Published July 5, 2025
By Anthony Wile, NatGold Founder & CEO

This weekend in Miami, as I enjoy the annual celebrations, I find myself reflecting on what exactly is being celebrated.

Every July 4th, Americans gather to celebrate liberty. Fireworks light up the sky, flags wave proudly, and speeches ring out in praise of independence. But beneath the surface of all that patriotic celebration lies a hard truth: freedom is never guaranteed—especially not financial freedom.

To understand where any society might be headed, we must remember where it has been.

1933: The Year Liberty Was Confiscated

On April 5, 1933, in the midst of the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 6102, banning the private ownership of gold. Every American was required to surrender their gold to the Federal Reserve—under threat of imprisonment—in exchange for paper dollars valued at $20.67 per ounce.

Weeks later, the government revalued gold to $35 per ounce, effectively stealing 69% of Americans’ stored wealth. The move was sold as a bold economic recovery plan. In truth, it was a desperate act to protect the dollar and extend the life of the debt-based system. It was unmistakably, an act of confiscation—not patriotism.

What Roosevelt did in 1933 wasn’t just a historical anomaly. It was a blueprint—a model for how governments respond when the illusion of monetary control begins to unravel.

Today: The System Is Cracking Again

Fast forward to July 4th, 2025. This week, the digital news publication Semafor published a striking headline:

“The US Dollar Is on Track for Its Worst Year in Modern History”

The greenback is down over 7% already this year—and Morgan Stanley predicts it could fall another 10%. Meanwhile, Foreign Policy Magazine ran another warning:

“Trump Is Accelerating the End of Dollar Dominance”

The article compares the current trajectory to 1973, when President Nixon severed the dollar’s final link to gold—triggering a decade of inflation, currency crises, and global realignments.

Now, with Trump back in office, the House of Representatives just passed what’s being called the “Big Beautiful Bill”—a sweeping economic package expected to add another $4 trillion in debt. Dollar inflation by any other name. Elon Musk called it “the beginning of the end for the dollar”—and he’s not wrong.

The truth is: there is no political party, no leadership, no plan anywhere in Washington that doesn’t lead to more dollar inflation, more debt, and more erosion of real purchasing power.

Fiat Is the Empire. The Dollar Is Its Sword. Democracy is its religious wrapper.

Whether Democrats or Republicans are at the helm, the destination is the same. Political leaders serve the same entrenched power: money power—the true architects of an empire built not on freedom, but on fiat and debt.

The $35 trillion national debt isn’t a miscalculation. It’s baked into the architecture of the system. The fiat machine must expand to survive. It extracts value from the many to benefit the few — and when belief in it falters, those in control don’t hesitate to protect it by any means necessary.

That’s why Roosevelt’s 1933 order isn’t just a piece of the past. It’s a playbook.

And when people’s life savings no longer cover basic groceries… when foreign creditors begin dumping Treasuries… when the veil of dollar stability finally slips… the system will reach once again for the same tools:

Confiscation. Control. Coercion.

But This Time, The People Hold the Keys

The biggest difference between now and then?

We’re not defenseless anymore.

In 1933, the government could seize the people’s gold because it was centralized—stored in vaults, banks, and safe deposit boxes. It was visible. Physical. Traceable.

Today, emerging monetary assets—Bitcoin, NatGold Tokens, and other decentralized digital assets—are built differently. They are:

• Self-custodied
• Cryptographically secured
• Globally accessible yet individually controlled

When properly stored in cold wallets—whether on a Ledger device, a hardware drive, or a secure multi-sig setup—there’s no central registry. No bank manager to subpoena. No vault to raid. The owner holds the keys. And without the keys, there’s no way in.

This is not a theoretical strength. It’s a structural defense mechanism.

Even more, decentralized finance (DeFi) has exploded the old model entirely. We now have a world where capital can move, grow, and be protected without needing permission. This is not just innovation—it’s a peaceful rebellion against the very mechanisms of monetary control and a yearning for true financial freedom from debt enslavement.

Governments may try to regulate. They may restrict exchanges, target wallets, or clamp down on off-ramps. But they can no longer execute the 1933 playbook. They can’t confiscate what they can’t see, seize, or control.

The Internet Sparked the Awakening. The Monetary Reformation Is the Response.

It began with the Internet Reformation—the great collapse of narrative control. Once centralized media lost its grip, the world changed. People awakened. Questions got asked. Truths got exposed.

And now, we are entering the next phase: the Monetary Reformation.

Bitcoin sparked it. Ethereum expanded it. And with NatGold, we bring the oldest, most time-tested form of value—gold—into a non-dilutive, self-sovereign, digital future. And we so it in a sustainable way that aligns with modern values-driven people.

A New Shield for a New Age.

NatGold isn’t just gold. And it’s not just another crypto asset. It’s the natural evolution of both—a superior fiat money alternative born from gold’s timeless value and blockchain’s decentralized power. It’s fueling a global movement of individuals reclaiming monetary independence, just as economic repression quietly tightens its grip. NatGold is about building the alternative before the system closes the exits—again.

There’s a phrase by Spanish philosopher George Santayana that I carry with me every day—not just in memory, but literally tattooed across my forearm:

“Quien no conoce su historia está condenado a repetirla.”
“Those who do not know their history are condemned to repeat it.”

I see it daily. I live by it and share it because it reminds me that we’ve been here before. We’ve watched empires swell beyond reason, confiscators circle, and hard-earned freedoms slip quietly away.

But today, there’s a difference,

This time, we have the chance to choose.

This time, we have the tools to act.

This time, we’re not just aware—we’re prepared.

Let July 4th Be More Than a Holiday

As Independence Day passes, we’re called to look beyond fireworks and parades—to consider what freedom really means in this new financial era.

Past freedoms deserve remembrance. Future freedoms demand action.

The old system is bloated. The watchers are alert. But the people are waking up—and a quiet reformation has already begun.

This time—the people hold the keys.

NatGold: It Just Makes Sense.