#winklevoss — Public Fediverse posts

#EpsteinFiles: not only did Jeffrey #Epstein fund the entire bitcoin development team at #MIT Media Lab from 2015-????, he took a special interest in Madars Virza, co-founder of the "privacy coin" ZCash (#ZEC).

#ZCash “fixes” the main issue with bitcoin, at least for people like Jeffrey Epstein. Zcash transactions are encrypted / private and therefore nothing about them is publicly visible in a block explorer¹ (and therefore any suspicious large transactions would not even be noticed).

ZCash, (unlike #Monero / #XMR, its prime competitor in the “privacy coin” space), is not an open source project. It’s privatized secret money created by a corporation. That corporation (Electric Coin Co.) also just so happens to have been funded by DCG, the crypto VC fund Larry Summers sat on the board of for 7 years after being introduced to Brock Pierce by Jeffrey Epstein. ZCash is actually one of #DCG’s flagship investments 🤔

Hard not to think that Epstein wasn’t meeting with #MadarsVirza to make a few “feature requests” that would make #ZCash more useful for people like Jeffrey #Epstein.

(it’s also worth at least mentioning that all of the cryptoverse’s biggest cretins like the #Winklevoss twins, Naval, Emperor Shillbertine, etc. started pushing ZCash HARD a month or two ago as the “true” bitcoin, but that’s probably a subject for a separate post)

¹ though a lot of people think the transactions are visible to #ElectricCoinCo via a backdoor, which is v. different from Monero. i haven't done the work to have an opinion on whether that's true or not, but a lot of bros call ZCash some variant of "CIAcoin"

#crypto #medialab #privacy #EpsteinFiles #madars #Virza #blockchain #LarrySummers #uspol #BarrySilbert #cryptocurrency #JeffreyEpstein

Winklevoss Twins Heave $21M Toward Republicans in Next Year's Congressional Battles - Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss said they're spending $21 million to continue the crypto pol... - https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2025/08/20/winklevoss-twins-heave-usd21m-toward-republicans-in-next-year-s-congressional-battles #campaigncontributions #politicalcampaigns #u.s.congress #donaldtrump #winklevoss #policy #news

Industry execs who gave to #MAGA Inc were invited to a WH #crypto summit in March that included…the most influential figures in the industry. Among the attendees was an executive from Andreessen’s & Horowitz’s company. Also on the list were Tyler & Cameron #Winklevoss, who run crypto exchange #Gemini & contributed a combined total of nearly $4M to MAGA Inc through the company & personal donations, & #KyleSamani, a venture investor who donated $200k after having donated $250k to the inauguration.

Industry execs who gave to #MAGA Inc were invited to a WH #crypto summit in March that included…the most influential figures in the industry. Among the attendees was an executive from Andreessen’s & Horowitz’s company. Also on the list were Tyler & Cameron #Winklevoss, who run crypto exchange #Gemini & contributed a combined total of nearly $4M to MAGA Inc through the company & personal donations, & #KyleSamani, a venture investor who donated $200k after having donated $250k to the inauguration.

Industry execs who gave to #MAGA Inc were invited to a WH #crypto summit in March that included…the most influential figures in the industry. Among the attendees was an executive from Andreessen’s & Horowitz’s company. Also on the list were Tyler & Cameron #Winklevoss, who run crypto exchange #Gemini & contributed a combined total of nearly $4M to MAGA Inc through the company & personal donations, & #KyleSamani, a venture investor who donated $200k after having donated $250k to the inauguration.

Industry execs who gave to #MAGA Inc were invited to a WH #crypto summit in March that included…the most influential figures in the industry. Among the attendees was an executive from Andreessen’s & Horowitz’s company. Also on the list were Tyler & Cameron #Winklevoss, who run crypto exchange #Gemini & contributed a combined total of nearly $4M to MAGA Inc through the company & personal donations, & #KyleSamani, a venture investor who donated $200k after having donated $250k to the inauguration.

Industry execs who gave to #MAGA Inc were invited to a WH #crypto summit in March that included…the most influential figures in the industry. Among the attendees was an executive from Andreessen’s & Horowitz’s company. Also on the list were Tyler & Cameron #Winklevoss, who run crypto exchange #Gemini & contributed a combined total of nearly $4M to MAGA Inc through the company & personal donations, & #KyleSamani, a venture investor who donated $200k after having donated $250k to the inauguration.

i guess "god's wrath will throw fire upon the sodomites" is what passes for a #libertarian take in 2025, because this is one of the main guys trying to build the #NetworkState.

(he's the CEO of #Praxis, "the world's first digital nation" that's funded by a lot of the crypto bros including Peter Thiel, #Balaji, Joe Lonsdale, the #Winklevoss twins, #Paradigm (big crypto fund), a #Worldcoin guy, and a bunch of others). cc: @gilduran.com @gilduran

* the tweet: https://x.com/drydenwtbrown/status/1939412375871836384
* more on Dryden Brown: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/09/praxis-society-city-dryden-brown-peter-thiel/

#pride #lgbt #Thiel #Pronomos #PeterThiel #crypto #cryptocurrency #NetworkState #broligarchy #Broligarchs #JoeLonsdale #TheNetworkState #gay #christianNationalism #DrydenBrown #a16z #nerdreich #thenerdreich

'Chatham House Rule'

Torenberg launched Chatham House the summer of 2024,
naming it after a British think tank that formalized the insight that
trusted conversations require a degree of privacy.

Two of its conservative participants said they see the group as a way to shift centrist Trump-curious figures to the Republican side,
but its founder said he’d begun it to have “a left-right exchange where we could have real conversations because of filter bubble group chats.”

Chatham House includes high-profile figures like the economist
#Larry #Summers and the historian #Niall #Ferguson,
and more partisan figures like #Shapiro and the Democratic analyst #David #Shor.

#Andreessen lurks.

But several participants described it to me as something like a gladiatorial arena with #Cuban most often in the center,
sparring with conservatives.

(“no idea what you are talking about :)” Cuban emailed in response to an inquiry about his arguments on Chatham House.)

