Wessel van Rensburg
@wildebees.bsky.social
The digital policy strategist you didn’t know you needed—using terms like 'sovereign data assets' as casually as most would say 'hello'.
Also geopolitics, innovation, industrial policy.
Location: Den Haag 🇳🇱 From: 🇿🇦
Also geopolitics, innovation, industrial policy.
Location: Den Haag 🇳🇱 From: 🇿🇦
Reposted by Wessel van Rensburg
Here’s the same data, but with trust broken down by political views (circles are trust among people on the left, +s the right).
It’s not just that the BBC is widely consumed — it also has solid trust on both left & right, whereas trust in the biggest US media brands is hugely polarised.
It’s not just that the BBC is widely consumed — it also has solid trust on both left & right, whereas trust in the biggest US media brands is hugely polarised.
November 10, 2025 at 1:43 PM
Here’s the same data, but with trust broken down by political views (circles are trust among people on the left, +s the right).
It’s not just that the BBC is widely consumed — it also has solid trust on both left & right, whereas trust in the biggest US media brands is hugely polarised.
It’s not just that the BBC is widely consumed — it also has solid trust on both left & right, whereas trust in the biggest US media brands is hugely polarised.
He might mean people use it to save (a store of value) in developing countries, which is definitely happening even without interest.
November 10, 2025 at 5:49 PM
He might mean people use it to save (a store of value) in developing countries, which is definitely happening even without interest.
Reposted by Wessel van Rensburg
This looks rather meaningful.
November 10, 2025 at 9:40 AM
This looks rather meaningful.
None of those three are Afrikaners.
November 8, 2025 at 9:42 PM
None of those three are Afrikaners.
Reposted by Wessel van Rensburg
Coinbase is facing some opposition from banking groups over its national trust bank charter application. “This Application fails to meet statutory chartering standards, presents compounding safety and soundness risks, and would set a dangerous precedent for the structure of the U.S. banking system.”
![Meanwhile, Coinbase is facing some opposition from banks over its application for a national trust bank charter [I95]. The Independent Community Bankers of America, the main trade group for community banks, submitted a letter to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency expressing their position that the Coinbase National Trust Company has “demonstrably flawed risk and control functions while operating under a governance structure that prevents independent oversight” and “would struggle to achieve and maintain profitability during crypto bear markets, the very time at which the similarly concentrated Coinbase would be least able to provide support”. They also write that “The OCC’s untested receivership framework would struggle to resolve an uninsured institution of CNTC’s proposed scale and operational complexity, particularly given the technical challenges of crypto custody and CNTC’s likely importance as a dominant crypto ETF custodian.” The letter cites multiple recent enforcement actions by US and UK regulators against the Coinbase and the company’s May 2025 disclosure of a major cybersecurity breach [I84] as evidence of “a continuous pattern of compliance and operational failures. Indeed, over the past five years, Coinbase has never had a year without being subject to an enforcement action, spanning multiple jurisdictions (US, UK) and regulatory domains (BSA/AML, licensing, market integrity).” (Another enforcement action against Coinbase in Ireland, which I will describe in a moment, was announced several days after this letter, and so was not included.) They conclude that “This Application fails to meet statutory chartering standards, presents compounding safety and soundness risks, and would set a dangerous precedent for the structure of the U.S. banking system.”11](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:exrxvyu6bpoym6mbnctke5tn/bafkreihlrvjrp5nuhvyeesia4mslln5mvfg37s4ree37jwl26rypf2foxq@jpeg)
![Coinbase’s Chief Legal Officer, Paul Grewal, was furious at the ICBA’s submission, writing on Twitter, “Imagine opposing a regulated trust charter because you prefer crypto to stay … unregulated. That’s ICBA’s position. It’s another case of bank lobbyists trying to dig regulatory moats to protect their own. From undoing a law to go after rewards to blocking charters, protectionism isn’t consumer protection.”14 His statement was met with mixed responses, with some agreeing with his claim that traditional banks were seeking to exclude competitors. Others were more skeptical. “Imagine approving an application that fails to meet statutory chartering standards so that your latest DeFi scamcoin has some air of legitimacy,” replied one commenter.15 “Says the co[mpany] encouraging clients to take on 10x-50x leverage. ‘Trust me, bro.’” wrote another.16](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:exrxvyu6bpoym6mbnctke5tn/bafkreig4u6icnkeh4s6i444rtrd4fwkuhgpyixcblxmutl3hv6xy6y5b7m@jpeg)
November 7, 2025 at 7:21 PM
Coinbase is facing some opposition from banking groups over its national trust bank charter application. “This Application fails to meet statutory chartering standards, presents compounding safety and soundness risks, and would set a dangerous precedent for the structure of the U.S. banking system.”
Reposted by Wessel van Rensburg
One of the founders of the Samourai Wallet mixing software has received the maximum sentence — five years. Like Tornado Cash, the case centered on arguments over whether the developers were creating privacy preserving technology or intentionally facilitating criminal activity.
