The Wolf Of All Streets - It’s War! This Is How We Save Crypto In The United States | John E. Deaton

Starting point is 00:00:00 75% of my net worth is in Bitcoin. Bitcoin? And you're going to see me and Elizabeth Warren debate. We're going to take the head of the snake. Just last week, she said that Bitcoin is being used to fund child slavery. She's a smart woman, Scott. She's a very smart woman. Where my first day of high school, I had a gun put in my mouth and a gun cocked.

Starting point is 00:00:21 And I was a high school dropout for the first three months. It's China. It's China. And so it's very dangerous. We could go into the dark ages of crypto. Crypto enthusiasts in the United States of America bitch and moan about the egregious overreach of the United States government. And we all know that there's one person at the top of all of those attacks, and that is Elizabeth Warren, the senator from Massachusetts. Well, if we beat her, we can save the crypto industry in the United States, and we have one of our own, John Deaton, running against her.

Starting point is 00:00:53 It is imperative that you listen to this podcast, listen to this conversation, hear John's words, and understand how important it is that we make sure he gets elected. John, man, you're taking on Elizabeth Warren, public enemy number one, the spider with her tentacles. Yes guess spiders don't have tentacles. Spider with her eight legs, the octopus with the tentacles and everything we try to do in this world. Man, you must hate fun and be a glutton for punishment because that cannot be a pleasant process. Well, listen, man, I appreciate you having me on. I wouldn't be doing

Starting point is 00:01:46 it, brother, if I didn't know at my core that I could beat her. And, you know, I can tell you and your viewers, my biggest problem isn't Elizabeth Warren. I relish when it's going to be me and her on stage. Trust me. What the problem is, you know, people think that she can't be beat. They have this image that Massachusetts is this, you know, very liberal state that's always going to vote her. And it's not true. Sixty four percent of all registered voters are actually unenrolled in Massachusetts. And so I look forward to making the case. But the campaign's going great. You know, someone's got to fight the beast. They've had Republican. They've had very popular Republican governors.

Starting point is 00:02:27 Yeah, Charlie. And I'm glad you brought it up because one of the things I looked at, Scott, was I saw a poll come out. It came out in either May or August of 2023. And it said, if former Republican governor Charlie Baker were to run for this seat, he beats her not close, 49% to 34, not even close. Now, let's be fair and objective. That doesn't translate directly to me. I'm not former Governor Baker. I don't have his name recognition. But it shows you the right candidate with these voters it's not even

Starting point is 00:03:07 close and so it just shows you that she is vulnerable uh to to the right candidate scott brown was a former uh republican who was a senator as well mitt romney was the governor of massachusetts so republicans have won and and this Republican is going to win again. Crypto investors in the United States face some major challenges. One of them is that there's almost no way to get exposure to the asset class inside of your traditional investment vehicles. The other thing is the taxes. They are absolutely atrocious. What if I told you there was a way to solve both of these problems? Well, there is, and it's with a self-directed IRA from iTrust Capital.

Starting point is 00:03:47 Guys, not only can you open a new self-directed IRA and fund it with the limits each year, but you can actually convert over from your 401k, your Roth IRA, any other IRA that you already have, and you can do that tax-free, just transferring over the balance, and then you can go to cash, buy as much Bitcoin than you want, and not pay taxes when you sell it you absolutely have to

Starting point is 00:04:08 try this if you are in the United States use the link down below it's bit.ly slash I trust dash Scott that's bit.ly slash ITR UST dash SEO TT you have to try this now would you be running for Senate if it wasn't her? You know, sure. Because the country's in a crisis and Massachusetts is ground zero. And I mean that in everything. And I won't, I'll just give you two examples. Illegal immigration. We all can agree that that's reached epic crisis status, right? 7.2 million have crossed in the last three years. Well, Massachusetts, people would say, oh, it's not a border state. Scott, we have a right to shelter

Starting point is 00:04:52 law in Massachusetts, which means the government must put you up in a hotel150 a night. That's $79,000, $78,000 per migrant in Massachusetts. And every year it's doubling and doubling. So there's that crisis. We're number one. When you look at inflation, housing prices, Massachusetts is the third highest. Average home sells for over $600,000. Greater Boston area, $980,000. And Massachusetts is either second or third in overall cost of living.

