Molly White's Citation Needed - Issue 75 – Absolutely preposterous

Episode Date: January 25, 2025

Trump horrifies even some of his crypto-steeped fans by launching a memecoin before his inauguration, and a flurry of activity from the new administration signals what’s in store for the crypto world in the next four years. Originally published on January 24, 2025.

I'm Molly White, and you're listening to the audio feed for the citation-needed newsletter. You can see the text version of the newsletter online at citation-needed.news. Issue 75. Absolutely preposterous. Trump horrifies even some of his crypto-steeped fans by launching a meme coin before his inauguration, and a flurry of activity from the new administration signals what's in store for the crypto world in the next four years. This issue was originally published on January 24, 2025. Maybe it's just because I've been trying to keep up with the breakneck pace at which things are happening in the crypto world right now,

but I'm pretty sure this past week was about a month long. There are not many people outside of the industry-funded, industry silenced, and therefore heavily pro-crypto-media world who follow crypto full-time. While there are journalists in traditional media who follow, crypto, they often split their time with broader finance, tech, or politics beats, and struggle to dive deeply into the topic or even separate the reality from the marketing and political PR. They also often face editorial pressures to give equal weight, as though industry spin and reality are two equally valid perspectives. While I knew this is going to be particularly

important work going forward into the new United States administration, the events of the past week have highlighted that even more than I expected. This is why your support of citation needed is so crucial. Your pay-what-you-want contribution enables me to maintain my editorial independence, dedicate the time needed for deep investigation and for helping others in media and government understand this space, and keep all my work freely accessible to those who need it the most. I do not have any institutional or corporate backing, and am entirely supported by readers like you. If you value thorough, uncompromised coverage of the crypto world, the broader technology world, and their increasing impact on the rest of the world, please consider becoming

a supporter today. You can subscribe at citation needed.news slash sign up. Before I jump in, though, the announcement is live that I will be a featured speaker again this year at South by Southwest. I will be doing a featured session about crypto titled speaking truth to crypto power on March 7. This is in addition to the fireside chat on digital sovereignty that I will be having with Flipboard CEO Mike McHugh on March 9. If by any chance any of you will be at South by Southwest, I'd be delighted if you would drop by.

In U.S. politics. The meme coin. As some of Trump's most devoted supporters from the crypto world were clinking champagne flutes at the industry-funded black-tie crypto ball, Trump was elsewhere, launching his own Trump meme coin. There had been no signal that this was coming, and it took the crypto world by surprise. Some, myself included, wondered if Trump's Twitter was the latest casualty of a years-long slew of incidents in which high-profile Twitter accounts are compromised and used to shill fake crypto projects.

We had reason to be suspicious. The token was launched without any of the usual teasers and other crowdwork, typical of Trump's other crypto ventures. The wallet used to create the token was funded with deposits from Binance and gate.io, two crypto exchanges that are not supposed to be available to U.S. traders, and a particularly odd choice for a president demanding that crypto be made in the USA. His wealthy backers at exchanges like Coinbase and Cracken appeared to be as surprised as everyone else, and it took them several days to list the token, losing them. the opportunity for substantial trading volume compared to if they had been in on the plan from the get-go.

Nevertheless, Trump turned out to be the genuine article, and so was the Melania token that followed shortly after. Whoever launched the Melania token perhaps thought they could replicate this successful Trump cash grab by simply doing the same thing all over again, not realizing that launching a second, closely linked token would directly compete with the first. Trump prices tanked 58% upon the Melania launch. The prices of both tokens have dwindled since, as meme coin prices often do. However, the stunt seems to have succeeded in convincing even more people to get into crypto. An app called Moonshot briefly rose to the top of the App Store rankings for free finance apps, as Trump partnered with the platform to allow people to purchase his Trump tokens using a debit card, Apple Pay, or Venmo.

