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Kanye West, who legally changed 
his name to Yee a few years ago 

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but is also known by the 
nicknames Yeezy, Yeezus, Louis 

3
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Vuitton, Don and St. 
Pablo, announced earlier this 

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month on Twitter, which legally 
changed its name to X but is 

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also known by the nicknames This
Hell Side, The Bird Side and the

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Everything app that he had 
rejected a $2,000,000 offer to 

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scam his followers with a 
fraudulent crypto promotion. 

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He included in his tweet a 
screenshot showing how the scam 

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would work. 
He would receive an upfront 

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payment of $750,000 to tweet 
about a fake Yi currency. 

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He would have to keep that tweet
live for 8 hours, after which he

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could delete it, claim his 
account had been hacked, and say

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that he didn't write the post. 
He would then receive an 

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additional $1.25 million payout.
The message he shared went on to

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explain that the company asking 
you to do this will be scamming 

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the public out of 10s of 
millions of dollars. 

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Now. 
Kanye didn't agree to this. 

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He has a reputation to preserve.
He's a rapper after all, not a 

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politician. 
He instead went on a bit of a 

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Nazi rant before deleting his 
Everything app account. 

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About a week later, the 
Argentinian president Havier 

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Malay promoted a crypto token on
Twitter too. 

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This one was called Libra and it
started trading just minutes 

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before his tweet. 
His tweet said that the project 

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would be dedicated to 
encouraging the growth of the 

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Argentine economy by funding 
small Argentine businesses and 

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start-ups. 
Over the next hour, more than 

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44,000 wallet addresses bought 
the token. 

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The price spiked from around 
$0.22 to more than $5, pushing 

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the token's overall market value
to four and a half billion 

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dollars before it collapsed in 
value. 

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As insiders began dumping their 
tokens, concern quickly spread 

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in Argentina that Malay's 
Everything app account had been 

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hacked. 
A few hours later, he deleted 

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his tweet saying that he had not
been aware of the fine details 

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of the project, and after 
becoming aware of it, he decided

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to stop spreading the word. 
By the time his tweet was 

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deleted, the token had already 
fallen 97% from its peak value 

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and buyers were accusing the 
coins. 

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Creators of a rug pull a type of
pump and dump scheme where the 

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promoters draw in buyers only to
stop trading activity and make 

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off. 
With the money raised from sales

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on chain, analysts pinned the 
price collapse on insiders, 

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cashing out almost $100 million 
malaise. 

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Political opponents filed dozens
of lawsuits accusing him of 

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ethics violations, while the 
main left wing Peronist 

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opposition bloc said that they 
would launch impeachment 

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proceedings and accused him of 
participation in a crypto fraud.

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00:03:06,280 --> 00:03:10,720
On Monday, Milay surprisingly 
retweeted a guide on how to 

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purchase Libra tokens, causing 
the price to nearly double in 

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minutes. 
Shortly afterwards, that retweet

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was deleted too. 
In a television interview later 

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that Monday, Milay denied any 
wrongdoing, claiming that he 

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didn't promote it, he just 
shared it. 

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He said that he's a techno 
optimist and that the coin was 

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proposed to him as an instrument
to help fund Argentine Project. 

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He went on to say it's true that
in trying to help out those 

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Argentines, I took a slap in the
face. 

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He claimed that neither the 
state lost money nor did 

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Argentinians, saying that the 
vast majority of investors were 

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American and Chinese. 
Argentine lawyers have filed 

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fraud complaints against Malay, 
and a judge will soon determine 

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00:03:59,000 --> 00:04:02,080
if the president should face 
criminal fraud charges. 

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00:04:02,360 --> 00:04:07,040
According to Reuters, 8 crypto 
wallets withdrew roughly $99 

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00:04:07,040 --> 00:04:10,720
million from the tokens 
liquidity pool, and analysis 

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00:04:10,720 --> 00:04:14,880
shows that the addresses that 
withdrew this money are closely 

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00:04:14,880 --> 00:04:18,720
related to the Libra Creator 
team, as those addresses were 

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00:04:18,720 --> 00:04:22,880
funded directly from the Libra 
Token Creator account. 

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So far, there's no evidence that
Malay directly profited from the

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meme coin, but in a best case 
scenario, the scandal still 

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00:04:31,680 --> 00:04:35,960
shows that he was foolish enough
to allow a 26 year old crypto 

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bro to make $100 million off his
name. 

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One of the biggest scandals to 
come out from the Libra Rogue 

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poll is that blockchain 
investigators have shown that 

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the same wallets involved in the
Libra scandal were also involved

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00:04:50,960 --> 00:04:53,720
in the launch of Melania Trump's
meme coin. 

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OK, so first up, what is a meme 
coin? 

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Well, the first cryptocurrency, 
Bitcoin, was unveiled about 16 

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years ago, and it was supposed 
to be a new technology for 

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00:05:04,960 --> 00:05:08,880
making online payments that 
didn't rely on the existing 

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financial system. 
With Bitcoin, the Ledger showing

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ownership would be decentralized
and payments could be made 

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pseudonymously. 
That never really worked out. 

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For a variety of reasons, people
don't use Bitcoin in the real 

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world for much of anything other
than to gamble on its price. 

