China tells banks to stop supporting Cryptocurrency https://t.co/t2fGls99w2
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) June 22, 2021
… On Monday, China’s central bank said it had recently summoned several major banks and payments companies to call on them to take tougher action over the trading of cryptocurrencies.
Banks were told to not provide products or services such as trading, clearing and settlement for cryptocurrency transactions, the People’s Bank of China said in a statement.
China’s third-largest lender by assets, the Agricultural Bank of China, said it was following the PBOC’s guidance and would conduct due diligence on clients to root out illegal activities involving cryptocurrency mining and transactions.
China’s Postal Savings Bank also said it would not facilitate any cryptocurrency transactions.
The mobile and online payments platform Alipay, which is owned by Chinese financial technology giant Ant Group, said it would set up a monitoring system to detect illegal cryptocurrency transactions…
China accounted for around 65% of global Bitcoin production last year, with Sichuan rating as its second largest producer, according to research by the University of Cambridge…
Chinese regional government bans bitcoin mining, electrical demand reduces by 8 GW.
That's 2-4 modern nuclear plants, or a couple of large hydro dams. It's enough to run many whole countries, or a bit more than London. https://t.co/pdlcYUNZ40
— Simon Waldman (@simon_on_energy) June 19, 2021
— Gerry Shih (@gerryshih) June 21, 2021
one of the main points of bitcoin mining in China was to get money out of the country – buy electricity in yuan, sell bitcoin for dollars. Doesn't transfer elsewhere for any number of reasons, but that's one big one. https://t.co/0ZK7U7FvzD
— James Palmer (@BeijingPalmer) June 21, 2021
BE NOT AFEARED!, insist professionals with an interest in keeping cryptocurrency investments busy…
… Bitcoin’s brief drop below the symbolic price threshold of $30,000 on Tuesday has reignited talk of a crypto winter. It doesn’t help that cryptocurrencies like dogecoin, XRP and others saw sharp drops in the last 24 hours.
But experts tell CNBC that bitcoin’s fundamentals are good, and the market conditions in 2021 are very different than the last big crypto crash in 2018.
“We are far from a bear market, only traders are freaking out over technicals seen on exchanges like volumes and price action,” said popular on-chain analyst and statistician Willy Woo.
Bitcoin’s rise in the last 12 months has had a lot to do with the billionaires and corporations that are buying bitcoin in big amounts. The surge in interest from mainstream financial players has not only reformed bitcoin’s image but has also fomented a supply shortage, which helped drive up the price of the token….
Bitcoin bulls insist the underlying fundamentals of bitcoin are much stronger in 2021, than they were during its last bear market in 2018.
“It’s the bitcoin blockchain’s more than a decade of unblemished security, bitcoin’s breadth of utility, and the level of adoption that establish bitcoin’s intrinsic value,” said Alyse Killeen, founder and managing partner of bitcoin-focused venture firm Stillmark.
That last point is particularly important — bitcoin adoption is on a tear, creating a broader group of users who believe in the currency’s value, which reinforces it…
The Struggle is real
#buythedip #btc #cryptocrash pic.twitter.com/bcA7y36ndP— Nahil Shaik (@nahilshayk) June 21, 2021
The cynics’ view:
Because Bitcoin especially (through the Tether fraud) and cryptocurrency more generally is a pyramid scheme, of course Wall Street and venture capital need it to go mass market. It's the only road to getting out of their current investment at a profit https://t.co/ksqMNQKFWy
— Pinboard (@Pinboard) May 30, 2021
What we especially need to stress to regulators is that there's no relationship between the technical claims of cryptocurrency and our now over 13 years of experience. It's not decentralized, it's not a currency, it's not a store of value, and it's not a promising technology
— Pinboard (@Pinboard) May 30, 2021
Some of the smartest minds from the top schools engineered the mortgage-backed securities and credit default swaps that led to the GFC, not a great yardstick to judge things by https://t.co/nYbdFLTrQa
— James Medlock (@jdcmedlock) June 1, 2021
Of course, for ‘inconspicious’ value transfer, there’s always the classics…
Sotheby's announced that a 101.38-carat pear-shaped flawless diamond can be bought at auction next month using cryptocurrencies https://t.co/eACFQGOj9X pic.twitter.com/GctmJZVFeG
— Reuters (@Reuters) June 22, 2021
eataTREE
I am extremely loath to praise the Chinese ruling party, but, stopped clocks, etc.. Bitcoin should be illegal.
