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If it's crypto it's not money laundering.
The Department of Justice no longer targeting crypto platforms for "acts of their end users" effectively exempts the technology from money laundering laws.
My latest: moneyness.ca/2025/04/if-its…
John Paul Koning
23.7K posts
John Paul Koning
@jp_koning
monetary economics|history of money|central banking|coinage|financial privacy|payments|gold|financial inclusion|cryptocurrency|monetary law|financial crime
- Stablecoins are no help. The U.S. dollar isn't the world's dominant currency because of the fabric on which dollars are issued. It's dominant because of rule of law, low corruption, stability, and strong investor protections, all of which are being eroded.Bessent: We are going to keep the U.S. the dominant reserve currency in the world and we will use stable coins to do that.
00:00 - Sure, I'm happy that my bitcoins are rising in price. But let's not fool ourselves. We aren't "changing the world" or "fixing money." We're a bunch of degenerate gamblers addicted to the world's first digital chain letter game, and waves of new players are joining the chain.
- Wow Starbucks, what a great gig. Starbucks has ~$1.6 billion in 'stored value card liabilities' i.e. the Starbucks Card. So ~6% of the firm's liabilities are comprised of coffee addicts paying 0% for the privilege of lending to their supplier. Source: s22.q4cdn.com/869488222/file…
- Modi's demonetization after 900 days. Indians have almost entirely readopted cash. The demonetization gap—the difference between India's current banknote count and where it probably would have been without demonetization—has shrunk to a speck. All that effort, for what?
- $30: The amount that Bank of America charges customers for a domestic wire transfer: bankofamerica.com/foreign-exchan… 25¢: The amount that Bank of America pays the Federal Reserve to do the wire transfer: frbservices.org/resources/fees… That's quite the markup.
- Circle's most recent attestation report shows 30% of USDC's reserves – or $12.79 billion – are invested in its government money market fund, the Circle Reserve Fund, managed by BlackRock. This is up from 0% in October. centre.io/hubfs/USDC%202…
- The Fed recently asked a sample of 382 American crypto owners why they own crypto. Answers are in the screenshot below 👇 The top reasons: price appreciation and curiosity about the tech. Almost no one mentions remittances, payments, or distrust of banks/government.
- It's telling that the crypto lenders that have malfunctioned are the big centralized ones (Celsius, Blockfi, Voyager) while the transparent non-custodial lenders (Compound, Aave, Maker) are still working.
- A lot of the stuff people are building on DeFi would be illegal if tried in real life. Can't start an exchange (like Uniswap) in meat space without registering with the SEC/CFTC, or build a bank (Maker) without getting a charter, or an MSB (Curve) without getting an MSB license.
- Coin flows across the Mediterranean region were profoundly impacted by the Arab conquests. As the chart shows, coins rarely crossed the Christian-Islamic divide after 713 AD, with most cross-border transfers occurring in Spain.
- Tell me about Cardano.
- Sure, own a bit of gold and bitcoin. They are short positions against society. Stagnation, dysfunction, war... bitcoin and gold provide a hedge. But never own too large a position. You risk becoming a misanthrope, incentivized to root for whatever dystopia makes you rich.
- How the Fed's promise on the face of its banknotes has changed over time: jpkoning.blogspot.ca/2017/10/the-ev…
