The biggest exchange in the world just got hit with $4.3 billion in fines.
The CEO stepped down and the fiat price of Bitcoin barely moved.
Why? Because Bitcoin doesn't give a fuck.
Greetings and salutations, my fellow plebs.
My name is Walker and this is the Bitcoin podcast.
The Bitcoin block height is 817990.
And the value of one Bitcoin is still one Bitcoin.
Today's episode is the Bitcoin news roundup.
I'm going to go over the big stories, run through some rapid fire news,
then zoom out and give you some perspective.
You can find all the links and accounts mentioned in this episode,
via the article version of this show linked to the show notes,
or by going to bitcoinpodcast.net slash words.
And of course, you can always watch the Bitcoin podcast on Rumble, YouTube or X
by searching at Walker America or listen on fountain.fm
or wherever you get your podcast by searching for the Bitcoin podcast.
If you were looking for some nice long episodes to make your Thanksgiving travel
a little more smooth, check out any of the Bitcoin talk interview episodes I've done.
And if you're looking to brush up on Austrian economics before your debate
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So without further ado, let's get into the Bitcoin news roundup.
Javier Malay elected president of Argentina.
On Sunday night, Javier Malay officially became the president elect of Argentina.
Malay received 55.7% of the votes while incumbent economy minister Sergio Masa received 44.3%.
Why am I talking about the election in Argentina on the Bitcoin podcast?
Well, in case you've been living under a rock, Malay is vocally pro Bitcoin and anti central bank,
saying things like if printing money would end poverty, printing diplomas would end stupidity.
He plans to shut down the Argentine central bank and dollarize the economy.
In Argentina, inflation is currently 143% per year and the poverty rate is over 40%.
The money is fundamentally broken in Argentina and when the money breaks, so too does everything else.
Argentina Longo earned the nickname the Paris of South America.
Of course, in 2023 Paris isn't exactly the most flattering comparison, but back then it was quite complimentary.
I assure you.
Argentina earned this nickname because the country was absolutely flourishing in the early 20th century
with significant exports, industrial development,
rapid urbanization and European immigration positioning it to be one of the world's leading economies.
So what happened?
Well, quite a lot.
There were military coups in 1930, 43, 55 and 62.
Then in 1966, there was another coup where an IMF opposed leader was forcefully removed by an IMF friendly one.
Then in 1976, another coup established a permanent dictatorship in the form of a bureaucratic authoritarian state.
Since the late 1950s, Argentina has been ensnared in the tentacles of the International Monetary Fund,
which has no interest in actually helping countries like Argentina, to quote Alex Gladstein.
Argentina has received 22 IMF loans since 1959, even trying to default in 2001.
One would think that creditors would stop lending to such a profligate borrower.
But in fact, just four years ago, Argentina received the largest IMF loan of all time, a staggering $57.1 billion.
If you want to read more about the IMF's dirty dealings in Argentina and around the world,
check out Alex Gladstein's article, Structural Adjustment, How the IMF and World Bank Repress Poor Countries and Funnel Their Resources to Rich Ones.
He wrote about it for Bitcoin Magazine and also turned it into a full book called Hidden Repression.
I highly recommend you spend some time diving into Gladstein's words.
The stories he tells are truly eye-opening and sickening.
Back to Argentina.
This is a country with enormous potential, whose people have been systematically oppressed by various forms of authoritarian states for many decades,
and plagued by broken money, especially recently.
Millet is a libertarian, anti-socialism, anti-central bank, and generally anti-state.
But here's how the legacy media describes him.
The Guardian.
Argentina's new leader is a snake oil salesman with extreme views on abortion, gay rights, and more.
I fear for my country.
New York Times.
Argentina elects Javier Millet in victory for far right.
Wall Street Journal.
Argentina gambles on Millet.
And finally, from time, Argentina just elected an eccentric populist who seeks counsel from his cloned dogs.
That last one is really incredible.
Now, I'm not going to get into the nitty gritty of his plans or claims made by others about what he will or won't do,
but I will note two things that I think are important and also clear at this stage.
First, as a libertarian, Millet wants to massively decrease the size of the government.
This is a good thing.
