It's hard for me to not see all of this as emblematic of larger questions.

Ultimately, though, if there is one thing that is abundantly, painfully clear from all of these

shenanigans, it is that Bitcoin is the no hero's asset.

This, as much as its distribution of nodes or hash power or end-hoddlers, is a part of its

decentralization.

Welcome back to The Breakdown with me, NLW.

It's a daily podcast on macro, Bitcoin, and the big picture power shifts remaking our world.

The breakdown is sponsored by nexo.io and produced and distributed by CoinDess.

What's going on, guys? It is Monday, May 17th, and boy oh boy, anyone hoping for a reprieve

from the madness of last week was set to be surely disappointed over the weekend.

My guess is that you have some idea about what went down, but in case

you were smartly off on a lake somewhere, being well-adjusted and enjoying your family, I'll give

you a little recap. To do this, we actually have to go back a few weeks. And let's start by saying

that there is no amount of historical revisionism that can deny how excited most Bitcoiners were to have Elon on the

team. The $1.5 billion treasury buy from Tesla created the next leg up in the bull market. It validated

this corporate treasury approach by showing that it wasn't just going to be fringe companies doing it.

All that said, from the get-go, there was some trouble in paradise.

For those who have been listening to the show for the past few months, this will be familiar.

First, you have the simple fact that, by virtue of being controversial Elon,

Musk was always likely to attract more scrutiny to the space. This was particularly true in the

context of environmental concerns. Now, one might think that a big famous electric vehicle company getting into Bitcoin would

reduce environmental concerns around the asset.

...