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They do use stable coins, an 
idea that came later for 

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transactions, and these are 
usually pegged to the US dollar 

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and are supposed to be backed by
real dollars, but they avoid the

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banking system so are quite 
useful for illegal transactions.

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People don't use them for buying
a book on Amazon, however, as 

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they're still significantly less
convenient than using a debit or

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credit card. 
Almost as soon as Bitcoin was 

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created, people began making fun
of it by coming up with joke 

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coins like Dogecoin, which was 
probably the first meme coin, or

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00:06:03,560 --> 00:06:06,200
at least the first one to get 
any traction. 

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00:06:06,480 --> 00:06:09,560
There was no earnest promise 
that Dogecoin would be the 

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future of finance. 
It was just a cryptocurrency 

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whose logo was a picture of a 
dog that had become a bit of an 

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Internet joke or meme in 2013. 
Its creators didn't expect 

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anyone to take it seriously. 
The idea was that it was a bit 

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funny, and if you think it's 
funny, you can buy it, just like

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Bitcoin. 
Additionally, if other people 

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find it funny, maybe they'll buy
it too and the price will go up.

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It's important to note that none
of these meme coins are actually

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funny. 
I don't think that anyone other 

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than maybe Elon Musk has ever 
actually laughed at one. 

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People just come up with 
something that could 

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theoretically be funny and hope 
that someone else will agree 

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that someone else might find it 
funny and thus might actually 

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buy it it. 
It's sort of like the Greater 

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Fool theory, but for bad jokes. 
If you Google around, you'll 

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find crypto influencers, usually
on their own podcasts, having 

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earnest conversations about how 
these things could be considered

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funny or culturally important 
and thus take on some sort of 

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value. 
I wouldn't recommend listening 

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00:07:19,000 --> 00:07:21,800
to too many of these 
conversations as you'll quickly 

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lose the will to live. 
Anyhow. 

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This idea of meme coins has been
around for quite a while. 

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It got a bit big during the 
pandemic, along with NFTS and 

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the idea of the electric pickup 
truck. 

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Over the last year or so, it 
picked up again as the crypto 

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industry became increasingly 
cynical and decided that if 

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there was no claim of actual 
value or use case for a coin, it

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couldn't be regulated. 
The feeling was that the issuer 

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couldn't be sued for fraud 
either, if they could claim that

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it it was all a joke. 
And that's how bad jokes became 

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weaponized by fraudsters. 
Over the last few years, there's

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been an explosion in the number 
of new meme coins, somewhat 

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names like Fartcoin, others 
backed by zealous celebrities 

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like the Hawk to a Girl. 
Many were just versions of 

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Dogecoin, but with a slightly 
different name, but always the 

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same dog. 
The goal with almost all of 

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these tokens is to get people on
the Internet to think that they 

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are funny, or at least to think 
that other people might think 

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00:08:26,360 --> 00:08:29,640
that the coin is funny and 
invest in it. 

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Usually there's a group of 
insiders who launch the coin, 

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own almost all of them, and try 
to promote it online with the 

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goal of selling them to the 
public and making money. 

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00:08:41,559 --> 00:08:45,520
Of course, whatever money they 
make, their audience loses. 

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00:08:46,080 --> 00:08:49,600
It used to require some basic 
coding skills to come up with a 

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new cryptocurrency, but today 
there are websites like Pump dot

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Fun where you can type in a 
token name, a ticker symbol, and

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upload an image which you're 
supposed to own the rights to. 

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00:09:01,480 --> 00:09:05,000
But no one who does this 
actually does, and you can then 

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00:09:05,000 --> 00:09:08,560
launch your own meme coin. 
Then you have to go on Twitter 

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00:09:08,560 --> 00:09:11,880
and pretend that it's funny or 
interesting and hope that 

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someone will buy it. 
Looking at the website, these 

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00:09:14,840 --> 00:09:19,240
things are mostly Elon Musk, dog
or Trump themed with a few 

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00:09:19,360 --> 00:09:22,600
Havier Malay chainsaw images 
thrown into the mix. 

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To be clear, these people are 
greedy, not creative. 

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Now. 
For a long time, politicians 

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around the world kept their 
distance from the crypto 

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industry. 
There were a few exceptions, 

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like El Salvador's failed 
experiment in making Bitcoin 

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legal tender and Rishi Sunak's 
plans for Auk. 

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00:09:42,760 --> 00:09:47,160
Government backed NFTI think he 
was trying to appeal to a youth 

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audience. 
Donald Trump initially called 

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all crypto a scam. 
Last year, the crypto industry 

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made a big coordinated effort to
donate money to politicians on 

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both the left and on the right 
to win influence within 

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00:10:02,680 --> 00:10:05,680
government, and this was really 
successful. 

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00:10:05,880 --> 00:10:08,120
I made a video about it a few 
months ago. 

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00:10:08,720 --> 00:10:13,160
Trump had dipped his toes in 
crypto already by selling NFTS, 

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which are basically hyperlinks 
to bad art. 