The Group Chat Era depended on part of the American elite feeling shut out from public spaces,
and on the formation of a new conservative consensus.

Both of those are now fading
(though Torenberg has invested in a company called #ChatBCC that wants to commercialize the heady experience of sitting in on texts among the power elite).

Since Elon Musk turned X to the right
and an alternative media ecosystem emerged on Substack,
“a tremendous amount of the verboten conversations can now shift back into public view,” Andreessen told Fridman.

“It’s much healthier to live in a society in which people are literally not scared of what they’re saying.”

And Trump’s destabilizing “Liberation Day” has taken its toll on the coalition Andreessen helped shape.

You can see it on X,
where investors joke that they’ll put pronouns back in their bios in exchange for a return to the 2024 stock prices,
and where #Srinivasan has been a leading critic of Trump’s tariffs.

“Group chats have changed on the economy in the last few weeks,”
said #Rufo.
“There’s a big split on the tech right.”

The polarity of social media has also reversed,
and while participants used to keep their conservative ideas off social media,
“now the anti-Trump sentiment is what you’re afraid to say on X,” one said.

By mid-April, #Sacks had had enough with Chatham House:
“This group has become worthless since the loudest voices have TDS,”
he wrote, shorthanding
“Trump Derangement Syndrome.”

Then he addressed Torenberg:
“You should create a new one with just smart people.”

Signal soon showed that three men had left the group:
The Sequoia partner #Shaun #Maguire,
the bitcoin billionaire #Tyler #Winklevoss, and #Tucker #Carlson.

https://www.semafor.com/article/04/27/2025/the-group-chats-that-changed-america

'Chatham House Rule'

Torenberg launched Chatham House the summer of 2024,
naming it after a British think tank that formalized the insight that
trusted conversations require a degree of privacy.

Two of its conservative participants said they see the group as a way to shift centrist Trump-curious figures to the Republican side,
but its founder said he’d begun it to have “a left-right exchange where we could have real conversations because of filter bubble group chats.”

Chatham House includes high-profile figures like the economist
#Larry #Summers and the historian #Niall #Ferguson,
and more partisan figures like #Shapiro and the Democratic analyst #David #Shor.

#Andreessen lurks.

But several participants described it to me as something like a gladiatorial arena with #Cuban most often in the center,
sparring with conservatives.

(“no idea what you are talking about :)” Cuban emailed in response to an inquiry about his arguments on Chatham House.)

The Group Chat Era depended on part of the American elite feeling shut out from public spaces,
and on the formation of a new conservative consensus.

Both of those are now fading
(though Torenberg has invested in a company called #ChatBCC that wants to commercialize the heady experience of sitting in on texts among the power elite).

Since Elon Musk turned X to the right
and an alternative media ecosystem emerged on Substack,
“a tremendous amount of the verboten conversations can now shift back into public view,” Andreessen told Fridman.

“It’s much healthier to live in a society in which people are literally not scared of what they’re saying.”

And Trump’s destabilizing “Liberation Day” has taken its toll on the coalition Andreessen helped shape.

You can see it on X,
where investors joke that they’ll put pronouns back in their bios in exchange for a return to the 2024 stock prices,
and where #Srinivasan has been a leading critic of Trump’s tariffs.

“Group chats have changed on the economy in the last few weeks,”
said #Rufo.
“There’s a big split on the tech right.”

The polarity of social media has also reversed,
and while participants used to keep their conservative ideas off social media,
“now the anti-Trump sentiment is what you’re afraid to say on X,” one said.

By mid-April, #Sacks had had enough with Chatham House:
“This group has become worthless since the loudest voices have TDS,”
he wrote, shorthanding
“Trump Derangement Syndrome.”

Then he addressed Torenberg:
“You should create a new one with just smart people.”

Signal soon showed that three men had left the group:
The Sequoia partner #Shaun #Maguire,
the bitcoin billionaire #Tyler #Winklevoss, and #Tucker #Carlson.

https://www.semafor.com/article/04/27/2025/the-group-chats-that-changed-america

'Chatham House Rule'

Torenberg launched Chatham House the summer of 2024,
naming it after a British think tank that formalized the insight that
trusted conversations require a degree of privacy.

Two of its conservative participants said they see the group as a way to shift centrist Trump-curious figures to the Republican side,
but its founder said he’d begun it to have “a left-right exchange where we could have real conversations because of filter bubble group chats.”

Chatham House includes high-profile figures like the economist
#Larry #Summers and the historian #Niall #Ferguson,
and more partisan figures like #Shapiro and the Democratic analyst #David #Shor.

#Andreessen lurks.

But several participants described it to me as something like a gladiatorial arena with #Cuban most often in the center,
sparring with conservatives.

(“no idea what you are talking about :)” Cuban emailed in response to an inquiry about his arguments on Chatham House.)

The Group Chat Era depended on part of the American elite feeling shut out from public spaces,
and on the formation of a new conservative consensus.

Both of those are now fading
(though Torenberg has invested in a company called #ChatBCC that wants to commercialize the heady experience of sitting in on texts among the power elite).

Since Elon Musk turned X to the right
and an alternative media ecosystem emerged on Substack,
“a tremendous amount of the verboten conversations can now shift back into public view,” Andreessen told Fridman.

“It’s much healthier to live in a society in which people are literally not scared of what they’re saying.”

And Trump’s destabilizing “Liberation Day” has taken its toll on the coalition Andreessen helped shape.

You can see it on X,
where investors joke that they’ll put pronouns back in their bios in exchange for a return to the 2024 stock prices,
and where #Srinivasan has been a leading critic of Trump’s tariffs.

“Group chats have changed on the economy in the last few weeks,”
said #Rufo.
“There’s a big split on the tech right.”

The polarity of social media has also reversed,
and while participants used to keep their conservative ideas off social media,
“now the anti-Trump sentiment is what you’re afraid to say on X,” one said.

By mid-April, #Sacks had had enough with Chatham House:
“This group has become worthless since the loudest voices have TDS,”
he wrote, shorthanding
“Trump Derangement Syndrome.”

