First off, what's with the term "oligarch" many articles like these use all the time? Why are rich people from certain countries "oligarchs" while those in other countries are labeled "successful entrepreneurs" or "lobbyist"? But wait, they are changing the rules on us, apparently Dogeboy Musk is now also an "oligarch".😂

I guess Mr radical doesn't realize that the owners of Facebook, Washington Post, Google or News Corp are all multi-billionaires as well. Naaah just kidding, of course he realizes that, he's just proving my point that the label "oligarch" is political and that's why Zuckerberg is a "revolutionary entrepreneur" who's just "lobbying" for control of people's data and violating their privacy for money and a totalitarian level of control all across the globe centralized from Washington. Oh, unless he re-starts that Libra idea of his in it's original form, he'll then quickly become an "oligarch" as well and may even need to seek refuge in an embassy for a few years.😉

But to get to the claim of the report in question: "Our findings suggest that the markets aren’t liquid enough to support the movement of the hundreds of billions controlled by sanctioned Russian oligarchs". Basically, the conclusion is that the estimated 800 billion in value which is offshore (thus not in Russia and probably trying to hide or avoid taxes) and is now sanctioned, is simply too large to be able to use Bitcoin or other cryptos in order to transfer and move their total funds around. But here's the thing, what about Russian millionaires/billionaires who were in on Bitcoin as an early investor? In other words, not everybody holding the total 800 billion, but let's say a few of the people in question holding thus a fraction like 5% i.e. 40 billion. Not only are the markets liquid enough for that and offer them numerous options on how to avoid getting their funds confiscated and thus be able to move them globally, they would now actually be able to use their portion of crypto they already held to also circumvent the other issue the article points out regarding mixers. The reason why everyone i.e. the other 95% can't do the same is basically the cause and effect relation. If they did have a portion of their wealth in crypto, the markets would overall be valued higher and more capable to suit their needs as well. They didn't and are now forced to look for alternatives precisely because they didn't. Isn't this actually proving to the world (yet again) just how vital it is to get into crypto early? I mean, for years people have been warned to avoid Bitcoin and got told scary bedtime stories about all the potential ways they could lose their money, like how it "could be a bubble like tulips" or that it "could go to zero because it's worthless" and even an environmental guilt trip because by holding Bitcoin they were "destroying our environment". But as it turns out not having any Bitcoin is what made fiat whales (yes, I can label them that) now literally lose their money due to the direct actions of the very same people who have been warning them about Bitcoin. Read that last sentence again to fully realize that that's precisely what's happening right now. I can't be the only one who is seeing this pattern right?

I wrote this short post a while back and was jokingly saying why the IMF, England and the US were the main ones warning El Salvador against adapting Bitcoin, asking them how they were supposed to confiscate Bitcoin from them the same way they did with Venezuelan gold in English vaults or Iranian Dollars in US banks, but even I honesty didn't expect it to become such a vivid reality so fast. I mean, that was just one year ago and now here we actually are where it's happening to individuals who didn't opt for Bitcoin.

Granted, Bitcoin isn't the global solution to everything, as things stand now it can't even provide a solution to a dozen Russian billionaires. But there is a lesson to be learned here for a very wide variety of people and I must once again stress that you should never think it can't happen to you, I'm sure the people scrambling to restore or move their Rubles, Euros and Dollars are coming to that realization right now thinking "gawd, why didn't I pay attention when it was happening to Iran, Venezuela or Syria the past years". For the wealthy Russians that were wise enough to ignore the fear mongering and still got themselves a BTC stack, they actually have a variety of options on what to do next. Those that didn't and were trying to avoid paying a portion of their wealth in taxes, might now actually end up losing it all. I don't believe in avoiding taxes in most countries, what's the big issue with giving back to the nation and society where you were able to be this successful? I must stress that part about "most countries" though, wealth and savings tax in some countries is just so insanely high with an added negative interest rate the bank takes from you nowadays, that a huge portion of your total wealth can literally evaporate overnight while you're sleeping. So you have to look at it from all sides I guess, I mean if I were to lose a portion of my billions why not just pay taxes and get it over with, why put it into crypto with the possibility it could actually end up costing me more? Even though what actually happened now is tax dodgers who also avoided crypto because of it's volatility and anti-Bitcoin propaganda, now actually have their funds go to 0 because they didn't get into crypto.🙃 This btw is why stablecoins are hated so much (possibly hated even more than Bitcoin) by these very same people, because stablecoins actually provide an answer to the value loss and volatility which scares many people away. Must be just another weird coincidence.

PS I actually realized half-way through that it's probably not the best idea to write a full step-by-step manual and even took out certain crypto names for obvious reasons, hope it still makes sense this way. Also, if you'd like to know what +11500 citizens living in the EU think of a digital/CBDC Euro then stay tuned, I'm writing that atm and think it'll drop around Thursday/Friday, the replies were interesting to say the least.