Crypto lovers, we love you.  All the time we spend together is insatiable joy.  Time flies by as we realize how smart, how cool, and just how lovely y'all are.   We think you like us too but WE LOVE YOU MORE!!!  & how much FUN it is to hang out here on the unstoppable  Publish0x!  Better yet, not just fun, but working to save the world from fiat power mad driven troubles.   Cupid !  Please hear our cry, and let your arrow fly.  Straight to a crypto world for us...Now Cupid don't ya hear us calling we need ya 

Cupid let your arrows make a love storm, for we promise to love crypto till eternity. We know with all of us fiat's heart we can steal, so help us if you will.   CUPID!!   DRAW BACK YOUR BOWWW!!!!  Bless ya Sam Cooke.  LOL, Ya know it turns out Al Green is singing about spirituality  even when it sounds like it's about a hottie!  And loving crypto after the latest wild rides, ya know our love is true.  It's an intellectual Chemical Romance baby!! 

In the FT today,  Crypto made it back onna front page YAY!! Don't scare us like that, FT.    In the middle of the World Indices, the salmon lady puts out!!

Not much crypto in today's FT.  Must be on FT crypto good news rationing after the gorgeous Mr. Alan Howard spread on the FT Weekend.   So let's get petty, as dear readers know we love to do, and do a deep dive on  that "Ethereum" (so quaint, the Brits!)  

FT prints ETH ( can't be arsed to spell "Ethereum" anymore, sorry) for Jul 18th at $1504.84.   Let's go to the Gecko!! That is the last price of July 18th.   ETH is up 12.54%!!  THAT's gonna catch some FT front page beady eyes!  The World Indices prints percentage changes for stocks, commodities and crypto.  The next biggest change is Bitcoin, up 7.54%.  After that, oil managed to jump up almost 5%, then the Hang Seng just short of 3%.  All good, right?  Crypto looks great, right? 

NO!    Crypto should look AWESOME.   Market cap back up above a trillion. The FT is printing  ETH being up 12.5% based on ETH being around 1400 on the last price  of the day of July 17th.  BUT THE FT DIDN'T PRINT ETH yesterday,  remember?  Cause WE do.  The last ETH price the FT graced us with was on Friday, July 15th!  Here she is: ETH is all the way down at $1114.49.  Which means the percentage change today, from the last print, should be listed as a STONKING 35% !!!  Say it SAY IT D_MNIT "Thirty Five Percent " from the "Prev!!"

EAT IT FT TABLE JOCKS!!   WE WANNA CORRECTION!!!!!      All the OTHER commodities got THEIR changes listed correctly!! WHAT HAPPENED TO THE "WITHOUT FAVOUR" part!!??!!   Crypto is BACK baby, run paint run, it's RIPPING!!!   THE FT DID THAT ON PURPOSE!!!

OK,  we'll calm down.  Won't say it again, let it go Wee Radge Joe.  Sorry, we promise. 

We are on the 14th  day of the FT blackout on Nexo acquiring Vauld.  Businesstocommunity's crypto news last week stated Vauld has assets of 330mm but liabilities of 400mm.  A haircut for investors looks required. B2C then moved on to speculating on if the deal will close and affect Nexo's coin price. 

OK that's fair & sensible, let's see!  ALL the OTHER news outlets announced the deal on July 5th, when Nexo USD was at ~60 cents.  Right now it is at 76.  Not just up > 25%, also the highest in over a month. Where were we:  FT!!! FREE THE POSITIVE CRYPTO LENDING NEWS!!! UP DARSHAN, SANJU and ANTONIO!!!! 

Past the front page, whadda we got: Inflation, strikes.  The Bank O England shouts back against criticism, they did everything right.  OK boomer.

Columbia and Venezuela will improve ties.  Dear readers know, of COURSE not in this article, but they already share their love of crypto as LATAM leaders and significant world crypto players. 

Italy is convulsing under (not in the FT article) 20 year high inflation.  The article does mention Italy's bonds tanking against German bunds, called "fragmentation" in the EU.  Should the ECB's money printer go BRRRRRRT BRRRT BRRRRRRRRT to bail the Italians?  Laguarde says "nip it in the bud."  Does this cross the line between monetary policy and fiscal policy, which is toxic politically?   Dear readers know we never understood WTF how did the EU ever think monetary union would last while allowing disparate fiscal policies. 

A big article on emerging markets bond fails. All the EM bonds are spiraling down.  Will the FT miss a chance to kick El Salvador's bold move into Bitcoin?  They will NOT.    TBF, under IMF, US, and credit pressure, El Salvador's bond prices have tanked, right down there between  the Ukraine and Sri Lanka.   Seems to us that El Salvador is doing a lot better, they are not the epicenter of a proxy war between the USA and China, and they are not in open revolt with the President's house taken over as he flees for his life in shame.

 Loving bitcoin is the WORST crime in the eyes of the IMF,  and the US.  Sri Lanka owes the IMF something like 1.5 billion, El Salvador owes maybe 300MM.  El Salvador was never able to issue the famous volcano bonds to mine BTC from thermal energy.  When El Salvador tried, the IMF started screwing their credit rating and cranking up the pressure, calling in the big US guns.   Talk about the Dave Chapelle joke where the whole world is together up your arse in perpetuity and throughout the universe!!! 