Baud
Not too different from Balloon Juice.
Roger Moore
I’m starting to think cryptocurrency is less a bubble than a zombie. It’s going to keep shambling on, eating people’s brains long after it ought to be dead.
CaseyL
Texas has already put out the welcome mat for bitcoin mining, and now Florida.
A state whose economy depends on extractive industries, and a state whose major economic activity is fraud.
A match made in heaven.
Kent
Yes, good for China.
When you can get a 30-year mortgage or a 10-year bond denominated in bitcoin, then we will know it is a real currency. Until then it is just nothing but a speculative asset with no real backing or purpose. At least tradable commodities like pork bellies and oil futures are based on real things. As are stocks. But bitcoin?
Kent
@Baud: Yes but balloon juice has dogs.
Just Some Fuckhead
It almost seems like China leadership helped engineer a magic money bubble for the imperialist dogs and is now pulling out the rug..
lurker
@Baud: have not really noticed much ransomware on the site, unlike the rest of that list…
hmmm…
starting to see the flaw in Cole’s business model…
; – )
Baud
@Kent:
Are we like Dogecoin then?
karen marie
I’m waiting for the next episode of “Exit Scam” to drop. Interesting listen, and a warning to anyone thinking of being played a fool
“unblemished security”
Hahahahaha.
SiubhanDuinne
@eataTREE:
Even TFG doesn’t like or trust cryptocurrencies. First, and probably last, time in my life I will have agreed with him.
lurker
@Just Some Fuckhead: might also mean they got what they wanted out of it –
investments in server farms with lots of GPUs, whatever their lucky investors got out of it before any announcements, some lease payments, etc.
and are now pulling the plug…
dmsilev
@Kent: Hell, I’d settle for “can buy a pizza denominated in Bitcoin, without first converting to dollars”. Except, of course, the global capacity of the bitcoin network is a few transactions per second, so not so great for an actual currency.
Roger Moore
@CaseyL:
The problem is pointed out by James Palmer above. Bitcoin miners in China could buy everything in Yuan but spend their Bitcoin wherever they chose, thus evading Chinese restrictions on moving their capital overseas. That doesn’t work in Texas or Florida. Besides, who would want to put a heavy consumer of electricity in Texas? It’s not exactly synonymous with reliable electricity supplies these days.
lurker
@SiubhanDuinne: he does not like sharks either – not crazy about those things when i am in the water
…
worth keeping in mind, he has opinions on everything – just ask him – and those opinions change depending on when he is asked. Law of averages is going to get you to agree with him at some point, even if he is as consistently wrong as he tends to be – his changing opinions on things he does not care about (basically anything but him) make the whole attempt to evaluate his opinions meaningless.
ETA: he is the epitome of often wrong, never in doubt (at least for his public persona) – guy clearly does not believe in anything so he is likely always in doubt internally.
trollhattan
Somebody tell me it’s nuts to imagine the Navajo Generating Station being revived to run crypto mines. All that coal, sitting around, unburnt. Those stacks, with no emissions flowing to freedom.
Gvg
@Roger Moore: Florida doesn’t have that much excess energy either. I mean, we don’t have brown outs, our black outs are storms and usually short, but frankly I don’t know of anywhere that has that much excess capacity. IF crypto currency’s keep going anywhere, I would think they should decentralize.
and anywhere with fraud laws and banking reporting is going to come after them.
Ruckus
@CaseyL:
Texas can’t provide electricity in cold or hot weather, what are they going to do when shitcoin mining gets going full strength? Oh that’s right they are just producing enough power to work under ideal conditions now.
I predict that 2 things will happen. First, no one is going to move a cryptocurrency operation to TX. Second, if one does, it will blow up TX electric production in about 2 days.
CaseyL
@Roger Moore:
The folks running Texas are absolutely corrupt enough to grant bitcoin companies first-dibs on utility usage. I’m not sure how they would do it, technologically/mechanically, but if they can, they will.
The bit-coiners get power and nobody else does.
Roger Moore
@Just Some Fuckhead:
It could also mean Xi Jinping is taking a page from Trump’s book by causing Bitcoin to tank when he wants to take a position himself.
