Kanye West and the hat with Bitcoin’s Satoshi

Hip-hop icon and businessman Kanye West sported a hat with the name of Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto after his corporate bank account was closed by JP Morgan Chase.

Kanye West’s pro-Bitcoin hat after JP Morgan Fallout

In a tweet, political commentator Candace Owens shared a letter West allegedly received from financial giant JP Morgan.

JP Morgan gave Yeezy LLC and West until 21 November 2022 to transfer account funds of about $140 million elsewhere, following the rapper’s formal breakup with the financial institution.

Many have concluded that the bank’s choice was motivated by West’s most recent anti-Semitic remarks. Not only that, it appears the decision was also due to other nasty comments the singer made on social media amid the chaos of Paris Fashion Week. 

Previously, the rapper had questioned the bank’s management and put to the test his contacts with a number of major clients, including Adidas.

Kanye West claimed he had not violated any laws and called JPMorgan’s choice shocking.

West observed: 

“I invested $ 140 million in JP Morgan and they treated me like shit. So if JP Morgan Chase treats me like this, how do they treat the rest of you?”

This comes on the heels of PayPal’s attempt to implement a $2,500 fine on all users it believes are exhibiting misconceptions. PayPal was forced to quickly downplay its policy and pretend it was an accident. 

After feeling the wrath of its customer base, who denounced the insanity of a fintech company attempting to dictate what is and is not acceptable speech. 

Moving away from the particular saga with Ye and what he said, it is important to identify the accelerating trend of incumbent companies. These, with insane amounts of entrenchment and influence in the banking and payments sectors, attempt to pick and choose who can and cannot receive.

They also hold and send money within their hyper-supervised systems based on political or personal beliefs

The inclination of conventional financial institutions to arbitrarily close user accounts may encourage cryptocurrency adoption widely.

If JP Morgan’s efforts against Ye and PayPal’s attempted activities against their user base are any indication, a cryptocurrency like Bitcoin offers an extremely high level of value in the case of centralized institutions, the community says.

Hoskinson states: 

“banks are marketing crypto with their actions after Kanye West, JP Morgan fallout.”

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson made the statement in reaction to the above photo of Kanye West wearing a cap with the name Satoshi Nakamoto.

The Cardano founder said that US banks are actually helping to market cryptocurrencies better than industry players, according to a tweet from 17 October.

Not only that, it appears that several traditional financial institutions have recently cut ties with various individuals and institutions without giving a specific reason.

Portuguese banks have closed the accounts of several cryptocurrency companies, including CryptoLoja and Mind the Coin, without providing any reason. The same scenario occurred in the United States, with JP Morgan Chase closing the account of Uniswap founder Hayden Adams last year without notice or explanation. 

Before that, it closed Bitcoin miner Compass Mining’s accounts in 2019.

In addition to these traditional financial institutions, PayPal was recently accused of a now-deleted disinformation policy that would mutate its users up to $2,500 for misinformation.

Meanwhile, several sex content creators revealed that traditional financial institutions such as PayPal, Venmo, Circle, Square, and Cash App had prevented them from using their services because it violated their terms of use. 

Financial censorship favors crypto

The propensity of traditional financial institutions to arbitrarily close user accounts could increase cryptocurrency adoption.

Protesters in Canada and Nigeria had used the censorship-resistance nature of cryptocurrencies to their advantage when traditional financial institutions cracked down on their fundraising activities.

Ukraine had also used cryptocurrencies for fundraising for the purpose of its defense against the Russian invasion of its border.

Kanye West and free speech advocates need Bitcoin 

Actions like the one taken by JPMorgan Chase against Ye and attempted by PayPal before they were forced to save face are an invasion of free speech. Of course, JPMorgan Chase and PayPal did not stop Ye or PayPal customers from expressing their opinions. 

However, moves like this are attacking free speech in a more insidious way, incentivizing self-censorship by individuals who are afraid to express their opinions because they do not want to be de-platformed and demonized.

This kind of control is exactly what the incumbent power structure wants: to try to eliminate free speech through the political process. It follows, then, that in the realm of money – how people hold it, how they receive it and how they send it -Bitcoin is the new system that can work. 

For it is built to prevent the power structure from pushing for a future built on self-censorship as a means of self-preservation.