Molly White's Citation Needed - Issue 85 – All the President’s tokens
Episode Date: June 5, 2025As Trump’s web of crypto projects gets tangled up in itself, a regulator warns of “regulatory Jenga” in the crypto sector that echoes the 2008 financial crisis. Originally published on June 5, 2...025.
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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 85. All the President's tokens.
As Trump's web of crypto projects gets tangled up in itself, a regulator warns of, quote,
regulatory jenga in the crypto sector that echoes the 2008 financial crisis.
This issue was originally published on June 5, 2025.
After I broke the news that Magic Eden and the Trump Memecoin project would be announcing a, quote,
official Trump wallet by President Trump, things exploded into chaos, and not just because the
President of the United States continues to demolish his own records for self-dealing.
Magic Eden pushed out their announcement quickly after I published my story, only for all three
of the Trump sons to repudiate the project within hours.
quote, I run the Trump organization and I know nothing about this project, tweeted Eric Trump.
Donald Trump Jr. made a similar post, reiterating that the World Liberty Financial Project was working on their own version of a Trump wallet.
Even Barron Trump, who is normally fairly absent from social media, posted that, quote,
Our family has zero involvement with this wallet.
This potential conflict with the World Liberty Financial Project, which is more closely affiliated with the Trump's sons,
was something I noted in my original post.
I wrote that there seemed to me to be, quote, questions
as to whether these various Trump-affiliated crypto projects,
some of which are managed by separate entities,
might wind up competing with one another.
Evidently, such questions never even occurred
to the Magic Eden team or the Trump meme coin team
while they were working on this announcement
because they seemed caught completely off guard.
Confusion quickly spread throughout the crypto world,
with many questioning if Magic Eden's social media accounts had been hacked to announce a fake project.
A Twitter account associated with a new Trump wallet, which had been verified with a badge
associating it to the Magic Eden Company, was briefly suspended, and announcement tweets were annotated
with Twitter community notes highlighting the Trump family's disavowal.
Others wondered if Magic Eden, a fairly large player in the crypto world as they go,
had been so brazen as to completely fabricate a partner.
with the Trump's or Trump-affiliated entities.
Neither is the case.
The Magic Eden announcements legitimately came from the company,
and the Trump Memcoin project confirmed its involvement with the Wallet project.
This leaves the most likely explanation, in my opinion,
that Trump has sold his likeness to so many projects led by separate entities,
while his sons also actively exploit the Trump branding,
that no one really knows what's going on in aggregate.
I have mapped out all of the people, LLCs, and crypto projects associated with the Trump family,
and the tangled web illustrates the chaos.
I should also note that the diagram, which is published in the web version of this newsletter,
is limited to what's publicly known, and there are many missing links and entities
whose operators are partially or completely unknown.
The distance between the meme coin end of the business, run by entities affiliated with businessman Bill's anchor,
and the World Liberty Financial Project, which is more closely tied to Trump's sons,
is the likely culprit for the communications breakdown.
However, it's still not fully clear to me how the meme coin business could legitimately sign off on a wallet project
using Trump's name and likeness without the son's knowledge or sign off from the Trump organization,
unless the original licensing agreement for the meme coin was exceptionally broad.
On June 5th, two days after the original announcement, Bloomberg reported that the Trump's sons had sent a cease and desist order via World Liberty Financial to the Trump Memcoin Project and to Magic Eden.
Shortly after their story published, the TrumpWallet.com site hosting the waitless sign-up went offline, though it's not clear if this is a direct result of the threat of legal action or an unrelated outage.
Since Tuesday's announcement, Magic Eden, the Trump Memecoin Project, and the Trump family have otherwise maintained complete radio silence about the wallet project, deepening confusion around its status.
Even Trump himself, usually quick to promote projects bearing his name, has remained uncharacteristically quiet.
Behind the scenes, Magic Eden is likely scrambling to salvage what has become an embarrassing public relations disaster.
In the Courts
Safe Moon CEO John Coroney was convicted on all three charges after a jury found that he had committed fraud by diverting funds from the supposedly locked liquidity pool for his own personal use.
He faces up to 45 years in prison.
A committee representing creditors in the Genesis bankruptcy has filed two lawsuits against Barry Silbert, the founder and CEO of Genesis's parent company Digital Currency Group.
Digital Currency Group is also named in the suit, as are several other executives and entities.