The smaller the size of the parasitic state, the better.
Smaller government means less bureaucracy, less clonism, less kleptocracy, and more productive people.
Second, Millet wants to get rid of the central bank and dollarize the economy.
This is not without significant challenges since Argentina does not currently hold many dollars,
but thinking long term, the absence of an Argentine central bank will make the adoption
of Bitcoin as legal tender much more tenable, as was the case in El Salvador, another dollarized economy.
Adopting Bitcoin is not an immediate panacea for Argentinist people, but it is a step in the right direction.
By taking steps to fix the money, Argentina will have the ability to slowly fix the broken parts of their society
that all stem from the base layer of broken money.
Ultimately, Millet is a student of Austrian economics, which necessarily makes him inclined to keep the
government and central bank away from the money entirely, giving people more freedom to choose
the best money in a free market. Of course, the IMF may not be so happy with Millet's plans to
dollarize, as Alex Gladstein pointed out, the IMF doesn't want dollarization.
It prefers 100 plus weak currencies that can easily be devalued to boost exports
at the expense of living standards and purchasing power.
Now, if you've listened to this show before, you know I do not put any faith in individual politicians,
and certainly not in the government apparatus at large. I believe that the state is a parasitic
organization that perverts the law in order to plunder unwilling citizens of their private property.
I believe that the government should be as small as humanly possible, and the only legitimate
purpose of the government is to protect the private property of its citizens. If a government
instead plunders the private property of citizens through perversion of the law,
then that government is a failure. That said, while I am always doubtful of the motives of
politicians and refuse to idolize any, that does not mean I believe everything a politician does
or plans to do is inherently bad. I also find it interesting how Millet appears to piss off
people on all sides of the political spectrum. I've seen a lot of people on the left side of
the political spectrum say that Millet is a right-wing extremist with archaic views. I've also seen
a lot of libertarians say Millet isn't libertarian enough, and is just another statist cuck in sheep's
clothing, so to speak. Personally, I think Millet's victory is a net positive for Argentina's people.
I think any politician who seeks to reduce the role of government in money and in people's
lives in general is on the right track. I do not know what the future holds for Argentina,
but right now the people seem finally to have some hope that the darkest days are behind them,
and the brightest days are ahead, as based layer put it. Millet's victory isn't just political,
it's about a narrative of freedom, open commerce, and defending private property winning today.
This is another pro-Bitcoin president like Naib Bukele, who wants to make radical changes to
lift his people and his country up. Those changes and his methods may not always be popular to those
in the so-called developed world who are looking in from the outside. What I hope is that Millet
stays true to his libertarian ideals and puts the freedom of the individual at the center of his
plans moving forward. Zooming out, this election is about more than Millet and Argentina. This
election is a signal. It's a sign that the Overton window is shifting. The spectrum of public discourse,
public policies, and public officials that are now deemed acceptable by the masses is widening.
Central banks and Bitcoin are on the ballot across the world, and bloated kleptocratic states
are on the chopping block. Tick-tock.
Elicit Benance On Tuesday, the Treasury Department and the Department of Justice
made an announcement. They reached a plea agreement with Binance and its CEO,
Chang Peng-Zao, aka CZ, for breaking anti-money laundering laws brought forth by the CFTC.
As part of the deal, CZ pleaded guilty to criminal charges and stepped down as Binance's CEO.
Benance will also have to pay $4.3 billion as part of the settlement with the DOJ
to resolve the multi-year investigation. CZ and others were charged with violating the Bank
Secrecy Act by failing to implement an effective anti-money laundering program,
and for willfully violating U.S. economic sanctions, quote,
in a deliberate and calculated effort to profit from the U.S. market without implementing controls
required by U.S. law, according to the Justice Department. What does that mean?
Well, the DOJ's report Tuesday said that Binance supplied services to Iran in breach of U.S.
sanctions following a report that Binance processed billions of dollars' worth of Iranian
transactions. They also claimed that Binance allowed transactions associated with terrorist groups,
such as Hamas's Al-Qasim Brigade, Palestinian Islam Jihad, Al-Qaeda, and ISIS, according to
Janet Yellen, who noted Binance never filed a single suspicious activity report.
