On October 10th, the Wall Street Journal ran a story with the headline, “Hamas Militants Behind Israel Attack Raised Millions in Crypto. Digital currency transactions highlight how U.S. and Israel have struggled to sever the access of Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah to foreign funding.” The story stated: “Digital-currency wallets that Israeli authorities linked to the PIJ received as much as $93 million in crypto between August 2021 and June this year, analysis by leading crypto researcher Elliptic showed.” It also cited research by crypto analytics firm BitOK suggesting that Hamas received $41 million. Ten days later the paper followed up with “Why Hamas Uses Crypto to Raise Money”,…
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60 Minutes Interview of Michael Lewis Contains Two Doozies
Superstar author promotes new SBF book
In the US, books are always published on Tuesdays, and around my house, the Tuesday of a new Michael Lewis book brings heated anticipation. And not just cuz we own a bookstore. Liar’s Poker, Money Ball, The Big Short, Flash Boys and Next are all key books in our household. And even the misses — The Blind Side and Trail Fever come to mind — offer a few insights and some great turns of Crawfish phrase. So a book by a gifted storyteller about crypto’s most impossible to ignore character is naturally of great interest to Modern Consensus. But Lewis’ appearance last night on 60 Minutes to promote his book…
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Re FTX, SBF Should STFU
New Yorker story reveals Bankman-Fried people with legitimate arguments to raise, but they’re doing it wrong
Sheelah Kolhatkar’s comprehensive and thoughtful examination of Sam Bankman-Fried and his parents in this week’s New Yorker deserves consideration even by those who, like myself, have read every single word about this case. Kolhatkar was one of the journalists who had enjoyed consistent, welcoming access to Bankman-Fried while he was on bail at his parents’ house in Palo Alto. That access ended with Bankman-Fried’s decision to share private writings by his former girlfriend and now cooperating witness Caroline Ellison with the New York Times. I have already shared that I cannot stand the way even a punk-ass bitch like Bankman-Fried has been pre-judged by an angry society. But his decision…
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Ivan Soto-Wright, CEO of MoonPay, speaks with Michael Gronager, CEO of Chainalysis, November 17, 2022. (Photo: Village Global/Flickr)MoonPay Founder Revealed as Mystery Suarez Funder
Ivan Soto-Wright gave half mil to Miami Mayor’s presidential PAC
Ivan Soto-Wright is capable of excellent timing. The cherubic, celebrity-adjacent founder and CEO of crypto payment app MoonPay moved to Miami just before Covid shut down most of the country. And also before Florida’s hands-off approach to the pandemic attracted a wave of liberty-loving crypto enthusiasts. And then, in a further burst of excellent timing, he and other top MoonPay executives sold $150 million in shares of the company at the end of 2021, near Crypto’s mid-pandemic sugar high. But he’s also displayed some less fortunate timing. In April 2022, just as NFTs were ending their brief and idiotic reign as the flavor of the month, Soto-Wright told the audience…