The lawsuits, one filed in bankruptcy court and one in Delaware Chancery Court,
alleged misconduct by Silbert and others that led to Genesis's collapse,
and accused them of covering up Genesis's insolvency and falsely reassuring creditors that Genesis was in strong
financial condition.
Among their claims are allegations that Silbert, his brother, and other company executives
took millions of dollars in loans from the founder and company
as they simultaneously tried to convince investors not to call back loans or withdraw funds.
The creditors seek $2.3 billion in restitution.
DCG has refuted the allegations in the lawsuits,
which it says, quote,
recycles the same tired, two-year-old claims
in an opportunistic attempt by sophisticated investors
to extract additional value from DCG.
Avraham Eisenberg, who was just sentenced over four years in prison on a charge of possessing child sexual abuse materials,
just caught something of a break when the judge in his case overturned his April 2024 crypto fraud conviction
on the basis that prosecutors had failed to prove that Eisenberg made false representations to mango markets
in the course of his $110 million maneuver, which one might classify either as a theft or a trade depending on whose side they're on.
This has some potentially interesting ramifications for the crypto world,
as it lends some weight to the Code is law arguments that Eisenberg made throughout his case.
However, as the judge had previously said, the CSAM sentence is likely to be the bulk of his prison term regardless,
so this may not have much of a practical difference for Eisenberg.
Coinbase has moved to remove the Oregon Attorney General's securities case against them to federal court,
arguing that the case is a, quote, regulatory land grab by an AG, quote,
dissatisfied with the federal government's recent enforcement decisions.
Trump Crypto Projects
When the Financial Times reported on May 26th that Trump Media and Technology Group
planned to raise billions of dollars to buy Bitcoin,
TMTG slams a publication as, quote, dumb writers listening to even dumber sources.
The following day, TMTG issued a press release,
announcing that they would be raising billions of dollars to buy Bitcoin.
TMTG has also filed a registration statement for a, quote,
truth social Bitcoin ETF.
As previously announced, the ETF will be created via a partnership with the Singapore-based
crypto.com.
Crypto.com had been facing an investigation from the SEC until the company announced
three days after its partnership with TMTG that the agency had dropped the investigation.
Memecoin dinner.
Trump held his meme coin dinner on May 22nd,
drawing a crowd of crypto elite who spent anywhere from $55,000 to nearly $38 million
to secure a seat at the dinner table,
with the event driving almost $150 million in token sales.
Some of the attendees I'd previously identified indeed were there,
including the leaderboard topping Justin's son,
at least one delegate from Memecor, who were a match.
throughout, and someone from Lucky Future, an embryonic company that plans to launch a, quote,
AI-based ETF.
Crypto executives from various companies were also in attendance, including Magic Edens's
Jack Liu, Winter Mutes of Genie Gavoy, Axi Infinities Jeffrey Zerlin, and Unstoppable Domains
Sandy Carter.
There was also former NBA player Lamar Odom, who just launched a, quote, anti-addiction-themed
meme coin, where 5% of the token is allocated to supporting drug rehabilitation centers and mental
health education, but only once the token hits $10 billion in market cap. 20% goes to a, quote,
special allocation for the Trump dinner program. Trump's own attendance at the dinner was brief,
precisely 23 minutes, according to one attendee. Trump disembarked from the Marine One helicopter,
gave a characteristically rambling speech about transgender athletes,
autopens, Joe Biden, and eventually his favors to the crypto industry,
shuffled and pumped his fists to the beat of YMCA,
and then left without taking any pictures or speaking even to the VIP attendees.
Attendees were served mediocre food and presented with fight, fight, fight, fight ball caps
and collectible plastic sheathed trading cards.
Standing in the rain outside the dinner, about 100 protesters held large coin-looking signs with Trump's face on them that read, quote, stop crypto corruption.
Others had handmade signs with slogans like America is not for sale and release the guest list.
Congressman Jeff Merkley, a Democrat from Oregon, made an appearance describing the event as the, quote, crypto corruption club.
There's been a push for Trump to disclose the list of guests, though press secretary,
statements dodging the question suggests he's not likely to do so by choice.
The Wall Street Journal editorial board published an op-ed ahead of the event,
urging the president to cancel the dinner, or barring that, to, quote,
at least disclose his crypto-contest winners so Americans know who may be trying to buy access
to the president.
A letter by House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Raskin, a Democrat from Maryland,
demanded Trump release by June 4th the name of attendees and information.
on the source of the money used to purchase Trump tokens.
