Bitcoin....who's gotten into it?

[Bunion 2020]

Plus people seem to have a particular appetite for demonization these days.

If you want to be a hero then you need a villain to conquer whether it is Lex Luthor or SB Fried.

[J. Barron DeJong]

https://x.com/shaykhsulaiman/status/...sR_NcRK2VkCfkg

[shera]

Here's the reply from Binance, in the same thread:

Only a limited number of user accounts, linked to illicit funds, were blocked from transacting.

As a global crypto exchange we comply with internationally accepted Anti-Money laundering legislation, just like any other financial institution. We will continue to educate users on how to safely and securely transact on our platform.

Most importantly, we hope for a lasting peace throughout the region.

[MultiVerse]

So not "all" accounts, only funds transferred from declared terrorist organizations

[J. Barron DeJong]

Here's the reply from Binance, in the same thread:

Only a limited number of user accounts, linked to illicit funds, were blocked from transacting.

As a global crypto exchange we comply with internationally accepted Anti-Money laundering legislation, just like any other financial institution. We will continue to educate users on how to safely and securely transact on our platform.

Most importantly, we hope for a lasting peace throughout the region.

Maybe, but it’s not clear it’s only a ‘limited number’ at this point:

Ray Youssef, former CEO of Paxful and current CEO of the P2P marketplace Noone App, commented, claiming that there was indeed a freeze.

“This is 100% confirmed. Israel is putting massive pressure on Binance and all other exchanges to blanket seize the funds of ALL Palestinians. The document in the original post has 500 names but there have been many such versions of it with many more names,” Youssef said on X.

Further exacerbating community concerns, the screen-recorded video shared by Youssef allegedly shows a message from Binance’s customer service confirming that the freezing of a Palestinian user’s account was ordered by Israeli law enforcement. This incident has intensified calls for Binance to clarify its position amidst growing distrust.

https://cryptobriefing.com/binance-p...e-allegations/

[shera]

Interesting

[shera]

Thanks for pointing this out, I'm following it now. So here's some more details:

A few key points on the #Binance frozen crypto wallets situation as I know the case well & the devil is in the detail:

1. #Binance functions much like a bank. Following its recent settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the U.S. appointed a team to run & oversee Binance’s compliance operations. Binance compliance team is currently the US government.

2. #Israel might as well be considered the US’s '51st state.' They share intelligence and the Israel lobby has significant control over US politicians.

3. Some of Israel leaders have been classified in the same category as certain members of Hamas, labeled as terrorists for war crimes. Additionally, Israel has been accused of committing 'plausible genocide,' a charge by rulings from the highest court. This means Israeli accounts could be treated the same if the US government was not exerting political selective compliance at #Binance.

4. #Binance has clarified that it has specifically frozen certain Palestinian accounts, rather than all accounts according to their press release.

5. The first rule of #Bitcoin to learn - not your keys, not your coins. Sanctions are financial weapons of mass destruction inflicted on innocent civilians as a collective punishment and are enforced upon centralized financial institutions only. Store your #Bitcoin in self-custody.

6. I'm not a lawyer, but if this freezing of assets extends to all Palestinian accounts, I view it as part of the broader genocide. The people of Gaza are already being subjected to illegal occupation by Israel—by land, sea & air—which has led to starvation. Now, cutting off their financial resources further deprives them of the ability to buy food, while food hyperinflation is also weaponized as another tool of this genocide.

7. This case is U.S.-driven, initiated by an unofficial U.S. state, enforced by a DOJ-appointed compliance team, and carried out under U.S. AML/CTF regulations. US are complicit in the genocide.
https://x.com/SimonDixonTwitt/status...31411848724743

[MultiVerse]

lol, the actual title of Jong's article "Binance CEO dismisses 'FUD' over alleged freeze of Palestinian crypto wallets"

In other words, Binance cooperates with Israeli authorities to seize accounts linked to Hamas and the Islamic State and in response those terrorist organizations propagate counter-narratives suggesting Binance is seizing all Palestinian assets.


The "Simon Dixon" post is equally dumb, with equally dumb narratives, i.e., seizing Hamas and Islamic State terrorist assets is "genocide."

[shera]

If you want to be a hero then you need a villain to conquer whether it is Lex Luthor or SB Fried.

Human nature or maybe culture. Sigh

[byates1]

Bunion may not be the hero we want. But he's the hero we need.

[shera]

You always make me laugh.

