25th February 2025 > > Ouch!

tl;dr

This is a painful morning for crypto holders.

Montana, Wyoming, Pennsylvania, and North Dakota all cruelly dash the hopes and prayers of their citizens. The SEC backs down again, reinforcing its pro-crypto pivot.

Market Snap

Market Wrap

Well, ouch, that is a painful start to the day. Trump confirmation of his Tariff wars has had an outsize impact on crypto markets with a definite breach of $90k to the downside. Expect a day or more of the naysayers crawling out from under their rocks and happily proclaiming the death of cryptos for the 3,465th time since 2009.

Occasional Series – A Central Banker, until he decided to do something far more useful instead (*)

Trigger alert – if you are the sort of person who gets all flustered at the mere mention of Brexit, may I gently suggest you stop reading now.

“If you vote for Brexit, I will immediately raise interest rates”. Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England, 2013 to 2020.

History records that the day after the UK voted for Brexit, Carney slashed UK interest rates, which was always going to be the correct response, if you believe in centralised control over the yield curve.

So, was Carney lying or was he incompetent, either of which qualities should have led to his instant dismissal?

Come on, we all know, it was both.

…

(*) He retired.

Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – Montana, Wyoming, Pennsylvania, and North Dakota

Sad news from Montana. House Bill 429 – which would have allowed the state to invest up to $50mm into BTC – has been rejected by the lawmakers in the House of Representatives in a convincing 59-41 vote against:

https://legiscan.com/MT/rollcall/HB429/id/1497121

Unfortunately, there was a clear division of votes along partisan lines, which is something I had been hopeful we had managed to move on from.

Wyoming, Pennsylvania, and North Dakota have also all rejected bills calling for the introduction of BTC as a state reserve asset at various stages of the legislative process.

Texas, Utah, and the US itself remain our best bets for now.

Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – The SEC and Robinhood

Once again, the SEC demonstrates its pro-crypto pivot by dropping its investigation into Robinhood’s crypto offering to its clients:

https://newsroom.aboutrobinhood.com/sec-closes-investigation-into-robinhood-crypto-with-no-action/

Dan Gallagher, Chief Legal, Compliance and Corporate Affairs Officer, Robinhood Markets, Inc., explains:

“We applaud the staff’s decision to close this investigation with no action. Let me be crystal clear—this investigation never should have been opened. Robinhood Crypto always has and will always respect federal securities laws and never allowed transactions in securities. As we explained to the SEC, any case against Robinhood Crypto would have failed. We appreciate the formal closing of this investigation, and we are happy to see a return to the rule of law and commitment to fairness at the SEC.”

This comes nearly a month after Robinhood had agreed to pay the SEC $45mm in fines without admitting any wrongdoing. I do hope that Robinhood will now seek to recover those payments which should never have been levied in the first place.