continued
Cryptocurrency
It is imperative that our traditional $100 trillion capital markets don’t get entangled with the cryptocurrency markets. Traditional finance money moving into this highly decentralized market vastly increases the risk that the volatility and unpredictability of the crypto market could poison the entire global financial ecosystem.
This includes stablecoins, or coins that back digital currency with short-term U.S. Treasuries, dollar deposits, or other cash equivalents. Although The Genius Act – a law passed by the U.S. Congress and signed by President Trump in July 2025 – requires issuers to hold $1 of liquid assets for every $1 stablecoin they distribute (this is sometimes referred to as 1:1 backing), taxpayer dollars are still going to be guaranteeing something that exists at least partially outside the traditional financing system.
This is a huge risk given that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent believes stablecoin issuers could eventually hold $2 trillion or more of U.S. Treasury securities. Not to mention the auditing and oversight of this would be, at best, a nightmare and, at worst, virtually impossible.
Without question, this would bring financial instability that would end in catastrophe. We must look no further than the Free Banking Era of the mid-1830s, when multiple banks had bank notes trading at multiple prices in multiple states that had multiple regulatory systems – resulting in no one knowing what the dollar was actually worth. We must never forget: A stable, efficient financial system relies on the singleness of money, where everyone involved is confident that all forms of a currency are interchangeable at the same value.
Another reason the United States government cannot be in the cryptocurrency business is that crypto is used heavily in things like sex trafficking, money laundering, ransomware, and scams in general. The Wall Street Journal reported that Tether, the world’s most traded cryptocurrency, has been a “vital financing tool for several of the U.S.’s top national-security concerns. These include the North Korean nuclear-weapons program, Mexican drug cartels, Russian arms companies, Middle Eastern terrorist groups, and Chinese manufacturers of chemicals used to make fentanyl.”
The WSJ also reports that “despite its place on the U.S. blacklist, which restricts transactions with sanctioned entities, Garantex < a Moscow-based crypto exchange > has become a major channel through which Russians move funds into and out of the country… it has also been a vehicle for Russian cybercriminals to launder their earnings. Garantex’s growing role as a global conduit for illicit funds was underscored by evidence that Palestinian militants in part financed their operations through crypto in the lead-up to the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel. Digital wallets controlled by Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which joined Hamas in the attacks, received a portion of $93 million via Garantex, according to analysis by researcher Elliptic, which said Hamas also used a similar financing strategy.”
Yet another reason the United States cannot be in the crypto business is its vulnerability to hacking, ransomware and straight-up theft. Chainalysis, a research group, reports there was a record $40.9 billion worth of illicit cryptocurrency transactions in 2024 alone (although they think that number could reach as high as $51 billion as new numbers and information continue to emerge).
A perfect example of how easily fraud can be perpetrated in this new arena is the FTX scheme. In this case, Sam Bankman-Fried, who was found guilty of seven criminal counts and sentenced to twenty-five years in prison, took customer funds to buy real estate and other venture investments, as well as to pay for corporate sponsorships and political donations. A large chunk of the money he stole went to cover losses at Alameda Research, a FTX associated hedge fund, after crypto prices plunged in 2022.
Another great example of crypto theft came on February 21, 2025, when a ring of North Korean hackers named Lazarus hacked Bybit, the world’s second largest crypto exchange, to the tune of $1.5 billion – the largest theft in crypto history (note: groups out of North Korea have stolen over $6 billion in cryptocurrency since 2016).
WALL STREET
Mainstream financial players are becoming increasingly engaged in the crypto market. In fact, where Wall Street titans once saw disaster, they now see easy money (sound familiar?).
While Ray Dalio, the founder of Bridgewater, was once skeptical of bitcoin, he later called it “one hell of an invention.” In October 2017, Larry Fink of BlackRock referred to bitcoin as an “index of money laundering.” However, by July 2024, he saw it as a “legitimate financial instrument that allows you to have maybe uncorrelated, non-correlated type of returns.”
It’s no great mystery why Mr. Fink changed his tune. The Economist reports that “BlackRock’s bitcoin exchange-traded fund has grown to become the fourth-largest ETF in the hedge-fund world, with a long position worth $3.8 billion. A survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and the Alternative Investment Management Association suggests that 47 percent of traditional hedge funds now invest in digital assets, up from 21 percent in 2021.”