Then he addressed Torenberg:
“You should create a new one with just smart people.”

Signal soon showed that three men had left the group:
The Sequoia partner #Shaun #Maguire,
the bitcoin billionaire #Tyler #Winklevoss, and #Tucker #Carlson.

https://www.semafor.com/article/04/27/2025/the-group-chats-that-changed-america

'Chatham House Rule'

Torenberg launched Chatham House the summer of 2024,
naming it after a British think tank that formalized the insight that
trusted conversations require a degree of privacy.

Two of its conservative participants said they see the group as a way to shift centrist Trump-curious figures to the Republican side,
but its founder said he’d begun it to have “a left-right exchange where we could have real conversations because of filter bubble group chats.”

Chatham House includes high-profile figures like the economist
#Larry #Summers and the historian #Niall #Ferguson,
and more partisan figures like #Shapiro and the Democratic analyst #David #Shor.

#Andreessen lurks.

But several participants described it to me as something like a gladiatorial arena with #Cuban most often in the center,
sparring with conservatives.

(“no idea what you are talking about :)” Cuban emailed in response to an inquiry about his arguments on Chatham House.)

The Group Chat Era depended on part of the American elite feeling shut out from public spaces,
and on the formation of a new conservative consensus.

Both of those are now fading
(though Torenberg has invested in a company called #ChatBCC that wants to commercialize the heady experience of sitting in on texts among the power elite).

Since Elon Musk turned X to the right
and an alternative media ecosystem emerged on Substack,
“a tremendous amount of the verboten conversations can now shift back into public view,” Andreessen told Fridman.

“It’s much healthier to live in a society in which people are literally not scared of what they’re saying.”

And Trump’s destabilizing “Liberation Day” has taken its toll on the coalition Andreessen helped shape.

You can see it on X,
where investors joke that they’ll put pronouns back in their bios in exchange for a return to the 2024 stock prices,
and where #Srinivasan has been a leading critic of Trump’s tariffs.

“Group chats have changed on the economy in the last few weeks,”
said #Rufo.
“There’s a big split on the tech right.”

The polarity of social media has also reversed,
and while participants used to keep their conservative ideas off social media,
“now the anti-Trump sentiment is what you’re afraid to say on X,” one said.

By mid-April, #Sacks had had enough with Chatham House:
“This group has become worthless since the loudest voices have TDS,”
he wrote, shorthanding
“Trump Derangement Syndrome.”

Then he addressed Torenberg:
“You should create a new one with just smart people.”

Signal soon showed that three men had left the group:
The Sequoia partner #Shaun #Maguire,
the bitcoin billionaire #Tyler #Winklevoss, and #Tucker #Carlson.

https://www.semafor.com/article/04/27/2025/the-group-chats-that-changed-america

'Chatham House Rule'

Torenberg launched Chatham House the summer of 2024,
naming it after a British think tank that formalized the insight that
trusted conversations require a degree of privacy.

Two of its conservative participants said they see the group as a way to shift centrist Trump-curious figures to the Republican side,
but its founder said he’d begun it to have “a left-right exchange where we could have real conversations because of filter bubble group chats.”

Chatham House includes high-profile figures like the economist
#Larry #Summers and the historian #Niall #Ferguson,
and more partisan figures like #Shapiro and the Democratic analyst #David #Shor.

#Andreessen lurks.

But several participants described it to me as something like a gladiatorial arena with #Cuban most often in the center,
sparring with conservatives.

(“no idea what you are talking about :)” Cuban emailed in response to an inquiry about his arguments on Chatham House.)

The Group Chat Era depended on part of the American elite feeling shut out from public spaces,
and on the formation of a new conservative consensus.

Both of those are now fading
(though Torenberg has invested in a company called #ChatBCC that wants to commercialize the heady experience of sitting in on texts among the power elite).

Since Elon Musk turned X to the right
and an alternative media ecosystem emerged on Substack,
“a tremendous amount of the verboten conversations can now shift back into public view,” Andreessen told Fridman.

“It’s much healthier to live in a society in which people are literally not scared of what they’re saying.”

And Trump’s destabilizing “Liberation Day” has taken its toll on the coalition Andreessen helped shape.

You can see it on X,
where investors joke that they’ll put pronouns back in their bios in exchange for a return to the 2024 stock prices,
and where #Srinivasan has been a leading critic of Trump’s tariffs.

“Group chats have changed on the economy in the last few weeks,”
said #Rufo.
“There’s a big split on the tech right.”

The polarity of social media has also reversed,
and while participants used to keep their conservative ideas off social media,
“now the anti-Trump sentiment is what you’re afraid to say on X,” one said.

By mid-April, #Sacks had had enough with Chatham House:
“This group has become worthless since the loudest voices have TDS,”
he wrote, shorthanding
“Trump Derangement Syndrome.”

Then he addressed Torenberg:
“You should create a new one with just smart people.”

Signal soon showed that three men had left the group:
The Sequoia partner #Shaun #Maguire,
the bitcoin billionaire #Tyler #Winklevoss, and #Tucker #Carlson.

https://www.semafor.com/article/04/27/2025/the-group-chats-that-changed-america

Trump Boosters Expect Big Returns on Their Investment:
‘The Shackles Are Off’

Wealthy donors to the president-elect’s campaign anticipate a more business-friendly atmosphere,
including the firing of Biden-era regulators.

🔸Limit the reach of federal regulations on artificial intelligence.
🔸Make room for cryptocurrencies to thrive.
🔸Ease the antitrust crackdown on big tech companies.
🔸Buy more military drones. And don’t raise taxes on billionaires.

The to-do list for President-elect Donald J. Trump from #Marc #Andreessen, the venture capital billionaire from California, is long, but quite specific.

Now, after donating big money to Mr. Trump, Mr. Andreessen is eager to see his candidate work through the list

“It felt like a boot off the throat,” Mr. Andreessen said about Mr. Trump’s victory during a podcast conversation this month with his business partner.
“Every morning I wake up happier than the day before.”

