FT Crypto Gazette! July 20th

Cryptonauts, we love you!  & the clock on the clubhouse wall says it's time to dive into the luxurious pool of the superlative hive mind Publish0x!  Just kidding, it's always that time lol! Join us as we strive together to push back the ravages of fiat tradfi!    We spent a lot of time programming real time code listening to Talking Heads "remain in light. "  And you know how much we love y'all ?  you make us feel like we are !! where we wanna be, but we guess we're already there!!

Day 15 of the Nexo Vauld FT news blackout.  Free the Nexo/Vauld feel good story!! 

Judges insist we make a gazette correction!  We do stand by slagging Leo's lame crypto thoughts  in   Notes from the Cutting Edge.    But harshing on his blobby prophead cartoon on behalf of  crypto was unfair!!   Blobby is NOT crypto specific.  cutting edge on hardware boffinry, e.g. electric chopsticks to boost salty tastes for fun and health.  Love ya Leo, sorry blobby. 

Morally cleansed! On to slam a letter to the FT.  We praised one to heaven, this one is going down baby.   Alex says  Gillian did not kick El Salvador Suecy hard enough.   Deputy Suecy isn't the "acting head." Bitcoin use is low.  El Salvador has NOT seen "so much volatility" because dollarized.  El Salvador can never be sovereign, tied to the US by remittances and  expats.   BTC has NO tangible benefits.  It WILL all end in tears.  story:  Dear readers know Gill asked leading questions and slagged ex-dancer Suecy, but was not THAT unfair. 

unfair.  Alex's chit (LONGEST letter today, just saying)  was published because it was anti BTC, plus Alex has those global homogenous chops the FT loves so much.   Alex signs off as Former Ambassador of El Salvador to the WTO and the UN in Genenva and Erbil. 

We don't expect the FT to check the creds of anyone ranting against bitcoin.  But WE will, since Alex got all pissy about Suecy's title. 

The top rep to the WTO is a "permanent" member.  "Ambassador" is an honorary title most WTO reps do not use.   Ambassador means the very top rep from one country to another, not to the WTO,which is famous for screwing the chit outta small countries on behalf of larger countries and corporations

OK, but Alex WAS the Ambassador to the UN, wasn't he?  F-ck no he was NOT.  It's the same deal -the top UN  rep is the Permanent Rep, who call themselves (honorary) "Ambassadors."  But wait, ALL THE PERMANENT UN reps are in midtown NYC, famously ruining traffic, funding cathouses and never ever paying parking tickets!!!  Alex only went to Geneva and Erbil.   Spidey sense tingling!! We call BULLSHIT!!! and in fact, linked below is the complete list of all of El Salvador's Permanent Reps to the UN.  Notice anything?  First, Alex AIN'T ON THE LIST.  Second, it IS funny - even THIS LIST does NOT use the "Ambassador" word!   Now we understand WHY Alex was pissy about Suecy's titleALEX IS PROJECTING!! Alex is lying about his (ex-) titles LOL!!!! 

El Salvador was in screaming hell in 1996 when Alex was anything in the WTO, think leftover guerilla warfare, double digit inflation.   We also ask WTF was El Salvador doing in Iraq then except hanging out with baddies?    Alex says no volatility could be imagineddollarization.  We've been places where black market exchange rates are QUITE popular.  And ya know what drives THAT ?? Graphs like this: Perhaps just a tad of unofficial exchange rate action is going on when the official exchange rate looks like THAT massive fail??  Note years centered around Alex's brief tenure. 

Alex throws shade on Suecy's title:  Suecy WAS chosen to handle the FT interview, so WTF?  Alex has been radio silent since 1997 except for a letter to the WaPo in 2020 to hate on Bitcoin and Bukele (again using the "Ambassador" lie.)  So, once again pretending to be neutral while elevating known enemies of BTC?? 

Alex quotes the US National Bureau of Economic Research, NBER, to say BTC usage in El Salvador is chit.  OK, who's NBER?  NBER papers BTC, while they LOVE CBDCs!  Gee that's funny !?!? oh wait NBER authors WORK for the central banks.chairs of NBER?   Fed reserve bank heads like Bernacke & our old pal Janet Yellen, MASSIVE enemies of BTC!  can't go on too depressing. 

