Blackrock, an investment firm with $10 trillion in assets under management, has inked a partnership deal with Boston-based stablecoin issuer Circle. In a round of funding worth 400 million by Blackrock, Fidelity, Marshall Wace LLP and Fin Capital, it seems Circle and digital assets are getting the nod from Wall Street. Blackrock has had a sordid past with crypto, with Larry Fink the chairman of Blackrock referring to Bitcoin as an "index of money laundering". This partnership may be signaling a tune change from the investment goliath.
On the other hand, this investment into Circle may not be a longterm positive for Bitcoin, or crypto in general, as Blackrock is one of the largest proponents of the ESG narrative which has taken a staunch position against Bitcoin mining and proof-of-work. It may even be in stark contrast to Bitcoin as a decentralized monetary network, as a large capital allocator such as Blackrock can influence the issuance and centralization of said stablecoin.
Blackrock already has strong ties with the Federal Reserve, as they managed much of the QE securities purchases. Could this become a defacto CBDC? Or will we begin to see more large capital allocators and public companies with large swaths of liquidity get into the currency issuance game?
I see your CBDC and raise you a CTDC (Corporate Treasury Digital Currency), ushering in a true Oligarchical state. As Henry Kissinger said "Who controls the food supply controls the people, who controls energy can control continents, who controls the money can control the world". Whatever the outcome, it still seems like this is a green light for investment groups and Wall Street to turn to digital assets, with at least some capital flowing into Bitcoin.
Wikipedia Votes to Stop Accepting Cyrptocurrency For Donation.
The WikiMedia foundation has voted to ban cryptocurrencies as donations to the site, with 71% of its members voting in favor. The main reason cited was the environmental and social harm imposed by cryptocurrencies, specifically Bitcoin due to its proof-of-work protocol which "expends too much energy". In 2021 only 347 people donated to Wikipedia, donating a total of $130k. At the end of the day it seems this was more of a PR move to either get people stirred up and talking about Wikipedia or to virtue signal the ESG narrative. We have gone in depth on the ESG FUD before so we won't bother wasting our breath refuting the environmental concerns. Whatever the reason, chalk this one up to noise and move on.
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