加密貨幣如何征服華盛頓並為下一個泡沫奠定了基礎

2025年2月11日，位於眾議院金融服務委員會的伊利諾伊州民主黨代表肖恩·卡斯滕（Sean Casten）代表索恩·卡斯滕（Sean Casten）在公開聽證會上詢問了加密貨幣行業的高管，他聽證會上有關美國總統的危險，發起了一個紀念物。這些加密代幣也被稱為“ shitcoins”，因為它們被廣泛認為是毫無價值的，這是用於泵和降低計劃的工具。由於國會禮節的規則並沒有使自己適應21世紀金融技術的粗俗慣例，因此卡斯滕不得不仔細地表達他的問題。

On February 11, 2025, Representative Sean Casten, an Illinois Democrat who sits on the House Financial Services Committee, questioned crypto industry executives at a public hearing about the dangers of the president of the United States launching a memecoin. These crypto tokens are also known as “shitcoins” since they’re widely considered worthless, a tool for pump-and-dump schemes. Because the rules of congressional decorum had not yet accommodated themselves to the vulgar conventions of 21st-century financial technologies, Casten had to phrase his question carefully.

2025年2月11日，位於眾議院金融服務委員會的伊利諾伊州民主黨代表肖恩·卡斯滕（Sean Casten）代表索恩·卡斯滕（Sean Casten）在公開聽證會上詢問了加密貨幣行業的高管，他聽證會上有關美國總統的危險，發起了一個紀念物。這些加密代幣也被稱為“ shitcoins”，因為它們被廣泛認為是毫無價值的，這是用於泵和降低計劃的工具。由於國會禮節的規則尚未使自己適應21世紀金融技術的庸俗慣例，因此卡斯滕不得不仔細地表達他的問題。

“It’s hard to talk about memecoins with the language that the industry uses to talk about them,” Casten said. “We’ll refer to them as ‘fecal coins’ for the purposes of this hearing. Is it safe to say from your smiles that you generally share the view of the industry that this is not something that has any innate value?”

Casten說：“很難用該行業用來談論它們的語言來談論Memecoins。” “出於這次聽證會的目的，我們將它們稱為'糞便硬幣'。從微笑中可以肯定地說，您通常會分享該行業的看法，這不是具有任何先天價值的東西嗎？”

“Yes,” an industry representative replied.

“是的，”行業代表回答。

“The president of the United States issued something that has no innate value,” Casten said, before going on to talk about how retail traders may have lost billions speculating on the $TRUMP fecal coin.

卡斯滕說：“美國總統發行了沒有天生價值的東西。”繼續談論零售商人如何失去數十億美元投機在$ trump糞便硬幣上。

On social media, crypto boosters were less interested in Casten’s charge that the president was swindling Americans than they were galvanized into transforming Casten’s cheeky euphemism into the very sort of worthless financial instrument it sought to describe. Less than two hours later, someone had created a memecoin under the ticker symbol $FECAL and started an X account and Telegram group to pump the token, urging speculators to buy $FECAL. The token’s price never rose above $0.00007, but about $6 million worth of the made-up coin was traded that day before it sputtered toward irrelevance. It was the kind of shitcoin pump-and-dump that happens hundreds of times a day, but this one was connected to the words and actions of a congressman. The logo for the token had Casten’s face on it.

在社交媒體上，加密助推器對Casten的指控不太感興趣，即總統正在欺騙美國人，而不是被鍍鋅將Casten厚臉皮的士氣轉變為它想要描述的一種毫無價值的金融工具。不到兩個小時後，有人在股票符號$糞便下創建了一個成員，並成立了一個X帳戶和電報組來泵送令牌，敦促投機者購買$糞便。代幣的價格從未上漲超過0.00007美元，但在那天的交易中，約有價值600萬美元的化妝硬幣在朝著無關緊要的情況下進行了交易。每天發生數百次，這是一種狗屎幣的泵和雨衣，但這與國會議員的言語和行動有關。令牌的徽標上有卡斯滕的臉。

The $FECAL episode was a small but telling sign of how crypto, despite being a relative flop commercially, has infiltrated American politics. Once the memecoin appeared, Casten’s unremarkable comment turned into an opportunity for graft and self-dealing, however ludicrously conceived and executed. Casten recognized as much. If he weren’t a known critic of the crypto lobby, Casten said, the token might have provoked some suspicion—that, say, the congressman was in on the grift. “You should be asking me hard questions about that, right?” he said. “It’s insane.”