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00:10:16,600 --> 00:10:20,200
He did this a few years ago, but
made big commitments to the 

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crypto industry at a Bitcoin 
conference in the run up to the 

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election. 
Around this time last year, the 

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00:10:26,560 --> 00:10:30,400
Trump family backed AD 5 
company, a type of crypto 

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00:10:30,400 --> 00:10:34,680
trading platform called World 
Liberty Financial, which he and 

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00:10:34,680 --> 00:10:37,680
his sons promoted quite actively
online. 

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00:10:38,120 --> 00:10:42,000
While the Son ones are allegedly
very knowledgeable about crypto,

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00:10:42,280 --> 00:10:46,720
they partnered with a guy called
Chase Harrow who uses the alias 

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00:10:46,800 --> 00:10:50,360
the Dirtbag of the Internet to 
launch their platform. 

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00:10:50,560 --> 00:10:53,600
I guess you hire the best people
that you can find. 

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00:10:53,960 --> 00:10:58,160
Here's a clip of Chase, or Mr. 
Bag as I prefer to call him, 

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00:10:58,360 --> 00:11:02,760
explaining crypto on a now 
deleted podcast episode back in 

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00:11:02,760 --> 00:11:05,800
2018. 
This space is run by a bunch of 

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00:11:05,800 --> 00:11:08,240
middle-aged men. 
You know like the third mid mid 

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00:11:08,240 --> 00:11:12,920
30 men who who understand the 
power of social media and you 

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00:11:12,920 --> 00:11:17,400
can literally sell shit in a can
wrapped in piss covered in human

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00:11:17,400 --> 00:11:20,440
skin for a billion dollars if 
the story's right. 

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00:11:20,880 --> 00:11:23,520
Because people will buy. 
It and that is what is going on 

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00:11:23,520 --> 00:11:26,360
in the crypto space. 
Now Chase is not really being 

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00:11:26,560 --> 00:11:30,200
truthful in that clip. 
You don't actually get any of 

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00:11:30,200 --> 00:11:32,520
the revolting items that he 
mentioned. 

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00:11:32,520 --> 00:11:36,360
If you hand over a billion 
dollars, you just get your 

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00:11:36,360 --> 00:11:39,920
account number recorded in an 
overly complicated online 

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00:11:39,920 --> 00:11:43,440
database showing that you paid 
him a billion dollars. 

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00:11:43,720 --> 00:11:47,880
If you actually wanted the 
disgusting can that Mister Bag 

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00:11:47,880 --> 00:11:51,920
described, there are cheaper and
more efficient ways of acquiring

191
00:11:51,920 --> 00:11:54,800
1. 
So along with the launch of 

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00:11:54,840 --> 00:11:58,800
World Liberty Financial, the 
business, the Trump family and 

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00:11:58,800 --> 00:12:03,520
the dirtbag of the Internet sold
a World Liberty coin, which, 

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00:12:03,760 --> 00:12:07,360
while not a meme coin, didn't 
offer investors very much. 

195
00:12:07,360 --> 00:12:11,000
It was described at the time as 
a bunch of nonsense and a 

196
00:12:11,000 --> 00:12:15,400
terrible investment opportunity.
While investors could buy this 

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00:12:15,400 --> 00:12:19,280
coin, they couldn't sell it. 
It didn't guarantee any share in

198
00:12:19,280 --> 00:12:23,240
the profits of the World Liberty
Financial business either, and 

199
00:12:23,240 --> 00:12:27,320
75% of the proceeds went 
straight to the Trump family. 

200
00:12:27,920 --> 00:12:31,880
The coin launch didn't go 
particularly well because of the

201
00:12:31,920 --> 00:12:35,280
terrible investment terms. 
It's hard to understand why 

202
00:12:35,280 --> 00:12:39,120
crypto investors would buy a 
coin that can't be resold. 

203
00:12:39,320 --> 00:12:44,320
But then Justin Son, the guy in 
the oddly fitting suit here, 

204
00:12:44,480 --> 00:12:48,600
stepped in and bought $75 
million worth of these coins, 

205
00:12:48,760 --> 00:12:52,840
which, according to friend of 
the show Zeke Fox, generated a 

206
00:12:52,840 --> 00:12:56,160
payout of $56,000,000 to the 
Trump's. 

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00:12:56,640 --> 00:13:00,400
It's hard to know what Justin 
saw in this coin, but Zach 

208
00:13:00,400 --> 00:13:04,600
Folkman, one of the founders at 
World Liberty, said that Justin 

209
00:13:04,600 --> 00:13:08,160
saw that regardless of the 
outcome, this project is a 

210
00:13:08,160 --> 00:13:11,800
monumental move forward for the 
entire crypto community. 

211
00:13:12,560 --> 00:13:17,040
So maybe that's what he saw. 
Now, Justin is not necessarily 

212
00:13:17,040 --> 00:13:21,480
known for his careful spending. 
Two months ago, he spent $6.2 

213
00:13:21,480 --> 00:13:26,200
million on a banana, and he 
likely also paid for that suit. 