Ken
As solid as they ever were. But what really catches my attention is “experts”, because it reminds me that a couple of decades ago we had experts in the valuation of beanie babies, who wrote articles to help fill the pages of at least two monthly magazines devoted to collecting and trading the toys. I sometimes wonder what those people put on their resumes.
lurker
@Roger Moore: excellent point
plus, Trump had an alleged pump and dump scheme at some point in the late 80s, before enough investors got wise that he never followed through on his announcements of plans to take over companies
so the chinese move is potentially following along in his tracks, regardless of their approach, because the guy has done so many ridiculous things.
Apparently, regardless of what you do wrong, at this point, Trump likely did it first.
(shaking head in amazement)
Just Some Fuckhead
@Ken: “Capitalist”
Suzanne
@Baud: No lie, Mr. Suzanne and I discussed our favorite internet places on our first date, and he told me about this place. Thirteen-and-a-half years later, and I’m still freakin’ here.
NotMax
FYI. As a certain Mr. Solo opined, “I got a bad feeling feeling about this.”
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: I think the BJ-Coin would be real popular in college dorms.
Mike J
“a decade of unblemished security,”
Tell that to the ransomware gang that lost 80% of their take to the feds.
Gravenstone
@SiubhanDuinne: Only because he never figured out a way to get a cut from them.
Another Scott
@Mike J:
Mt. Gox:
Unblemished!!1
Cheers,
Scott.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
planetjanet
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
That story was quickly walked back. Pelosi said she would decide later this week.
JoyceH
@Mike J:
Exactly what I was thinking! I thought the whole point of these crypto currencies was that they were untraceable, which made them valuable for people buying and selling illegal things. But if the feds can track it and seize it, then what’s the point?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@planetjanet: ah, thanks, haven’t seen that tweeted, which is how I follow news now
Anne Laurie
That their talents made them key players in a highly successful marketing campaign. Not their problem they were selling a pyramid scheme to the gullible…
Look, I am a lifetime ‘collectible’ buyer, but I’ve never been naive enough to think of my toys as ‘investments’. There’s a solid core of crytobelievers who buy their tokens for the same reason I still have some wildlife-artist collector plates; they make me happy, and my having them doesn’t hurt anybody. When the whole cryptocurrency market implodes (goes underground), there will still be honest ‘collectors’ swapping hot tips with each other, and snickering at us normies who Just. Don’t. Get. It!
planetjanet
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: A lot of places got it wrong.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/congress-jan-6-riot-capitol-investigation/2021/06/22/34a99470-d3ac-11eb-9f29-e9e6c9e843c6_story.html
bbleh
It’s disruptive! It must be worth trillions!
lurker
@Anne Laurie: have family members with hummels (sp?), lladros, precious moments, etc. Not convinced most of them really believed they would appreciate in value, other than one or two incurable optimists. there is some sort of a market out there for some of them…
Steve in the ATL
@Ken: my dog ate a beanie baby kitten earlier this evening. He feels no guilt, but then he may not have known it was a valuable collectible.
James E Powell
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Her spokesperson backed up on that & said she would decided whether to pick a select committee by the end of the week. Reportedly, she was giving the senate time to work through the pursuit of Broderhood.
Let’s get ready to rumble.
I mentioned this in an earlier post, but I want to repeat it because I think we – and that definitely includes me – sometimes overlook the skills & knowledge of our team. Biden, Pelosi, and Schumer are our best Top 3 since the Johnson administration when it comes to understanding what can be done and how to do it in Washington DC.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Steve in the ATL: I’ve got containers full of beanie babies in the attic if you want to replace it. $120 million dollars apiece, a full billion for a set. I’m practically giving these things away.
Just Some Fuckhead
@James E Powell:
lol, you are killing it tonight.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Oh the suckers in this deal are the Chines people; go look up the whole Chines ghost cities thing, it’s basically a giant housing bubble with empty, badly made apartments being sold back and forth with the Chine’s government encouragement and support. Cryptocurrency sounds like the CCPs idea of a sound investment.
Kineslaw
@Ruckus: Texas is a great place for solar and wind power, so a bitcoin mining operation wouldn’t necessarily be too reliant on the power grid.
Another thing Texas doesn’t have excess of is water. Cooling a Bitcoin mining operation must take a lot of it, which would be the other issue.
