Crypto Contagion, Genesis, & the FTX-USDT Connection | Coffeezilla

[@simonwiltshire7089]

You can tell by the comments on podcasts like these that the industry is a cesspit of scams….

[@rtqii]

Sooo true... I see comments all the time that are all talking about the same worthless tokens and asking for, or offering, financial advice or advisors... "Miss Emily Crenshaw really helped my portfolio and I am making $12,000 a month with her investment advice"... I should actually save a few real examples in text files. I saw a thread of comments all pushing "paws" - "$PAWS is going to the moon, no other crypto has the security and utility of PAWS" - It's a game token.

[@Lobonova]

You can tell by a comment like this you are clueless to how long scams have been around. Scams are nothing new.

[@bellezanegra0206]

@@Lobonova their comment left no indication that they thought scams were new, just that they are plaguing this industry. Maybe read critically before you try to talk down to others about things they didn’t even say 😂😂😂

[@hw6271]

@@Lobonova triggered eh?

[@hw6271]

@@bellezanegra0206 fr lol

[@SharkEsq]

I'm interested in finding out more about the Sequoia investment. I understand Sequoia invested $280 mil into FTX, only to have FTX invest over $500 mil back into Sequoia. Am I the only one who finds this to be curious, if not dubious? Maybe there was an inside deal, whereby the large investment made by Sequoia, a "respected" VC, was to lend legitimacy to FTX. After all, no one would think that such a sophisticated institution would invest such sums without conducting the requisite due diligence warranted. This then gave FTX the legitimacy and credibility it needed to obtain more investment from other sophisticated VCs who just blindly jumped on the bandwagon. There's definitely something weird there and no one seems to be exploring it.

[@rtqii]

My best guess is that FTX went bankrupt much earlier in the year when Luna/Terra went bust on May 7th. They were able to pretend they were still solvent for a few months afterwards, but that was all.

[@jermaineholmes1233]

There's rumor that he triggered the insolvency of Luna/Terra.

[@zpettigrew]

It did. My crypto group found this out and got everything ready a long time ago.

[@Aquatj999]

Part of it was falsely marking the value of all the FTX token (FTT) on their balance sheet. They were pretending that 1: Selling all of their FTT would have no effect on the price of FTT, and so they could sell it all at full market price 2: The total FTT they were holding was worth 30% more than all of the FTT in existence at the time. This let them take loans using FTT as collateral and pretending that they were solvent, but when CZ of Binance took the opportunity to cause a market panic, FTT plummeted in price and FTX used customer funds to pay off the debt they took on that they could no longer pay with FTT.

[@Aquatj999]

Ahhh, the mystery of who killed Luna-Terra. With a juicy $800 million USD equivalent in profit as a universal motive, it’s practically impossible to narrow down suspects…

[@celticlightning9703]

Stephen has a phenomenal channel and I'm glad I support his channel and have before his big covers. He's very good at what he does and many people agree.

[@maxentropy7596]

This guest provides a bit of veneer for Bankman. Bankman was not good at anything. His mother says he sucked at school. He was only a short term intern at Jane Street due to connections. He then moves to a basement and tries the Kimchi trade. There is something else going on here. The key is… who used this guy as a front for something else.

[@jermaineholmes1233]

Gensler

[@4mb127]

Yeah there's definitely some money laundering operation on the background by some of the truly big guys.

[@RupertMDoc]

Lots of very smart people struggle in school and "entry level" jobs, which is a lot of doing what you are told. I suspect Bankman doesn't like to be told what to do, but apparently figured out how to be a top dog in the crypto space.

[@Aquatj999]

Honestly, I think SBF is a competent fraudster. Even the Kimchi trade may have used fraudulent methods to piece together the methodology necessary to actually be able to take advantage of the Kimchi Premium. He seems to have set up Alameda and FTX to be able to trade with all sorts of advantages, from exemptions from margin calls to insider trading. His empire wouldn’t have even collapsed [yet] had it not been for the leaked pieces of Alameda’s balance sheet. He would have gotten away with it for longer had there not been that leak. He knew what he was doing, he just didn’t give a damn about avoiding fraudulent behaviors.