Moonshot's Twitter account is full of celebratory tweets and retweets about onboarding more non-crypto users, with one tweet reading, boomers have onboarded, and a retweet of a person who wrote, my entire family, including my 80-year-old grandma, is on the app. While the crypto world has been loudly all in for Trump, his meme coin stunt was a bridge too far for some. Crypto venture capitalist and enthusiastic Trump supporter, Nick Carter, who was attending the ball when the token was launched, told Politico, quote, it's absolutely preposterous that he would do this. They're plumbing new depths of idiocy with the meme coin launch. He later told the AP, quote, now on the cusp of getting some liberalization of crypto regulations in the country,

the main thing people are thinking about crypto is, oh, it's just a casino for these meme coins. An influential crypto industry lawyer tweeted shortly after the launch, quote, Trump dropping his own meme coin means he has the wrong people in his ear regarding crypto policy. I'm now getting very concerned about the Trump presidency. Others expressed concern that the meme coin would make the whole industry look like a grift to outsiders who may be learning about it for the first time, and some joked that they missed former SEC chairman and Gary Gensler's regulatory approach already. Even crypto-friendly congressman Ro Kana joined in,

writing, elected officials must be barred from having meme coins by law. Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Jake Ockinclos, both Democrats from Massachusetts, have written an angry letter asking multiple government agencies how they intend to address, quote, the unprecedented concerns posed by the launch of the Trump and Molania meme coins,

including the threats from consumer ripoffs, corruption and foreign influence and President Trump's conflicts of interest. They note that, quote, as president, Trump is responsible for nominating the leaders that will enforce our laws against crypto companies. This creates an unavoidable conflict of interest, as he will be in a position to both benefit directly from the sale of the tokens, while also setting the policy on how these markets are regulated. While a letter of this sort is no surprise from the staunchly anti-Crypto Warren, Ackin-Klas has been a longtime vocal supporter of crypto.

In my view, the meme coin launch only adds to Trump's long list of already very serious conflicts of interest. The two meme coins are in addition to multiple NFT projects by both Donald and Melania Trump, the World Liberty Financial Project from which Trump earns a substantial percentage of the revenue, and Trump's disclosed Ethereum holdings. There are also ethical issues around influence buying and the emoluments clause, and the president's crypto tokens, NFT projects, and publicly disclosed wallet addresses are yet more avenues that those hoping to curry favor with the president could use to funnel money in his direction,

as with his hotels and other business ventures during his first term in office. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin also joined in concerns about politicians launching tokens, posting, quote, the risk of politician coins comes from the fact that they are such a perfect bribery vehicle. If a politician issues a coin, you do not even need to send them many coins to give them money. Instead, you just buy and hold the coin, and this increases the value of their holdings passively. Day 1. The uproar around the meme coins quieted somewhat as Trump was sworn in, and crypto enthusiasts eagerly anticipated that he would make good on his day one promises. Yet crypto prices reflected the disappointment among those in the crypto industry when neither Bitcoin nor

crypto more broadly earned a mention in his inaugural address. Promises to pardon libertarian and crypto-mortar Ross Ulbricht on day one also went unmet. Rumors of an immediate crypto executive order remained only rumors as the day came and went, with Trump instead focusing his priorities on orders seeking to end birthright citizenship, declaring a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border, eliminating government diversity programs, and pausing the TikTok ban. The one day-one executive order that pertained somewhat to crypto was one demanding an end to, quote, weaponization of the federal government. Although it highlighted cases to do with January 6th and the Black Lives Matter protests, the Securities and Exchange Commission earned a shout-out,

as one of the named agencies whose actions should be reviewed to, quote, identify any instances where a department's or agency's conduct appears to have been contrary to the purposes and policies of this order, a likely nod to the crypto industry. Ross Ulbricht The crypto industry and libertarians alike got their wish on day two, though, as Trump pardoned Ross Ulbricht. Ulbricht, the founder of the notorious Silk Road Dark Web Marketplace, earned a sense of double life in prison plus 40 years after he was convicted on charges including narcotics distribution, money laundering, hacking, and trafficking in fraudulent identity documents.

Prosecutors had also alleged that Albrecht had attempted to commission the murders of at least five people who had reportedly threatened to expose his crimes, but after Albrecht's sentencing, those additional charges were no longer pursued. Trump was very clear in his announcement of the pardon that he had granted it as a thank you to the libertarians, for whom it has been a top priority over the past decade or so. Quote, I just called the mother of Ross William Ulbricht to let her know that in honor of her and the libertarian movement, which supported me so strongly, it was my pleasure to have just signed a full and unconditional pardon of her son Ross, he declared. This quid pro quo apparently won out over any interest from Trump in remaining consistent with his past,

