Dear John,

Currently, cryptocurrencies really serve no useful purpose. Basically, they’re only good for buying other crypto assets, laundering money, and extorting and scamming people. As economist Paul Krugman has said, their market value rests on nothing but “technobabble and libertarian derp.”

And, the deeper crypto infiltrates Wall Street, the possibility that it could destabilize the entire financial system grows. For some in the crypto world, that’s the goal.

It’s an investment strategy right up Trump’s alley – big bucks, combined with limitless opportunity for exploitation and grift, and outcomes obscured by layers of chaos. Trump once denounced crypto, but as the crypto industry poured tens of millions of dollars into his 2024 campaign, he saw an opportunity to make a pile of money.

Many of the super-rich and powerful – Trump’s pals, the oligarchy – support cryptocurrencies. Not only can they make a fortune, but crypto advances their long-term aim of shifting financial controls out of a democratically elected system of government and into their own hands.

Now, as many as ten states are expected to introduce legislation, backed by the crypto lobby, to invest public pension funds into bitcoin. There may be nothing new about banks making huge gambles with investors’ money, but states jumping into the crypto fray with public pension funds would inject a whole new level of risk into retirement, where there is little tolerance for volatility.

Retirement plans require the most conservative and predictable of investment strategies. Send a message calling on your governor to veto any legislation that invests crypto in public pension now!

In September, the Trump family started World Liberty Financial, marketed as a platform to facilitate borrowing and lending in digital currencies. Trump receives a cut of the sales of WLFI, the cryptocurrency associated with the platform. And now that he’s taken office, Trump plans to make billions off his presidency by implementing policies that favor crypto.

He is putting crypto-friendly people into place at key federal agencies, naming digital currency enthusiast David Sacks to be his “crypto-AI czar,” and choosing crypto-booster Paul Atkins to chair the Securities and Exchange Commission. Within days, the SEC relaxed its position so banks will no longer have to account for crypto assets held on behalf of customers.

Trump issued a new Executive Order committed to “protecting and promoting” the crypto industry, giving himself authority to establish a national cryptocurrency stockpile, prohibiting a “central bank digital currency” overseen by the government, and promising crypto companies they will have “fair and open access to banking services” for crypto.

In effect, Trump is writing the rules for a business venture from which he and his family are personally profiting. It could win them hundreds of billions of dollars.

Now, reporting on the industry by CoinDesk reveals that 16 states are already considering bills that would put public money into crypto.^[1] That follows reporting by Cryptonews that the State of Wisconsin Investment Board, the 9th largest pension fund in America, has already invested $162 million in bitcoin.^[2]

The crypto industry's lobbying power is increasing too, as Bitcoin miners expand their operations and venture capitalists invest more and more.

We must prevent it from getting worse and becoming even more dangerous to the nation’s economy and the public pension funds that teachers, firefighters, and others depend on for their retirement security. Call on your governor to veto any legislation that invests taxpayer money in crypto currencies now.

Thank you for taking action today.

Robert Reich
Inequality Media Civic Action

^{[1] U.S. Bitcoin Reserve May Be Coming, But States Are Winning the Race
[2] Top 10 US Pension Fund Invests $162 Million In Bitcoin ETFs}