$糞便的一集很小，但說明了加密貨幣的跡象，儘管在商業上是一個相對的失敗，但仍滲透了美國的政治。一旦Memecoin出現，Casten的不明顯的評論就變成了嫁接和自我交流的機會，無論構思和執行多麼可笑。卡斯滕認識到很多。卡斯滕說，如果他不是加密大廳的著名批評者，那麼代幣可能會引起一些懷疑 - 例如，國會議員正在陷入困境。 “您應該問我關於這個問題的棘手問題，對嗎？”他說。 “太瘋狂了。”

If no part of society is immune from the all-powerful hand of the market, the same might now be said of crypto. Never has so much power, authority, and attention been afforded to such an economically unproductive industry. Never has so much energy and human potential been wasted chasing illusory profits in a business that relies on Ponzi economics. And never have politicians had so many opportunities for clandestine personal enrichment, in a parallel financial system that they’ve largely let run amok.

如果沒有社會的一部分不受市場的全力影響，那麼現在可以說同樣的是加密貨幣。這種經濟上沒有生產力的行業從來沒有如此多的權力，權威和關注。在依靠龐氏經濟學的業務中追逐虛幻的利潤，從來沒有如此多的能量和人類潛力。而且，在平行的金融體系中，政客從來沒有如此多的機會來實現秘密的個人充實機會，以至於他們在很大程度上讓競選Amok。

The cryptocurrency industry is about as old as the iPhone, yet it has accomplished very little, despite burning through hundreds of billions of real dollars to prop up a technology that still lacks much of a rationale for being introduced as legal currency. Through multiple bubbles, crypto has failed to scale beyond a base of hardcore believers and retail speculators who keep the casino running. It’s created more heartache than shared prosperity. It’s better known for its growing list of fraudulent companies than for its successful ones. In the United States, there are two publicly traded crypto exchanges: Coinbase and Bakkt. Coinbase is a major Trump supporter, while the Trump family have been reportedly negotiating to acquire Bakkt—partially owned by Trump ally and Small Business Administration director Kelly Loeffler—for their own crypto portfolio. Yet the industry is at the peak of its political influence.

加密貨幣行業與iPhone一樣古老，但是儘管燃燒了數千億美元的真實美元，但它幾乎沒有完成，以支撐一項技術仍然缺乏被引入法定貨幣的基本原理。通過多個氣泡，加密貨幣未能超越使賭場運行的鐵桿信徒和零售投機者的基礎擴展。它比共同的繁榮更加心痛。與成功的公司相比，它以欺詐性公司越來越多的名單而聞名。在美國，有兩個公開交易的加密交易所：Coinbase和Bakkt。 Coinbase是特朗普的主要支持者，而據報導，特朗普家族正在談判獲得Bakkt（由特朗普盟友和小型企業管理局局部佔有的Bakkt，供他們自己的加密貨幣組合。然而，該行業正處於其政治影響力的頂峰。

Crypto has been successful in two areas: as a tool for crime—money-laundering, sanctions evasion, investment scams—and in its conquest of the American political scene. The two achievements seem deeply intertwined. In the 2024 political campaign cycle, crypto was the biggest donor by industry, raising more than $197 million. The crypto industry won nearly every race they got behind, and some of its leaders later claimed responsibility for helping to return Representative Jamaal Bowman, Representative Katie Porter, and Senator Sherrod Brown, all progressive Democrats, to the private sector.

加密在兩個領域都取得了成功：作為犯罪的工具，包括不罰款，逃避制裁，投資騙局 - 以及征服美國政治舞台。這兩個成就似乎深深地交織在一起。在2024年的政治競選週期中，加密貨幣是行業最大的捐助者，籌集了超過1.7億美元。加密貨幣行業幾乎贏得了他們落後的每場比賽，其中一些領導人隨後聲稱有助於返回代表賈馬爾·鮑曼（Jamaal Bowman），代表凱蒂·波特（Katie Porter）和參議員謝羅德·布朗（Sherrod Brown），所有進步民主黨人都將其歸還給私營部門。

Crypto supporters often claim that we are on the brink of a financial revolution—if only the government would get out of the way and allow these heroic financial innovators to do their thing. Now the industry will get its chance. With both houses of Congress under Republican control and an orange-pilled Trump in the White House, crypto is on the verge of getting the bespoke regulatory and legal regime it’s long demanded. Congress is now considering

加密支持者經常聲稱我們處於金融革命的邊緣，如果政府只能擺脫困境，並允許這些英勇的金融創新者做自己的事情。現在，該行業將獲得機會。在共和黨控制下的兩院國會和白宮的橙色填充特朗普的情況下，加密貨幣即將獲得定制的監管和法律制度。國會正在考慮