Crypto Black Friday: Are Americans Getting a Doge Check, Solana, Michael Saylor

Kicking off a new segment with three takes on what's happening in the crypto markets every week. I'm heading to ETHDenver next Wednesday and to Paris Blockchain Week in April. If you're around, drop me a line on X.

Here’s the eBook link for “The Yankee Cowboy War” by Carl Oglesby, from our last discussion.

The comment section lit up with debates on the Russian war’s origins, fascism, and everything in between. Read “Provoked” by Scott Horton and Oglesby’s book—then decide for yourself. Meanwhile, fewer deaths on all sides, a restrained Putin, and some foreign policy from the ‘realest school’ would be nice to see.

---

The $5,000 DOGE check that Elon Musk and Donald Trump are proposing is shaping up to pump crypto hard. Think 2021 on steroids.

Musk’s DOGE Dividend suggests a bold plan to refund taxpayers by cutting federal spending. The initiative aims for a $2 trillion cut by 2026, with 20% of the savings—roughly $400 billion—redirected as $5,000 checks for eligible households.

Besides that, let’s talk about why Solana is looking worse by the day and if Bitcoin is the better investment.

1. Are Americans Getting a Doge Check?

After posing with a chainsaw with Argentinian President Javier Milei — usually a cool guy but his crypto launch rugpulled thousands— Musk floated the idea on X, saying he’d “check with the Trump" about stimmy checks.

The Department of Government Efficiency has reported $55 billion in savings to date. However, major media outlets have questioned DOGE’s numbers, some of which have pointed out discrepancies in the task force’s savings reports. For example, one claim of $8 billion in savings turned out to be just $8 million—a significant overstatement.

But if the plan does work, here's how Azoria financial analyst James Fishback thinks it'll go down:

Fishback’s plan suggests a one-time $5,000 rebate check would be issued to households that pay federal income tax. Estimates indicate this would include about 79 million households.

However, the funds would only become available if DOGE reaches its original $2 trillion savings goal. Additionally the checks would require approval from Congress—an uphill battle given the current political climate.

Do you think DOGE savings are best spent this way? Let me know.

2. Solana Founder is Crashing Out

After suffering a 10% drop this week, the founder of Solana, the sixth largest cryptocurrency and direct competitor to Ethereum, Anatoly Yakovenko appears to be sperging out.

Some days, I still can't understand how Sam Bankman-Fried's private playground chain, Solana, became this huge after the FTX collapse. While Solana has been the butt of many jokes this year, the silver lining is a SOL ETF is likely to happen in 2025.

As it stands the odds are 80+% on Polymarket.

3. Michael Saylor Wants The United States to Buy 4.2 MILLION BTC

Lastly Michael Saylor is egging on the United States to pump our bag.

Ulterior motives aside, if America wants to lead in the Bitcoin space race it needs to get skin in the game soon.

Nation states are 100% already buying Bitcoin through proxies. It's a matter of accumulating and not revealing. the reason no one is saying anything is that they're afraid if they reveal they now have X Bitcoin, some other nation-state is gonna say, "Oh, we do too; we actually have 2x Bitcoin." That's my theory, anyway. China knows this, Russia knows this, the U.S. knows this. So the U.S. needs to ensure they have the top amount before revealing anything.

Or, I'm totally wrong! But I'll keep stacking Bitcoin anyway.

That's all I got for Black Friday! See you next week :)

---