![Samourai Wallet
Privacy advocates in the crypto world have been closely watching the Samourai Wallet case [I56, 57, 83, 84, 90], with many comparing it to the highly controversial prosecution of Tornado Cash founder Roman Storm [Tornado]. The Samourai Wallet founders, who pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business in exchange for prosecutors dropping the more severe money laundering conspiracy charge, have maintained that they were merely developing privacy-preserving software, and that they were not responsible for criminal use of the software. Prosecutors have argued that the developers actively intended the software to be used for criminal purposes, pointing to marketing aimed at “Dark/Grey Market participants” and those engaged in “Illicit activity”.
Prosecutors have sought a five-year sentence for the two founders — the statutory maximum for the charge — and Keonne Rodriguez received that full sentence, plus a $250,000 fine. Rodriguez has already paid $6.3 million in forfeiture. Judge Cote cited a letter to the court in which Rodriguez continued to say that he was merely motivated by a desire to protect financial privacy and not “a desire to facilitate criminal activity” as evidence that Rodriguez “has not come to terms with what he did. ... The letter indicated to me that you were very much still operating in a world with moral blinders on.”6 William Lonergan Hill, Rodriguez’s cofounder, will be sentenced later this month.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:exrxvyu6bpoym6mbnctke5tn/bafkreif3nenuufnk5j7x2usfz6vx6ocqyehhz44tmnzvwehmcmldmf5esm@jpeg)
November 7, 2025 at 7:21 PM
One of the founders of the Samourai Wallet mixing software has received the maximum sentence — five years. Like Tornado Cash, the case centered on arguments over whether the developers were creating privacy preserving technology or intentionally facilitating criminal activity.
Reposted by Wessel van Rensburg
Days after one of these banking groups submitted their letter with a list of all of Coinbase’s regulatory violations in the US and Europe over the last five years, Coinbase was fined $25 million in Ireland for transaction monitoring failures.
![The Central Bank of Ireland has fined Coinbase €21.5 million (~$24.9 million) for failures in its anti-money laundering and counterterrorism transaction monitoring programs from 2021 to 2025.
Coinbase Europe has been fined due to faults in the configuration of their transaction monitoring system, which resulted in more than 30 million transactions not being properly monitored over a 12-month period. The value of these transactions amounted to over €176 billion, and accounted for approximately 31% of all Coinbase Europe transactions conducted in the period when the faults existed. Further, it took Coinbase Europe almost three years to fully complete the monitoring of the impacted transactions. This subsequent monitoring led to the reporting of 2,708 [Suspicious Transaction Report]s to the FIU for further analysis and potential investigation. The STRs submitted in respect of the late monitoring of the transactions contained suspicions associated with serious criminal activities including: money laundering; fraud/scams; drug trafficking; cyber-attacks (malware/ransomware); and child sexual exploitation.
Coinbase Europe had outsourced its transaction monitoring to Coinbase Inc., its American counterpart.17](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:exrxvyu6bpoym6mbnctke5tn/bafkreiczwseiy3quqlh7vjsqhrucrqmknewb44hxieixfnhgqovuf7ovji@jpeg)
November 7, 2025 at 7:21 PM
Days after one of these banking groups submitted their letter with a list of all of Coinbase’s regulatory violations in the US and Europe over the last five years, Coinbase was fined $25 million in Ireland for transaction monitoring failures.
Reposted by Wessel van Rensburg
Important context here: it was a Dutch court, not the government, that suspended Nexperia's Chinese CEO. The Hague cannot withdraw the court order. So presumably Beijing would have to accept this as part of any detente.
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Dutch Ready to Drop Control of Nexperia If Chip Supply Resumes
The Netherlands is prepared to suspend a so-called ministerial order that gave it control over Chinese-owned chipmaker Nexperia in a move that would de-escalate a fight with Beijing that threatens to ...
www.bloomberg.com
November 7, 2025 at 10:48 AM
I agree it’s partly that. But it’s also more than that, no? The euro is a good example. Creating it wasn’t so much removing a point of friction, but creating new joint capabilities?
November 7, 2025 at 9:17 AM
I agree it’s partly that. But it’s also more than that, no? The euro is a good example. Creating it wasn’t so much removing a point of friction, but creating new joint capabilities?
Ok, deleting that post. Thanks
November 7, 2025 at 9:12 AM
Ok, deleting that post. Thanks
China can narrow this leverage. It already has suppliers of similar chips, it can build mature-node lines for Nexperia-type parts too?
European car manufacturers can move to other European/ Japanese suppliers. They surely are now looking to do so? But not before checking their supply chain.
European car manufacturers can move to other European/ Japanese suppliers. They surely are now looking to do so? But not before checking their supply chain.
November 7, 2025 at 9:11 AM
China can narrow this leverage. It already has suppliers of similar chips, it can build mature-node lines for Nexperia-type parts too?
European car manufacturers can move to other European/ Japanese suppliers. They surely are now looking to do so? But not before checking their supply chain.
European car manufacturers can move to other European/ Japanese suppliers. They surely are now looking to do so? But not before checking their supply chain.
If they give control back to Wingtech Technology, a partly state owned Chinese entity: That would mean it would be pointless to start the (longish) process of securing a new assembly test and packaging supplier. They would just have to hope China does not use this leverage in the future. Plus…
November 7, 2025 at 9:09 AM
If they give control back to Wingtech Technology, a partly state owned Chinese entity: That would mean it would be pointless to start the (longish) process of securing a new assembly test and packaging supplier. They would just have to hope China does not use this leverage in the future. Plus…