Latest / Connecting the Dots / Revolut’s $75B Leap and the Politics of China’s Bitcoin Mining

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Revolut’s $75B Leap and the Politics of China’s Bitcoin Mining · Connecting the Dots

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  Today's tech news moves fast, but understanding
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  it shouldn't be hard. That's why Snarful Solutions
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  Group brings you Connecting the Docs, where we
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  break down what's happening in tech and why it
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  matters to you. Now, let's dive in with your
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  hosts. Welcome to Connecting the Dots. I'm Alex.
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  And I'm Morgan. Good morning. It is Monday, November
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  24th, 2025. And we are definitely in that final
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  stretch before the holidays. We sure are. We
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  have some really big stories today that connect
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  some some pretty surprising dots between finance,
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  geopolitics, and of course, the crypto world.
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  Absolutely. But before we get into all that,
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  let's do a quick check on the day. Right. Starting
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  with the weather. Nationally, there's a big storm
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  system moving into the southern U .S. We're talking
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  eastern Texas all the way to the lower Mississippi
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  Valley. Yeah, that's bringing some severe thunderstorms,
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  heavy rain, and, you know, a real risk of flooding.
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  And up north, it's the opposite story. Heavy
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  snow, really gusty winds hitting the northern
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  Rockies, the Plains, and the upper Midwest. So
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  bundle up if you're up there. Here in Sacramento,
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  a bit closer to home, we've got a dense fog advisory,
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  in effect, until about 11 a .m., so... Be careful
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  on the commute. Okay, let's pivot to the markets.
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  After Friday's close, the picture is... Well,
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  it's a bit mixed. The Dow was down, but just
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  slightly. Yeah, less than a quarter of a percent
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  for the day. The bigger story, I think, is the
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  weekly change. It's a much steeper drop, down
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  almost 1 .8%. And the S &P 500 actually managed
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  a small gain on Friday. It did, but... Just like
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  the Dow, its weekly trend was also in the red.
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  So there's definitely some pressure on the broader
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  market. And then there's Bitcoin. It's continuing
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  a pretty serious flood. Yeah, it closed around
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  eighty five thousand five hundred down over one
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  point four percent on the day. But that weekly
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  drop is what's really eye watering down more
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  than seven percent. Turbulence is definitely
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  the word for the digital asset space right now.
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  It is. And that turbulence is really at the center
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  of what we're looking at today. Before we get
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  to that, though, we want to give a quick shout
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  out to our sponsor, Old Glory. If you're starting
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  your entire purchase. A great deal. OK, let's
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  get into it. All right, let's unpack the Morningstar.
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  We're starting with a story out of European fintech
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  that involves, well, just a massive number. A
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  staggering number, really. Our first story is
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  about Revolut. It has just cemented its place
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  as Europe's most valuable startup. And how valuable
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  are we talking? Its latest share sale pushed
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  its valuation to $75 billion. Wow. $75 billion.
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  And what was it just a year ago? I mean, it was
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  already huge. It was. It was valued at $45 billion
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  in 2024. So that's a $30 billion leap in 12 months.
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  So the big question is, is that number justified?
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  Is it real value or is it just market hype? you
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  know, fear of missing out. It's a fair question,
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  but the financials here seem to back it up pretty
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  solidly. This isn't just hype. For 2024, their
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  revenue surged 72%. To four billion dollars.
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  Four billion. And this is the crucial part. Their
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  profit before tax grew by 149 % to 1 .4 billion.
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  When you're posting profits that are accelerating
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  that fast, investors pay attention. And it's
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  who is investing that really tells the story,
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  right? It's not just the usual private equity
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  firms. Exactly. You've got the big names like
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  COATU and Fidelity, of course. Yeah. But you
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  also have Inventors, which is Nvidia's venture
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  capital arm. Right. And Andreessen Horowitz,
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  A16s, their involvement signals something much
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  bigger is happening here. It points directly
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  to a deep collaboration on artificial intelligence.
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  It does. This isn't just about being a better
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  digital bank anymore. This is about using cutting
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  edge AI to build the actual architecture for
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  the future of finance. So we're talking about
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  things like hyper -efficient fraud detection,
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  really personalized financial products for customers.
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  All of that. Things that lower costs and bring
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  in customers faster. And it all feeds into their
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  main goal, which is huge. They want to build
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  the first truly global bank. The goal is 100
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  million customers in 100 countries. And they're
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  already moving on it with launches in Mexico,
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  Colombia, and soon in India. And one last thing
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  on this, which I think is a nice touch, they've
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  done five employee share sales. So the people
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  actually building this $75 billion company are
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  getting a piece of the pie. Which is how it should
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  be. Okay, from a story of runaway success, let's
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  pivot to something a lot more complicated. A
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  real geopolitical contradiction, actually. Let's
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  talk about the surprising return of Bitcoin mining
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  in China. This one is fascinating because China
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  issued a hard formal ban on all crypto mining
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  back in 2021. They were done with it. They were
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  supposedly done. Yeah. But new data shows they
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  have quietly bounced back to become the world's
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  third largest Bitcoin mining hub. Third largest,
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  holding an estimated 14 percent of the global
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  hash rate. And just a quick reminder, the hash
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  rate is basically the total computing power of
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  the Bitcoin network. It's a measure of both security
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  and energy use. So 14 percent is a huge piece
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  of that pie. It is, especially when you consider
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  who the top two are. The U .S. is number one
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  at around 38 percent and Russia is second at
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  about 15 and a half. So you add it all up and
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  those three nations. the US, Russia, and China,
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  they now control over two -thirds of the entire
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  global hashrate. 67%. That feels very concentrated.