repeated statements that anyone convicted of drug crimes deserves death. Albrecht is a free man now, and he may well also be a rich man soon. The crypto world has raised more than 2.7 bitcoins, priced at around $287,000 in donations, seated with an initial deposit of $11,111 from the Cracken Cryptocurrency Exchange. But he may not need the donations. A director at Coinbase identified around 430 Bitcoins likely belonging to Ulbricht. Quote, back then, these were probably dust wallets, said the Coinbase executive. Referring to wallets containing very small amounts of Bitcoin, they get trapped in those

wallets because they fall below amounts required to pay transaction fees. However, as the Bitcoin price increased dramatically over the years, those 430 Bitcoins, which would have combined to a few hundred dollars around the time Ulbricht created the Silk Road, are now priced at around $47 million. Whether Albrook still has the keys to access these wallets remains to be seen. Some have also wondered if Albrecht might regain access to the billions of dollars in Bitcoin, he forfeited during his case now that he's been pardoned. This seems unlikely, as the pardon does not erase the underlying conviction and does not overturn civil forfeitures. Crypto Executive Order

On day four, the much-awaited crypto-executive order finally appeared, much to the industry's relief. However, the order was not what everyone had hoped. Many had dreamed it might institute the strategic Bitcoin Reserve that has been the topic of much discussion, and is less many bitcoinsers with cartoon dollar signs in their eyes. Instead, the order does a few things. It revokes Biden's executive order on cryptocurrencies, the Treasury's framework for international engagement on digital assets, and any policies, directives, and guidance issued as a result that are deemed to conflict with this new executive order. It establishes a presidential working group on digital assets to be chaired by the special advisor for AI and crypto, David Sacks.

This is a pretty huge working group, containing high-level officials including the Treasury Secretary, Attorney General, Commerce Secretary, SEC and CFTC chairs, and six others, with others to be invited to meetings as deemed necessary. However, some are notably missing from the core group, any delegate from the Federal Reserve, for example. It directs the working group to, within 30 days, identify all regulations, guidance documents, orders, or other items that affect the digital asset sector. Within 60 days, they are to submit recommendations as to whether those items ought to be rescinded, modified, or for items other than regulations, adopted as regulations. It directs the working group to within 180 days,

write a report to the president that will propose a federal regulatory force. framework for digital assets, including stablecoins. And it directs that as a part of this report, the working group is to, quote, evaluate the potential creation and maintenance of a national digital asset stockpile and proposed criteria for establishing such a stockpile, potentially derived from cryptocurrencies lawfully seized by the federal government through its law enforcement efforts. And it prohibits actions that would, quote, establish, issue, or promote central bank digital currencies or CBDCs. Altogether, this seems like nothing much.

The regulatory changes alluded to here were already likely to happen, with or without an executive order, and this order now dictates that they happen by recommendation of gigantic committee. The committee itself also cannot directly make changes, but must rather recommend changes to be approved by others. The Biden executive order also didn't really do anything, and so rescinding it doesn't really rescind anything. This is mostly symbolic, as the Biden executive order strongly emphasized the need for consumer protections and underscored the risks posed by digital assets. As for the Treasury framework, that mostly pertained to collaborating with other countries on digital assets,

including with law enforcement activities to handle illicit transactions using crypto, so I'll be curious to see what is downstream of that. The CBDC prohibition is, again, entirely symbolic. As I mentioned last issue, many Republican crypto enthusiasts enjoy railing against the specter of a CBDC, despite the fact that there has been no effort to actually create one in the United States. However, this may serve to anger some in the Ripple camp, as the company has been hard at work developing a platform for CBDCs. And remember, Ripple was the second largest donor to the Fair Shake Crypto Superpack.

Finally, there's the National Digital Assets Stockpile, which seems to be the most disappointing to the crypto world. Last issue, I mentioned the horrified reaction by Bitcoin Maximilist to the rumors that Trump was considering cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin for this stockpile. The shift from the Strategic National Bitcoin Stockpile wording that Trump used at the Bitcoin Conference, in July 24 to the digital asset stockpile seems to cement this concern for a lot of bitcoiner's, who lamented the likelihood of a, quote, national shit coin stockpile. Furthermore, there was disappointment that Trump was not establishing a strategic reserve of the kinds promoted by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. during his presidential campaign or by Senator Cynthia Lummis in her Bitcoin Act proposal. Both of those suggest that the government should go out and

buy a substantial quantity of Bitcoin, 4 million and 1 million Bitcoins respectively, which would pump the bags of Bitcoiners, including Kennedy and Lemmiss themselves. Instead, Trump's executive order echoes his suggestion at the Bitcoin Conference that the U.S. government should establish a stockpile by holding on to the cryptocurrencies seized by law enforcement, rather than selling them after the assets are formally forfeited. As I wrote in Issue 70, Trump fails to acknowledge that, Much of the time when the government seizes crypto assets and then sells them later on, the proceeds are returned to the victims of the crime.