[@rosesacks7430]

Enron shredded its paper documents during it's investigation, so FTX did the same thing only digitally

[@jonathantrue2812]

Can't "shred" what doesn't exist...

[@rosesacks7430]

@@jonathantrue2812 exactly

[@grokkinghumans]

My latest tin foil hat theory. The Bahamian regulators are in SBF's pocket and they're using the seized funds to keep SBF out of jail.

[@julianbell9161]

This isn’t even a conspiracy theory, this is just a fact. You don’t put your HQ in the Bahamas unless their either are no regulations, or you can bribe the regulators. Of course he had the regulators in his back pocket, he wouldn’t set up shop there in the first place, he probably never would have left Alameda County if that were the case.

[@Guru4hire]

I think we are dealing with the modern silicon valley formation myth turned aesthetic which has become its own proof of value. FTX was taken seriously partly(mostly) because "schlub plays League of Legends during meetings", so he is exactly like an early steve jobs or mark zuckerberg (obviously).

[@Aquatj999]

This. SO much this. When people are flabbergasted that investors who seem otherwise sensible ever trusted SBF, they don’t realize how much went into SBF’s image. Everything he did that was even remotely public was in the name of sculpting an image of a humble, brilliant, eccentric young genius who was going to revolutionize a tech sector and do so without playing dirty. That’s how he fooled everyone.

[@doomerdog1712]

Great conversation! Thank you for posting this! Really interesting to hear the more off-the-cuff thoughts on how much deeper this rabbit hole goes than what's been reported so far

[@GreenfieldPortfolioResearch]

i will watch this later. but you nailed it. coffeezilla is the guy to hear now. unfortunatelly he was not heard before. :) great shot, pal!

[@JohnSmith-xs1ml]

Wait, his name is NOT Coffee Zilla?!

[@redwolf92]

bruh I can't stand Lex's interview with Coffeezilla, thanks for your version of interview.

[@MarjaMariachi]

I feel like if Sam Bankman-Fried ended up in a police station, he'd "awww, shucks!" his way into sitting on the #1 guy's desk, wearing his hat, and eating ice cream.

[@MarjaMariachi]

Meanwhile, the manila envelope full of money in the desk drawer, taken up as a collection for a retirement party for Sgt. Muldoon after 25 years on the force, has suddenly gone missing...

[@gumerzambrano]

This really gave me nostalgia vibes for The Drip! Phenomenal podcast

[@alandoak5146]

I hate that their polyamory is sensationalized; if it's ethical non-monogamy, it's totally irrelevant to the fraud, it doesn't even speak to their character. And calling it a "sex cult", unless HF can back that up with facts, that's a hyperbolic and puritanical claim; he lost any credibility I was starting to form.

[@seekittycat]

I think the poly thing is brought up because it's the whole structure of the inner circle of the company. Random unconnected people in power because they joined their poly. It explains why and how this came to be and who knew about the fraud.

[@alandoak5146]

@@seekittycat You're right, sex with co-workers can easily lead to an unprofessional and dysfunctional workplace if not carefully managed. And nothing about their management was careful. I'm polyamorous myself, and was reacting to the judgement that non-monogamous people receive. The "sex cult" comment was really judgmental.

[@hotmamma2126]

@@alandoak5146 Their polyamory relationship was always relevant, telling of their characters, and cheekily scorned not because it was non monogamous but because it was theirs. The facts you’re looking for are Caroline has been documented stating that the only polyamorous relationships that should exist were ones with viscous power struggles and that they all utilized their relationship to abuse powerful positions of a multi billion dollar company they were never qualified to run. It’s far easier to akin them closer to a sex cult than any healthy relationship when theirs actually ruined peoples lives They’re a clown car of criminals, hardly a representation of poly relationships worth defending

[@meggaultraglobalcomnet3713]

Exactly, could not agree more.

[@spacewalktraveller1]

Great interview, thanks Demetri. The comment, just a bunch of nerds fucking each other was too funny.

