🟪 60 min-bits

Crypto’s about to go mainstream in a big way this weekend

Author

Michael McSweeney
December 08, 2024

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Crypto’s about to go mainstream in a big way this weekend.

No, I don’t mean Hailey Welch’s disastrous (for some) memecoin launch. I mean an upcoming episode of 60 Minutes that will focus in part on the rise of the American crypto industry’s political power.

Featuring an interview with Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, the advertisement post states: “Rarely in American politics has a new industry spent so much money, with such apparent impact, as the cryptocurrency business did in the last election. This Sunday, Margaret Brennan reports on the industry's hopes for the new “pro-crypto” administration.”

This is a big deal. 60 Minutes is one of America’s most popular television programs, and the notion that the “pro-crypto” government narrative will be front and center is meaningful, even if the audience is either unfamiliar with the current state of crypto in the US or the industry’s sway as it stands today.

Further, there’s little doubt that this weekend’s episode will remark, at least in passing, on bitcoin’s recent passage above the $100,000. Thus you have the conditions for a narrative collision: the market and the industry, both ascendent. 

Will this change minds? Drive a new retail boom, like we’ve seen in cycles past? I’m not so sure. It’s possible the memories of FTX and, more distantly, BitConnect, are too recent for the average American. 

Regardless, bitcoin is about to step onto a big stage this Sunday.

And now, on to the roundup.

— Michael McSweeney

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