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  It's incredibly concentrated. And the reason
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  for China's comeback is, well, it's simple economics.
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  Cheap electricity. Just cheap surplus electricity
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  in these energy -rich provinces, places like
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  Xinjiang and Sichuan. They have more power than
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  they can use or transmit, so the local incentive
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  is just to sell it to someone. Anyone. Even if
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  that someone is a supposedly banned Bitcoin miner.
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  Exactly. It shows that local economic forces
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  can sometimes just steamroll a central government's
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  policy, at least when it comes to a decentralized
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  network. And there's hard data to back this up,
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  right? It's not just speculation. Oh, yeah. A
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  major mining rig producer, Canaan, reported that
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  over 30 % of its global revenue in 2024 came
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  from China. Wow. And what was that figure right
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  after the ban? It was less than 3%. So the miners
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  are back and they're buying new hardware. And
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  at the same time, we're seeing some, well, some
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  small signs that the official policy might be
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  softening, or at least evolving. Right. Hong
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  Kong has a stablecoin bill coming into effect,
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  and there are reports that Beijing is looking
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  at yuan -backed stablecoins. So it's a complicated
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  picture. And all this is happening while the
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  market is in turmoil. Bitcoin's price is way
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  down from its October peak. Which means minor
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  revenue, there's a metric for it called the hash
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  price, has hit an all -time low. So even with
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  that cheap electricity, it's a tough environment
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  for them. And that tough environment, that volatility
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  leads us directly into our third story. It really
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  does. This is where the market crash slams right
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  into the world of politics and personal fortunes.
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  We're talking about the crypto market volatility
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  and its impact on the Trump family's assets and
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  how that connects to a very high profile presidential
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  pardon. Right. The crypto market shed over a
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  trillion dollars recently. That's a massive crash.
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  And it directly hit the Trump family's estimated
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  fortune. It fell from a peak of about $7 .7 billion
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  in September. All the way down to $6 .7 billion
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  in November, a billion dollar drop. Mostly from
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  their digital asset holdings. President Trump's
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  stake in TMTG, his media company, dropped by
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  about $800 million. A Trump -branded meme coin
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  also lost about a quarter of its value. And a
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  Bitcoin mining venture connected to Eric Trump.
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  It shed about half of its peak value. The market
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  was just brutal. So in the middle of all this
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  financial turmoil, President Trump issues a pardon
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  for Chengpeng Zhao, the founder of Binance, better
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  known as CZ. That's right. CZ had pleaded guilty
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  to failing to maintain an effective anti -money
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  laundering program. He'd already served nearly
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  four months in prison. And the pardon just whites
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  that slate clean. The White House defended it,
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  saying it was correcting an overly prosecuted
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  case and ending what they called the Biden administration's
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  war on crypto. Now, here's where the story gets
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  really interesting. This is where we connect
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  the dots. There's a perceived overlap, a financial
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  connection between Binance, the company whose
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  founder was just pardoned, and the Trump family's
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  own crypto business ventures. Yes. Binance is
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  reported to be a key supporter of a venture called
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  World Liberty Financial, which is tied to the
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  Trump family. And lobbying records show that
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  Binance hired a lobbyist who was a friend of
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  Donald Trump Jr. And what was that lobbyist working
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  on? Befiling specifically mentioned lobbying
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  the White House on executive relief. Which is
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  basically a synonym for a pardon. It is. So you
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  can see why this has drawn intense criticism
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  from Democratic senators who are pointing to
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  a potential conflict of interest given the clear
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  financial ties. So what you have is this perfect
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  storm. Market volatility causing huge personal
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  financial losses for a political family. with
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  a presidential action that benefits a major player
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  in the crypto space, a player who also happens
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  to be financially linked to that same family.
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  It just raises so many questions about the politicization
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  of finance and regulation in this new digital
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  era. A really complex way to start the week.
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  It certainly is. Before we wrap up and give you
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  our final thought, we want to thank another one
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  golfer in your life. OK, so let's do a quick
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  recap. All right. First, we had Revolut's incredible
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  $75 billion valuation, which seems to be driven
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  by real profits and a serious commitment to using
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  AI. Then we looked at the big contradiction in
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  China, where Bitcoin mining is making a huge
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  comeback despite an official ban, all thanks
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  to cheap local power. And finally, we saw how
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  the brutal crypto market crash is directly intersecting
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  with politics, with the Trump family's financial
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  losses and the controversial pardon of Binance's
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  founder, CZ. Looking at all three of these stories
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  together. There's a really clear theme that emerges
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  and it's this concentration of control Yeah,
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  you see it everywhere you have three nations
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  controlling two -thirds of the global mining
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  power or you have a single political act pardon
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  that could reshape the future for a massive crypto
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  entity with clear ties to power and That leaves
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  you our listener with a really important question
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  to think about this week If governments and powerful
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  individuals can still exert so much control over
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  the infrastructure, the wealth, and the rules
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  of the game in the digital asset space, what
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  does that concentration of power really mean
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  for the original promise of decentralization
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  in the future of finance and technology? Something
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  to chew on as the week gets going. The real points
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  of control aren't always where you expect them
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  to be. We're here to help it snarfle, so reach
• 11:32
  out on our website if you have any more questions.
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  That's a wrap on today's top stories. Remember,
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  tech doesn't have to be complicated, and we're
• 11:43
  here to help connect the dots. If you've got
• 11:45
  questions or want to learn more, visit us at
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  snarful .com. Thanks for listening, and we'll
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  catch you next time.