214
00:13:26,560 --> 00:13:29,600
If you're wondering where his 
massive fruit budget came from, 

215
00:13:29,840 --> 00:13:33,760
he is the founder of a crypto 
firm called Tron, and he's 

216
00:13:33,760 --> 00:13:37,160
facing charges of fraud and 
market manipulation from the 

217
00:13:37,160 --> 00:13:40,840
SEC. 
Some have argued that Sun made 

218
00:13:40,840 --> 00:13:44,800
this World Liberty financial 
token investment to influence 

219
00:13:44,800 --> 00:13:48,440
the outcome of this lawsuit. 
When asked about the conflict of

220
00:13:48,440 --> 00:13:52,920
interest, Trump's spokeswoman 
told the BBC that unlike most 

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00:13:52,920 --> 00:13:56,720
politicians, President Trump 
didn't get into politics for 

222
00:13:56,720 --> 00:13:59,040
profit. 
He's fighting because he loves 

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00:13:59,040 --> 00:14:03,000
the people of this country and 
wants to make America great 

224
00:14:03,000 --> 00:14:05,800
again. 
I'll allow you, the viewer, to 

225
00:14:05,800 --> 00:14:09,640
decide what to make of this, but
hopefully you can see how a 

226
00:14:09,640 --> 00:14:13,320
politician selling worthless 
tokens for 10s of millions of 

227
00:14:13,320 --> 00:14:17,400
dollars to people who are facing
criminal charges could open them

228
00:14:17,400 --> 00:14:22,320
up to accusations of corruption.
World Liberty Financial was 

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00:14:22,320 --> 00:14:26,320
announced two months before the 
US election and raised at least 

230
00:14:26,320 --> 00:14:29,080
$300 million, according to 
Reuters. 

231
00:14:29,360 --> 00:14:33,360
The cost of setting up a crypto 
company like this is negligible.

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00:14:33,480 --> 00:14:37,640
You can hire a dirtbike to 
advise you and 75% of the money 

233
00:14:37,640 --> 00:14:41,320
then goes to the Trump family. 
The World Liberty Financial 

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00:14:41,320 --> 00:14:45,480
token is not considered a meme 
coin though, as it gives 

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00:14:45,480 --> 00:14:49,400
investors a vote on decisions 
about product features and 

236
00:14:49,400 --> 00:14:51,920
marketing, for whatever that's 
worth. 

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00:14:52,520 --> 00:14:56,280
The crypto industry, you might 
be surprised to hear, are not 

238
00:14:56,280 --> 00:15:00,240
uniformly delighted with Trump's
forays into their space. 

239
00:15:00,520 --> 00:15:04,000
Many had hoped that he would 
support the coins that they 

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00:15:04,000 --> 00:15:07,280
already owned rather than 
releasing his own ones and 

241
00:15:07,280 --> 00:15:09,920
competing with them. 
They hope that he might bring 

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00:15:09,920 --> 00:15:13,560
their industry legitimacy, but 
now worried that the Trump 

243
00:15:13,560 --> 00:15:17,720
family's coins could instead 
harm the industry as they just 

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00:15:17,720 --> 00:15:21,040
look like money grabs and the 
fact that they've tanked in 

245
00:15:21,040 --> 00:15:23,880
value further discredits the 
industry. 

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00:15:24,080 --> 00:15:28,120
On top of this, some worry that 
his involvement will make crypto

247
00:15:28,120 --> 00:15:31,400
partisan and tied to political 
affiliation. 

248
00:15:32,240 --> 00:15:35,680
Meme coins, as I said earlier, 
are a little bit different to 

249
00:15:35,680 --> 00:15:39,080
utility tokens. 
Not that there's much utility to

250
00:15:39,080 --> 00:15:43,000
many of these tokens, but a meme
coin makes no promise of 

251
00:15:43,000 --> 00:15:45,360
usefulness. 
They're just a new way for 

252
00:15:45,360 --> 00:15:49,200
celebrities to monetize their 
brands and a form of gambling 

253
00:15:49,200 --> 00:15:53,080
which is entirely rigged in 
favour of whoever launched the 

254
00:15:53,080 --> 00:15:57,320
coin or whichever influencers 
they work with to publicize the 

255
00:15:57,320 --> 00:16:00,600
launch. 
The issuer of the coin can make 

256
00:16:00,600 --> 00:16:03,560
money in a few ways. 
The first is just by selling 

257
00:16:03,560 --> 00:16:07,040
these tokens that cost nothing 
to create to investors. 

258
00:16:07,280 --> 00:16:11,160
The second is from trading as 
the creators of the meme coin 

259
00:16:11,160 --> 00:16:15,040
often receive a share of the 
trading fees from the exchange 

260
00:16:15,040 --> 00:16:18,640
they're listed on. 
Often when a coin is launched, 

261
00:16:18,840 --> 00:16:22,520
the team will recruit crypto 
influencers, which they call 

262
00:16:22,520 --> 00:16:26,760
Kols, which stands for key 
Opinion leaders, who will be 

263
00:16:26,760 --> 00:16:30,120
allocated a share of the coins, 
often for free. 

264
00:16:30,320 --> 00:16:34,120
And their job is to build hype 
around the launch by tweeting 

265
00:16:34,120 --> 00:16:38,280
about the coin or discussing it 
on their ghastly podcasts. 

266
00:16:38,560 --> 00:16:42,720
Then when the coin goes live, 
they are able to dump them into 

267
00:16:42,720 --> 00:16:46,000
the price spike. 
To call all of this gambling 

268
00:16:46,120 --> 00:16:49,880
would be to give gambling a bad 
name as at least with games of 

269
00:16:49,880 --> 00:16:52,360
chance, players have a chance of
winning. 