Now, here's what CZ said on Twitter.
Today, I stepped down as CEO of Binance. Admittedly, it was not easy to let go emotionally,
but I know it is the right thing to do. I made mistakes, and I must take responsibility.
This is best for our community, for Binance, and for myself. Binance is no longer a baby.
It is time for me to let it walk and run. I know Binance will continue to grow and excel
with the deep bench it has. I am pleased to announce that Richard Tang, our now former
Global Head of Regional Markets, has been named the new CEO of Binance today. Richard is a highly
qualified leader with over three decades of financial services and regulatory experience.
He will navigate the company through its next period of growth. He will ensure Binance delivers
on our next phase of security, transparency, compliance, and growth. Prior to joining Binance,
Richard was CEO of the Financial Services Regulatory Authority at the Abu Dhabi Global Market,
Chief Regulatory Officer of the Singapore Exchange, and Director of Corporate Finance
in the Monetary Authority of Singapore. With Richard and the entire team, I am confident
that the best days for Binance and the crypto industry lay ahead. As a shareholder and former
CEO with historical knowledge of our company, I will remain available to the team to consult
as needed, consistent with the framework set out in our US Agency resolutions.
What's next for me? I will take a break first. I have not had a single day of real,
phone-off break for the last six and a half years. After that, my current thinking is I will
probably do some passive investing, being a minority token slash shareholder in startups in
the areas of blockchain, web3, DeFi, AI, and biotech. I am happy that I will finally have
more time to spend looking at DeFi. I can't see myself being a CEO driving a startup again.
I am content being a one-shot, lucky entrepreneur. Should there be listeners, I may be open to
being a coach slash mentor to a small number of upcoming entrepreneurs privately. If nothing else,
I can at least tell them what not to do. On that note, I am proud to point out that in our
resolutions with the US agencies, they do not allege that Binance misappropriated any user funds,
and do not allege that Binance engaged in any market manipulation. Funds are safe,
with that I look forward to seeing the new leadership take the reins.
Please join me in congratulating Richard on this well-deserved promotion onwards.
Okay, so personally, I think it would be nice for CZ to spend some time and money investing in
Bitcoin only startups, but hey, it's his money. To me, all of this Binance news is quite interesting
because it shows that the United States is really just treating crypto exchanges the same way they
treat the big banks when they break the law. Give them a big fine, force them to play by the rules
for now, and move on. To put it a different way, it's a power move. This is also a great indication
of the separation of Bitcoin from crypto and exchanges in general. The biggest exchange in the
world just got hit with $4.3 billion in fines. The CEO stepped down, and the fiat price of Bitcoin
barely moved. Why? Because Bitcoin doesn't give a fuck. An enforcement action against an exchange
doesn't change anything for Bitcoin. And if you're into the whole spot Bitcoin ETF thing,
which is all anyone seems to talk about on Twitter, this is clearly another domino falling toward
the inevitable approval of the many ETF applications that are currently waiting in the wings. TFTC
summed up this Binance news extremely well in the broader context of government fuckery.
Quote, this is a pure projection play, because if the Treasury or DOJ actually cared about
preventing money laundering and terrorist financing, they would investigate themselves.
It is very convenient that they are able to pick on Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies
when we live in a world in which Jeffrey Epstein's client list is withheld from the public.
There is no accountability for the $100 billion in taxpayer money that has been siphoned off to
Ukraine, politicians currently running 2024 election campaigns with dollars overtly stolen
from FTX users, and the Pentagon just failed yet another audit and can't account for $3.8
trillion of military equipment. $3.8 trillion is 5.34 times larger than the current Bitcoin
market cap, and that is only one part of the government. We haven't even mentioned the
black box that is the Inflation Reduction Act or the COVID PPP loans or the black box budgets of
the CIA and other intelligence agencies. If these people actually cared about money laundering or
protecting US consumers, they would be aggressively investigating themselves. Zooming out, any time
there are shenanigans with a particular exchange, it's a great reminder to get your Bitcoin off
exchanges and take it into self-custody. If you are looking for an easy way to do that and like
saving sats with Black Friday deals, go to bitbox.swiss.walker and take 21% off their Black
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02 hardware wallet, a steel wallet for backup, three backup cards, and five tamper evident bags.
