Tearing off the anti-establishment disguise and entering the power game: Cryptocurrency’s trump card is revealed
By Charlie Warzel
Compiled by: BitpushNews Yanan
多年来，加密货币的质疑者一直困惑不解：这一切究竟意义何在？而加密支持者们则不遗余力地探寻着有力的回答。他们深信，作为加密货币及众多相似应用的技术基石，BlockchainIt is a great innovation in itself. It cleverly realizes the accurate record of online ownership and strongly promotes the digitalCommunityWhat’s more, they believeBlockchainIt is the core element that builds and supports the third generation of ultra-financialized Internet. In this new Internet era, you can easily buy a digital artwork of a cartoon monkey for $3.4 million without any intermediary.
Then there are the cryptocurrencies themselves: Bitcoin, Ethereum, and the endless stream of memecoins and startups.Token. Most of these are highly volatile, speculative assets - some people use them to trade, post spoof content, store value, and sometimes get rich overnight, but they can also lose everything. At the same time, they are often used for illegal purposes, such as the notorious money laundering, illegal funding of start-ups, and planning complex financial fraud. Despite this, cryptocurrencies do have their application scenarios. But people have long been skeptical of it because the technology is too complicated and does not provide functions that modern financial systems cannot achieve - in other words, for those who do not intend to use it to commit crimes, cryptocurrency is a technical solution in search of a problem.
我倾向于认同这一观点。我曾花时间报道过 NFT 和基于加密代币的去中心化自治组织（DAOs), such as the one who tried to buy a first edition of the U.S. Constitution in 2021 DAOI’ve also read some obscure white papers from Web3 startups and decentralized finance protocols (DeFi) that leverage smartcontractEnabling financial services transactions without the need for large banks. However, I still haven’t found the so-called “killer app”.
However, after the presidential election, I think differently about the impact of cryptocurrency.
Cryptocurrency, an innovation in the technology field, has an impact far beyond a single service and has spawned a unique cultural atmosphere. This culture has an inherent distrust of traditional institutions and a certain degree of sympathy for those who try to challenge or undermine these institutions. The recent election results, to some extent, are a questioning of the authority of traditional institutions (such as the federal government, the public health system, and the media), and the cryptocurrency industry has played a role in fueling this process. The industry has set up a super political action committee called "Fairshake" and raised more than $200 million to support politicians who are friendly to cryptocurrencies, whether they are from the Democratic Party or the Republican Party.
It is particularly worth mentioning that Donald Trump has shown great enthusiasm for cryptocurrency technology. During the campaign, he not only vigorously promoted an emerging cryptocurrency platform "World Liberty Financial" focusing on decentralized finance (DeFi), but also vowed to remove Gary Gensler, chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), who has attracted much attention for strictly regulating the cryptocurrency industry. Gensler's resignation plan is scheduled for January, which is usually a routine operation when a new government takes office.
In addition, Trump also promised to relax relevant regulatory policies in order to "make the United States the center of global cryptocurrency and the superpower of Bitcoin." He bluntly stated during the campaign: "If you support cryptocurrency, then voting for Trump will be your best choice."
In the short term, cryptocurrency appears to have spawned a lasting and complex cultural phenomenon, with true believers, dreamers of technological utopias, speculators, criminals, scammers, investors, and politicians trying to pander to voters. The financial impact of this technology has made many people rich overnight, and they are using these resources to strive to build a world that conforms to their vision.
Although Bitcoin’s founding document, the white paper that laid the foundation for the entire cryptocurrency space, did not directly address political issues, the cryptocurrency quickly gained favor and admiration among cyberlibertarians, whose core beliefs can be traced back to the 1996 Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace, which explicitly stated that governments should have no say in the management of the internet.
