You have all probably heard the speech that Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission President, gave at the annual conference \u201cLa Rencontre des Entrepreneurs de France 2026,\u201d held on August 26th. It\u2019s been circulating on crypto Twitter like wildfire throughout the past few days.<\/p>\n
To those of you who might have missed it, her message was rather clear: the world has already changed, and Europe must respond by becoming more independent, more industrially capable, and more willing to direct capital toward strategic priorities.<\/p>\n
Von der Leyen argued that many of the assumptions that once underpinned the Union\u2019s economic model have disappeared. Part of her point was that Europe must become a continent that \u201cproduces, invests and protects.\u201d She said that the expanding access to China, open global trade, strategic American protection, cheap imported energy, as well as the West\u2019s technological dominance can no longer be taken for granted.<\/p>\n
And as a European, I can get behind some of the things she\u2019s saying. European companies are facing increasingly high energy costs, regulatory complexity, and growing competition from China. However, I can\u2019t help but consider one particular point she\u2019s making to be rather alarming.<\/p>\n
Today, 10 trillion EUR in household savings are kept in bank accounts. And a large share of Europe\u2019s savings is invested outside our continent. Europe now needs to put these savings to work for its companies.<\/p>\n
The intention behind this may be to boost growth, but the language, to me, reveals something important about the relationship between private wealth and governments.<\/p>\n
E.U. Commission President said households have \u20ac10T sitting \u201cidle\u201d that can be \u201cput to work\u201d to boost the economy.<\/p>\n
Yes, Ursula von der Leyen really said that. <\/p>\n
Buy Bitcoin while you can! pic.twitter.com\/hguuQjzk3r<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Bitcoin Archive (@BitcoinArchive) September 2, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n\n From her speech, I see one thing: to policymakers, our household savings are increasingly viewed not just as our property, but as a resource \u2013 an economic catalyst that could be encouraged, incentivized, or regulated toward potential objectives.<\/p>\n And, mind you, consider this statement in light of how heavily Europe has traditionally been taxed. A very brief Google search shows that 4 of the top 5 countries in the world with the highest income tax rates are in the European Union.<\/p>\n We already surrender a massive share of our economic output to the state. That, apparently, isn\u2019t sufficient to accomplish the Union\u2019s political and industrial objectives.<\/p>\n So here\u2019s my question: who should decide what my savings are for?<\/p>\n I\u2019ve worked for my money; I\u2019ve paid my taxes when I earned it; I\u2019m also paying consumption taxes when I spend it in the form of VAT. Oh, by the way, guess where the top six countries with the highest VATs are located. So, having this in mind, should my savings be regarded as capital waiting to be deployed toward certain priorities, which may or may not align with my own?<\/p>\n This is exactly where Bitcoin becomes interesting. With all of its flaws, Bitcoin represents the absolute opposite philosophy.<\/p>\n It\u2019s an asset without a central issuer. The European Central Bank, or any other bank for that matter, cannot increase its total supply. The EC cannot decide to mint more BTC to finance industrial expansion. There is no government that can determine its issuance schedule.<\/p>\n There will never be more than 21 million bitcoin in existence. I can hold it without an intermediary (I know, lately this has become a touchy subject, but still). If I hold it on my own and keep my private keys private, theoretically, nobody can confiscate it. Nobody can tell me what to do with it.<\/p>\n This is an important distinction \u2013 one that carries increasing significance in the times that we appear to be headed toward.<\/p>\n Now, don\u2019t get me wrong, I\u2019m not trying to call out European politicians for doing something they haven\u2019t yet done. Most headlines on this topic scream \u201cthe EU wants to steal your savings,\u201d while I\u2019m taking a more moderate approach. As an EU citizen, however, as someone who has spent my entire life here, I cannot rule that possibility out, especially not in the face of modern politics.<\/p>\n A few years ago, we were in Amsterdam at a Bitcoin conference, and we asked<\/a> a bunch of people: \u201cWhy do you Bitcoin?\u201d<\/p>\n I guess this is my answer: this is why I Bitcoin.<\/p>\n The post When Governments Want to Direct Your Wealth, Bitcoin Offers an Exit<\/a> appeared first on CryptoPotato<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" You have all probably heard the speech that Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission President, gave at the annual conference \u201cLa Rencontre des Entrepreneurs de France 2026,\u201d held on August 26th. It\u2019s been circulating on crypto Twitter like wildfire throughout the past few days. To those of you who might have missed it, her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-221844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discovery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221844"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=221844"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221844\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=221844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=221844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=221844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Who Should Control Your Savings?<\/h2>\n
Something\u2019s Becoming Interesting<\/h2>\n