Mr. Andreessen’s excitement is a hint of just how broadly the victory by Mr. Trump has resonated with business executives who ⚠️ invested millions of dollars in his candidacy and now stand to profit from his policies.
Theirs is a circle of deep-pocketed industry winners that extends far beyond #Elon #Musk.
It is a more diverse group, at least in terms of business interests, than the one that surrounded Mr. Trump in his first administration, where executives from the oil, gas and coal industries were particularly dominant.
#Harold #Hamm, the billionaire founder of the Oklahoma-based 💥oil and gas giant Continental Resources, is still in a position to benefit, from regulatory rollbacks that he and an affiliated trade association are already pushing.

But the list also includes:
#Joe #Lonsdale, a defense technology executive who wants to help the Pentagon revamp the way it fights 💥wars;

#Cameron and #Tyler #Winklevoss, the twins who were known for their battle with Facebook, then became 💥cryptocurrency investors and now want to shape the industry’s rules;

#Brian #Evans, the chief executive of Geo Group, the 💥private prison giant that could benefit if Mr. Trump carries out his promise of large-scale deportations;

John Paulson, the hedge fund billionaire who could cash out of his investment in the federal government’s housing finance companies, Freddie and Fannie, if they are privatized under Mr. Trump.

“It will be a billionaires’ ball,” said Robert Reich, who served as secretary of labor during the Clinton administration and who has long been critical of the income disparity in the United States.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/17/us/politics/trump-presidency-billionaires.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Trump has long made a practice of telling potential supporters what they want to hear.

This year, he has also changed previous policy positions in ways that would benefit some of his party’s largest donors.

In March, for example, he publicly reversed course on forcing the sale of the Chinese-owned social-media app TikTok,
despite having signed an executive order,
in August, 2020,
stating his intention to ban the app if it was not sold to a U.S.-based buyer within forty-five days.

Back then, Trump warned that a Chinese company owning so much of Americans’ personal data was a national-security threat.

But this winter, when the Biden Administration endorsed a bipartisan bill to force TikTok’s sale,
Trump came out against the measure.

On Truth Social, he wrote,
“If you get rid of TikTok, Facebook and Zuckerschmuck”
—his derogatory name for Facebook’s C.E.O., Mark Zuckerberg
—“will double their business.”

#Steve #Bannon, Trump’s former adviser, posted another explanation for the about-face:
“Simple: Yass Coin.”

Days earlier, at an event in Florida for the conservative group Club for Growth,
Trump had met with #Jeff #Yass, a major investor in TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance.

Yass, a libertarian-leaning Wall Street billionaire who started out as a professional poker player,
has not officially endorsed Trump or donated directly to him.

Instead, he has given more than $25 million to the "Club for Growth" pac, which is supporting the ex-President’s reëlection.

(According to OpenSecrets, Yass and his wife have contributed more than $70 million to conservative candidates and causes this election cycle.)

Yass also appears to have had a hand in Trump’s personal enrichment.

This spring, the company behind Truth Social merged with Digital World Acquisition Corp.,
a company in which Yass’s trading firm, Susquehanna,
was the single largest institutional investor.

Truth Social went public in March, and Trump’s majority stake in the company is now worth an estimated $3 billion.

Perhaps the most striking example of the former President’s donor-friendly flexibility in 2024 has been his shift on the #cryptocurrency industry.

In recent years, he was unambiguously critical of bitcoin,
the most widely traded digital currency,
saying it
“seems like a scam” and “potentially a disaster waiting to happen.”

But, in 2024, he became an unapologetic promoter of it, attracting contributions from major players in the field,
such as the twin brothers #Cameron and #Tyler #Winklevoss,
each of whom donated $1 million in bitcoin to help Trump.

The former rowing stars who famously sued Zuckerberg, their classmate at Harvard, for allegedly stealing the idea for Facebook,
went on to found the cryptocurrency exchange Gemini.

(In a speech this summer, Trump called them “male models with a big, beautiful brain.”)

This year’s Republican Party platform offers few details on many policy issues affecting Americans,
but it is unusually specific on crypto,
promising to
“defend the right to mine Bitcoin”
and opposing the creation of a
“Central Bank digital currency,”
which could threaten the crypto industry’s biggest investors.

In July, Trump flew to Nashville for the Bitcoin 2024 conference,
where he spoke shortly after one of his top fund-raisers,
#Howard #Lutnick.

Lutnick, the C.E.O. of the Wall Street firm Cantor Fitzgerald, has become a leading public proponent of the crypto industry;

at the conference, he announced a plan to lend $2 billion to crypto investors,

allowing them to use bitcoin as collateral.

Onstage, Trump said that his Administration would permit the creation of so-called #stablecoins,
which, he promised, would
“extend the dominance of the U.S. dollar to new frontiers around the world.”

Trump also promised to fire 🔸Gary Gensler, Biden’s chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission,
whose pro-regulatory positions on crypto have outraged bitcoiners.

The United States, Trump vowed, “will be the crypto capital of the planet.”

Lutnick, who has known Trump for thirty years and who once made a guest appearance on “The Celebrity Apprentice,”
supported Trump’s previous campaigns.

But he has significantly increased his giving in 2024.

According to Bloomberg, Lutnick and his wife donated $30,200 to Republicans in 2016
(though he also gave $1 million to Trump’s 2017 Inauguration committee),
$1.3 million in 2020,
and $12.1 million so far this year.

In May, during the former President’s trial in Manhattan, Lutnick hosted a fund-raiser for him at Lutnick’s apartment in the Pierre hotel.

In early August, he held another event at his forty-acre estate in Bridgehampton, which brought in $15 million; seats for a roundtable with Trump in Lutnick’s dining room went for $250,000.

The following Monday, maga Inc., a pro-Trump super pac, recorded a $5-million donation from Lutnick,
the largest individual political gift he’d ever made.

Crypto Comes For Sherrod Brown:

$32 Million in Ads Boosting His Opponent

Crypto companies are spending $800,000 a day to take out one of their chief critics in Congress — and replace him with an ally

Late 2023 was not a great time for the crypto industry.

