Time had reached February of '92. The dissolution of the Soviet Union was old news.

Whether it was Russia, Ukraine... these non-magical countries, or the Gringotts of Europe and the Americas, they had all embarked on their new chapters with great ambition, throwing themselves into busy work in this new year that had just passed Christmas.

However, just at this tense and busy juncture, a goblin deputy director of the Gringotts Investment Department, known for his caution and dedication, left his post for the first time during working hours and arrived at the archive vault deep within the Gringotts Venture Capital Department.

Bogut took out all the investment reports that had been filed in recent months, spread them out on the open space in front of him one by one, and carefully searched for something with a restless mind. By the time the goblin elder on his daily inspection arrived, the empty room in front of the archive vault was already covered with dense files, like a horrifying white spider web.

The goblins guarding the archive vault did not stop Bogut's absurd behavior. On the contrary, almost all the goblins present were frantically helping to unpack and sort the files, calculating and placing these white files according to some strange logic.

"Bogut, what are you doing..."

The old goblin elder frowned, but before he could finish his words, he had already clearly seen the pile of special archive reports piled up around Bogut—Gringotts would mark all investment projects that had been definitively abandoned with a touch of black on the side, indicating that they were no longer being followed. And the pile around Bogut was almost forming a black wall.

"Elder, our investment plan in the former Soviet Union has been sniped in advance by mysterious forces..."

According to Gringotts' previous operating logic, as middle and senior-level managers, neither Douglas, Bogut, Leos... would come into contact with businesses that were directly evaluated and abandoned by lower-level goblin employees. This was also to improve the efficiency of the Investment Department.

Normally, they would only directly handle investments that would generate profits, as well as failed projects that had been determined to be losses. As for those projects that deviated too much from the Venture Capital Department's preset target values, they would be directly marked in black and piled up in the archive vault.

The reasons for these abandonments were also varied. For example, the price fluctuation ratio exceeded expectations, the target object was frozen and mortgaged by its own capital during the valuation process, there were disputes over the type and form of payment currency, and the market's attitude was ambiguous and posed a high risk.

However, the proportion of abandonments was a bit too high...

If it wasn't because the lower-level employees collectively experienced intellectual degradation, then there must have been a huge error in a certain link, which would have led to this phenomenon—in fact, in the past, this situation would have affected normal business operations, but the blank market left by the former Soviet Union was too large, which meant these abandoned files would not have an immediate impact.

Leos hesitated for only a few seconds, his eyes flashed fiercely, and he waved his hand behind him.

"Someone, help Deputy Director Bogut find all the letters of investment intention that have been marked as abandoned from October of last year to now, and summarize all the reasons that appear in them!"

Undoubtedly, European Gringotts had been strongly sniped.

The war had begun in advance.

That night, the Gringotts Goblin Elder Council and senior staff from various core Gringotts institutions gathered in a vast conference room and announced this news: the one most likely to exploit this "abandonment mechanism" loophole for attack was the American goblins who had also used this operating system.

And from the final feedback, it was also those who used US dollars, Dragonpots (American Galleons), and other forms of manipulation that caused the main premium and directly engaged in a frontal market confrontation with Gringotts. Fortunately, Bogut discovered it early, and Gringotts only needed to continue to increase investment and raise the budget threshold to smash these petty tricks.

"There are too many players wandering around the former Soviet market, and it is difficult for us to track the flow of funds from each force. However, in view of this situation, the Elder Council has an emergency plan to fully relax the risk audit level, absorb a large amount of loans and loose money from the non-magical market, release Galleon reserves, and impact the exchange rate of Dragonpots—suspend profits! The war has begun!"

With the promulgation of the "Financial War Order," Gringotts, like a precisely structured war machine, transformed every goblin employee and department into tightly meshed gears, operating at high speed.

Some of the older goblins were familiar with this situation.

Capital pursues profit, but the truly terrifying state of capital is to completely ignore short-term interests, actively create losses with money, and turn all zero-sum games into the most crude and primitive game of comparison.

This situation was not uncommon. As long as it could be determined that the opponent had already fallen into the whirlpool first, according to countless historical verifications, Gringotts Wizarding Bank, which possessed huge cash flow and coinage rights, could always be the one that survived in the end.

At this time, studying partial gains and losses had lost its meaning.

Gringotts only needed to constantly increase prices, buy in, lend, absorb deposits, and release gold. Perhaps there would be occasional failures, but the other party would definitely pay a more painful price. No one paid attention to those abandoned projects of the past, nor did anyone bother to sort out the increasing loss figures on the profit statement.

Everyone knew that the numbers of losses and debts had no meaning before the final settlement. If one had to find something truly important, then grasping the right to burst the financial bubble might be particularly important.

And for European Gringotts, this could be said to be an almost certain victory.

Before digesting this non-magical windfall, the capital that the American goblins could control was definitely not as good as the European Gringotts Wizarding Bank headquarters. In other words, their "health bar" would be much "shorter" than the European goblins'.

Therefore, after analysis by Leos and other senior goblin investment masters, the final result would only be two.

1. The American goblins could not withstand this tragic "currency meat grinder" and chose to use the market share advantage they had gained from being the first to enter the market to burst the false prosperity of the ruble in advance, causing a currency contraction in a short period of time to earn capital to leave.

2. The Gringotts Wizarding Bank headquarters, through cost-free capital investment, gradually gained control of the profit-and-loss reversal button, quietly waiting for the American goblins to run out of funds, debt exploded, and were on the verge of death, before coming out to clean up the mess and complete the final winner-takes-all.

……

Meanwhile, at Hogwarts, in the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor's office.

The same dialogue and analysis echoed in this "unlucky place" that had not been changed for a long time. While eating the fresh black caviar that Grindelwald had brought back from Ukraine, Elena quietly helped the old man analyze the situation.

"I still don't understand, little girl."

Grindelwald rubbed his brow, trying to digest the "financial knowledge" small class that Elena had just finished, and his wrinkled face was full of confusion and worry.

"Since everything is profiting the goblins, doesn't that mean that we have been giving the goblins money all these days?"

"From the current situation, it seems to be the case... after all, this is the most basic law of capital plunder, gathering enough chips, manipulating the free market, reaping the dividends and making a perfect exit... This is a classic technique that has been repeated countless times."

Elena nodded casually, carefully licking the silver spoon in her hand, and said softly.

"However... the above two points, and even countless points, must be established on a very important premise."

The girl sat on the desk, her legs kicking back and forth in the air, gently shaking the spoon in her hand.

"Whether it's devaluation or appreciation. Currency must still have circulation attributes—in other words, it needs to ensure that it is still a special commodity that exists in the market, rather than..."