FU  NBER, zero trust/credibility. What is funny ?  Dear readers know  Even funnier:  this pic was in 2017,  aging like fine wine, BTC priced around $2,300.  

It just goes on & on.  Publish0xers know it's all manipulation.  Alex bases his low remittance use stance on data from the local central bank.  Skip that we don't trust THEM - NO ONE knows what happens in a private wallet.  The "data" is based on surveys!!! did you pay taxes on the money you got from the Bronx??what money? no money!!!  Nah, we never TOUCH that wallet!  What's a wallet?? 

Alex says like it's a good thing  a third of El Salvador folks have to live in the USA & 26% of GDP is remittances.  That's BS based on taxes paid, not money sent.  Alex  says the minimum wage is ~$900 per month. 

Work a chit job in NYC, send Granny $$ to keep her alive.  Alex is  silver spoon, big family company, educated in the US.  Alex never saw the inside of a Western Union in his life, but we remember thinking (*&$#(*$&# it cost like 35% for 100$!!  And that was domestic.  Investopedia, link below, says MoneyGram is very popular.  Send Granny 50 bucks from your debit card to be picked up as cash - that's $13.99 , or 27% in fees.  LTC is WAY cheaper, but the average cost for BTC is down around a buck right now. Obviously this is the most regressive system ever - the poorer pay WAY more in percentage terms.  Join us in giving Alex a GIANT stack of FU's for not understanding that El Salvador's GDP could be popped up at least 5% ( say 25% savings on 27% official remittance GDP)  just by crypto transfer savings.  AND remember, dear readers - El Salvador's GDP went DOWN like 7% in recent (2020)  numbers.  They maybe had 3% GDP growth twice in the last 20 years or so.

NO tangible benefits.    #($#($#$&(*$#!!!!! YOU ALEX!!!!

Sorry, we will stay calm now.   Moving swiftly: Another bogus headline over an almost nothingburger story.  Peter, CEO of Schroder's, Brit asset managers rocking way over a half trillion in AUM, is no fool.  He notices that despite the crash, people still love crypto.  Blockchain is beating tradfi.  Total global AUM has peaked and will only go down from here.  Blockchain is exciting, could save money and add info. Fund managers have missed a trick.  But the need for active fund managers should grow. 

  The headline should be Crypto Survival Schools Obsolete Asset Managers.   It's great that Peter admits "peak fund."  He plays the front half of the chitty "blockchain is good" ( but bitcoin is bad) card pretty well.  No duh, blockchain opens doors for savings and new products.  Peter is right, most tradfi's are NOT ready and ARE at risk.  Investors turning to crypto and crowdfunding projects.  If tradfi doesn't mutate and help us, more will flee. Judges  want to give FU dust for saying blockchain over & over but never BTC  or even smart contracts etc.   Peter says "untested, unregulated, volatile & disastrous" for some but never mentions  billionaires were also made, only says some try to "make more predictable returns."  One point five FU's for that, but judges take back one FU because ya know it hurt Pete like hell to say peak fund is dead.0.5 FU's out of Five, Pete !! 

ANNNNNNND HERES why Pete had to say "peak fund" out loud!  

Schroders bought a nice chunk of Forteus, a digital asset manager. Pete wants crypto research, plus to get into ICOs.  Crypto has fallen from over 3tn to under 1tn(sic.)  Bit-coin (sic) has shed 70%. The crash has returned crypto to levels not seen since 2017 (sic.)  Pete says this is not about crypto, it's about mainstreaming tokenization, about blockchain as ownership, not crypto as payment. Rehash about the UK's asset man lobby pleading for mutual coins, which could lower investment minimums. Does NOT mention they could add alpha.  story: It's .  In Pete's own article above, Pete carefully states that crypto has crashed but is still at 1.1 trillion as per crypto.com.  The FT's sloppy mess uses the SAME OLD copypasta LIE,  and says crypto is under a trillion.   TBF, the haphazardridiculously prints Pete quoting the misspelled ".com", which leads to a cobweb page LOL!!  Can't anybody here proofread??

The FT continues their inexplicable, slipshodways by calling BTC Bit-coin.Even Google can't find the last time anyone said "bit-coin." ROFL!!!  Then the FT  stays on a ROLL with THIS lackadaisical, haphazard LIE:crypto returned to levels not seen since 2017.  Sweet (#*&#($&#(#*!!!  Spare us!! 