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon once said of crypto, “I applaud your ability to want to buy or sell it, just like I think you have the right to smoke. But I don’t think you should smoke.” He also said that bitcoin is “worse than tulip bulbs” and claimed he would fire anyone at JPMorgan who traded it for being “stupid.” At one point he even said, “I think all that’s been a waste of time and why you guys waste any breath on it is totally beyond me. Bitcoin itself is a hyped-up fraud. It’s a pet rock.” Dimon doubled down in December 2023, telling the Senate Banking Committee, “If I was the government, I’d close it down. I’ve always been deeply opposed to crypto, bitcoin, et cetera. You pointed out the true use case for it is criminals, drug traffickers, anti-money laundering, tax avoidance, and that is a use case because it is somewhat anonymous.”
But then he started backtracking, trying to draw a distinction between bitcoin and blockchain technology. “(Blockchain) is different,” he clarified. “Blockchain is a technology ledger system that we use to move information. We’ve used it to do overnight repo, intraday repo, we’ve used it to move money, right? So that’s a technology ledger that we think will be deployable.” Of course, he likely cleared that up because JPMorgan now has its very own cryptocurrency called JPM Coin.
Some might say having storied financial institutions involved gives the crypto market more legitimacy, but it only makes our trepidation much worse. While the JPMorgans and BlackRocks of the world do indeed give legitimacy and credibility to trading cryptocurrencies, at the end of the day, it’s still just a speculative bet. Plus, history tells us that, now that Wall Street is engaged, they will push the envelope big time.
Already, as Jamie Dimon pointed out, there is renewed excitement about “tokenization,” or the process of putting real-world assets on a programmable blockchain in the name of “capital efficiency” (you can think of this as a type of digital ledger). The problem is that, while tokenization makes it faster and easier for money to move around, it also potentially moves it further out of the sight of any sort of regulation.
….and just like in the days leading to the 2007-2009 Financial Crisis, most Americans don’t fully understand the risks involved here.
A report released in November 2024 by the Office of Financial Research, a government think tank, warned that “over the 2020 to 2024 period, low-income consumers have significantly increased their debt usage and debt balances. That increase has been particularly large in areas with higher crypto exposure. The magnitude of debt increases has been especially large for mortgage debt. Low-income consumers in high-crypto exposure areas are disproportionately more likely to take out a mortgage, and the average mortgage size is large relative to pre-2020 average income… our results suggest that consumers’ debt and consumption are correlated with their crypto exposure.” In truth, most people would be better off just going to Vegas (not to mention it’s a heck of a lot more fun!).
CONFLICTS-OF-INTEREST, CORRUPTION & LEGAL LANDMINES
Most of the Trump family is now heavily involved in the crypto scene, with one of their companies, World Liberty Financial, receiving a $2 billion investment from the United Arab Emirates.
Three days before his second inauguration, The Donald announced the launch of his $TRUMP memecoin (a type of cryptocurrency), posting on X, “It’s time to celebrate everything we stand for: WINNING!” Melania debuted her crypto token two days later (however, typical of these things, the price of Donald’s token, after surging roughly ten times in value, fell by half within a week).
The conflicts-of-interest and potential legal landmines involved here are unprecedented – and mind-blowing. What happens when ordinary Americans lose lots of money on the U.S. president’s crypto token…which is exactly what happened when investors, collectively, lost over $2 billion after the price of $TRUMP crashed. What happens if, for example, someone needs a political favor from the U.S. president, so s/he very publicly announces a huge purchase of the president’s coins to get his attention? How is it going to look if the president of the United States holds a private dinner at his Virginia golf club for $TRUMP crypto customers and, for the top 25 of those customers, attends a private meeting plus arranges a tour of the White House?
…and what if the attendees of those events include a Chinese billionaire who is now the largest holder of the $TRUMP crypto token; is a delegate of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, an advisory board that aims to broaden the Communist Party’s influence; and who has been sued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for allegedly inflating the value of a cryptocurrency?
How is it going to look if, as The Washington Post reports, soon after the dinner was announced, “the mostly anonymous investors of the Singapore-based crypto collective MemeCore raced to capitalize on the opportunity. The group of roughly sixty members, many of whom live in China and Southeast Asia, quickly amassed $18 million worth of the coin, securing a seat at Trump’s dinner party” thereby “contributing a share of millions of dollars in crypto transaction fees the Trump venture has collected since the contest was announced.” Just in case there was any doubt, why exactly would this group do this? They sent “a co-founder to the dinner with hopes of shaping Trump’s views on their industry, MemeCore chief business development officer Cherry Hsu said in an interview.”
The Washington Post went on to say that, from the time the party was announced until five days before the party itself, “crypto wallets linked to Trump and his partners earned about $3 million in transaction fees. Between the launch of Trump’s token in January 2025 until mid-May, “the president and his partners had received $312 million from crypto sales and $43 million in fees.”