Trump's plan, at least as elucidated on stage in July, is to put a stop to this practice and instead hold on to those assets that he himself stated had been stolen from people like those in the audience. There's also some disappointment that Trump did not create a strategic stockpile or reserve directly. His promise at the Bitcoin conference that, quote, if I am elected, it will be the policy of my administration, United States of America, to keep 100% of all the Bitcoin the U.S. government currently holds

or acquires into the future, has now become a sub-bullet point in an executive order, instructing that an 11-person committee, led by a venture capitalist, fond of non-bitcoin cryptocurrencies, quote, shall evaluate the potential creation and maintenance of a national digital asset stockpile, and proposed criteria for establishing such a stockpile. After they submit their recommendation in their report, it will be passed over to Congress for further arguing. As Lola Leets wrote on Twitter, quote,

Not going to lie, Trump being wooed by the crypto industry to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars, only to drop an executive order that establishes a working group to maybe build a stockpile by stealing your coins is pretty legendary. Elsewhere in government. Senator Cynthia Lummes, a Republican from Wyoming, faked out the Bitcoin markets by tweeting, quote, big things are coming with the eyeballs emoji, and with the B in Big using the Bitcoin symbol. Then she tweeted, quote, stay tuned for 10 a.m. Bitcoin prices jumped on the news, as many anticipated

that it would, for some reason, be her announcing the Bitcoin Strategic Reserve. Instead, at 1044 a.m, she tweeted that she was, quote, honored to chair the Senate Banking Subcommittee on digital assets, something Punch Bowl News journalist Brendan Peterson had reported weeks ago. Personally, I think it's not great that a senator who personally holds Bitcoin can move Bitcoin markets by a couple thousand dollars with just a tweet. And it's not great that someone with a financial stake in crypto is tasked with regulating the sector. The subcommittee is stacked with crypto proponents, with pro-Crypto Rubin Gallego, a Democrat from Arizona and recipient of $10 million in crypto pack funding, serving as the ranking member.

Pro-Crypto Republicans Bernie Moreno from Ohio, recipient of $40 million, Dave McCormick from Pennsylvania, recipient of $35,000, Tom Tillis from North Carolina, and Bill Hagerty from Tennessee are also taking seats. However, the Democrats besides Gallego on the committee have historically been skeptical of crypto. Mark Warner of Virginia, Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, and Tina Smith of Minnesota. Over at the SEC, Gensler has stepped down as anticipated and is being replaced in the interim by the crypto-friendly Mark Yeda, who has served as a commissioner at the SEC since 2022. Yada will likely be replaced by Trump's nominee Paul Atkins.

Yada quickly announced that he would be forming a, quote, crypto task force dedicated to developing a comprehensive and clear regulatory framework for crypto assets, which will be headed by fellow crypto-friendly Commissioner Hester Pierce. In a press release, the agency signaled its new direction by criticizing its own past actions. To date, the SEC has relied primarily on enforcement actions to regulate crypto retroactively and reactively, often adopting novel and untested legal interpretations along the way. Clarity regarding who must register and practical solutions for those seeking to register, have been elusive. The result has been confusion about what is legal, which creates an environment

hostile to innovation and conducive to fraud. The SEC was also quick to rescind SAB-121, the controversial rule that Congress nearly overturned last year before Biden issued a veto based on concerns about, quote, jeopardizing the well-being of consumers and investors. Quote, bye-bye, SAB-211, it's not been fun, wrote Pierce on Twitter. This rescission will make it easier for banks to get into the crypto custody business. Meanwhile, various financial firms are eagerly testing the waters with the new, more permissive regulators by filing applications for exchange-traded funds tracking meme coins, including Doge, Bonk, and Trump. I suppose the SEC made their bed, and now they're going to have to lie in it by being forced to review

endless applications for the dumbest ETFs possible. If a financial advisor ever recommends I diversify my portfolio by buying shares of a Pepe ETF, I shall take that as my cue to withdraw every penny and place it under my mattress. Trump has chosen Commissioner Caroline Fam as interim chief over at the CFTC, where former chair Rosten Benham has also stepped down. Trump has yet to nominate a replacement CFTC chair, although Bloomberg has reported that yet another Andries and Horowitz employees is in the running, Cryptopolis head Brian Quintes.