[@Coondawgwoopwoop]

Coffee wtf… you got to promote this stuff!

[@basil127]

It's weird to know coffeezilla real name is Stephen..

[@kevinguerrero9596]

FTX/Alamedia = self-licking lollypop

[@joelweinmaster]

bro you gotta tighten up that intro

[@michaelmoorrees3585]

My basic take on crypto, is a re-hash of tulip-mania. Block-chain technology has merit, but ask Warren Buffet what he feels about crypto. His business partner, calls crypto, turds, straight out.

[@Lobonova]

Warren buffet just wants you to buy coke and chocolate, he wants his stock to go up. Thats all he cares about. Hes also extremely old and outdated.

[@5bagsofpopcorn]

@@Lobonova well it seems he wants what all investors want. Wasn't they always saying "to the moooooon"

[@philmulrooney7020]

Tony Montoya’s banker asked him “would you trust your money to some monkey in a Bahamian bank?” He was right me thinks🤔

[@doncarlodivargas5497]

Ironically how regulation of crypto transform it into the "fiat" crypto enthusiasts wanted to get away from

[@iandakariann]

The original idea made sense. The idea was that bitcoin was to be limited and thus not truly fiat. And it is. The loop hole is that you can always just make more crypto. Thus the second the conversation moved from Bitcoin to 'crypto' you turned the concept into a fiat. But now one that anyone with some money and\or marketing can create. With all of the power of modern day technology and with no need to answer to anyone that started speedrunning the worst of the fiat problems with no solution except the belief that belief can save them (Or the belief that they can get out before it all falls)

[@doncarlodivargas5497]

@@iandakariann - but the original idea about a limited amount would not work either, because any 'coin' must be regulated by someone, I think every "coin enthusiast" in reality are only interested in being "clever" and "avantgarde" and earn easy money, if a currency should work for normal/average people it must be stable and the the "coin enthusiasts" loose interest

[@jacobbasenberg6669]

I've heard it on this show 1 to many times. Crypto is NOT unregulated. And is Factually not true.

[@yaboy7120]

first two seconds: *doxed*

[@arikimelman3640]

nice discussion

[@5bagsofpopcorn]

Crypto (especially Bitcoin) had it's use cases - ask silk road. Whoever thought buying into such a thing is stupid to begin with.

[@IbrahimHaruna-cg8hn]

Interesting exchange, but for me anonymity is important, so I use only crp is crypto exchange

[@Baekstrom]

A three minute introduction is pushing my patience TBH.

[@HiddenFat]

im new but i kind of liked it

[@jackb8469]

Never buy crypto or give money to a guy with curly hair.

[@juliametcalf2660]

A guy who shows up to business meetings in his underwater...

[@upendaglover2559]

hey mr. coffeezilla! hey demitri!

[@tomusmc1993]

Well, I have been listening to Hidden Forces for awhile now over a year privacy close to 2 years, and this is the first time I saw a video in my feed. I had no idea Dimitri was on KZbin.

[@cuekinaja]

Stephen Findeisen

[@upendaglover2559]

the banks invented cryptocurrency.

[@nosuchthing8]

Doubtful

[@Aquatj999]

Whoever Satoshi Nakamoto truly is/was, i’m sure plenty of bankers would love for cryptocurrency to become more normalized, get back to the speculative financial industries they created with things like mortgage-backed securities. Of course, many of them aren’t stupid enough to do more than dip their toes into the water with actual bank funds, too risky. Of course, maybe some of them are individually creating all of these rug pulls projects for profits.

[@meggaultraglobalcomnet3713]

All the financial coverage was great but... Polyamory = sex cult Yah, no interest in this podcast.

[@maxentropy7596]

That was a disappointing interview. The guest provided an upbeat alt explanation. I would not rely on his investigative conclusions.

[@jonathantrue2812]

You should try checking his channel, he's been pretty spot on for awhile now!

[@TheWiseDrunkard]

@@jonathantrue2812 Yeah Coffee goes pretty hard on Sam and frauds in general.