比特币及其他加密货币均构建于区块链技术之上，而区块链的去中心化特质，使其天然带有一种反体制的色彩。它们的运作无需依赖任何中央权威或中介机构。已故的数字文化研究学者大卫戈卢姆比亚（David Golumbia）在其 2016 年的力作《比特币的政治：作为右翼极端主义的软件》中深刻剖析道：「在比特币最狂热的支持者中，不少人将美联储描绘成一个本质上腐朽的机构，一个由阴谋论中的银行家所操纵的工具，这些银行家企图『全面掌控民众的生活』。」
For those firm believers at the time, cryptocurrency was a ray of technological utopia, illuminating the way to fight against the fragmented, exclusive and exploitative financial system. They firmly believed that this technological innovation could either reshape the financial system or completely subvert it.
However, today, the cultural ecology of cryptocurrency has become increasingly diversified. Trading platforms like Coinbase and Robinhood allow everyone with a bank account and a smartphone to easily step into this once mysterious world of trading. It is true that there are still a group of "hardcore believers" who firmly believe in cryptocurrency technology; but at the same time, we also see celebrities and "meme kings" using online pop culture to launch new coins and attract attention through hype, and there are also a large number of day traders trying to find opportunities to get rich overnight in these speculative tokens.
Profits from cryptocurrencies are often tied to hype and marketing, and this has spawned a unique digital culture that attracts not only those who crave a sense of belonging, but also investors who are seduced by the dream of a thousand-fold return, and those who simply enjoy the fun of cryptocurrencies being able to "annoy the orthodoxy." Even as cryptocurrencies are gradually becoming mainstream, many loyal fans still see their investments andCommunityA symbol of counterculture.
Therefore, it is not surprising that right-wing culture warriors like Jordan Peterson and Joe Rogan, who are influential today but still consider themselves “outsiders,” have shown a keen interest in cryptocurrencies. Similarly, venture capitalists like Marc Andreessen, whose companies are deeply involved in the cryptocurrency field, have gradually leaned towards more conservative political positions, a change that is also worth our attention.
It’s easy to scoff at the hype cycle of cryptocurrencies—you can scoff at the wild price spikes and crashes of the Bored Apes NFT or the unbridled hype of Memecoin culture. When it comes to the controversial launch of Memecoin, we have to mention Haliey Welch, better known as the Hawk Tuah girl, who launched a Memecoin that skyrocketed in price in a short period of time and then quickly collapsed, angering many of her loyal fans. If this description resonates with you, I apologize for it, but at the same time—I guess you get the point.
Cryptocurrency culture is filled with obscure Internet buzzwords and unique visual symbols, which seem out of place and even offensive. The frequent scandals of Ponzi schemes and fraudulent retail investors in this industry - insolvent companies such as FTX and bankrupt platforms such as Celsius - make it even more untrustworthy. However, despite these storms, or precisely because of these experiences, the cryptocurrency field has still created a group of millionaires, billionaires, and huge corporate capital reserves. Now, they are using this accumulated wealth to exert influence on the political stage.
Which brings us back to Trump. Whether he truly understands the underlying logic of cryptocurrencies — beyond recognizing them as an effective means of winning votes and making money from them — remains unclear. Yet the alliance between Trump and crypto supporters makes philosophical sense. Trump himself is a money-hungry and corrupt figure. And for his supporters, the appeal of his administration stems in part from his promise to weaken the power of the federal government, fight back against political opponents, and reshape American institutions. It’s not hard to see how the vision of “Make America Great Again,” or MAGA, intersects with a fringe culture that hates the existing system as corrupt and untrustworthy. This intersection also applies to some tech executives, such as David Sacks, the anti-woke culture venture capitalist who was appointed by Trump to oversee AI and cryptocurrency.
