"Time To Loot And Pillage"
Memecoins, DOGE, and the obsession with easy money in a broken system.
It’s ultimately a worshiping of money. And our society has become so corrupt and so wealth-obsessed, that the target has become money and not progress, not growth, not moral excellence, not something else that could result in the betterment of society and a sustainable path towards a future. And that’s what I find so alarming. That’s why I also went into a very dark place on that day. - Demitri Kofinas, via The Grant Williams Podcast
In the quote above, Demitri is referencing the launch of the Presidential family memecoins in January. Judging by the sentiment from both that podcast episode and what I personally witnessed on X, the TRUMP and MELANIA coins do seem to have triggered something of a turning point in the zeitgeist. Recall; I wrote about those aSsETs in real time and can sum up my tone from that piece rather simply…
This behavior is bad. Duh. But what brought us to the point where this could even happen?
Apparently, for a market that had allowed DOGE, dogwifhat, Peanut the Squirrel, Pepe, and Fartcoin; Melania was a step too far. - ya boi
While I don’t get the sense at all that Kofinas is even slightly a fan of the president with or without a memecoin, there are a lot of points he made in that podcast that I happen to agree with. Particularly this one:
Crypto began as an ideological movement based on a view of bettering the world. It was the solution to the corruption in the aftermath of the great financial crisis. And what has happened is that that is no longer what drives prices in crypto. What drives prices in crypto is the potential for financial returns. And that is something that we increasingly see in other parts of the economy and in society.
Amazingly, President Trump’s memecoin isn’t the only newly-launched token with ties to a president that has collapsed by over 85% in the last few weeks…
Check out LIBRA; the coin that was loosely associated with investment in Argentinian small businesses for about a half a second. Coffeezilla’s work on this is must-watch:
Believe me, I’m not attempting to make excuses for Trump, Milei, Hayden Davis or any of the other people who have orchestrated or participated in these blatant pump and dumps (knowingly or unknowingly).
But I’ll ask again, what brought us to the point where things like this can even happen? Sure, humans partook in gambling 2,000-3,000 years before Christ. We can’t help ourselves. But more than that, I’d argue the increasing pervasiveness of casino-culture in seemingly all realms - real estate, equities, shitcoins, sports - is a reflection of the total bastardization of what ‘money’ actually is. As I’ve written about before, the unit of account that we think of as ‘money’ is actually a form of debt that is collateralized by more debt.
Yes, The Debt Matters
Our latest presidential debate came and went. With it, comes friendly banter, reactions, and hot takes. What I have found to be anecdotally true in the time since last Tuesday night is it’s easier to have an engaged conversation about Taylor Swift’s Harris endorsement than it is to have one about the national debt. Bringing up the latter results in cric…
This system, and the perpetual debasement of a currency that has been determined to be legal tender by government edict, is undoubtedly a large driver of this kind of behavior. I view this supercharged ‘degen’ behavior largely as a symptom of the money system scam that is getting ever closer to its dramatic conclusion. And to the point that I think Dimitri Kofinas eloquently made on Grant Williams’ show, the target for so many is no longer moral excellence, or growth, but wealth and amassing as much of it as possible.
The Transformation of the Court Jester
Strange then that the wealthiest man on the planet is the one building tunnels, electric cars, rockets, and global broadband. Each of which offers some form of growth or progress. And yet he’s now hated by probably close to 40% of the country. Why? Falling short on that moral excellence part? Perhaps debatable. After all, he’s doing all of this while shit-posting on one of the largest social media platforms in the world and while taking a Milei-style chainsaw to the scam that is NGO spending through his role with the Department Of Governement Efficiency (DOGE).
Hypocrite for amassing his Tesla TSLA 0.00%↑ wealth in large part due to government subsidy? Again, perhaps. But I suppose there’s a difference between using free money to build cars and using free money to send dead people checks. Regardless, it hit me that there are people who support the Department Of Government Efficiency who don’t realize that the acronym ‘DOGE’ is a nod to the Dogecoin (DOGE-USD) cryptocurrency. What is Dogecoin?
The original ‘memecoin.’ A cynical dunk on Bitcoin. The beneficiary of an anti-fiat awakening. A hustle. Perhaps Lloyd Ostertag can explain it best. Or you can just watch this still-classic Remy rap…
All in on Doge, I dish ‘em out like a tommy gun
Is it important or symbolic in any way that the self-anointed ‘Dogefather’ is now effectively running a new government oversight body that shares an acronym with the Dogecoin ticker symbol? I think yes.
The DOGE outrage from those who started wearing staunch constitutionalist costumes on January 20th is pretty rich. Forgetting, of course, when it counted, that the federal government shouldn’t have the ability to hire, fire, or mandate employment parameters for private businesses. Even if some of those people aren’t up on all their immunizations. That so many were scared of catching lice or typhus is not a good enough excuse. Private enterprise is one thing. Federal employees are absolutely fair game. I’d encourage those who might be mad about a group of outsiders auditing government spending - something the government has been entirely unwilling to do itself - to rethink what it is they’re actually upset about.
