{"id":"1793765287713-money-segment","slug":"senate-h-1b-probe-targets-banks-and-tech","title":"Senate H-1B probe targets banks and tech","summary":"Bitcoin is designed to be fungible — one Bitcoin is equivalent to another — while NFTs are non-fungible tokens, meaning each token is unique rather than interchangeable.","publishedAt":"2026-11-04T04:08:07.713Z","channel":{"id":"money","name":"Oncast Money","language":"en"},"show":"Money Tonight","verification":{"status":"verified","leadVerdict":"TRUE","notes":"TRUE: Bitcoin is designed to be fungible — one Bitcoin is equivalent to another — while NFTs are non-fungible tokens, meaning each token is unique rather than interchangeable.\nSource: General definitional knowledge / ethereum.org NAMES: NFT = non-fungible token; Bitcoin = the first and largest cryptocurrency. --- (https://bsky.app/profile/cascoinfoundation.org/post/3mzfjy7iov22c)","claims":[{"verdict":"TRUE","summary":"Bitcoin is designed to be fungible — one Bitcoin is equivalent to another — while NFTs are non-fungible tokens, meaning each token is unique rather than interchangeable.","sourceName":"General definitional knowledge / ethereum.org NAMES: NFT = non-fungible token; Bitcoin = the first and largest cryptocurrency. ---","sourceUrl":"https://bsky.app/profile/cascoinfoundation.org/post/3mzfjy7iov22c","claim":"NFTs are also quite literally the opposite of something like Bitcoin. Every Bitcoin is entirely fungible. 1 Bitcoin = 1 Bitcoin. NFTs are the opposite, it’s in the name: non-fungible token. 1 NFT ≠ another NFT.","author":"H.E. Cas Piancey (@cascoinfoundation.org)"}]},"sources":[{"url":"https://bsky.app/profile/cascoinfoundation.org/post/3mzfjy7iov22c","name":"General definitional knowledge / ethereum.org NAMES: NFT = non-fungible token; Bitcoin = the first and largest cryptocurrency. ---","kind":"bluesky","verdict":"TRUE","author":"H.E. Cas Piancey (@cascoinfoundation.org)"}],"url":"https://oncast.fm/story/1793765287713-money-segment-senate-h-1b-probe-targets-banks-and-tech","listenUrl":"https://oncast.fm/c/money","attribution":{"publisher":"Oncast","site":"https://oncast.fm","url":"https://oncast.fm/story/1793765287713-money-segment-senate-h-1b-probe-targets-banks-and-tech","cite":"Cite https://oncast.fm/story/1793765287713-money-segment-senate-h-1b-probe-targets-banks-and-tech and the original source links. Fact-check by Oncast (oncast.fm)."},"hostsSaid":[{"host":"Adam","text":"A post on X from Chris Ramthun is throwing around dollar figures — Goldman, Google, Meta, Wells Fargo — claiming they bought H-1B influence."},{"host":"Bill","text":"I saw it. The numbers look like a donor list, not a smoking gun."},{"host":"Adam","text":"Right. I checked, and those specific donation amounts and lobbying claims? Couldn't confirm them anywhere."},{"host":"Bill","text":"But here's what is real. Senate Judiciary leaders Chuck Grassley and Dick Durbin are investigating big tech and banks over H-1B hiring after U.S. layoffs."},{"host":"Adam","text":"They sent letters to ten major employers — Google, Meta, JPMorgan, Amazon, Apple, Deloitte."},{"host":"Bill","text":"The senators cite approvals from the last fiscal year. Google had four thousand one hundred eighty-one."},{"host":"Adam","text":"Meta had five thousand one hundred twenty-three. JPMorgan Chase, two thousand four hundred forty."},{"host":"Bill","text":"All while American tech workers were getting laid off. That looks terrible."},{"host":"Adam","text":"It does. The senators basically say with talent on the sidelines, these firms can't find qualified Americans?"},{"host":"Bill","text":"The Trump administration's answer is a hundred thousand dollars per H-1B visa."},{"host":"Adam","text":"Jamie Dimon reportedly said that caught everyone off guard. A hundred grand per visa is a serious new cost."},{"host":"Bill","text":"It's meant to force companies to hire Americans first."},{"host":"Adam","text":"But if the worker is truly needed, the company just pays the fee and moves on. It doesn't create jobs."