270
00:16:52,640 --> 00:16:55,840
In a recent interview on the 
Coffeezilla YouTube channel, 

271
00:16:56,000 --> 00:17:00,280
Hayden Davis, the man behind the
Libra token launch and also the 

272
00:17:00,280 --> 00:17:04,240
Melania Trump meme coin, 
described how retail have no 

273
00:17:04,240 --> 00:17:07,160
chance of winning. 
To defend his actions in 

274
00:17:07,160 --> 00:17:10,960
withdrawing $100 million from 
the Libra liquidity pool, he 

275
00:17:10,960 --> 00:17:14,400
settled on the idea during the 
interview that he was like a a 

276
00:17:14,400 --> 00:17:18,599
bank owner who decided to rob 
his own bank to prevent other 

277
00:17:18,599 --> 00:17:22,119
people from robbing it. 
If you get a chance, you should 

278
00:17:22,119 --> 00:17:25,800
watch that interview at the 
admissions in it are quite wild.

279
00:17:25,800 --> 00:17:28,319
I'll put a link to it in the 
description. 

280
00:17:28,640 --> 00:17:33,040
It used to be that Stephen had 
to investigate online scams, but

281
00:17:33,040 --> 00:17:36,200
now the perpetrator seemed to 
come to him to confess. 

282
00:17:36,520 --> 00:17:39,080
They're not confessing, they're 
bragging. 

283
00:17:41,920 --> 00:17:44,760
There's a long list of 
celebrities who've launched meme

284
00:17:44,760 --> 00:17:46,840
coins. 
I've been involved in promoting 

285
00:17:46,840 --> 00:17:48,440
them. 
I googled for a list of them, 

286
00:17:48,640 --> 00:17:51,960
but rather than read it out and 
get sued, I'll allow you to 

287
00:17:51,960 --> 00:17:55,160
Google it for yourself. 
I haven't heard of most of them,

288
00:17:55,320 --> 00:17:58,520
but the ones I did know I 
wouldn't consider at all 

289
00:17:58,520 --> 00:18:00,800
respectable. 
And that's really the whole 

290
00:18:00,800 --> 00:18:04,760
problem for people like Havior 
Malay or any other politician 

291
00:18:04,760 --> 00:18:07,920
who might be considering getting
involved in this space. 

292
00:18:08,200 --> 00:18:10,880
You might be able to convince 
yourself that you're 

293
00:18:10,880 --> 00:18:14,280
experimenting in in a new field 
of finance, and that if people 

294
00:18:14,280 --> 00:18:16,040
lose money, it's their own 
fault. 

295
00:18:16,240 --> 00:18:19,560
But it takes a lifetime to build
a good reputation and just 

296
00:18:19,560 --> 00:18:22,760
moments to destroy it. 
If you don't understand how 

297
00:18:22,760 --> 00:18:25,760
something works, or if the 
people you're dealing with don't

298
00:18:25,760 --> 00:18:29,960
seem trustworthy, you probably 
shouldn't lend your name to it. 

299
00:18:30,640 --> 00:18:34,480
Trump didn't just issue the 
World Liberty Financial token 

300
00:18:34,880 --> 00:18:38,920
days before his inauguration, he
launched his own meme coin too, 

301
00:18:39,080 --> 00:18:42,720
which spiked in value and then 
crater, just like the token 

302
00:18:42,720 --> 00:18:47,160
Malay promoted did too. 
A big difference is that Trump 

303
00:18:47,160 --> 00:18:51,680
clearly profited from this 
token, as 80% of the Trump token

304
00:18:51,680 --> 00:18:55,960
supply is owned by Fight Fight 
Fight and CIC Digital, an 

305
00:18:56,120 --> 00:18:58,920
affiliate of the Trump 
Organization. 

306
00:18:59,520 --> 00:19:03,760
Reports show that at least fifty
of the largest investors in the 

307
00:19:03,760 --> 00:19:07,640
coin, who received allocations 
before the coin was hyped, made 

308
00:19:07,640 --> 00:19:12,960
profits in excess of $10 million
each, while 200,000 crypto 

309
00:19:12,960 --> 00:19:16,600
wallets, most with small 
holdings, lost money on the 

310
00:19:16,600 --> 00:19:19,000
coin. 
This is just the way these 

311
00:19:19,000 --> 00:19:22,880
things work. 
On top of this, the creators of 

312
00:19:22,880 --> 00:19:26,560
the Trump meme coin receive a 
share of the trading fees from 

313
00:19:26,560 --> 00:19:29,280
the exchange on which it was 
listed, which, according to 

314
00:19:29,280 --> 00:19:34,320
Reuters, came to between $86 
million and $100 million in 

315
00:19:34,320 --> 00:19:40,520
trading fees in January alone. 
On Inauguration Day, Melania 

316
00:19:40,520 --> 00:19:44,400
Trump announced that she was 
releasing her own Hamburglar 

317
00:19:44,400 --> 00:19:47,680
themed meme coin. 
Both of these Trump family 

318
00:19:47,680 --> 00:19:51,520
linked coins are down about 80% 
from their launch day highs. 

