Digital Disruption – Digital Finance Analytics (DFA) Blog

Less Digital River, More Lipstick On A Pig For Bitcoin Strategic Reserve!

The price of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies continue to whiplash in response to more news from the While House about the so call Strategic crypto reserve. Trump had vowed to create a strategic Bitcoin reserve on the campaign trail, one of many crypto-related promises that helped fuel a surge in prices up until the day of his inauguration. Trump’s campaign pledge to create a strategic Bitcoin reserve was one of many promises designed to appeal to an industry that has emerged as source of significant political donations.

On March 6th President Donald Trump has signed the long-awaited order creating a strategic Bitcoin reserve and an additional stockpile of other digital assets. The order, was shared initially as a post on X by White House crypto czar David Sacks, indicated that the government wouldn’t use taxpayer money to fund a strategic reserve of the largest digital asset.

“The Reserve will be capitalized with Bitcoin owned by the federal government that was forfeited as part of criminal or civil asset forfeiture proceedings. This means it will not cost taxpayers a dime.”

The government holds about 200,000 Bitcoins seized over the past 15 years. That’s worth $17.5bn at today’s prices, with Trump’s order also calling for an audit of the government’s crypto holdings. The Department of Justice- which holds all the government’s seized Bitcoin- was seen selling the token intermittently on the open market in recent years.

This was a disappointment to many who had taken positions ahead of the announcement on the assumption that the Treasury would purchase additional crypto holdings. With this latest development, these positions are being unwound. While the creation of the Bitcoin-specific reserve fulfills a promise Trump made on the campaign trail, the details fell short of industry expectations.

To me this looks more like lipstick on a pig than a big strategic shift. But this was not what the pro-crypto community had been banking on.

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Shop ‘Til You Drop; Or Not: This Christmas!

Boxing day highlighted the weird financial pressures lurking across Australia at the moment, as shoppers flooded stores to make the most of Boxing Day bargains. More and more shoppers were holding out for a bargain during the festive season as cost-of-living pressures continued to weigh households down. Perhaps It’s really because of cost-of-living challenges that we saw shoppers out in force today. Bargain hunting is a national sport, it seems.

However, while it was once the major shopping event of the year, Boxing Day sales are losing their position against an imported rival.

Consumer advocacy group Choice has warned those entering the Boxing Day fray to do their homework first.

Research from online e-commerce giant eBay predicts Australians could make almost $1 billion from selling unwanted gifts this festive season.

An ABC NEWS Verify investigation has uncovered dozens of online clothing stores pretending to be high-end Australian fashion boutiques. Customers are sometimes shipped cheap, low-quality goods made in Asia, and sometimes, nothing at all. Their investigation focused on stores that had an implied and or explicit physical presence in Australia — ranging from stores using Australian locations in their names to dropshipping stores creating digital images of fake physical shop fronts in Australian locations.

So all up, if you do spend, spend wisely, and be cautious. Bargains may not be bargains and in the online world what you see may not be true. More broadly, in the current financial environment, holding close to your wallet and spending carefully would be a goo new year resolution, even if others want us to spend, spend, spend.

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Bitcoin Bursts Through 100K!

Bitcoin rose as much as 6.1% to $103,801 on Thursday before easing back. The crypto market overall has jumped by roughly $1.3 trillion since Trump’s election victory on Nov. 5 on a platform that includes a tight embrace of the crypto sector. The reason was President-elect Donald Trump’s pick of a crypto proponent to be the next head of the US securities regulator as he selected Paul Atkins to replace outgoing Securities & Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler, who cracked down on digital assets after a 2022 market rout exposed fraudulent practices and sparked costly blowups.

Trump has vowed to undo a Biden administration clampdown on digital assets, install friendly regulators and turn the US into the global home of crypto. The Republican even backed the idea of a strategic national Bitcoin reserve, though there are doubts over whether the latter objective is feasible.
Trump used to be a crypto skeptic but pivoted as the sector unleashed an election campaign war chest to further its interests.

