• TransplantedSconie@lemm.ee
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    4 months ago

    Someone is heavily invested in bitcoin.

    Can we see his portfolio for a sec? Not saying there’s an ulterior motive, but…

    • MegaUltraChicken@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      If I remember correctly, his buddy that got busted for getting fake ids for minors also spent a ton of government money buying GPUs to mine crypto.

    • makeasnek@lemmy.mlOP
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      4 months ago

      A lot of congress is invested in Bitcoin. If you have anything in mutual funds, investments funds, pension funds, most of them have some degree of exposure to it. Even excluding that, 25-40% of Americans own crypto directly depending on what survey you read.

      • dhork@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        If you have anything in mutual funds, investments funds, pension funds, most of them have some degree of exposure to it.

        Ok. I call bullshit on this. Funds do not hold crypto unless they explicitly say they do, like some of these crypto ETFs that have started up. The regulatory landscape is so weird for crypto right now that we don’t even know if they are handled as a security or not. So I think it’s safe to assume that fund managers are steering clear of it unless they explicitly call out that they are in it. Unless you mean indirect exposure through investing in Crypto related businesses like Coinbase, but even that’s a stretch

        Congress, on the other hand: yeah, they’re all into it. How else would they get their foreign bribe money?

        • makeasnek@lemmy.mlOP
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          4 months ago

          Ok. I call bullshit on this. Funds do not hold crypto unless they explicitly say they do, like some of these crypto ETFs that have started up.

          It’s more common than you think. Here’s an article about the Wisconsin state pension fund investing in Bitcoin. You can pay taxes in Colorado with it and use it at the DMV. Pretty much every major bank has some exposure to it either by owning BTC outright or investing in adjacent technology. A little googling will find you plenty of more examples. And you are right, now that ETFs exist, we will see even easier institutional adoption.

          The regulatory landscape is so weird for crypto right now that we don’t even know if they are handled as a security or not.

          SEC has been incredibly clear that Bitcoin is not a security. The rest of them though, that’s where they are murky on their language.

          How else would they get their foreign bribe money?

          They don’t need Bitcoin for that, they can just legally accept those bribes in most cases or move around some money some other way while knowing there is a near zero chance they will ever get prosecuted for it. Ask Kushner how he does it.

          • dhork@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            Your first link illustrates my point; the Wisconsin pension fund disclosed their Bitcoin investment. I see a lot of speculation that other funds are, but no hard facts about it. If it is happening, it is super early. Here is a link from Fidelity stating that many funds are “thinking” about it:

            https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/fidelity:-pension-funds-exploring-bitcoin-investments-on-etf-approval

            It may happen on a broad scale (and I hope it does, I can use another 10x gain), but it’s not there yet. If it happens, they will do it cautiously. The last thing they want is regulatory scrutiny for destroying a pension fund in the next exchange token crash.

            Your second link also doesn’t say what you think it does. It’s a link to a digital tech consulting company, who seems to have a vested interest in pushing crypto into the mainstream. Even then, the link is not about these banks investing in Crypto, but about banks figuring out how to provide custody services to retail customers. OG Crypto Bros self-custody, of course, but that involves a bunch of steps that the general public doesn’t want to bother with.

            So, dont jump the gun on this.

            • borari@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              4 months ago

              but about banks figuring out how to provide custody services to retail customers.

              Opening a consulting firm to help implement this a bold business move, considering the FDIC doesn’t insure crypto and the FRB presumptively prohibits state member banks and their subsidiaries from holding most crypto-assets as principal.