Raskin, I will note, cited this newsletter twice in his letter.
In Congress.
The Genius Act Stablecoin bill has still yet to go to a full vote,
but Stablecoin Giant Circle, which issues the U.S.D.C. stablecoin,
nevertheless just filed to go public,
targeting a massive valuation that would rival the likes of Visa.
It's kind of weird timing, given that it means they have to include statements
in their prospectus like, quote,
we are hopeful that a comprehensive U.S. federal-level regulatory framework for stable coins
will emerge in the near term.
My sense is that they are anticipating major competition,
likely from huge financial or tech companies, once such a framework exists,
and so they're rushing to go public fast.
This anticipation seems justified, given Wall Street Journal reporting,
that major banks, J.P. Morgan Chase, Bank of America,
City Group, and Wells Fargo are considering launching a joint stablecoin venture.
Does anyone else remember when crypto is supposed to be the antidote to banks, not their next product line?
Oh well.
Someone, read the crypto industry, also lit a fire under the ass of Congress people working on the crypto market structure bill,
which has since received one of those kitsy acronyms Congress can't seem to resist.
Now known as the Clarity Act, the bill seeks to establish a joint regulatory,
environment between the SEC and CFTC, carving out something called a, quote, investment contract
asset to exempt some kinds of crypto assets from securities regulations. It's a complex and
convoluted bill, and it's pretty clear to me from reading it that it was written by industry
lobbyists. I don't actually think, at least as drafted, that it's likely to introduce that much
in the way of clarity to crypto regulation. There are still weird and vague definitions that would still
seem to require the kind of securities analyses that the industry has been trying to sidestep.
However, the bill's authors may also be relying on the fact that, at least for now, the SEC doesn't
seem terribly interested in crypto enforcement. The Clarity Act also introduces a poorly defined concept
of a, quote, mature blockchain system, which seems to be the evolution of Fit 21's, quote,
decentralized system evaluation. However, under the bill, blockchain system developers need
merely state that they intend to become a mature blockchain, and they're granted four years and
allowed to raise up to $75 million without significant scrutiny. One need only take the briefest
glance at Web3 is going just great to see how many scams people can pull off in much less than
four years, and to the tune of less than $75 million, while nevertheless doing substantial damage.
As for consumer protections, the bill's authors devote very little attention to.
it, leaving much of it for the CFTC to figure out later. The same CFTC, as I will explain in a
moment, that may well have a single commissioner out of its usual five. The bill's clear purpose is
deregulation, and it carves out significant areas of activity, such as all of decentralized finance,
from both securities and commodities regulations without specifying anything to fill the vacuum.
The bill is on a rocket schedule, with a hearing already held on June 4th and markup scheduled for
June 10th. The June 4th hearing featured as witnesses two crypto-friendly former regulators and two members
of the crypto industry. Ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee, Maxine Waters,
subsequently requested a minority day hearing with a panel of witnesses that would be
selected by Democrats, which she said would discuss, quote, President Trump's crypto conflicts of
interest and corruption, the effects of the Clarity Act of 2025 on consumer and investor protection,
national security, and existing securities and commodity futures regulation, and the potential
effects of the proposed legislation on the digital asset industry and broader financial system.
The speed at which this bill is being pushed through is perhaps not surprising, given the attention
to crypto industry desires from the top echelons of government, and concern that changes need to
happen fast while there's enough concentration of power to force them through. J.D. Vance,
speaking at the Bitcoin 2025 conference on May 28, was blunt. Quote, I hope that our party is in charge
for a long time, but nothing is ever guaranteed in politics. So the best way to ensure that
crypto is part of the mainstream economy is through a market structure bill that champions and does
not restrict the extraordinary value that Bitcoin and other digital assets represent.
Voices from the crypto lobby have expressed similar sentiments that crypto bills need to happen rapidly
before there's any chance for crypto advocates to lose their dominance in Congress after the midterms.
In Regulators. Last recap issue, I wrote that only one current CFTC commissioner would likely remain
after the confirmation of a new CFTC chair. Well, the one holdout is planning to leave too.