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The Misinformation Bill Is Dead [Again]!

The Albanese government has dumped its controversial mis- and disinformation bill, conceding there is “no pathway” to getting the proposal passed through the Senate.

The communications minister, Michelle Rowland, insisted misinformation and disinformation remained a grave concern for democracy, national security and online safety, but said the government would not proceed with the proposal. It is the second time Labor has pulled the bill, after an initial version also failed to gain support and raised concerns about freedom of speech online.

“Based on public statements and engagements with senators, it is clear that there is no pathway to legislate this proposal through the Senate,” Rowland said on Sunday.

As I discussed in previous shows, the mis- and disinformation bill would have put legal obligations on social media platforms to address false, misleading or deceptive content, or content reasonably likely to cause serious harm, as well as equip the Australian Communications and Media Authority to regulate such content. However it was strongly opposed by a wide range of bodies including human rights organisations, church groups and libertarian groups, as well as many of the non-government members of parliament.
A first version of the legislation was redrafted in a bid to win wider support, but the second attempt also failed to garner parliamentary backing or assuage wider concerns from critics. The Coalition has long pledged to oppose the bill, while all other members of the Senate crossbench had said in recent days they would either vote it down or were not yet sufficiently convinced to vote for it.

The Australian Human Rights Commission said back in October that “although there have been improvements to the bill, freedom of expression is not sufficiently protected”.

That leaves the age of under 16 ban on access to social media still in play, and it looks like this legislation will pass this week despite major flaws in the bill, and concerns it could be a back door to wider social media access controls. As I discussed recently this bill is also deeply flawed, but Labour is after a win, any win politically speaking before the election.

The short time-frame and rushed consideration of the Bill means it is likely to be of poor quality. Given the importance of the issues contained in the legislation, a more detailed and longer path is required to ensure the best approach possible is developed.

Given the proximity of the next election is appears that political considerations are driving the time-frames, and for the reasons outlined above, the Bill in its current guise should not be passed into law.

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Controlled! Shut Up, Say Nothing: Obey….

Well now we have next bit of the controlling infrastructure being put in place to control free speech, and perhaps even what we think! The Orwellian nightmare with severe consequences for freedom of expression is being rolled out for all to see.

I have already talked about the dystopian future being drip fed on society, with the removal of cash so financial tractions can be monitored, the introduction of a non-mandatory but effectively mandatory of a digital ID, and of course there is the move to restrict youngsters access to socials.

But now we have the next piece of the puzzle, as Today in Canberra, Minister Rowland tabled the Labour Government’s latest version of the “Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation Bill”.

This bill defines ‘serious harm’ as:
(a) harm to the operation or integrity of a Commonwealth, State, Territory or local government electoral or referendum process; or
(b) harm to public health in Australia, including to the efficacy of preventative health measures in Australia; or
(c) vilification of a group in Australian society distinguished by race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, intersex status, disability, nationality or national or ethnic origin, or vilification of an individual because of a belief that the individual is a member of such a group; or
(d) intentionally inflicted physical injury to an individual in Australia; or
(e) imminent:
(i) damage to critical infrastructure; or
(ii) disruption of emergency services; in Australia; or
(f) imminent harm to the Australian economy, including harm to public confidence in the banking system or financial markets; that has:
(g) significant and far-reaching consequences for the Australian community or a segment of the Australian community; or
(h) severe consequences for an individual in Australia
If the platforms do not silence the above content, they could be slapped with a range of penalties, including a maximum fine of 5 per cent of their global revenue. That’s a very big stick which will undoubtedly result in algorithms which silence a large amount of factual content.

Frankly, in the light of this, my ability to analyse and yes criticise Government Policy, Monetary Policy or even economic analysis more generally could be caught in the draconian umbrella. Even reporting on financial pressures on households could be caught. My voice would be silenced online and the government talking points would continue to spread unchallenged.

Then just add the Central Bank Digital Currency into the mix, the total control by Government is complete. This is anti-democratic nonsense and needs to be stopped. Before its too late, if its not already!

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