That’s 600 billion, with a ‘B’. How much of the melt-up was driven by leverage, and who’s left holding the bag for those loans?
After topping $126,000 in October, Bitcoin has fallen sharply, briefly wiping out its 2025 gains before stabilizing on Monday.
With gold and stocks near all-time highs, Bitcoin is the “tip of the risk-assets iceberg and melting,” said Mike McGlone, senior commodity strategist at Bloomberg Intelligence. “I expect Bitcoin and most cryptos to keep falling.”
The “sudden” change in Bitcoin’s value is entirely expected, it happens very near to a 4 year cycle.
Who’s left holding the bag? Those who borrowed to hold Bitcoin (or other cryptos) while it was rising. The gov’t isn’t going to cover those losses, nor will they cover gold or silver losses if it takes a major tumble.
Why am I not worried about this? Gov’t will continue their excess fiat currency spending, for the foreseeable future, no matter the cost. The cost isn’t paid until the future arrives, they all kick the can down the road past the next election.
Here’s one example, only one:
The current #Librano gov’t of Canada said they’re going to spend $100 Billion, “with a B” for new submarines. You’d think that a country with as much coastline as tier 2 Canada has that someone would have thought to invested in submarines? lol, we’re talking about Canada here.
Somehow that figure isn’t in the current budget, though there is an increase in military spending, $100 Billion of future submarine spending simply isn’t there. Current increases in military spending are for F-35 or SAAB Viggens and I actually think they should buy some of each. Along with some rifles…
Sandra Cobena MP:
https://x.com/SandraCobena_/status/1990258177854902658
It appears the garbage gov’t of tier 2 Canada has visited at least 2 shipyards to see their submarines, and have settled on South Korea’s Hanwha Ocean shipyard. A few days ago, the gov’t of South Korea signed an agreement with the USA to buy the tech to build nuclear powered submarines. Which is exactly as I’d expect. Canada buys last generation subs from South Korea so they can finance this generation’s nuclear submarines. Meanwhile, the currency continues to fall, gold and silver are up, Bitcoin is floating up and down as it has for 17 years, and imbeciles in Canada have a gov’t which is entirely off the rails as to relevance in our lives. We’re led by imbeciles, and thusly we become them.
Derek Fildebrandt:
“Canada now has a single operational diesel submarine to defend the largest coastline on the planet.”
https://x.com/Dfildebrandt/status/1985118644188438602
The Royal Canadian Navy says, it’s the most advanced submarine in its fleet. Jughead King Charles agrees…
“most advanced submarine in the fleet” !!! my neighbor has a decade old Corvette, it’s his pride and joy having spent 40 years working in the CPR yard in Calgary, it’s the most advanced Corvette in his fleet !!!
References: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/hmcs-corner-brook-collision-damage-extensive-1.1249573
https://www.biv.com/news/series-of-failures-at-bc-dry-dock-damaged-canadas-most-advanced-submarine-10858592#:~:text=%E2%80%8BA%20third%2Dparty%20investigation,a%20hole%20near%20the%20hydroplane.kes at BC shipyard damaged advanced Canadian submarine – Business in Vancouver
At least it’s not suffering from an ingress of seawater as per:
https://vancouverisland.ctvnews.ca/atlantic/article/hmcs-windsor-forced-to-return-to-halifax-after-trouble-during-training-exercise-minor-injuries-reported/#:~:text=Deals-,HMCS%20Windsor%20forced%20to%20return%20to%20Halifax%20after,training%20exercise;%20minor%20injuries%20reported&text=The%20Canadian%20Navy%20says%20three,the%20sub%20to%20sail%20again.
You would think that with the amount of artic coastline Canada has, they would spend the money for nuclear boats, but instead they are buying diesels from South Korea, because “Orange man bad”
In the air we are finding drones changing the game. Why do we need submarines? Why not underwater drones and sensor arrays? Easier to deploy, cheaper, probably more effective.
Yup.
We’d be better off going balls out – or is it balls deep – in drone tech.
Lordy knows Cantada probably has a full army worth of pencil-necked Enders playing Call of Duty and Battlefield, especially with youth unemployment at 15%, minimum.
Bitcoin is stupid.
And I don’t care who thinks I’m stupid for thinking its stupid.
They’re probably stupid too.
Go buy some tulips.
Every means of economic exchange … EVERY form of exchange … from barter to Bitcoin is a “fiat” currency. It’s only “worth” what someone else (a LOT of someone else’s) believe it’s worth.
Sure.
Lotsa people believe lotsa stuff.