Fam was also quick to fire the CFTC's entire leadership team, replacing them with interim directors. The Department of Government Deficiency now has Elon Musk as its sole leader, now that Vivek Ramoswamy is out. While some reports suggest Ramoswamy stepped down entirely of his own volition to pursue an Ohio gubernatorial campaign, other reports suggest Ramoswami, would, was given the boot after internal rifts. Personally, I had not expected to agree so strongly with Musk's first series of cuts. Meanwhile, the group's website went online, with little more than a placeholder text reading,

Department of Government Deficiency, the people voted for major reform. The text was briefly overshadowed by a large image of the Dogecoin cryptocurrency's logo, which was quickly removed. I assume after an adult walked into the room, caught Musk hunched over a laptop, giggling at his handiwork, and put him in timeout. In happier news, Doge is already being sued in separate suits from groups including the National Security Counselors and Public Citizen, both of which aimed to bring more transparency into

the group's operations and clarify its status, and whether it and its employees will be subject to ethics laws. In the courts, at least eight people have been arrested in connection to the kidnapping, of the co-founder of Ledger, a popular cryptocurrency hardware wallet. David Balland and his wife were kidnapped from their home in France early on January 21st by a group who demanded a large cryptocurrency ransom. The group cut off one of Ballin's fingers, sending it to his associates and demanding ransom from them and family members. However, police were able to locate Balland and his wife on the night of January 22nd. Quote, that's seven crypto wrench at

attacks in the first three weeks of this year. Unprecedented acceleration, wrote Jameson Lopp, using slang to refer to physical attacks on people known to hold large sums of crypto. Lop maintains an ongoing list of people who have been attacked in attempted or successful cryptocurrency thefts. The crypto entrepreneur who called himself the godfather and an L.A. sheriff's deputy have both pleaded guilty to charges including criminal conspiracy against rights and tax charges. The godfather, actually Adam Eza, hired members of the sheriff's department to service, quote, his personal enforcers against his enemies, using them to extort, intimidate, and set people up for arrest. The deputy who pleaded guilty, Eric Savadra, also abused his access to the L.A. Sheriff's Department

databases to obtain personal information on Eza's enemies and abused his authority to obtain search warrants against those people. In one case, Savadra obtained an illegal search warrant on a person Eza believed held more than $100 million in cryptocurrency on a personal laptop. Eza hired three armed robbers to try to steal the laptop, though they were unsuccessful, running away when the victim shot at them. In another instance, two other sheriff's deputies held a person hostage at gunpoint in Eza's home until the victim transferred $25,000. In another case, Eza held a person at gunpoint until they handed over $127,000. Eza faces up to 35 years in prison.

Savadra faces up to 13 years in prison. The crypto market maker CLS Global will plead guilty to wash trading on Uniswap and pay around $428,000 in fines and forfeiture. They will also be banned from U.S. crypto markets. The guilty plea was obtained by the FBI through an undercover. operation involving a cryptocurrency they created, called Next Fund AI. Quote, I know that it's wash trading and I know people might not be happy about it, said a CLS employee in a call. Quote, it's very hard to track.

We've been doing that for many clients, they said. Just before the presidential changeover, the SEC filed an enforcement lawsuit against Nova Labs, the creator of the Helium Network. The case alleges that the company sold unregistered securities and mislems. led investors. Much of the case focuses on Helium's false claims of partnerships with big-name companies like Salesforce and Lyme, which were uncovered by reporter Matt Binder in mid-2020. It remains to be seen if this case will survive the likely impending freeze or withdrawal of crypto-focused SEC enforcement actions. Coinbase has filed its anticipated requests to appeal

with the Second Circuit, after being granted permission and a stay of the lawsuit from the SEC in the lower court. Quote, this case cries out for the court's immediate attention, they argued. Quote, whether secondary market trading of digital assets falls within the federal securities laws is a question of immense importance to the crypto industry, consumers, financial institutions, and lower courts in need of guidance. This case presents an ideal vehicle to address that question and provide clear rules for this multi-trillion dollar industry. In bankruptcies, Wazer X has gotten the OK from a Singapore court to begin returning funds to customers after the court determined the platform

was not responsible for the theft. The attack has since been attributed to North Korean state-sponsored hackers. Given that the customer's funds are in North Korea somewhere, the platform will be reimbursing victims with recovery tokens, which are sort of like an IOU. The company hopes that platform revenues, funds generated by a new decentralized exchange that Wazier-X is planning to launch, and any recovered stolen assets will eventually be able to repay their customers to the tune of $235 million. Elsewhere in crypto. Binance Labs, the venture capital arm of Binance, is being rebranded to YZ Labs and turned into founder Chang Peng Zhao's family office. Apparently this is somehow permitted, even though CZ was prohibited from, quote, any present or future involvement in operating or managing