If Trump nominee Brian Quintens is confirmed by the Senate, he may,
may end up with unilateral authority over the agency. This is particularly concerning as
crypto legislation underway in Congress seeks to delegate a substantial portion of crypto industry
oversight to the CFTC and directs the commission to engage in substantial crypto-related
rulemaking. It also means that Trump will have the ability to nominate an entirely new slate of
commissioners, which will not likely include anyone cautious about cryptocurrency. The Department of Labor has
rescinded guidance from 2022 that instructed 401k plan fiduciaries to exercise, quote, extreme caution
before providing any cryptocurrency options to plan participants. In a statement, the Labor Department
justifies the change by saying that they historically take a neutral approach to investment types and
strategies, and that the rescission should not be interpreted as either an endorsement or disapproval
of the choice to offer crypto options in retirement plans. Some have interpreted the rescission as a, quote,
green light for crypto in 401ks by the Trump administration. Others have expressed some skepticism
that plan managers will widely incorporate these types of assets, given their fiduciary duty to
manage risk and prioritize the best interests of plan participants. SEC. The SEC has also done a
180 on a previous stance, now issuing a staff statement that crypto staking does not fall within their
jurisdiction. The agency had previously brought enforcement actions against finance and Coinbase
involving their crypto staking programs, and in 2023, Cracken paid a $30 million settlement and shut
down its staking as a service program after being charged by the SEC.
State securities regulators have also taken enforcement actions against crypto staking services,
such as a group of 10 state securities regulators who all sued Coinbase in 2023.
Interestingly, within days of Trump's inauguration in January, Cracken had relaunched the staking program
they'd shut down as a part of the settlement agreement, seemingly confident of not only the
regulator's new general stance on staking, but also that they would not enforce the permanent injunction
on such activities that was imposed by the settlement agreement.
Commissioner Crenshaw issued her own statement on the SEC's About Face, writing that it was,
quote, yet another example of the SEC's ongoing fake-it-tete.
until we make it approach to crypto.
Those remarks echo her speech from earlier in the month, where she warned,
My remarks today offer a word of caution as the agency chips away at decades of our own work.
And at the same time that we stare down alarming market volatility,
emerging risks, and calls for deregulatory action in all corners of our markets.
As we careen down this path full speed, it almost feels like we're playing a game of regulatory jenga.
Our proverbial jenga board is made up of a set of discrete, bless you, but interrelated rules and laws,
deeply and carefully developed over the years and implemented by a strong agency of experts.
skilled in overseeing and regulating are increasingly complex markets.
Of course, in Jenga, the tower remains standing when you pull out a block or two here and there.
But how many blocks can you pull out before the tower gives way?
When it comes to the stability of our markets, how far are we willing to take our dangerous game?
who would ultimately be the loser when the foundation gives way.
I worry, as we all should, that those losing the most won't be the influential mudding interests.
Rather, it will be Main Street Americans, the investors and the small business owners who can least afford the greatest loss.
She then went on to outline the agency's recent actions to push out experienced staff,
statements that, quote, dilute or effectively rescind securities laws,
failures to enforce securities laws, and choices to ignore significant risks in crypto and other portions of the market.
She concludes,
This is a dangerous game.
We're pulling apart our own regulatory foundation, block by block, case by case, and rule by rule.
It feels all too familiar to those of us who lived through 2008.
Crenshaw's concerns certainly haven't slowed down the agency any, though.
After submitting a joint filing quickly after Trump's inauguration to stay the ongoing enforcement case
against finance, the SEC has now submitted a joint stipulation to dismiss the case with prejudice.
The SEC says they have decided as a, quote, exercise of its discretion and as a policy matter to dismiss the case,
which features a written statement from a Binance chief compliance officer that, quote,
we are operating as a fucking unlicensed securities exchange in the USA, bro,
and evidence that Binance was not just violating securities laws pertaining to registration,
but was also committing fraud.
A week before the dismissal, Binance listed World Liberty Financial's USD1 stablecoin
for trading on their platform.
Trump owns a 60% stake in World Liberty and receives a substantial share of token and
protocol revenues. The stable coin has also been used to facilitate a $2 billion investment from the
Emeradi MGX investment firm into Binance, a huge boon for world liberty and, by extension, for Trump
personally. Crypto kidnappings and Coinbase. The slew of physical attacks against wealthy
cryptocurrency holders has continued. Two cryptocurrency investors and entrepreneurs have been arrested
in New York after allegedly kidnapping and brutally torturing an Italian man for nearly three weeks,
hoping to steal millions of dollars in Bitcoin holdings. The victim was a former partner in an
investment fund with one of the attackers. The men reportedly tortured their victim with
electrocution and beatings, urinated on him, forced him to smoke drugs, threatened his family,
and dangled him off a five-story building threatening to drop him. When he finally agreed to hand over
control of his Bitcoin to his torturers, they went to get a laptop, and the victim was able to
escape the Manhattan townhouse where he was being held captive and alert police.