Until the power goes out.
But I can still slam someone’s brains in with my 150 ounces of silver – or make werewolf bullets.
Buddy, Yup.
Kenji, Yup.
Fiat currency is what a “government” (or ruling elite) decides has value, assigns said value, then we trust and earn it as they see fit that we can, according to their whims. Then comes scales of salaries, according to what service you provide. The services are arbitrary and serviceable, which is why bureaucrats unfairly earn more than firemen.
Roman legions had a “salary” consisting of a measure of salt, and all they earned was laying a brick in Hadrian’s wall.
As for bitcoin, and its ilk, I am with Buddy. It is Madoff ephemera, and will erode like pyramids.
I will plead, at this point, ignorance as to how all this shite works, but I will maintain that the vast majority of us have always and forever resided outside their feudal walls.
If you read this far, ignore me or buy me a drink.
Have a nice day.
By the way, “Fiat” means “let it be done” or “let it happen”…and is arbitrary, according to who decides, until they change their minds,
So, Fiat Lux, Yo.
Oh come on! It doesn’t matter what the government thinks it should spend money on. A large chunk goes to administration, consultants, accountants, lawyers, banks, public consultation. And it’s stretched out over multiple years. Of course there’s the grift and fraud portion as well. Lucky if 50% goes where they say it will.
Also, by the time this military hardware is operational, spares are procured and the training is complete, it will be obsolete.
Within five years, satellites, drones and robots will do the job.
I have never understood why anyone would “invest” in something that has no intrinsic value, and whose price is solely propped by the belief that others will pay even more for it.
And my buddy Chuck agrees with me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uf7OZld47K4
Or, completely intangible. It has no physical existence and its only value is what a person believes it to be. Bitcoin can easily disappear in an instant with a stroke of a pen by any tyrant.
Yes, it’s a private fiat currency. What’s your point? In the early 1900s Emperor Norton issued his own currency and San Francisco establishments accepted it at par. What’s the difference?
As a currency it might make sense in certain situations. As an investment it’s a crap idea. I don’t consider the paper dollars in my wallet an investment.
Bitcoin has been around for 17 years now. It has always been volatile but has consistently held an upward trend over time. Major corporations and numerous countries have Bitcoin portfolios as they know Bitcoin is a solid strategic asset and it is one that governments cannot devalue by creating more. I have a Bitcoin investment and expect there to be bull and bear markets for it as always. The U.S. and Canadian dollars consistently lose more purchasing power every year and will continue to do so. Nothing will stop that train as the debts they hold cannot be paid off and governments run massive deficits every year. The Canadian dollar has lost 34% of it’s purchasing power since 2005. What would you rather hold right now?….The U.S. dollar, the Canadian dollar, or Bitcoin? Bitcoin has a future. Dollars do not. Bitcoin is on sale right now.
Bitcoin is like a sock. You put money in a sock. Does the sock have value?
It depends if the socks have holes in them. The fact that FIAT money such as the U.S. and Canadian dollars are under the control of governments means the government can print (borrow) more money any time they want which devalues the money. They print and borrow more because they have the ability to do so and once they start doing that they can’t stop. Nobody has the ability to print or borrow more bitcoin than what can actually exist. There will only ever be 21 million bitcoin. The law of supply and demand applies to bitcoin but there are no holes in the sock.
How do we know there will only ever be 20 million bitcoin?
Because the algorithm used to create it caps the total number at that value. It’s computationally impossible to make any more Bitcoin.
If you make the sock a brilliant comedic puppet, it could have great value.
Every asset has value based on supply and demand. Even assets with a fixed supply must rely on demand for value.
Depends by what you mean by “value.” Society’s real wealth is not money, but its ability to generate the goods and services that people want and need.
Yes, that’s true. All FIAT currencies since the beginning of time have ultimately failed because they get devalued into oblivion. They ultimately become worthless because the ability exists to create more of them. The main reason that Bitcoin even exists is that governments have printed or borrowed so much FIAT money that they have devalued it to the extreme. That is what inflation is. Nobody wants to hold their wealth in something that loses so much purchasing power every year. Since the Federal Reserve was founded in 1913 the U.S. dollar has lost 97% of it’s purchasing power. Even if by some miracle the U.S. or Canadian governments suddenly reined in all spending and had budget surpluses every year from now on their debts are so extreme that it would not save the dollars from failing as it’s impossible for any plausible budget surpluses to make even the slightest dent in multiple trillion dollar debts. It’s too late. WAY too late.
Fiat currencies devalue because people waste them on buying Italian cars.