Binance as a part of his plea agreement. Ethereum. Ethereum is having a bit of a crisis lately, particularly as popularity around meme coins have caused Solana to surge, while Ethereum has seemed relatively stagnant. That, combined with the impression that some of the Ethereum Foundation's development has stalled, disagreements over direction and spending, and a series of conflict of interest scandals several months ago, have resulted in a loss of faith in the Ethereum Foundation. Some have called for the ouster of the Foundation's executive director, I.

Miyaguchi, who has held the role since 2018. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin announced on Twitter that, quote, we are indeed currently in the process of large changes to the Ethereum Foundation leadership structure, which has been ongoing for close to a year, outlining some of the changes they were pursuing. However, he clarified that they were not looking to begin joining the kinds of aggressive political lobbying efforts that have been happening from elsewhere in the industry, nor were they looking to, quote, execute some kind of ideological vibes pivot

from feminized W-E-F-boy mentality to Bronze Age mindset. Buterin later emphasized that he was in charge of decision-making around the Ethereum Foundation's leadership team and put his support behind Miyaguchi. He condemned those who were seeking to exert pressure to force Miyaguchi out and called out a series of tweets that advocated

for, quote, bullying her out, or made violent threats against her. Amid the shakeup, core Ethereum developer Eric Connor announced he would be leaving after 11 years. Quote, I am no longer a dot-eath, he wrote. Quote, perhaps someday those in leadership roles will realign with the community, but for now, I am out. He continued, quote, It's beyond exhausting to hear stuff like stop being mean,

used as an excuse to ignore the mandate coming from the community. We are here to change the world, not create a safe space. The Web 3 is going just great recap. There were seven entries between January 17 and January 23rd, averaging one entry per day. 71.25 million dollars was added to the Gryft counter. Femex hacked. A Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange called Femex has suffered a hack of some of their hot wallets, with losses amounting to around $70 million.

Early analysis suggests that this attack is won in a long string of attacks perpetrated by North Korean cyber attackers, who have pulled off other high-value crypto heists in recent years. Trump inauguration pastor launches a meme coin that tanks by over 90%. The pastor who delivered the benediction at Trump's inauguration was in such a rush to launch his meme coin that he was still wearing his outfit from the inauguration when he recorded a video hours later, to announce, I need you to do me a favor and go and get that coin in order for us to accomplish the vision that God has called us to do in our earth. Apparently, God's vision also involved the coin rapidly losing the vast majority of its value.

Everything else. Thor Chain is insolvent. A Trump cross-posting Twitter account advertised fake meme coins that made $1.25 million. A Students for Trump co-founder, Ryan Fornier, admitted to rug-pulling a meme coin while trying to deny rug-pulling the meme coin. Melania Trump launched a meme coin of her own, tanking her husbands in the process, and Trump launched a shit coin. In the news, crypto conversations. I talked to a lot of journalists about crypto this week. I suspect I will be talking to a lot of journalists about crypto a lot going forward. Some of these conversations were with CNN, Vox, the Saturday Papers 7am podcast, and background briefing.

I didn't directly talk to the New York Times, NBC News, Inc, futurism, AFP, or The Byline Times. I don't think, I'm a little delirious, but they cited my work, which I'm always happy to see. Having gotten over the apparent fleeting distraction that was the inauguration, Elon Musk and other wealthy and influential members of the tech oligarchy have been back. to attacking Wikipedia again. I spoke about this rapidly intensifying trend with Catherine Fung at Newsweek, who wrote an article titled,

Why is Maga setting its sites on Wikipedia? That's all for now, folks. Until next time, this has been Molly White. Thanks for listening to this issue of the citation-needed newsletter. If you would like to support my work with a free or pay-what-you-want subscription to the citation-needed newsletter,

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