The US Picked a Side in Crypto —and It’s Not Yours

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Welcome to the first issue of Tech, Actually!

Every week, I’ll share what caught my eye: headlines, rabbit holes, quotes I can’t stop thinking about and the occasional unfiltered commentary. So whether you’re deep in the industry or just tech-curious with a healthy dose of skepticism: welcome.

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The US just legalized corporate crypto.

Here’s what happened and why it matters.

Big news from Washington: the US passed its first major crypto laws (New York Times (Opens in a new window)). Until now, the crypto industry operated in a weird grey zone, part finance, part tech, part “we’ll figure it out later.” That’s now changing.

Last week, Congress passed three bills:

1. The GENIUS Act lays out rules for stablecoins—digital tokens that are tied to real money (like dollars or euros). The idea is: if you want to issue your own digital dollar, you now need a license, real reserves in the bank, and regular audits. In other words: only big players with deep pockets and lawyers can play.

2. The CLARITY Act decides who regulates which coins. Some will be treated like securities (stocks), others like commodities (like gold). This helps companies avoid lawsuits and helps regulators avoid turf wars.

3. The Anti-CBDC Act says the US government is not allowed to create its own digital dollar. Why? Lawmakers say it could be used for surveillance or centralized control. So: no public version of digital money, but private versions are now fully welcome.

Read that part again. We’re banning the possibility of a public digital dollar because it might one day compete with private finance. Imagine outlawing public transport so Uber feels safer. That’s where we’re at.

📺 Meanwhile, in Real Life

In this section, I look at how economic and tech developments show up in our everyday lives. Sometimes it’s subtle, sometimes it’s absurd. Always worth noticing.

Kyle Chayka in The New Yorker (Opens in a new window) warns that casual posting has vanished under polished content, fear of cringe, algorithm fatigue, and global crises.

If there’s no guarantee that our friends will even see what we post, then what is the incentive to keep doing it? When we do, we are ever conscious of the need to please the algorithm or else get lost in the void.

Quick poll:
Have you recently felt reluctant to post something trivial (like a breakfast photo), even though nothing major happened? Hit reply and feel free to add why in one sentence. I’ll share the results next time.

Musk’s "America Party"

– Politics as a Platform Business

A few weeks ago, Elon Musk announced the America Party as his answer to a broken political system. Disruption, innovation, independence – the usual Silicon Valley vocabulary. But take a closer look, and it feels less like a democratic alternative and more like a power move in platform logic.

The US system is designed to keep newcomers out. A viable third party would take years, legal firepower, and billions in funding. But Musk doesn’t need to win. Just the threat of entering the race gives him influence especially in swing states, where a few points can tip the scale.

His platform? Classic libertarian talking points: smaller government, lower taxes, fewer rules. Not exactly revolutionary. More like GOP-lite, with a Tesla bumper sticker. The real play comes from tech strategy: create dependencies, own the infrastructure, control visibility. If that logic enters politics, we’re not talking about parties anymore. We’re talking about platforms.

Musk doesn’t need a majority. He just needs to be unavoidable…just like every platform he’s ever built.

📰 This is only a shortened version. You can read the full German column Code&Capital in my biweekly newsletter on Surplus (Opens in a new window).

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