Crypto total market cap right now is about 1.05 trillion.  That was last seen in, wait for it, LAST YEAR!!   2021 !!! WT everlasting F????  Even if they mean .9 trillion, STILL 2021!!!  Do they mean "bit-coin"?????  BTC is at $23K right now.  THAT was "not seen" since December 2020!! What planet are we on?? Even if we are generous and take the low of BTC this year, THAT was "not seen" since, yes  2020!!  

Bitter hungover journalists missing out on crypto cash unable to look at the most simplistic graph?   Ok, we guess they are trying to say "bit-coin" briefly dipped to touch the highest price it briefly reached in 2017.  But WTF would anyone say that?? Slovenly, unkempt... OK we promised to stay calm for the rest of today. The end clumsily states that crypto lowers minimums in "alternatives" (sic) (investment categories. ) Somebody never finished the rewrite.  Mailed in, half arsed -- Sorry, moving ON!!  At least they didn't say Lehman when they said 2008 crisis.  Thankful for small favors, that's it!! 

Judges deliberate.   One FU for the market cap boilerplate laughably contradicting Pete's article ( guess that's why he's a CEO, he's got proofreaders!) One half FU for the  "bit-coin" copypasta artifact.FULL FU for the lie about returning to levels.   Average BTC in 2017 was ~$6K,  average crypto market cap in 2017 ~400 billion, being WAY too generous.  Half an FU for not stating what the FT and the IA taught us, ALPHA in crypto for mutual funds!!! (additional features in reporting, lower cost structures, faster cheaper better!! ) 

This is a shame, as this could have EASILY been a one thank you article, instead 3 FU'S!!!!!!!!!! 

OK we really mean it, moving on. 

A big fat rehash of the (will be)  long running debate over dis-intermediating brokers and going to automatic margin systems!

Fried is asking the biggest crypto flavored disruption in TradFi yet!   Asking to trade FTX style (auto margin meeting) in BTC futures! 

For 40 years, only brokers dealt with futures exchanges, taking margin funds from customers, placing their trades, then making margin calls when needed, only during business hours.    Sammy says bag it, let algos do that 24/7/365!!   

 If Sammy wins, this will spread like wildfire to all futures markets, and disintermediate brokers clean out of the market, 29 billion contracts last year. FTX & BINANCE et al, "largely unregulated",  (ooh so scary) do this already to the tune of 1.3billion in BTC last month.  The graph shows a typical degen trader plonking down $2,500 on 100X leverage and facing real time margin calls in volatility.  Who cares!?!?!  Was the LME unregulated? no, but that didn't help any did it!!??

Fierce debate" since the CFTC even to Sammy about it. 

Pro FTX side says next evolution, tech marches on, fosters competition, democratises futures trading, keeps small investors from losing more than they could ever pay. 

Pro status quo says current ways provide vital breathing space, time to find cash, human judgement to smooth volatilities, what about the farmers, customers don't have to put up more funds than needed for peace of mind. 

This decision will take over a year. 

The REAL Story:  the status quo argument is total, utter bullshit to us.  Dear readers know -   How the @(&!@(#$& could this article not mention the LME Nickel fiasco, where the LME protected (three guesses) their biggest client, actually cancelling a billion dollars in trades, most of which is now in lawsuits.  Mongolian clusterf-ck, in tradfi terms. 

If "breathing space" is desired, set the algos to ignore flash crashes, they can do it better/ more fairly than any human judgement. Or do circuit breakers, or special algo rules for actual farmers.  Smoothing, whatever.  Dear readers know the current scandal of the LME involves a BSD whale doubling down, maybe even taking the nickel and running, while the supposedlaw of the market shamefully bent to the biggest client.

Cannibalize your own market before somebody else does it for you, is the age old lesson for the brokers. 

We don't see how anyone can even debate this with a straight face,Sammy's face would seem to agree!!! 

Judges say a pretty good article!  We know the based FT doesn't wanna sayabout the London Metal  Exchange,  but one large FU for not saying "while being sure to i farmers.     1 out of 5 FU's  baby !! 

And we say that with love.

love the passing of time

Never for money

Always for love Cover up + say goodnight... say goodnight  

Say goodnight Dave.  Goodnight, Dave!  

Peace out, love Dave