One of the alleged captors, 32-year-old William DePlessy, co-founded a cryptocurrency investment fund.
The other, 37-year-old John Wolts, works in cryptocurrency mining. Both men have pleaded not guilty.
A 24-year-old actress was also initially charged in connection to the kidnapping, but her prosecution has
been deferred. The case has grown somewhat messier, as two detectives with a New York police department
were found to have provided security at the Manhattan apartment, and one of them, who also serves on
Mayor Eric Adams' personal security detail, allegedly drove the victim from the airport to the apartment
where he was later tortured. Both policemen were placed on, quote, modified desk duty, as the department
investigates their possible connection. All of this has made the victims of the recent Coinbase data breach,
which exposed identification information, physical addresses, and account balances, all the more concerned.
Thanks to a data breach disclosure filed in Maine, we now know that Coinbase thinks precisely
69,461 customers were affected by the data breach. Some Coinbase customers have indicated they
think the scale of the breach is much wider than that, citing a noticeable uptick in fishing
attempts since the approximate time of the data theft, despite no notification from Coinbase that their account data
was compromised in this breach.
However, it can be challenging to distinguish fishing attempts likely tied to this breach
from wide-scale fishing attacks by scammers merely targeting a list of phone numbers
or who are using other leaked data from other platform data breaches in hopes of finding
reused passwords.
Many have begun seeking recourse in the courts, where Coinbase is now facing at least 14
separate customer class actions and one shareholder class action.
Another class action lawsuit was also filed against Task Us, an outsourcing company plaintiffs believe
Coinbase used to hire the customer service agents who were bribed to share sensitive data.
One of the plaintiffs behind one of the customer class actions has also filed a motion to transfer
the whole pile of lawsuits to the judicial panel on multi-district litigation,
which consolidates multiple cases across multiple districts that involve common underlying issues.
The class action lawsuits against Coinbase are likely to face challenges
thanks to Coinbase's class action waiver that seeks to force a grieved customers into arbitration.
New customer terms of service that went into effect almost simultaneously with the breach announcement
also seek to force plaintiffs to sue in New York,
which could pose additional challenges to the nine of the lawsuits that were filed in other states.
Elsewhere in government.
When he's not rubbing elbows with detectives who moonlight as chauffeurs for
Crypto kidnappers, New York mayor Eric Adams has been busy getting back to his crypto boosterism.
He's been a crypto guy for a while. In November 2021, shortly after his election, he announced
a stunt in which he opted to take his first three paychecks in Bitcoin. Now he's appeared on stage
at Bitcoin 2025, wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with a logo of David Bailey's new Bitcoin treasury
company Nakamoto and dubbing himself, quote, the Bitcoin mayor. There, he called for the end. He called for the
end of the New York Department of Financial Services fairly strict bit-licensed cryptocurrency regulatory
regime. He also proposed the idea of issuing, quote, bit bonds, which would evidently be some kind
of Bitcoin-backed municipal bonds. This idea was quickly smacked down by the New York City comptroller
Brad Lander, who is also challenging Adams in the upcoming mayoral race, and who described the idea
as, quote, legally dubious and fiscally irresponsible. Elsewhere, Adams has proposed creating
a crypto advisory council for the city, using crypto to pay city taxes, and issuing birth and
death certificates on the blockchain. Coinbase's crypto lobbying group Stand with Crypto
apparently forgot to vet its choice of entertainers and had to awkwardly cancel a scheduled
performance by Solja Boy at a get-out-the-vote event for the New Jersey governor race after Politico
pointed out that he was found liable a month ago for abusing and sexually assaulting a former
assistant. Oopsie. While Stand With Crypto has previously focused its lobbying mostly at the federal
level, they have suddenly grown very interested in the New Jersey gubernatorial race. In addition to the
upcoming event, both of the state's Republican and Democratic primary debates were sponsored by
Stand With Crypto. New Jersey gubernatorial candidate and current congressman Josh Gottheimer has
been a strong ally to the crypto industry, which may be what's drawing the group's interest.
Outside the U.S.
The International Monetary Fund has published its first regular report on a funding agreement with El Salvador.
