Remember when crypto was so heavily and onerously regulated, so unnecessarily scrutinised by the authorities, that the whole market crashed in spectacular fashion as one tightly regulated crypto platform after another collapsed into oblivion? Yeah, me neither. Because that’s not quite how it went, is it? The last time the crypto market cratered, back in 2021-22, it was not about the industry being so tightly controlled by regulators, but the opposite.
The estimated market value of all crypto — a dubious metric but the only one available — has gained more than $1tn. Musk’s favourite “memecoin” Dogecoin, meanwhile, has eclipsed bitcoin in terms of gains, climbing 150 per cent since the election. Why? Because Doge is the acronym for the new “department of government efficiency” that Musk is due to head up. Is that just totally hilarious or deeply grim? I guess it depends on your sense of humour.