In November, #Sam #Bankman-#Fried, the founder of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange, learned that no amount of Michael Lewis gymnastics could save him from being convicted on seven charges of fraud and conspiracy.

He was eventually sentenced to 25 years in prison after disappearing $11 billion of other people’s money.

The following month, Sen. #Elizabeth #Warren sent letters to three crypto industry giants, the 🔸Blockchain Association, 🔸Coin Center, and 🔸Coinbase, criticizing them for undermining efforts to rein in crypto’s use in #terrorist #financing.

Around the same time, crypto groups began making noises about ♦️spending money in 2024 to defeat Ohio Sen. #Sherrod #Brown, the current ⭐️chairman of the Senate Banking Committee.

❇️ Brown is a profound skeptic of the industry and signed off on Warren holding hearings on crypto’s possible links to terrorism.

Asked about the threats, Brown, a mop-topped Democrat with a raspy voice and wry sense of humor, said he was unconcerned.

But Brown had no idea of what was to come.

Rolling Stone has learned that crypto interests are set to spend💥 $32 million on TV ads promoting #Bernie #Moreno, Brown’s Republican opponent, by the end of September, according to Democratic media buyers.

The spending began on August 22
— meaning 🔥the crypto interests are spending more than $800,000 per day to flip the Ohio Senate seat, and potentially control of the Senate.

“Outside groups are spending record amounts to try to defeat Sherrod because they know he will always fight for Ohio, not special interests,” said Reeves Oyster, a Brown campaign spokesperson.

So far, the ads have been primarily fluffy positive spots boosting Moreno; some of the spots fearmonger about immigrants and China.

Tracing the roots of "Defend American Jobs" can be as convoluted as tracing crypto currency itself.

The group is effectively a subsidiary of #Fairshake
— the second-largest fundraiser among Super PACs this season according to OpenSecrets,
with over $200 million in its coffers.

♦️The bulk of Fairshake’s money has been donated by three crypto monoliths: Coinbase, Andreessen Horowitz, and Ripple.

#Coinbase and its affiliates have donated $86 million.

The founders of the venture capital firm #Andreessen #Horowitz have together given $44 million.

#Ripple has contributed $25 million. (The #Winklevoss #Twins, who donated nearly $5 million to Fairshake, previously tried to donate $1 million in bitcoin to Donald Trump
— well beyond what is legal.)

Coinbase’s CEO #Brian #Armstrong has led the latest charge to bring crypto into the political mainstream,
hosting a Super Tuesday rally with Nas in Los Angeles where he proclaimed,
“More Americans own crypto than own electric vehicles or are in a union
— yet some people in D.C. are still underestimating how much and how many people care about crypto.

In 2024, it will become clear that being anti-crypto is bad politics.”

Rep. #Katie #Porter found that out the hard way.

During the California Democratic Senate primary, ⚠️Fairshake spent over $10 million against her campaign, apparently because she had the temerity to question the energy uses of the industry.

Porter didn’t make the runoff, losing to Adam Schiff, a longtime collaborator with crypto who received an ‘A’ rating from "Stand With Crypto", a self-described grassroots advocacy hub nonprofit led by Coinbase and fronted by Armstrong.

Porter got an ‘F.’
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/sherrod-brown-crypto-bernie-moreno-millions-1235102478/

Crypto Comes For Sherrod Brown:

$32 Million in Ads Boosting His Opponent

Crypto companies are spending $800,000 a day to take out one of their chief critics in Congress — and replace him with an ally

Late 2023 was not a great time for the crypto industry.

In November, #Sam #Bankman-#Fried, the founder of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange, learned that no amount of Michael Lewis gymnastics could save him from being convicted on seven charges of fraud and conspiracy.

He was eventually sentenced to 25 years in prison after disappearing $11 billion of other people’s money.

The following month, Sen. #Elizabeth #Warren sent letters to three crypto industry giants, the 🔸Blockchain Association, 🔸Coin Center, and 🔸Coinbase, criticizing them for undermining efforts to rein in crypto’s use in #terrorist #financing.

Around the same time, crypto groups began making noises about ♦️spending money in 2024 to defeat Ohio Sen. #Sherrod #Brown, the current ⭐️chairman of the Senate Banking Committee.

❇️ Brown is a profound skeptic of the industry and signed off on Warren holding hearings on crypto’s possible links to terrorism.

Asked about the threats, Brown, a mop-topped Democrat with a raspy voice and wry sense of humor, said he was unconcerned.

But Brown had no idea of what was to come.

Rolling Stone has learned that crypto interests are set to spend💥 $32 million on TV ads promoting #Bernie #Moreno, Brown’s Republican opponent, by the end of September, according to Democratic media buyers.

The spending began on August 22
— meaning 🔥the crypto interests are spending more than $800,000 per day to flip the Ohio Senate seat, and potentially control of the Senate.

“Outside groups are spending record amounts to try to defeat Sherrod because they know he will always fight for Ohio, not special interests,” said Reeves Oyster, a Brown campaign spokesperson.

So far, the ads have been primarily fluffy positive spots boosting Moreno; some of the spots fearmonger about immigrants and China.

Tracing the roots of "Defend American Jobs" can be as convoluted as tracing crypto currency itself.

The group is effectively a subsidiary of #Fairshake
— the second-largest fundraiser among Super PACs this season according to OpenSecrets,
with over $200 million in its coffers.

♦️The bulk of Fairshake’s money has been donated by three crypto monoliths: Coinbase, Andreessen Horowitz, and Ripple.

#Coinbase and its affiliates have donated $86 million.

The founders of the venture capital firm #Andreessen #Horowitz have together given $44 million.

#Ripple has contributed $25 million. (The #Winklevoss #Twins, who donated nearly $5 million to Fairshake, previously tried to donate $1 million in bitcoin to Donald Trump
— well beyond what is legal.)