319
00:19:51,680 --> 00:19:55,520
Hayden Davis, the 26 year old 
crypto developer who helped 

320
00:19:55,520 --> 00:20:00,200
launch the Libra token, admitted
that he was also involved in the

321
00:20:00,200 --> 00:20:03,880
launch of the Melania meme coin.
He made some claims in the 

322
00:20:03,880 --> 00:20:07,160
Coffee Zilla interview that 
there had been a private event 

323
00:20:07,160 --> 00:20:11,720
in Washington, DC, too, where 
people were given special access

324
00:20:11,720 --> 00:20:15,560
to buying the Trump meme coin. 
Before it's launch, it's 

325
00:20:15,560 --> 00:20:18,040
difficult to know if any of that
is true. 

326
00:20:18,440 --> 00:20:22,280
In recent years, a lot of the 
crypto hype has been coming from

327
00:20:22,280 --> 00:20:26,760
Silicon Valley VC firms whose 
websites tell you that crypto is

328
00:20:26,760 --> 00:20:29,520
so much more than a financial 
innovation. 

329
00:20:29,680 --> 00:20:33,600
It's a social, cultural and 
technological innovation too. 

330
00:20:34,000 --> 00:20:38,280
If all of these tokens are 
useless, why are VC so excited 

331
00:20:38,280 --> 00:20:41,240
about them? 
My friend James Johnny argued in

332
00:20:41,240 --> 00:20:45,720
a video two years ago that VC 
firms used to invest in start up

333
00:20:45,720 --> 00:20:49,920
firms where most fail but some 
succeed and make a lot of money.

334
00:20:50,200 --> 00:20:54,280
He pointed out that this process
can take years, in some cases 

335
00:20:54,280 --> 00:20:58,240
decades, before they finally get
to cash out with crypto. 

336
00:20:58,400 --> 00:21:02,400
The VCs worked out that they can
invest in the start up stage of 

337
00:21:02,400 --> 00:21:06,840
crypto or Web 3 projects, hyped 
them up by talking about their 

338
00:21:06,840 --> 00:21:11,160
huge potential, and cash out in 
weeks by dumping the tokens on 

339
00:21:11,160 --> 00:21:14,320
retail as soon as they're made 
publicly available. 

340
00:21:14,520 --> 00:21:18,160
This is all unregulated, and 
despite all of the claims of 

341
00:21:18,160 --> 00:21:22,160
innovation, almost none of the 
projects ever come to anything. 

342
00:21:22,520 --> 00:21:26,200
The VCs then get to boast about 
how much money they made on 

343
00:21:26,200 --> 00:21:29,920
their podcasts. 
Zeke Fox points out in his book 

344
00:21:29,920 --> 00:21:34,080
Number Go Up that crypto has 
been around for 16 years now, 

345
00:21:34,280 --> 00:21:37,440
and despite all of the claims 
that it's a technological 

346
00:21:37,440 --> 00:21:41,320
breakthrough equivalent to the 
Internet, no real use case has 

347
00:21:41,320 --> 00:21:45,440
been found for it other than 
gambling, illegal activity and 

348
00:21:45,720 --> 00:21:48,240
monkey jpegs masquerading as 
art. 

349
00:21:48,600 --> 00:21:51,800
The Internet, on the other hand,
first became available to the 

350
00:21:51,800 --> 00:21:56,160
public in 1993. 
Sixteen years later, we had 

351
00:21:56,320 --> 00:22:00,640
Amazon, YouTube, Wikipedia, 
Spotify, online banking and 

352
00:22:00,640 --> 00:22:04,800
brokerage social networks, and 
we're on the iPhone three. 

353
00:22:05,200 --> 00:22:08,680
If crypto is going to be as 
useful as the Internet, it's a 

354
00:22:08,680 --> 00:22:13,480
bit surprising that so few real 
use cases have been found for it

355
00:22:13,480 --> 00:22:17,800
over the last 16 years. 
Despite people telling you that 

356
00:22:17,800 --> 00:22:21,720
meme coins are just fun or 
gambling, that's not at all 

357
00:22:21,720 --> 00:22:25,440
accurate as at least if you go 
to a casino you know what the 

358
00:22:25,440 --> 00:22:28,320
odds are and you might get a 
free drink. 

359
00:22:28,560 --> 00:22:32,400
Meme coins are set up where the 
people hyping the projects have 

360
00:22:32,440 --> 00:22:36,000
all of the coins and when retail
come in to buy them they are 

361
00:22:36,000 --> 00:22:38,320
dumped. 
You have no chance of winning 

362
00:22:38,320 --> 00:22:41,960
unless you are allocated tokens 
before the official launch. 

363
00:22:42,320 --> 00:22:46,320
A few months ago, the Hoktua 
girl got all sorts of abuse for 

364
00:22:46,320 --> 00:22:49,240
launching a meme coin for her 
audience, lost all of their 

365
00:22:49,240 --> 00:22:53,400
money, and as rotten as what she
did was, the only difference 

366
00:22:53,400 --> 00:22:57,240
between her meme coin and all of
the others is that there was an 

367
00:22:57,240 --> 00:23:01,200
actual meme at the heart of it. 
To be clear, I'm not saying that

368
00:23:01,200 --> 00:23:04,200
what she did was acceptable. 
She should be condemned. 

