Chair Caroline Pham. Pham plans to resign when Trump's nominee is confirmed. This could leave the agency — which may take on primary crypto oversight — under unilateral control.
Commerce Secretary Lutnick has announced plans to "put out GDP on the blockchain". I am a little concerned they hope to lean on the supposed inherent reliability of blockchains to lend artificial credibility to questionable numbers.
The only real value of a blockchain is to create shared consensus in a distributed system in the absence of a trusted authority. When it comes to publishing GDP statistics, a) who else is or wants to publish or edit those stats? and b) isn’t the US government supposed to be the trusted authority here?
🫠
So an official record of lies is still lies.
The revolving door flung former Digital Assets Advisory Council director Bo Hines into an advisory role at stablecoin issuer Tether, after he helped back the stablecoin regulation that will largely dictate Tether's operations in the US going forward.
Bloomberg published a great story about a plan by Tether co-founder and some other guy to pitch bitcoin fugitive Roger Ver on paying $30 million for a pardon. It didn't work out, and Ver is apparently paying (much less) for Roger Stone instead.
(Bloomberg article: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-08-18/how-a-30-million-crypto-pardon-scheme-failed-before-it-got-to-trump)
Political fundraising is ramping up for the midterms, and the pro-crypto super PAC Fairshake is number one on the list of super PACs by cash raised in the 2025–2026 cycle.
Among those excited about the crypto industry’s massive political influence are current, powerful Senators like Senate Banking Committee Chair Tim Scott.
“Thank you, to all of y’all, for getting rid of Sherrod Brown. ... The industry put Bernie Moreno in the Senate.”
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