Head to bitbox.swiss.walker and check it out. When you purchase through my link, you not only get the
great open source hardware, but you help support this show. So, thank you.
Pentagon Failed Sixth Audit Speaking of money laundering, in a completely
unshocking turn of events, the Pentagon failed its annual audit for the sixth year in a row.
It's pretty incredible that for all our supposed technological advancement,
the US security state is able to have trillions of taxpayer dollars unaccounted for. The Department
of Defense's assets are truly staggering, amounting to 3.8 trillion alongside 4 trillion
in liabilities, located in all 50 states and more than 4,500 sites around the world. This
is the problem with a state which continues to bloat. The greater the size of the state,
the less accountability. The state needs to know the complete history of every fucking dollar you
have in your easily-freezable bank account, but they can't be bothered to account for trillions
of dollars of your taxpayer money. But, to be fair, who can blame the Pentagon? It's hard to keep
track of trillions of dollars in assets in the US and across the world, while waging multiple proxy
wars, ensuring that the military-industrial complex always has plenty to eat, and keeping the
public distracted from the obvious economic stagflation by pushing ever more absurd and
inconsequential culture wars down our throats via the captured funnel of the legacy media.
Here's a little background for you. In 1990, Congress passed a law directing all federal
agencies to produce regular audited financial statements. More than 30 years later, the Department
of Defense is the only agency that has never passed a single audit. But, to be fair, they didn't even
start auditing the DOD until 2017 because they just couldn't be bothered. Not only are the DOD
audits complete failures, they're fucking expensive failures. It requires 1,600 auditors and accountants
ain't cheap. In 2019, the Pentagon audit process itself cost $428 million to conduct, and another $472 million
to fix the problems the audit uncovered. That's nearly $1 billion of your taxpayer money,
just to fail an audit and partially fix their fuckups. And, with all the fiat inflation,
the 2023 audit is going to leave taxpayers with a much higher bill. But, compared to the annual
DOD budget of over $800 billion, a single billion is barely a drop in the bucket, right? Of the 29
components of the DOD which were audited this year, only 7 passed the inspection with a clean
audit. Of the overwhelming majority of the components which failed the audit, we have folks
like the NSA which would be hilarious if it wasn't so fucking sad. Think about this for a moment.
The NSA, which uses your taxpayer dollars to spy on you and collect ungodly amounts of information
through ever more advanced means, can't even pass a basic fucking audit to show how they're using
your money. And really, this all comes down to money. And the fact that our money is fundamentally
broken, our money lacks accountability at the base layer. They can create more out of thin air at
the drop of a hat. Fiat doesn't have a hard cap like Bitcoin's $21 million. There is no cap at all.
Fiat is the promise of an ever-expanding monetary base layer. And with that monetary expansion,
comes the necessary expansion of the parasitic state.
Now for some rapid fire news. Via Bitcoin Archive, SEC is charged Kraken for operating as an
unregistered securities exchange in offering 16 crypto securities such as Solana, Cardano,
and Algorand. TrueVote rolls out transparent electronic voting system built on Bitcoin,
Open Time Stamps, and Noster. Our open source platform ensures tamper-proof ballot data. Also,
sidebar, I'm having TrueVote creator Brett Morrison on the Bitcoin podcast next week
for a Bitcoin Talk episode. Make sure to check that one out. Via Tour de Miste, the Dutch
central bank just said the thing CBEs never say. The secret of their gold position lies in the fact
that when the collapse happens, its value will automatically skyrocket. Next question,
how much is enough BTC for a central bank to have? Via Finbold, Bitcoin uses more
sustainable energy than any other industry data shows. You love to see that narrative changing.
Via Bitcoin Archive, Banco Santander now offers Bitcoin to high net worth clients in Switzerland.
Via Jack Mahler's announcing buy Bitcoin globally. Today, strike marches forward on its mission to
democratize financial freedom around the world. Our global users can now buy Bitcoin, cash out,
shop, and more. Via Reason, 2024 GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley wants to abolish anonymity
on the internet. In a recent appearance on Fox News, Haley said that if she were to become president,
her second priority, after forcing the platforms to disclose their algorithms,
would be to require name verification of all social media users.