369
00:23:04,200 --> 00:23:07,480
Her behaviour was entirely 
presidential. 

370
00:23:08,080 --> 00:23:12,360
One of the side scandals of the 
Malay linked meme coin was that 

371
00:23:12,360 --> 00:23:16,520
a well known crypto influencer 
and pizza reviewer bought in 

372
00:23:16,520 --> 00:23:19,720
with his own money and lost 
$5,000,000. 

373
00:23:19,920 --> 00:23:24,040
He then complained and seems to 
have been reimbursed by Hayden, 

374
00:23:24,240 --> 00:23:27,040
the guy who pulled $100 million 
out. 

375
00:23:27,280 --> 00:23:30,840
If you invest though, don't 
waste your time complaining as 

376
00:23:31,040 --> 00:23:34,600
you won't be reimbursed. 
I would argue that one of the 

377
00:23:34,600 --> 00:23:38,440
reasons crypto got so out of 
control over the last few years 

378
00:23:38,440 --> 00:23:42,280
where Ponzi schemes were being 
run in full public view with no 

379
00:23:42,280 --> 00:23:46,400
repercussions is that the SEC 
were asleep at the wheel. 

380
00:23:46,560 --> 00:23:50,560
Where Gary Gensler watched all 
of this madness and felt it made

381
00:23:50,560 --> 00:23:54,120
sense to wait until new laws 
were passed for crypto. 

382
00:23:55,040 --> 00:23:59,360
Amusingly, the crypto industry 
felt that he was way too hard on

383
00:23:59,360 --> 00:24:02,040
them. 
So now pro crypto executives 

384
00:24:02,120 --> 00:24:05,520
have been nominated to lead both
the SEC and the Commerce 

385
00:24:05,520 --> 00:24:08,680
Department. 
David Sacks, AVC investor and 

386
00:24:08,680 --> 00:24:13,480
podcaster, has been appointed as
the crypto Czar, whatever that 

387
00:24:13,480 --> 00:24:16,120
is. 
I'm not really sure that the US 

388
00:24:16,120 --> 00:24:19,800
government should be handing out
Russian royal titles anyhow, but

389
00:24:20,120 --> 00:24:24,640
this is the world we live in. 
Reign of terror against crypto 

390
00:24:25,080 --> 00:24:28,800
is over. 
A big problem with political 

391
00:24:28,800 --> 00:24:33,320
leaders launching crypto tokens 
is not only does it look like 

392
00:24:33,320 --> 00:24:36,560
they're scamming the public, but
it also presents massive 

393
00:24:36,560 --> 00:24:40,000
conflicts of interest. 
Right now, Trump's new 

394
00:24:40,000 --> 00:24:43,800
appointees at the SEC are 
supposed to be working out what 

395
00:24:43,800 --> 00:24:46,640
kind of rules should be applied 
to crypto currencies. 

396
00:24:47,000 --> 00:24:50,800
It seems somewhat unlikely that 
they'll come up with rules that 

397
00:24:50,800 --> 00:24:54,600
make Trump's meme coins illegal.
You would hope that they will 

398
00:24:54,600 --> 00:24:57,400
formulate rules based on what 
they think best protects 

399
00:24:57,400 --> 00:25:01,160
investors, rather than which 
cryptocurrency projects various 

400
00:25:01,160 --> 00:25:03,560
politicians are already involved
in. 

401
00:25:03,760 --> 00:25:07,200
And I guess we'll have to wait 
and see how that works out. 

402
00:25:07,960 --> 00:25:11,840
In researching this video, I was
surprised by how little coverage

403
00:25:11,840 --> 00:25:14,560
these scandals are getting in 
the mainstream press. 

404
00:25:14,800 --> 00:25:18,320
It's possible that journalists 
view this as a small scale 

405
00:25:18,320 --> 00:25:22,200
problem and not worth their 
time, or that they don't want to

406
00:25:22,200 --> 00:25:25,600
dig into it because crypto 
sounds more complicated and high

407
00:25:25,600 --> 00:25:29,320
tech than it actually is. 
I did a search to see how 

408
00:25:29,320 --> 00:25:32,920
wealthy notorious criminals from
the past became. 

409
00:25:33,360 --> 00:25:37,560
Al Capone was possibly worth as 
much as $100 million. 

410
00:25:37,800 --> 00:25:42,560
The the Cray brothers made about
$2,000,000 in the 1960s, which 

411
00:25:42,560 --> 00:25:45,440
would be worth around $18 
million today. 

412
00:25:45,760 --> 00:25:50,200
Whitey Bulger is estimated to 
have made around $30 million 

413
00:25:50,400 --> 00:25:55,080
before finding himself number 
one on the FBI's most wanted 

414
00:25:55,080 --> 00:25:58,720
list. 
Al Capone managed over 1000 

415
00:25:58,720 --> 00:26:02,680
employees and killed 200 people 
to make the kind of money that 

416
00:26:02,680 --> 00:26:06,040
was pulled out of the Libra 
token in just one day. 