As dear readers know, random @(!*&#& senators from Idaho, the Dirty Jersey, and Louisiana  piled on, telling El Salvador not to do it, because bitcoin would empower evildoers like China and organized crime, and El Salvador should be "protected" from THAT.   To his credit, Bukele did better than our profanity to describe this ludicrous position.  Dear readers remember Bukele's  "OK Boomer" and " We are not your colony," a close second to  our favorite, "Don't try to control something you cannot control."  

Of course none of THAT is in the FT this time around.  But the FT for their part prints a chitty mouthpiece statement from Fitch, it's the only agency in the article, just sayin.   One FU for this coverage, and we bet that El Salvador will make that January refi, they would have for sure if they were allowed to do the eco BTC bonds. 

Moving on - the FT smacks Johnny Depp's new album, with 80 year old Jeff Beck, with the worst possible one out of five stars. OK it's not crypto.  But dear readers should be warned - never ever EVER see a movie star  pretending to play music.  Johnny, with the hat & too many scarfs, doesn't even look cool.  Only Jimi Hendrix, and maybe Lenny Kravitz channeling Jimi, look cool in a scarf and guitar. Crazy Heart maybe was a good movie.  But the scar tissue from paying to see a Jeff Bridges actual attempt at a concert has made us unable to watch ANY Jeff Bridges' flicks.  The only highlight of his concert was seeing the disdain, verging, nay MERGING with actual  hatred    coming from the real studio  musicians backing Jeff's self-aggrandizing caterwauling.  And ya know they were getting  PAID, they still couldn't hide it.  A two thank you rating for the one star warning, FT!!! 

Yes, yes, CRYPTO in the FT.  Here it is,  with the crushing headline - death strikes from above, the Dutch hit CZ's march into Eurrip!!

TLDR:  Binance paid 3MM to the Dutch central bank for not registering.  The fine was increased because of seriousness, unfair advantage to Binance from not paying bank vig and skipping compliance costs, going back to May 2020, but then reduced, cause Binance is registering. 

This shows the split between EU  regulators over Binance (& other crypto) AML and "consumer protection."  The UK FCA gave a "consumer warning"  in June 2021, saying Binance cannot be regulated, complex, high risk. 

France, Italy and Spain have recently greenlit Binance.  France doing so got a stern memo, "incomprehensible"  from the French MEP.   

Buried at the end of the article, Binance says this is a "long awaited pivot in our ongoing collaboration with the Dutch central bank," and CZ may not always agree, but" deeply respects the authority and professionalism of the Dutch regulators." 

The REAL story:  Let us rephrase the headline:  CZ  agrees to pay the Dutch vig going forward , and settles all past charges with chump change he found under the pillow in the maid's room.  Binance for the Dutch YAY!!  

This is a huge win for Binance and crypto, it's funny & we're tired of pretending.... o sorry.   Yay for Spain ( we did NOT know) and Italy!!! 

Dear readers know the French spat is between two political parties inside France,  and is an escargot fart in the wind. 

Dear readers know the UK part is an FT rehash, and quite  hilarious.  Cannot be supervised?  Well, no, not by YOUR standards, that is if you comply with UK LAW. 

NOT an FT rehash cuz not in the article,  is the slapstick UK regulation on Binance. 

 In June 2021, the UK said Binance should quit offering derivatives to retail  UK traders.  Binance  said OK fine,  quit advertising, and shut down BML, the un launched  British Binance.  So there.  No more ad  money, no more local employee money for the UK.  Binance promptly hired a bunch of ex-UK regulators, and "hundreds" of compliance people, and tried to work with the UK.  Santander, Barclays, and Gnat West banned UK Binance flow. 

Biz as usual continued for Brits on  Binance proper, not based in the UK, perfectly legal as the UK has laws protecting  all that. Plus it seems like most brits have  global / offshore accounts anyway, and not all banks went along. 

In December,  Binance said deriv traders had until Saint Valentine's day (ROFL) to update KYC, no retail allowed.  Feb 14th 2022 came, and Binance shut down GBP payments.   For exactly three days.  Binance then cut a deal with Paysafe, also perfectly legal, and resumed legal GBP cash flow, on Feb. 17th LOL!!  life goes on.  In March, Binance resumed sending GBP direct to UK banks. 

So, the REAL statement is, the UK cannot regulate Binance as long as the UK observes its own laws, set up to protect the people.  A FU to Little Britain regulators for THAT spin, and all the FU's in the world for Santander et al.  Though plenty of US banks have perceived an existential crypto threat to their existence and block outgoing crypto payments capriciously as well.  Two Thank Yous for Paysafe. 

Judges want to throw some FU dust at this article, mostly for the headline,  but headlines may not be under the control of the authors.  Still, one half FU rating out of five. 

But it is pretty accurate, and it IS news that Binance is good to GO    in the Netherlands!!    Ain't that good news, man ain't that news.  which brings us back to Mr. Soul.  Cause nothing can change this love.   Love without fear or favor.  

Peace out, 

Dave