[J. Barron DeJong]

It was worth having a period of above target inflation to achieve this:

[heckacali]

You guys see the news Trump is launching his own crypto? Lol.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cnb...ol-launch.html

"For too long, the average American has been squeezed by the big banks and financial elites," Trump wrote.
"Now it's my turn" (my edit)

[MultiVerse]

It was worth having a period of above target inflation to achieve this:

lol, another dumb Jong MMT argument. Jong falsified the conclusion of his own source material. The reason for the U.S. GDP boom is because the Great American Stagnation ended.

The paper in his post above does not argue inflation benefited low income workers. Instead, the paper argues a more dynamic job market raised the wages of workers as more efficient companies bid up their wages.

In fact, the paper says most workers were hurt by inflation. The reason lowest-percentile workers had the strongest real wage growth is because they were impacted less by rising car prices, car insurance, and gas prices. There's an upside to not owning a car. In other words, they were helped by the post-pandemic job market and hurt less by some of the biggest inflationary components.

MMT'ers falsely claiming their policies worked when in fact their policies made things worse is par for the course. The actual results from Jong's paper:

"The results in this paper support the inference that heightened labor market competition has both distributional and allocative effects—spurring wage gains among low-paid workers while simultaneously reallocating such workers from lower-paying, less productive employers to higher-paying, more productive employers. "

https://economics.mit.edu/sites/defa...r%20Market.pdf

[4matic]

If Ether has a questionable supply and use case wouldn’t proceeds of sales go into Bitcoin rather than the complex selling off?

Is there a single commercial use of Ether right now?

[MultiVerse]

Most DeFi and Web3 run on Ethereum platforms. Polymarket, the world's largest prediction market, is just one example of many:

https://polymarket.com/

[bennymac]

https://decrypt.co/248574/microstrat...-million?amp=1

Saylor predicts BTC price will be $13 million in the next 20 years.

Fuck yeah! Talk that bag Mike.

I hope every 20 to 40 year old person hears this so they can buy a Bitcoin today and stop any other investing for retirement and just enjoy life - shit even if he’s a little too bullish a $50,000 to say $10 million in 2 decades is gonna be sweet!

[JimmyCarter]

Small finite supply, liquid markets. Are we waiting for some type of earnings release? Proof of concept?? Technological hurdle??? Market acceptance????

What will happen to make it worth that?

When will these true believers realize Saylor is really just a fucking moron trying to convince them to prop up his bag?

[JimmyCarter]

To note, that’s the price that makes his shitty company worth as much as the current largest market cap companies at about $3T.

[skaredshtles]

<snip>
When will these true believers realize Saylor is really just a fucking moron trying to convince them to prop up his bag?

I mean... for some, probably never.

[J. Barron DeJong]

US dollar still doing good things for the lower classes, no thanks to Bitcoin.



https://bsky.app/profile/peark.es/post/3l3sm2x2gda2y

[MultiVerse]

lol, MMT'ers still falsely claiming that their policies worked when in fact their policies made things worse. That's according to Jong's own source on the previous page. Clowns like George Pearkes above are right about labor markets helping workers, wrong about policy "inflation be damned." They deceive by trying to make false connections between different things when in reality non-college educated workers switching out of low-wage industries *exclusively* explains their wage growth:

"In summary, post-pandemic wage growth among high-school under-40 workers accrues exclusively to movers. Contrasting the gains of high-school under-40 workers with all other workers further underscores the centrality of job moves to post-pandemic wage growth among this young, non-college group."

"The tightening post-pandemic labor market spurred a burst of labor market competition that
boosted real wages among low-paid workers and compressed the lower half of the wage distribution."
...
"inflation was modestly lower for the bottom quartile of households relative to the next two higher quartiles between May 2020 and May 2022. This is because bottom quartile households spend a relatively small share of income on motor vehicles and gasoline, both of which saw rapid pandemic-era inflation"
...
"Applying this adjustment would modestly strengthen our conclusion that low-paid workers saw differentially rapid real wage growth in the post-pandemic economy."

https://economics.mit.edu/sites/defa...r%20Market.pdf



TL;DR: Labor market dynamism and firm efficiency increases workers' wages

[byates1]

I for one am glad we have a multi/jong bickerfest. Gives the thread another joie d vive of sorts.

[MultiVerse]

Bickering, not me. If you look at the numbers, Biden and Harris are quietly having a successful administration. Jong doesn't need to lie about it by arguing inflation helped people. The numbers are good despite inflation, not because of inflation.

[J. Barron DeJong]

I for one am glad we have a multi/jong bickerfest. Gives the thread another joie d vive of sorts.

Uh, I only posted some good income numbers that were released today.

Not sure what MV is on about, and I don’t care to know.