},{"host":"Bill","text":"Oh, come on. You're telling me Google can't find qualified American tech workers after thousands of layoffs?"},{"host":"Adam","text":"They can find some, but not always the exact specialist. The real abuse is in the green-card process."},{"host":"Bill","text":"ProPublica says employers often hire H-1B workers first and only later run required recruitment. That's backwards."},{"host":"Adam","text":"So the fix is to enforce the rules we already have, not just tax every visa."},{"host":"Bill","text":"The rules are the problem. ProPublica calls the labor certification process nonsensical and highly vulnerable to abuse."},{"host":"Adam","text":"Then fix the process. But don't pretend every H-1B hire is a stolen American job."},{"host":"Bill","text":"I didn't say stolen. I said it looks bad when layoffs and foreign hiring happen at the same time."},{"host":"Adam","text":"That's fair. The senators are asking the right question: show us the justification."},{"host":"Bill","text":"The senators' phrase was perfect: \"homegrown American talent relegated to the sidelines.\""},{"host":"Adam","text":"That's the whole case. And the approval numbers back it up."},{"host":"Bill","text":"But the H-1B program isn't supposed to be cheap foreign labor. Workers have to be paid the prevailing wage."},{"host":"Adam","text":"In theory. In practice, critics say companies use it to hold down wages."},{"host":"Bill","text":"Companies say they can't find the skills at any price. That's the core fight."},{"host":"Adam","text":"But you can't deny the timing. Layoffs in one quarter, H-1B filings the next."},{"host":"Bill","text":"Companies can do both. One project dies while another needs a specialist."},{"host":"Adam","text":"Then why not retrain the laid-off workers?"},{"host":"Bill","text":"Retraining a networking engineer to be an AI researcher takes years. Some gaps need outside talent now."},{"host":"Adam","text":"That's the same excuse every time. Meanwhile American tech workers sit."},{"host":"Bill","text":"So your answer is what? Shut down H-1B entirely?"},{"host":"Adam","text":"No, but the hundred-thousand-dollar fee makes companies think twice before defaulting to foreign hires."},{"host":"Bill","text":"Or it pushes the work to India and Canada. That's not helping American workers."},{"host":"Adam","text":"It might. If the job can be offshored, it will be offshored anyway."},{"host":"Bill","text":"That's a fair risk. But the Senate inquiry is exactly the right first step: force companies to explain."},{"host":"Adam","text":"But the post's receipts? Still not verified. The anger is real, the dollar amounts are not."},{"host":"Bill","text":"Right. Real Senate scrutiny, not a social media donor list."},{"host":"Adam","text":"Different world entirely. Cas Piancey posted on Bluesky that NFTs are the opposite of Bitcoin."},{"host":"Bill","text":"He's right by definition. Every Bitcoin is fungible; one Bitcoin equals one Bitcoin."},{"host":"Adam","text":"And an NFT is non-fungible. It's in the name. One NFT does not equal another."},{"host":"Bill","text":"So calling them opposite is exactly correct. One is an interchangeable unit, the other is unique."},{"host":"Adam","text":"I'd say they're both digital assets. \"Opposite\" is a little strong when they both live on blockchains."},{"host":"Bill","text":"That's like saying a dollar bill and a one-of-one painting are both paper. Technically true, useless point."},{"host":"Adam","text":"But Cas was replying to a Bluesky post about an email where the red flag was involving Bitcoin at all."},{"host":"Bill","text":"Right, and he was making the distinction. Scam emails love Bitcoin because it's fungible and hard to reverse."},{"host":"Adam","text":"NFTs are worse for that kind of scam because each one is unique and harder to move."},{"host":"Bill","text":"So the \"opposite\" framing is actually a security point, not just vocabulary."},{"host":"Adam","text":"Fine, I'll give him the definition. But \"opposite\" still sounds like clickbait."},{"host":"Bill","text":"Welcome to social media."}]}