Occasionally, we feel compelled to remind everyone of the shebeen’s basic rule regarding cryptocurrency: when somebody comes up to you and says, “Hey, look, I invented new money,” and if there’s no seltzer bottle or cream pie handy, run like hell in the other direction. In addition, there is an unusually high strange-to-normal ratio among the various pitchmen. From NBC4 in Columbus:
Mr. Pan may not have been tripping balls when he delivered the speech, but you can’t tell by that string of words pretending to be a sentence there at the end. Also, I’m not exactly sure why Mr. Pan didn’t go for the gold and saw poor Ted Carter in half. The whole scene lacked only a medicine wagon and a dancing bear.
For a while, it looked like crypto had evaporated. The SEC was all over it. Congress, with Senator Professor Warren in the lead, was questioning its bona fides. It’s become plain, however, that the industry is counting on the 2024 elections to recapture its momentum and to make new and influential friends. From Public Citizen:
The rest of the crypto super PACs’ political war chest comes from billionaire crypto executives and venture capitalists, including $11 million each from the founders of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, $5 million from the Winklevoss twins, and $1 million from Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong. Out of the six 2024 primary races where the crypto super PACs intervened and which are now over, only one crypto-backed candidate has lost. Eleven primary races that include crypto-backed candidates remain. The crypto super PACs have pledged to spend in general election Senate races in the battleground states of Ohio and Montana, which are seen as essential for securing a Senate majority. Democratic incumbents in both races have been critical of the crypto sector.
One of two Republicans campaigning to challenge Senator Professor Warren this November is a crypto advocate (and lawyer) named John Deaton. From WGBH:
Deaton undoubtedly will benefit from that war chest that crypto piled up, not one buck of it anything but good old American greenbacks. That’s irony for you.
Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976. He lives near Boston and has three children.
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