Coinbase’s CEO #Brian #Armstrong has led the latest charge to bring crypto into the political mainstream,
hosting a Super Tuesday rally with Nas in Los Angeles where he proclaimed,
“More Americans own crypto than own electric vehicles or are in a union
— yet some people in D.C. are still underestimating how much and how many people care about crypto.

In 2024, it will become clear that being anti-crypto is bad politics.”

Rep. #Katie #Porter found that out the hard way.

During the California Democratic Senate primary, ⚠️Fairshake spent over $10 million against her campaign, apparently because she had the temerity to question the energy uses of the industry.

Porter didn’t make the runoff, losing to Adam Schiff, a longtime collaborator with crypto who received an ‘A’ rating from "Stand With Crypto", a self-described grassroots advocacy hub nonprofit led by Coinbase and fronted by Armstrong.

Porter got an ‘F.’
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/sherrod-brown-crypto-bernie-moreno-millions-1235102478/

Crypto Comes For Sherrod Brown:

$32 Million in Ads Boosting His Opponent

Crypto companies are spending $800,000 a day to take out one of their chief critics in Congress — and replace him with an ally

Late 2023 was not a great time for the crypto industry.

In November, #Sam #Bankman-#Fried, the founder of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange, learned that no amount of Michael Lewis gymnastics could save him from being convicted on seven charges of fraud and conspiracy.

He was eventually sentenced to 25 years in prison after disappearing $11 billion of other people’s money.

The following month, Sen. #Elizabeth #Warren sent letters to three crypto industry giants, the 🔸Blockchain Association, 🔸Coin Center, and 🔸Coinbase, criticizing them for undermining efforts to rein in crypto’s use in #terrorist #financing.

Around the same time, crypto groups began making noises about ♦️spending money in 2024 to defeat Ohio Sen. #Sherrod #Brown, the current ⭐️chairman of the Senate Banking Committee.

❇️ Brown is a profound skeptic of the industry and signed off on Warren holding hearings on crypto’s possible links to terrorism.

Asked about the threats, Brown, a mop-topped Democrat with a raspy voice and wry sense of humor, said he was unconcerned.

But Brown had no idea of what was to come.

Rolling Stone has learned that crypto interests are set to spend💥 $32 million on TV ads promoting #Bernie #Moreno, Brown’s Republican opponent, by the end of September, according to Democratic media buyers.

The spending began on August 22
— meaning 🔥the crypto interests are spending more than $800,000 per day to flip the Ohio Senate seat, and potentially control of the Senate.

“Outside groups are spending record amounts to try to defeat Sherrod because they know he will always fight for Ohio, not special interests,” said Reeves Oyster, a Brown campaign spokesperson.

So far, the ads have been primarily fluffy positive spots boosting Moreno; some of the spots fearmonger about immigrants and China.

Tracing the roots of "Defend American Jobs" can be as convoluted as tracing crypto currency itself.

The group is effectively a subsidiary of #Fairshake
— the second-largest fundraiser among Super PACs this season according to OpenSecrets,
with over $200 million in its coffers.

♦️The bulk of Fairshake’s money has been donated by three crypto monoliths: Coinbase, Andreessen Horowitz, and Ripple.

#Coinbase and its affiliates have donated $86 million.

The founders of the venture capital firm #Andreessen #Horowitz have together given $44 million.

#Ripple has contributed $25 million. (The #Winklevoss #Twins, who donated nearly $5 million to Fairshake, previously tried to donate $1 million in bitcoin to Donald Trump
— well beyond what is legal.)

Coinbase’s CEO #Brian #Armstrong has led the latest charge to bring crypto into the political mainstream,
hosting a Super Tuesday rally with Nas in Los Angeles where he proclaimed,
“More Americans own crypto than own electric vehicles or are in a union
— yet some people in D.C. are still underestimating how much and how many people care about crypto.

In 2024, it will become clear that being anti-crypto is bad politics.”

Rep. #Katie #Porter found that out the hard way.

During the California Democratic Senate primary, ⚠️Fairshake spent over $10 million against her campaign, apparently because she had the temerity to question the energy uses of the industry.

Porter didn’t make the runoff, losing to Adam Schiff, a longtime collaborator with crypto who received an ‘A’ rating from "Stand With Crypto", a self-described grassroots advocacy hub nonprofit led by Coinbase and fronted by Armstrong.

Porter got an ‘F.’
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/sherrod-brown-crypto-bernie-moreno-millions-1235102478/

Crypto Comes For Sherrod Brown:

$32 Million in Ads Boosting His Opponent

Crypto companies are spending $800,000 a day to take out one of their chief critics in Congress — and replace him with an ally

Late 2023 was not a great time for the crypto industry.

In November, #Sam #Bankman-#Fried, the founder of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange, learned that no amount of Michael Lewis gymnastics could save him from being convicted on seven charges of fraud and conspiracy.

He was eventually sentenced to 25 years in prison after disappearing $11 billion of other people’s money.

The following month, Sen. #Elizabeth #Warren sent letters to three crypto industry giants, the 🔸Blockchain Association, 🔸Coin Center, and 🔸Coinbase, criticizing them for undermining efforts to rein in crypto’s use in #terrorist #financing.

Around the same time, crypto groups began making noises about ♦️spending money in 2024 to defeat Ohio Sen. #Sherrod #Brown, the current ⭐️chairman of the Senate Banking Committee.

❇️ Brown is a profound skeptic of the industry and signed off on Warren holding hearings on crypto’s possible links to terrorism.

Asked about the threats, Brown, a mop-topped Democrat with a raspy voice and wry sense of humor, said he was unconcerned.

But Brown had no idea of what was to come.

Rolling Stone has learned that crypto interests are set to spend💥 $32 million on TV ads promoting #Bernie #Moreno, Brown’s Republican opponent, by the end of September, according to Democratic media buyers.

The spending began on August 22
— meaning 🔥the crypto interests are spending more than $800,000 per day to flip the Ohio Senate seat, and potentially control of the Senate.