Despite Salvador and President Buckeli's promises after the original deal was made that he would continue to buy more Bitcoin on behalf of the country,
the IMF says that, quote, efforts will continue to ensure that the total amount of Bitcoin held across all government-owned wallets remains unchanged,
consistent with program commitments, while also securing the unwinding,
of the public sector's participation in the Chivo Bitcoin wallet by end July.
In Argentina, President Millet has disbanded the unit that was supposed to investigate the
Libra-Meme coin scandal in which he was implicated. The committee did not publish a report on their
findings or communicate any result. Some Argentinian lawmakers have pushed for continuing
investigations, but they have so far been blocked by members of Milay's party. However, there's
been some progress in the states, where a district judge overseeing a lawsuit against
Kelseyor Ventures, KIPP protocol, Hayden Davis, and others involved in launching the token,
granted a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to freeze Libra tokens,
$110 million in Libra proceeds belonging to Hayden Davis, and another $57.7 million in
U.S.D.C. plus any additional Libra proceeds in two other wallets. In the Czech Republic,
Justice Minister Pavel Blachek
has resigned amid a scandal in which the ministry
accepted a donation in Bitcoin
from a person previously convicted of drug dealing
and other crimes in connection to his operation
of a dark web marketplace.
The ministry then sold the donated tokens
for more than $45 million earlier this year.
Despite his resignation,
the former justice minister has defended his behavior
as, quote, so ultra-legal that it couldn't be more legal.
Ah, well, in that case,
Police have arrested a Vietnamese woman wanted by Interpol in connection to a $300 million
scam operation that solicited thousands of investors with promises of 20 to 30% returns on a
4x and crypto trading platform.
Australia's securities regulator has finally filed suit against a former director of the
collapsed ACX or blockchain global after previously failing to investigate the massive collapse
and allegations of wrongdoing.
The Web 3 is going just great recap.
There were three entries between May 21st and June 5th, averaging 0.2 entries per day.
$83.5 million was added to the Gryft Counter.
The CEDIS protocol was exploited for $223 million.
The Cetus Protocol, a decentralized exchange on the Suey blockchain, was exploited for $223 million
by an attacker who manipulated vulnerabilities in the project's smart contracts.
Shortly after the theft, validators on the sui blockchain collaborated to blocklist addresses
associated with the theft, effectively freezing approximately $163 million of the stolen funds.
While this was successful in mitigating the damage, it drew criticism from decentralization
advocates, who noted that the ability for validators to censor transactions in such a way
proved that the network was not truly decentralized. A week after the theft, validators on the
Sui Network passed a governance vote to return the stolen assets to Cetus. The remaining $60 million
in stolen funds will also be repaid to customers through a combination of project treasuries
and a loan from the Sui Foundation. Everything else. The Cork Protocol was exploited for $12 million,
and the Taiwanese Bito Pro exchange belatedly disclosed an $11.5 million hack.
Worth a read. Adam Levitton, a law professor and blogger,
at Credit Slips, whose excellent piece on the crypto industry's debanking story have previously
featured in this newsletter, has recently published an analysis of the insolvency provisions in the
Genius Act, which is the Stablecoin legislation currently under consideration in the Senate.
That's titled, Forcing Bank Deposits to subsidize Stablecoins, the Genius Act, and is found on the
Credit Slips blog. Jason Kebler at 404 Media put out a call for letters from teachers who have experienced
changes in how they teach as a result of generative AI. Quote,
one thing is clear, teachers are not okay, he writes in a piece titled, Teachers Are Not Okay,
for 404 Media.
In the news, the New York Times, Wired, CNN, Fortune, and The Verge all cited my reporting
on the recent Trump crypto-wallet news. NBC, ABC, Fast Company, The Dispatch, and the American
prospect also quoted me or cited my work in connection to Trump's meme coin news.
dinner. The American prospect article, titled Three Coin Monty, is by Jacob Silverman, and it's
particularly good. The lever, DL News, and CoinDesk cited my reporting about Coinbase's data breach and the
timing of their terms of service change. Business Insider and Vice wrote stories based on my reporting
about OpenAI's in-cell chatbot, and The Verge shared my story. OpenAI has since taken down
the GPT after initially refusing to act on moderation reports. I also joined the Electronic Frontier
Foundation's How to Fix the Internet podcast for a wide-ranging conversation about tech criticism,
loving the web, decentralized social media, and 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
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