Anne Laurie
That’s why you have grandkids. They’re too young now, but in a few years, they’ll be able to mock Granpa’s weird vintage obsessions.
(Seriously, one advantage to Beanie Babies over porcelain: When the BB market collapsed, a lot of nice middle-class ladies donated their collections to shelters & community centers, where the kids were only too happy to have nice ‘new’ toys… )
Another Scott
@James E Powell:
I guess we’ll see.
The Speaker isn’t going to let 1/6 fade away.
Cheers,
Scott.
sab
@Anne Laurie: Gosh darn. So my beanie baby manatee has become worthless?
Another Scott
Cheers,
Scott.
Gary K
Sometimes the scriptwriters are so obvious.
ETA: I’m thinking of “new age pseudo-scientific babble.”
Captain C
@Kent:
It’s about as close to an abstract, pure Greater Fool item as we can get in the real world.
mrmoshpotato
@Ruckus:
Days? LOL! I give that shitshow 2 hours – tops. The only question is if Texans will freeze or fry?
Good on ya with an isolated grid, ya Texass slapdicks!
phdesmond
@Anne Laurie:
soft sculpture is more comforting
Matt McIrvin
@Anne Laurie: The Beanie Babies phenomenon inspired a Berenstain Bears book called “The Berenstain Bears’ Mad, Mad, Mad Toy Craze” which is, I kid you not, the best (perhaps the only) child-accessible explanation of a speculative bubble I’ve ever heard of.
Anne Laurie
@phdesmond: No lie: There were news stories about middle-school kids delighted with their first name-brand, unused toys — it made the kids feel valued.
And Beanie Babies were small enough to fit in a backpack or a tote, even when that backpack had to hold all their worldly possessions.
Hkedi [Kang T. Q.]
@CaseyL: I will watch Texas with great glee as the bit-coin miners flock to the state, which has it’s own state-regulated interconnect (that worked SO well this winter, and it looks like there might be a reprise in the height of summer). I’m sure NOTHING bad will happen as the miners add a couple of Gigawatts of load quickly to a system that is held together by duct tape, bailing wire, and donations to conservatives.
Hkedi [Kang T. Q.]
@lurker:
Peloton (maker of expensive treadmills) has moved into that market recently. Due to a “recall”, anyone who bought a $3K treadmill now needs to pony up $40/month or have their purchase bricked.
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/technology/peloton-tread-owners-now-forced-into-monthly-subscription-after-recall/
Hkedi [Kang T. Q.]
@trollhattan: Thankfully, it’s deep into it’s de-commissioning. You would basically have to re-build most of the plant to get it operational, plus Arizona can’t force the Navaho nation with Biden in charge right now.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navajo_Generating_Station
Urban Suburbanite
@Roger Moore:
I doubt it’s that. Xi’s grandiose investments abroad require capital that’s running short in China, and a lot of money is being moved out of the country. Shutting down cryptocurrency means the government can reduce a channel for covertly getting money out.
TriassicSands
@SiubhanDuinne:
What is probably thinking is, “Why didn’t I think of this?”
JoyceH
OMG – the conversation turns to ‘collectibles’ and I’m having PTSD flashbacks about managing my Mom’s estate. Oh well, at least she wasn’t around to learn what those plates were really worth.
That said, for a while the local CVS had a display of Beanie Baby My Little Ponies, and I couldn’t seem to leave the place without one. But I know better than to think they’re going to fund my retirement. (They’re just so CUTE!)
Hkedi [Kang T. Q.]
@JoyceH: As horrible as it its, Bitcoin is trying to expand into collectibles. They are called NFT’s (Non-Fungible Tokens) it’s just as stupid and grift-y as you would expect.
ian
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
These ghost cities?
they may not yield immediate investment, but they are clearly not just built for a quick one off construction boom. They are long-term development plans, that due to Chinese local-land ordinances and local/ national tax policy, sit empty between designation and occupation.
YY_Sima Qian
I have to chuckle at some of the comments here:
Bill
@CaseyL:
Help me out. Which state is which?
Sebastian
@YY_Sima Qian: Very informative, thank you.
lowtechcyclist
What’s going on with Bitcoin is just one more symptom of rich people having way more money than can be invested in anything remotely useful.
We desperately need a wealth tax, if only to end the distortions to our economy caused by so much surplus money sloshing around at the top.