“Outside groups are spending record amounts to try to defeat Sherrod because they know he will always fight for Ohio, not special interests,” said Reeves Oyster, a Brown campaign spokesperson.

So far, the ads have been primarily fluffy positive spots boosting Moreno; some of the spots fearmonger about immigrants and China.

Tracing the roots of "Defend American Jobs" can be as convoluted as tracing crypto currency itself.

The group is effectively a subsidiary of #Fairshake
— the second-largest fundraiser among Super PACs this season according to OpenSecrets,
with over $200 million in its coffers.

♦️The bulk of Fairshake’s money has been donated by three crypto monoliths: Coinbase, Andreessen Horowitz, and Ripple.

#Coinbase and its affiliates have donated $86 million.

The founders of the venture capital firm #Andreessen #Horowitz have together given $44 million.

#Ripple has contributed $25 million. (The #Winklevoss #Twins, who donated nearly $5 million to Fairshake, previously tried to donate $1 million in bitcoin to Donald Trump
— well beyond what is legal.)

Coinbase’s CEO #Brian #Armstrong has led the latest charge to bring crypto into the political mainstream,
hosting a Super Tuesday rally with Nas in Los Angeles where he proclaimed,
“More Americans own crypto than own electric vehicles or are in a union
— yet some people in D.C. are still underestimating how much and how many people care about crypto.

In 2024, it will become clear that being anti-crypto is bad politics.”

Rep. #Katie #Porter found that out the hard way.

During the California Democratic Senate primary, ⚠️Fairshake spent over $10 million against her campaign, apparently because she had the temerity to question the energy uses of the industry.

Porter didn’t make the runoff, losing to Adam Schiff, a longtime collaborator with crypto who received an ‘A’ rating from "Stand With Crypto", a self-described grassroots advocacy hub nonprofit led by Coinbase and fronted by Armstrong.

Porter got an ‘F.’
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/sherrod-brown-crypto-bernie-moreno-millions-1235102478/

Crypto Comes For Sherrod Brown:

$32 Million in Ads Boosting His Opponent

Crypto companies are spending $800,000 a day to take out one of their chief critics in Congress — and replace him with an ally

Late 2023 was not a great time for the crypto industry.

In November, #Sam #Bankman-#Fried, the founder of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange, learned that no amount of Michael Lewis gymnastics could save him from being convicted on seven charges of fraud and conspiracy.

He was eventually sentenced to 25 years in prison after disappearing $11 billion of other people’s money.

The following month, Sen. #Elizabeth #Warren sent letters to three crypto industry giants, the 🔸Blockchain Association, 🔸Coin Center, and 🔸Coinbase, criticizing them for undermining efforts to rein in crypto’s use in #terrorist #financing.

Around the same time, crypto groups began making noises about ♦️spending money in 2024 to defeat Ohio Sen. #Sherrod #Brown, the current ⭐️chairman of the Senate Banking Committee.

❇️ Brown is a profound skeptic of the industry and signed off on Warren holding hearings on crypto’s possible links to terrorism.

Asked about the threats, Brown, a mop-topped Democrat with a raspy voice and wry sense of humor, said he was unconcerned.

But Brown had no idea of what was to come.

Rolling Stone has learned that crypto interests are set to spend💥 $32 million on TV ads promoting #Bernie #Moreno, Brown’s Republican opponent, by the end of September, according to Democratic media buyers.

The spending began on August 22
— meaning 🔥the crypto interests are spending more than $800,000 per day to flip the Ohio Senate seat, and potentially control of the Senate.

“Outside groups are spending record amounts to try to defeat Sherrod because they know he will always fight for Ohio, not special interests,” said Reeves Oyster, a Brown campaign spokesperson.

So far, the ads have been primarily fluffy positive spots boosting Moreno; some of the spots fearmonger about immigrants and China.

Tracing the roots of "Defend American Jobs" can be as convoluted as tracing crypto currency itself.

The group is effectively a subsidiary of #Fairshake
— the second-largest fundraiser among Super PACs this season according to OpenSecrets,
with over $200 million in its coffers.

♦️The bulk of Fairshake’s money has been donated by three crypto monoliths: Coinbase, Andreessen Horowitz, and Ripple.

#Coinbase and its affiliates have donated $86 million.

The founders of the venture capital firm #Andreessen #Horowitz have together given $44 million.

#Ripple has contributed $25 million. (The #Winklevoss #Twins, who donated nearly $5 million to Fairshake, previously tried to donate $1 million in bitcoin to Donald Trump
— well beyond what is legal.)

Coinbase’s CEO #Brian #Armstrong has led the latest charge to bring crypto into the political mainstream,
hosting a Super Tuesday rally with Nas in Los Angeles where he proclaimed,
“More Americans own crypto than own electric vehicles or are in a union
— yet some people in D.C. are still underestimating how much and how many people care about crypto.

In 2024, it will become clear that being anti-crypto is bad politics.”

Rep. #Katie #Porter found that out the hard way.

During the California Democratic Senate primary, ⚠️Fairshake spent over $10 million against her campaign, apparently because she had the temerity to question the energy uses of the industry.

Porter didn’t make the runoff, losing to Adam Schiff, a longtime collaborator with crypto who received an ‘A’ rating from "Stand With Crypto", a self-described grassroots advocacy hub nonprofit led by Coinbase and fronted by Armstrong.

Porter got an ‘F.’
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/sherrod-brown-crypto-bernie-moreno-millions-1235102478/

The payoff from Thiel’s early gamble in Trump is a lesson that has not passed others by.

As with their other obsession, #crypto, the best time to have invested in Trump was 2016,
and the second best time is today.

We already have a word for what we’re watching now:
it’s #oligarchy.

And we’ve already seen how this plays out.

In Putin’s Russia, political and commercial interests are one and the same.

Thiel is betting
– again
– on the same phenomenon in America.

Betting that he will be first among a new breed of tech bro oligarchs
– a new super-class of #broligarchs.

In Trump’s America, there will be hard choices for everyone, including the billionaires. --
Though it may be less hard for them.

Vance has said he wants to #deregulate crypto and
unshackle AI.

