But is that also accounting for any regulatory pressure/investigations that might have otherwise hit those donors? Perhaps just the promise of not being prosecuted for their crimes if/when their scam collapses is sufficient ROI for them.
replythat and directing US dollars into crypto markets via the government. you can sell people on the idea with the same arguments that are currently moderately successful in convincing people to do things like buy gold as a retirement plan, and anyone who is holding crypto before the government "invests" in it will see incredible returns as demand spikes for an asset whose supply is intentionally capped. The crypto whales are suddenly in the presence of a crypto leviathan in the form of government spending, they not only make a ton of money but they can sell out without crashing the market (solving a huge problem, esp for shitcoin whales but realistically for major stakeholders in all crypto) and everyone who's actually involved in the decision-making process leaves with fistfuls of money from people who didn't meaningfully have a say in which bag they'd be purchasing or at what price.
replyThe bitcoin people bought a pardon for their hero, one of the biggest facilitators of drug smuggling in the world, and someone who personally paid money to have people killed. Including explicitly saying to indiscriminately kill whatever unrelated bystander happens to be there.
replyThat was a stated goal for them, and they got what they paid for. So good ROI on that.
They've gotten PAAAAH-LENTY for their money.
Did they get their pet asset to go up in price? No. But they managed to buy "crime is legal now". The shitcoin rugpull industry is making BANK, and the DOJ has been paid off to look the other way.
Investigations have been shut down, and mobsters have been freed. They are not the losers. Society is.
Ross Ulbricht being let go as part of some quid pro quo with crypto-libertarians was certainly a huge miscarriage of justice. He should not be walking free, but alas.
replySome of them have gotten out of jail.
replyYeah but Justin Sun is a stable genius, losing tons of money is just part of his 4D chess.
replyThey got Ross Ulbricht out of jail and a few cryptocurrency scammers out too. That’s all the cryptobros wanted was pretty much nothing but symbolism.
replyI mean, anyone can fail to deliver their end of any agreement. They may have learned a harsh lesson about bargaining with Trump, but that doesn't mean that it was dumb to pursue the deal as negotiated or would be dumb to pursue a similar deal with someone who might actually follow through on it.
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