Bitcoin Continues to Rally Despite U.S. Regulator Crackdown on Crypto

2023 has been a fantastic year for Bitcoin. 

If you stacked one Bitcoin earlier this year in January, you would be up more than 165%! It outperformed almost everything under the sun and continues to show that it’s a force to be reckoned with. 

With the potential approval of the spot Bitcoin ETFs, we’ll also see a significant adoption wave amongst institutions. They’ve been interested in Bitcoin for a while now; believe me, I speak to them daily, but they haven’t had a regulated vehicle yet to invest. 

All of that would change with the approval of the SEC. 

However, Gary and his gang have had something else in mind. Instead of being proactive and trying to position the U.S. as a digital assets powerhouse, he is blocking an entire industry and cracking down on Bitcoin exchanges and service providers. 

Only time will tell if this is the right strategy, but I’ve got a feeling that Gary is way off base here and that we need to find a better way of getting over the hump to regulate digital assets with clear guidelines, finally. 

Gary’s Cracking Down on Crypto Exchanges & Service Providers 😠

I’ve written about Gary Gensler’s obsession with cracking down on the digital assets space in the past. 

Time and again, he uses his position at the SEC to either fine crypto exchanges or make life harder for the entire industry.

This time around, Gary went a step further! Within a matter of a few hours, the SEC announced that it charged Kraken with committing securities fraud because they were using their trading platform as an unregistered securities exchange, broker, dealer, and clearing agency. 

The SEC argued that many popular altcoins, which they have also charged in the past, were still available on Kraken—often resulting in losses for their customers. Thus far, we haven’t read or heard of a civil case by Kraken customers again that would prove these losses. 

However, this is not the main news event for November! 

In a coordinated investigation with the Department of Justice (DOJ), the SEC announced another charge against Binance and its CEO, Changpeng Zhao or CZ, accusing them of laundering money, unlicensed money transmission, and various violations against sanctions.

It didn’t take long for both Binance and CZ to respond and plead guilty to all the charges. 

They agreed to pay over $4 billion to resolve the DOJ’s investigation, and CZ immediately announced that he would step down as the company’s CEO. This must have been a tough decision for CZ, but the guilty plea allows Binance to continue operating in the U.S. and still serve the biggest market in the crypto industry. 

While all of that was happening, we also read that the Wallet of Satoshi, arguably the most popular Lightning wallet for beginners, is leaving the U.S. (for now) and urging customers to withdraw their funds. 

This announcement came straight after the Binance news, proving an important point. If Gary Gensler and his friends continue to hammer down on the industry, they will most likely hurt the U.S. market and force innovative digital asset companies to head elsewhere. 

Also, much of this hassle would be avoided if the SEC finally provided a clear regulatory framework covering what companies and service providers can and can’t do.

In the interest of everyone involved in the industry, get a move on, Gary, and tell us what to do and help out instead of punishing the people willing to stay in the U.S.

Honey Badger Doesn’t Care! Bitcoin’s Up Over 10%+ Month-on-Month 📈 

While all that regulatory crackdown was going on, Bitcoin continued to pump and ended up with a 10%+ price increase month-on-month. 

By the time this newsletter goes out, the price of Bitcoin has surpassed the $40,000 mark for the first time in in 19 months. 

Nothing seemed to bother Bitcoin, and the price was only heading in one direction: up and to the right! In the middle of all the SEC and DOJ investigations, we also had a presidential election in Argentina, where Javier Milei won.

Bitcoin Twitter, or X, later called this pump the Milei pump and was excited to see one of the first politically related pumps in Bitcoin’s young history. 

We also read that most spot Bitcoin ETF applicants regularly met with the SEC and discussed how to get their ETFs approved. Throughout the month, you also saw various updates to their applications, which is a positive sign for potential approval in the coming months. 

Bitcoin is on a roll, and it is not slowing down. 

The future looks bright, with the next halving less than six months away, a potential approval of a spot Bitcoin ETF in the U.S., and more updates to popular scaling solutions such as the Lightning Network. 

2024 could shape out to be a great year!

However, just as it has proven this month, Honey Badger doesn’t care! Whether the price will continue to rise or fall, the Bitcoin network will mine a new block every ten minutes and be as resilient as it has been in the past 14 years!

How to Live to Become 120 🎙️

I’ve enjoyed having longevity expert Pierre-Antoine Mudry on the Proof of Words podcast.

In our talk, he shared his insights on the prospects and challenges of living beyond 120 years. 

Pierre-Antoine gave me a great insight into the longevity industry, featuring his innovative work with rejuveron.com and apeiron-investments.com.

It was a great episode with great explanations, a lot of education about an emerging market, and great conversation. 

Your stacker in sats,

Patrick Lowry