417
00:26:06,520 --> 00:26:10,040
The scale of crypto fraud is 
huge and because of their 

418
00:26:10,040 --> 00:26:13,200
massive political donations 
these people now have 

419
00:26:13,240 --> 00:26:18,240
representation in government. 
Hayden Davis, the Co creator of 

420
00:26:18,240 --> 00:26:22,600
Libra is alleged to have bragged
in text messages that he bought 

421
00:26:22,600 --> 00:26:26,320
influence over Havior Malay by 
sending money to his sister. 

422
00:26:26,600 --> 00:26:30,200
I've no way of knowing if this 
is true or not as this guy's not

423
00:26:30,360 --> 00:26:34,520
exactly trustworthy. 
If it was true, Davis would 

424
00:26:34,520 --> 00:26:37,800
possibly be called to account 
under the Foreign Corrupt 

425
00:26:37,800 --> 00:26:41,960
Practices Act, which prohibits 
companies and individuals from 

426
00:26:41,960 --> 00:26:45,440
bribing foreign government 
officials to obtain or retain 

427
00:26:45,440 --> 00:26:48,480
business. 
That act, unfortunately, was 

428
00:26:48,480 --> 00:26:53,000
suspended a few weeks ago by the
US government in the name of 

429
00:26:53,000 --> 00:26:56,520
economic competitiveness. 
So he's probably OK. 

430
00:26:57,200 --> 00:27:00,920
Cryptogate, which is what the 
press in Argentina are calling 

431
00:27:00,920 --> 00:27:05,320
the Libra token scandal, 
represents the first big scandal

432
00:27:05,320 --> 00:27:08,920
of Malay's presidency. 
As I said earlier, there's no 

433
00:27:08,920 --> 00:27:13,000
evidence that Malay or his 
family profited from this token.

434
00:27:13,640 --> 00:27:17,360
He was quite likely tricked and 
didn't understand how meme coins

435
00:27:17,360 --> 00:27:20,760
work. 
I made two videos about Malay 1 

436
00:27:20,760 --> 00:27:24,680
before his election and a second
reporting on his first year in 

437
00:27:24,680 --> 00:27:27,520
office. 
He's made remarkable progress so

438
00:27:27,520 --> 00:27:32,240
far, but my last video concluded
that the most difficult days lie

439
00:27:32,240 --> 00:27:35,560
ahead for Argentina. 
And the Argentinian people need 

440
00:27:35,560 --> 00:27:38,520
to have faith in Malay if 
they're going to stick with the 

441
00:27:38,520 --> 00:27:42,440
path that he has chosen, which 
may be the best plan Argentina 

442
00:27:42,440 --> 00:27:46,200
has had in decades but involves 
extreme austerity. 

443
00:27:46,760 --> 00:27:51,080
Malay rose to prominence as an 
iconoclast who said that he 

444
00:27:51,080 --> 00:27:55,000
could tame Argentina's sky high 
inflation and eliminate 

445
00:27:55,000 --> 00:27:57,320
corruption among the political 
elite. 

446
00:27:57,800 --> 00:28:01,960
This scandal damages Malay's 
image both at home and amongst 

447
00:28:01,960 --> 00:28:05,400
foreign investors at a critical 
time when the Argentine 

448
00:28:05,400 --> 00:28:09,360
government is hoping to ease 
currency controls and negotiate 

449
00:28:09,360 --> 00:28:13,240
alone with the IMF. 
In my opinion, it's a mistake 

450
00:28:13,240 --> 00:28:16,560
for any politician to get 
involved in cryptocurrency 

451
00:28:16,560 --> 00:28:20,520
schemes which have a 16 year 
history of promising innovation 

452
00:28:20,640 --> 00:28:22,960
without delivering anything 
useful. 

453
00:28:23,280 --> 00:28:27,520
You can't reasonably expect to 
build an economy on nonsense 

454
00:28:27,520 --> 00:28:30,320
like this. 
You would hope that our elected 

455
00:28:30,320 --> 00:28:33,680
officials could meet the same 
moral standards that we've grown

456
00:28:33,680 --> 00:28:36,680
accustomed to expect from Kanye 
West. 

457
00:28:37,840 --> 00:28:42,680
Oh wait, hold on. 
It seems that Kanye West might 

458
00:28:42,680 --> 00:28:47,480
now be launching his own coin. 
Look, I don't know what to tell 

459
00:28:47,480 --> 00:28:49,800
you. 
Maybe in the future we can all 

460
00:28:49,800 --> 00:28:53,120
print our own currencies and 
we'll all be rich without 

461
00:28:53,120 --> 00:28:55,320
working. 
Thanks for tuning into this 

462
00:28:55,320 --> 00:28:59,040
week's podcast, with particular 
thanks to my supporters on 

463
00:28:59,040 --> 00:29:02,560
Patreon whose support makes 
these podcasts possible. 

464
00:29:02,760 --> 00:29:05,800
If you'd like to support the 
channel while receiving next to 

465
00:29:05,800 --> 00:29:09,760
nothing in return, you can do so
by clicking on the link in the 

466
00:29:09,760 --> 00:29:12,080
show notes. 
Have a great week and talk to 

467
00:29:12,080 --> 00:29:13,520
you again soon. 
Bye.