Getting back to the Dimitri Kofinas appearance on The Grant Williams Podcast for a moment; the title of this piece is another quote of his from that episode. “I feel like it’s time to loot and pillage.” I think he is still missing something critical… the looting and pillaging has already taken place. It’s been happening, it just hasn’t necessarily been as brazen as it seems to be today and the filthy masses are actually in on the scam now. To be clear, I don’t think this is good but it is what it is.
With respect to Kofinas’ argument that the elites changing the rules has been the driver of nihilism in America, distrust in government from the populace didn’t start because Bush invaded Iraq… it goes back to Kennedy’s assassination at minimum and likely owes its real origin to the Federal Reserve Act of 1913. Though it probably goes back even further than that.
Is Trump perfect? Absolutely not. Far from it, actually. We can be disappointed in a soon-to-be-inaugurated president launching a memecoin and still welcome the notion that at least some of the egregious federal government spending waste might actually stop while he’s in office. Despite his numerous faults, there is a reason he was shot at… twice. And it’s not because the deep state is on board with what he wants to do.
We don’t have to like the characters in the play to appreciate the story. And in a world filled with grifters and nihilists, DOGE is approaching perfect meme status.
Selections From Seeking Alpha
IBIT: Playing Bitcoin’s Massive Supply Deficit
IBIT 0.00%↑
There has been a 32.5% year over year combined increase in BTC held through the financial products, global governments, corporate treasuries, and smart contracts. Nominally, this is a 763k increase in BTC held through these entities. If we subtract that figure from the 200k BTC that has been added to circulation through the block reward, we observe a nearly 563k BTC deficit going back to the last year. And this is even when accounting for a 9% year-over-year decline in government holdings and a nearly 13% decline in private company holdings.
Turns Out, Bitcoin’s ‘Beast’ Was a Bear
As of article submission, the price of BTC has fallen convincingly below not just the 8-week, but the 20-week MA as well. With the two MAs seemingly set to converge shortly, BTC would need to stage a dramatic comeback between now and the end of the week to stave off what I view as significant chart damage on the weekly. We can already observe the bearish RSI divergence between December and January price peaks. I see a very distinct possibility that BTC re-tests the 50-week MA which is currently well below $80k and closer to $75K. The daily chart doesn't look much better.
Fubo: Like A Phoenix From The Ashes (Rating Upgrade)
FUBO 0.00%↑
It would have seemingly been very easy for Disney to just settle litigation with Fubo and move on. The fact that management of Disney's vMVPD streaming product would be turned over to the Fubo team as part of the agreement is a really interesting element of this deal that I think is more significant than it might seem. My hunch is multi-channel linear distribution is a business that Disney simply might not want to be in any longer. And it would be hard to blame the company if that is indeed the case considering Hulu+ Live TV hasn't meaningfully grown subscribers in the last two years.
Gambling.com Group Limited: The Gaming Growth Pure Play Bet
I see OddsJam as a highly complimentary business to its primary revenue segment. There is likely a shelf-life on Gambling Group's ability to grow 'new depositing customers' with its affiliate partners; meaning, once a customer has signed up with the online casinos or sports books through Gambling.com already, they can no longer be considered NDCs unless they are signing up with an additional sports book or casino through the platform. Thus, assuming Gambling Group can successfully drive bettors to several platform partners, it makes quite a bit of sense for the company to monetize that audience more directly through an owned property like OddsJam.
Speaking of Spending Cuts…
I’m trying to figure out just what the heck Ukrainian President Zelensky was doing yesterday. If you somehow haven’t seen this yet, this exchange between Zelensky, Trump, and Vance in the oval office on February 28th was absolutely incredible:
Reaction to this on X has been exactly what you’d expect. The left says Trump and Vance were disrespectful. The right says Zelensky was disrespectful. None of that really matters. From where I sit, the reality is very simple.
When Trump says Zelensky doesn't ‘have the cards’ it's difficult to argue against that. The mistake Zelensky seems to be making here is believing that Trump’s administration has the same appetite for a forever war in Ukraine that the last administration did. That is not the case. And while Zelensky’s concerns about Putin not honoring a ceasefire agreement are understandable on the surface, if you ask Putin, Ukraine’s potential inclusion in NATO would be akin to Soviet missiles on Cuban soil.
This boils down to a simple question for an America that no longer wants to act as the world’s policeman; why am I involved in this? The problem for Zelensky is Trump has no real obligation to back Ukraine or Russia, as far as I can tell. If this is about resources for Trump, he can get that from Zelensky or from Putin. If I were Zelensky, I'd prefer it be me. Otherwise, the US can pull support, let Russia spend the energy finishing the job, and then just do the resource deal with Putin. This is not what anyone should want. But at a table filled with gangsters, you have to know what hand you're holding. And Trump has the nuts.
Zelensky ultimately has no choice here. He is going to have to bend the knee to somebody if he wants to continue breathing. Which makes getting antagonistic when visiting his primary benefactor all the more perplexing.
Disclaimer: I’m not an investment advisor. I’m not a geopolitical analyst. I like boring stocks, Bitcoin, and precious metals. I speculate in coins and save in Gold & Silver. Everything could go to zero. Nothing is guaranteed and nobody owes you a damn thing.