He’s said he’d #dismantle Biden’s attempts to place safeguards around AI development.

And while he has it in for the #legacy #monopolies of Google and Facebook
– the platforms that his ideological bedfellows in the “new right” see as part of the “censorship industrial complex” suffocating rightwing speech
– Silicon Valley is betting on a gloves-off, regulation-free, pro-business #goldrush.

Another Peter Thiel acolyte was on stage at the Republican National Convention last week,
electrifying the crowd:
#Hulk #Hogan.

Hogan is less well known as one of Thiel’s longterm bets, though in some ways he’s even more instructive than Vance.

In 2007, the online magazine #Gawker outed Thiel and ran a series of unflattering articles about him.

It took him years, but he ultimately got his revenge, covertly funding Hulk Hogan to the tune of $10m to sue the publication for invasion of privacy and forcing it into #bankruptcy.

On stage at the RNC, the wrestler, a permatanned orange, ripped off his shirt for the man who increasingly looks like he’ll be America’s next president.

Or, if JD Vance, is correct, the man who will prove to be the #Caesar he says America needs.

A man who he has already urged to fire the nation’s civil servants to
💥 “replace them with our people”,
to defy the courts and rule his own way.

Or, to put this in simple terms:
to foment a #coup.

Thiel knows what every investor knows. That a crisis is an opportunity.

And that if Trump succeeds in tearing up the federal administration,
there is not only billions to be made in the ensuing market #turmoil but that a new breed of oligarchs,
close to Caesar’s throne, will be the first to share the spoils.

And chief among them will be Thiel.

It’s not a stretch to see how #Palantir, his data-mining company
– that under the Conservatives got its teeth into the NHS
– will profile and surveil and target Caesar’s enemies.

And Thiel’s track record in winning, in successfully betting on the longest of odds, on biding his time, is maybe the most chilling of all the factors in a fortnight that has started to feel like the start of a run on the bank.

Biden’s debate disaster,
Trump’s victorious assassination survival,
and now Silicon Valley’s ascension to the presidential ticket.

The broligarchs have made their move
– and the rest of us need to understand exactly what that means.

#tech #elite #Sandberg #Page #Bezos #Peter #Thiel #tech #bro #Vance #Elon #Musk #Marc #Andreessen #Ben #Horowitz #Winklevoss #Chamath #Palihapitiya #David #Sacks #Palantir #Vance #Mithril #Capital #Narya #Capital

Tech broligarchs are lining up to court Trump. And Vance is one more link in the chain

Less than a month after Donald Trump was elected president in November 2016,
he invited the cream of Silicon Valley's #tech #elite to a meeting at his transition team’s headquarters at Trump Tower.

It was an awkward affair.
Facebook’s Sheryl #Sandberg, Google’s Larry #Page and Amazon’s Jeff #Bezos had facial expressions that ranged from a semi-rictus grin to full tech-mogul-in-a-hostage-situation.

But then, in a sense they were. There was a new sheriff in town – and none of them had seen him coming.

But one person was in his element. Seated next to Trump, uncomplicatedly beaming, was a South African-born tech entrepreneur whose early investment in Facebook had made him billions.

This was #Peter #Thiel.

And if this past week marked an inflection point, and there are many reasons to believe it did,
the seeds of it were planted in the summer of 2016.

This was when Trump was the outside candidate. The man no respectable west coast tech entrepreneur or east coast business elite wanted to touch.

Last week marked a decisive end to that era.

A week in which Donald Trump not only appointed a #tech #bro to be his second in command, choosing Senator JD #Vance to be his VP,
but in which he received the benediction of the tech bro-in-chief, #Elon #Musk.

Musk has said he will donate
💥 $45m a month to Trump’s campaign,
💥though his ongoing endorsement on X,
the platform he bought and owns, is worth countless millions more.

But it’s some lesser-known figures in Silicon Valley who last week boarded the Trump bandwagon who are perhaps even more telling.

#Marc #Andreessen and #Ben #Horowitz, who own one of the most storied and influential venture capital (VC) firms in Silicon Valley,
have declared they’re all in for Trump alongside a host of lesser-known but important names who have either followed suit or who beat them to the punch,
including the #Winklevoss twins and investors and podcast hosts #Chamath #Palihapitiya and #David #Sacks.

Back in 2016, Peter Thiel was the voice in the wilderness. And in that meeting in Trump Tower, it was Thiel’s hand that Trump picked up and stroked.

(And whose data mining firm, #Palantir, picked up billions of dollars in contracts from Trump’s Department of Defense, and, most controversially, Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, where it profiled and surveilled migrants.)

The principle that underpins Silicon Valley investing is to bet early and bet big.

It worked for Thiel with Facebook. It worked for Thiel with Trump. And last week another of his bets paid off, though few could ever have predicted how spectacularly.

Because JD #Vance, the new potential VP, is Thiel’s creature.

He is a man Thiel moulded in his own image through lavish investments in his business and political careers.
Thiel gave Vance a job at his VC firm, #Mithril #Capital, backed him to start his own venture fund, #Narya #Capital, then later invested $15m in his successful run for the senate.
Max Chafkin, Thiel’s biographer, describes Vance as his “extension”.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jul/20/tech-broligarchs-court-trump-vance-elon-musk-peter-thiel?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

MakerDAO Weighs Ditching $390M of Gemini Dollars from DAI Reserve - The result could have a significant impact on Gemini and its stablecoin as MakerDAO’s res... - https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2023/06/14/makerdao-weighs-ditching-390m-of-gemini-dollars-from-dai-reserve/?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=rss&utm_campaign=headlines #winklevoss #stablecoin #governance #makerdao #markets #gemini #news #gusd #dai

Laten we niet vergeten dat die jongens van #Winklevoss ruimschoots miljardairs zijn, dus dat ze die $900M van hun klanten makkelijk zelf kunnen vergoeden. (Net als die van #Bitvavo.) https://www.coindesk.com/business/2023/01/23/crypto-exchange-gemini-cutting-another-10-of-staff-report/