It's a national security threat, she said. It gets rid of the Russian bots, the Iranian bots,
and the Chinese bots. And then you're going to get some civility when people know their name is
next to what they say. So now might be a good time to try Noster, Anand. Via Bitcoin Archive,
Hong Kong gaming company Boya to buy $45 million of Bitcoin for its corporate treasury.
Via Will Kasarin, aka JB55, someone built Meetup on Noster, Flockster.com. Now I can show all of
the events your friends are going to in Damos app, just a small glimpse into the future of
interconnected apps on this protocol. As a sidebar, Will is joining me on the show next week as well
for a Bitcoin and Noster talk. And finally, the Human Rights Foundation launches a CBDC tracker,
allowing you to interact with a globe showing you what the status of each country is on the road
to fiat surfdom, launched pilot research or no activity regarding CBDCs. Thank you to HRF for
their continued work supporting Bitcoin and standing up against totalitarianism.
To wrap up today's show, let's zoom out. There is a lot of horrific shit going on in the world
today. This is nothing new per se since humans have been doing horrific shit to each other for
thousands of years. But what is different now as opposed to any other time in history is our ability
to see what is going on, not just in our own backyard but across the world and to see it in
real time. This level of access to information is something completely new and something we humans
have not really evolved quickly enough for our brains to handle. We are constantly bombarded with
doom and gloom, death and destruction, all fed to us 24-7 by a media apparatus all too eager to
keep us fixated on the darkest parts of humanity, all too willing to turn everything into an us
versus them scenario where you're either on the side of the good guys or the bad guys, the right
or the left or in America, the red team or the blue team. The most valuable thing you can learn to do
better to handle this tsunami of information is learning to separate signal from noise. Learn to
doubt what you hear, especially when you like what you're hearing. It is easy to fall into the trap
of thinking the other side always lies, but don't worry your side always tells the truth. On social
media follow people you disagree with, read and listen to what they say, and try to see things
from their point of view. You may still determine that they are fucking idiots in the end, but you'll
at least teach yourself to approach debates from all sides to see things differently. The better
you understand the opposition's argument, the better equipped you are to refute it. For Americans,
remember, there is no red, there is no blue, there is the state, and there is you. For those of you
listening around the world who don't use red and blue as your party colors, remember, those in power
will always seek to divide the populace, to pit individuals against each other so that they do
not unite against the state, so that individuals are so busy fighting amongst themselves and finding
false scapegoats that they ignore the uniparty kleptocracy silently stealing the value of their
time and energy right under their nose. Try as best you can to operate based on your principles,
not your opinions or prejudices. All too often I see people who claim to be freedom maximalists
in one area opt for a decidedly anti-freedom approach when it comes to debates that tap
into blind spot beliefs, areas where their identity is so wrapped up in their opinions
that they fail to operate based on their purported principles. So, my fellow plebs, be principled,
be fair, be honest with others and more importantly with yourself, learn to separate signal from noise,
learn to doubt those you agree with, not just those you disagree with, learn to be free,
and to extend the same freedom that you preach for yourself to everyone. I am not perfect,
nor will I ever be, but as I await the birth of my first son, I am trying my best to be better,
so that I may raise a better man than I am, and he and his generation may create a better world
than the one we leave to them. I'll leave you with one final thought, have hope, the future is what we make of it.
And that's a wrap on this Bitcoin News Roundup episode of The Bitcoin Podcast.
If you are a Bitcoin only company interested in sponsoring another
fucking Bitcoin podcast, head to bitcoinpodcast.net. You can find me on Noster by going to primal.net
slash walker. And if you want to follow the Bitcoin podcast on Twitter, go to at tiktcoinpodcast and
at walkeramerica. You can also find the video version of this podcast at youtube.com slash
at walkeramerica or at walkeramerica on rumble. Bitcoin is scarce. There will only ever be 21
million, but Bitcoin podcasts are abundant. So thank you for spending your scarce time to listen
to another fucking Bitcoin podcast. Until next time, stay free.