Just now, a Wall Street Journal report put the blame for “Starlink speed limits” back on Musk himself: according to U.S. officials and people familiar with the matter, Musk ordered speed limits on the military version of Starlink that Ukraine relies on (Starshield) last week.
First, here’s what happened 👇
🔹 Since mid-October, Ukrainian Starshield terminals have lost connection whenever they move faster than about 160 km/h, making some attack drones and interceptor drones almost unusable
🔹 Musk previously said that Starshield is controlled by the U.S. government, and that setting speed limits was not up to him personally
🔹 Trump publicly denied issuing the order; U.S. Defense Secretary Hegseth also said the U.S. government had not restricted Ukraine’s use of Starlink
🔹 The report says that after the speed limits came to light, Musk and Trump spoke by phone, while the White House also launched an informal inquiry over the conflicting accounts
So far, the parties still contradict one another over who actually flipped the switch.
But whoever the investigation ultimately identifies, this incident has put one question on the table: at a critical moment, a global communications network could depend on a single decision made by just a handful of people. Canadian Prime Minister Carney has also cited the risk of past Starlink outages as he pushes for a domestic satellite communications system.
Put simply, this is exactly why the crypto community keeps talking about “decentralization”—with no single switch and no one able to unilaterally throttle your connection or cut off your internet, you have infrastructure that truly belongs to you. For the markets, geopolitical news like this usually affects short-term risk sentiment only; it doesn’t change BTC’s fundamentals, so don’t chase rallies or panic-sell over a single headline.
Do you think critical infrastructure should be in the hands of a private company?
#据报马斯克下令限速乌克兰星链 #BTC #ETH
First, here’s what happened 👇
🔹 Since mid-October, Ukrainian Starshield terminals have lost connection whenever they move faster than about 160 km/h, making some attack drones and interceptor drones almost unusable
🔹 Musk previously said that Starshield is controlled by the U.S. government, and that setting speed limits was not up to him personally
🔹 Trump publicly denied issuing the order; U.S. Defense Secretary Hegseth also said the U.S. government had not restricted Ukraine’s use of Starlink
🔹 The report says that after the speed limits came to light, Musk and Trump spoke by phone, while the White House also launched an informal inquiry over the conflicting accounts
So far, the parties still contradict one another over who actually flipped the switch.
But whoever the investigation ultimately identifies, this incident has put one question on the table: at a critical moment, a global communications network could depend on a single decision made by just a handful of people. Canadian Prime Minister Carney has also cited the risk of past Starlink outages as he pushes for a domestic satellite communications system.
Put simply, this is exactly why the crypto community keeps talking about “decentralization”—with no single switch and no one able to unilaterally throttle your connection or cut off your internet, you have infrastructure that truly belongs to you. For the markets, geopolitical news like this usually affects short-term risk sentiment only; it doesn’t change BTC’s fundamentals, so don’t chase rallies or panic-sell over a single headline.
Do you think critical infrastructure should be in the hands of a private company?
#据报马斯克下令限速乌克兰星链 #BTC #ETH