I raised these views with Molly White, a longtime cryptocurrency watcher. She pointed out another similarity between cryptocurrency advocates and the MAGA camp: their desire to be like the powerful institutions they so often despise. “There’s an anti-government, anti-censorship ethos that underlies Bitcoin, and to a lesser extent other crypto assets,” she told me. Cryptocurrencies were originally built on the idea that big financial institutions and governments should stay out of this emerging space, White said. Yet, “many cryptocurrency advocates have accumulated enormous wealth and therefore enormous power through holding these assets. Over time, that ethos has shifted from ‘We don’t want those institutions to have power’ to ‘We want power.’ ”
White believes that the cryptocurrency industry has transformed into a replica of the system it was originally founded to oppose. "Look at what cryptocurrency companies like Coinbase are doing, and their behavior is very similar to the financial institutions that Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto criticized. These companies not only maintain close partnerships with the government, but also even perform identity verification like traditional banks," she analyzed. "They seem to have rebuilt a financial system, but in fact they provide fewer protections for consumers."
It’s clear that if Trump is re-elected, the cryptocurrency industry and its leaders may get what they want. The industry may face a new regulatory framework that defines tokens as commodities rather than securities, which will greatly relax trading restrictions and may promote a deeper integration between large banks and crypto assets. Last week, Trump nominated Paul Atkins, a former SEC commissioner and cryptocurrency supporter, to serve as chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Upon the news, the price of Bitcoin rose in response, breaking through the $100,000 mark in one fell swoop (by comparison, the price of Bitcoin was less than half of this figure at the same time last year).
You don’t have to be a cynic to see the flywheel effect at work: Cryptocurrency has emerged as a political force not because its technology has widespread and indisputable utility, but because it has created a group of super-rich people who attract attention and interest. The industry uses wealth to win over politicians, who in turn cater to donors with promises. Ultimately, candidates who support cryptocurrencies win, and the price of Bitcoin rises, making the same people even richer and more able to wield greater political influence.
Although Trump has not officially entered the White House, this series of possible chain reactions has begun to emerge. Justin Sun, a cryptocurrency tycoon from China, recently spent $30 million to purchase a large number of Trump's "World Liberty Financial" tokens - this transaction may have made Trump a lot of money, but it also raised people's concerns: the incoming president's investment in the cryptocurrency field may become a convenient channel for bribery. There are rumors that Trump may fulfill his previous promise to establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve in the United States, which may even require the federal government to purchase up to 200,000 Bitcoins each year over the next five years.Xiaobai Navigation— and perhaps use the country’s gold reserves in exchange. For cryptocurrency whales, this is undoubtedly an extremely attractive plan—a feast of wealth transfer from the government to cryptocurrency giants. In fact, this will enable cryptocurrency holders to sell their assets to the government at a high price, further pushing up asset prices. For a technology that originally adheres to the concept of decentralization, using the government to support the price of Bitcoin is undoubtedly an ironic operation.
Cryptocurrency may become the "lubricant" of government operations in Trump's second term, but what is more worrying is what will happen if cryptocurrency industry executives achieve all their goals as they wish. My colleague Annie Lowrey recently wrote: "Industry-friendly rules will trigger a large influx of funds into the crypto market, which will not only make existing crypto asset holders richer, but also may increase market volatility and expose millions of Americans to scams, fraud and fraud."
White expressed similar concerns, especially as cryptocurrencies become more integrated into the global economy. While the collapse of FTX cost some users dearly, it did not cause any real knock-on effects to the broader financial system. “At the time, crypto companies were not yet big enough to fail and needed government bailouts,” she told me. “However, if banks were allowed to get more involved, and if cryptocurrencies became more integrated with traditional finance, I was worried that the industry would become much larger and, if it collapsed, much more destructive.”
The future of cryptocurrencies remains shrouded in mystery, but at least in the short term, their impact seems clearer than it was before November 5. It turns out that cryptocurrencies have indeed found a very specific use case - as a technology, it has firmly grasped and furthered a culture that has seen greed and speculation as virtues, while also embracing market volatility. The only thing that seems certain about cryptocurrencies is that they attract and shape a group of diverse individuals - they may be adventurous, overly optimistic about the benefits of technology, or deeply suspicious of traditional institutions. These qualities make cryptocurrencies coincide with the turbulent and distrustful 2020s, and the nihilism and corruption that is unique to the Trump era.
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