Are They Trying to Kill Crypto?

When people like me say things like "US regulators want to kill crypto," it's true but not true. I'll explain.

What did the US do to Binance?

They didn't kill Binance. They left it open; they let the founder keep his shares. Yes, there was a $4 billion fine, but that's a slap on the wrist for a company the size of Binance.

That's the subtlety. They are not trying to kill crypto. They're trying to control it. The lawsuits, the fines, the arrests – all this is to show crypto who's boss.

"You WILL COMPLY."

"But we don't have clear rules."

"YOU WILL COMPLY."

No specific order – just one: obey. They want crypto to bend the knee to their control.

Look at it from their perspective. Crypto is this alien life form they don't understand. It's peer-to-peer, it's bottom-up, it does things they can't do, it speaks a language they don't speak, and it comes from a distant universe called "the internet."

So, what's their reaction to this invasive species? Not kill – that'd be unwise.

First, observe; they spent the first decade doing that. They're done observing. Now, it's control. The governments of the world are probing and testing to find crypto's pressure points for leverage and control.

They think they've found one in centralized exchanges, so they're exploiting it – picking the winners, knocking the industry down a peg. The fines, the uncertainty, the carrots and sticks – it's all part of the plan.

Kiss the ring, pay the fine, play ball – these weapons work in the universe they know, and they're working on the exchanges – not kill, control.

So, crypto lives to fight another day. It continues to propagate, just under adult supervision – controlled.

But they should have killed it when they had a chance.

Because here's what they don't understand. This is precisely what crypto wants.

Crypto just needs time. Time to seed private keys into the hands of enough people. Time to interweave itself into the fabric of the economy. Time to establish powerful friends and allies - some even inside the government itself.

They can't kill it. When they try to control it, they only make it stronger.

Crypto is winning.