Starting point is 00:05:31 We go back and forth. Hawaii's first, and then it's either California or Massachusetts, depending on each month. So two of the biggest issues in the country. And we have people like Senator Warren, who just stays in Washington, D.C., fuels the division, points the finger. And I think that we've reached epic crisis status that the voters are ready to say we want something different, as long as it's a viable candidate that they can trust. And I think I'm going to be successful, brother. I wouldn't be doing it. I wouldn't put my own money in it. i wouldn't put my own money in it i wouldn't subject myself to the scrutiny that's

Starting point is 00:06:08 coming uh the things that you have to you know everything a campaign brings the sacrifice on your personal life all that stuff i wouldn't do it if i couldn't win that i love how you talk about the scrutiny as if you didn't write a book and just put everything that could have possibly been out on the streets to be publicly available and scrutinized in the first place, which I think, in my mind, makes you a lot more bulletproof than other candidates who have not really been transparent about their past. And they certainly don't have your past, but many of them. No, listen, when I was writing the book, I didn't know that I would be running for office. But I think you're right. People are ready for someone to keep it real and be transparent.

Starting point is 00:06:49 Hey, Scott, let me let everybody know something right now. I'm a flawed man and I am an imperfect candidate. All right. And so but one thing I'm looking forward to saying to Senator Warren is that you read my book. I've done some stuff, made some mistakes in my life. But the one thing you can never say is I've never claimed to be someone or something I'm not. Yeah, I'm not going to even go there with her. I would imagine that the people watching this podcast are waiting for you to say, I'm doing this because she's so anti-crypto. But we know it's much greater than that. And that's not the main cause. But as I said at

Starting point is 00:07:28 the beginning, she is at least perceived as really publicly enemy number one in the United States. She's given us such greatest hits as Gary Gensler and plants in the White House who are whispering in Biden's ear and have basically negotiated to have the power over this industry and the way the policy is crafted. So in our own very self-interest, we need her to lose. I should also ask, is that an accurate characterization of her role? Oh, there's no doubt about it. I mean, if you look at she wanted Gary Gensler where he's at. She's been his biggest proponent. His Gary Gensler's daughter interned and worked for Elizabeth Warren. They have a close relationship. I mean, you've seen the the FOIA request that showed that Elizabeth Warren's office gave him the questions, the answers and even said, I don't want to you know, the senator doesn't want to put the chairman in a

Starting point is 00:08:25 tough spot. That's your job. Your job for oversight is to put them in a tough spot. So there's that, you know, she just had the hearing with the deputy guy from the treasury. They used to be her chief of staff, right? So she's had two former chief of staffs placed in the White House when it comes to the financial markets and the banking industry. She's obviously the biggest voice, in my opinion, even more than Sherrod Brown on the Senate Banking Committee. And we know that she wrote, her bill was written by Jamie Dimon and the Banking Institute Policy of the United States, chaired by Jamie Dimon. So what everybody needs to know is I don't have to go negative on Senator Warren, and I'm not, but I can show that she's the

Starting point is 00:09:14 epitome of what happens in Washington, D.C. Scott, 12 years ago, she pounded the table, outraged that no banker went to prison from the 2008 financial crisis. She promised she was going to hold the bankers accountable. A decade later, they write her bills. If that's not the epitome of Washington, D.C., I don't know what is. But the final thing I'll tell you is people ask me, am I the pro-crypto candidate? And I tell him I'm the pro freedom candidate. You know, I was on Scaramucci's podcast and he was doing his word association test and he threw Bitcoin out. And my response was freedom, you know, and her bill actually is a de facto ban of self-custody of Bitcoin in America. And if that doesn't outrage you, if that's not an attack on freedom, I don't know what is. Because there is no, in my opinion, more better modern day example of freedom than being able to self-custody your own assets and control your own finance.

Starting point is 00:10:22 So interestingly, that bill hasn't been approved. She has a poor track record of bills being approved. But even just in the past 10 to 20 days, we've seen action from multiple three-letter agencies against self-custody without those new laws necessarily being in place. We saw the FBI literally wrote a letter warning people not to use unregistered money transmitters,

Starting point is 00:10:44 right, basically talking about wallets. We saw Uniswap basically sued by the SEC, consensus getting a Wells notice, action against MetaMask, and the IRS put out their form that basically says that every self-custodied wallet broker, miner, exchange is going to have to act as a broker and report KYC AML of every person. So even without the bill, if we believe she's the head of the snake going to have to act as a broker and report KYC AML of every person. So even without the bill, if we believe she's the head of the snake, I have to imagine that some of this is coming down from that same sort of thinking. This attack on self-custody is massive in the past few weeks. It's not really being discussed. No, no, you're 100% right. And listen, I got to tell you something. I've been saying this and people at first, I was being interviewed by a local Boston journalist and I said this and he scratched his head. I said, I'm not the crypto going on, all the things that we have in this country.

Starting point is 00:11:49 Why would she announce her entire reelection around building an anti-crypto army with all those real urgent issues? Why did she? And I'll be honest, Scott, I was scratching my head for a long time. And then I saw that she went on Chuck Todd's Meet the Press and said, America is ready for a Federal Reserve CBDC. And then I scratched my head. Well, in order to fully implement a Federal Reserve CBDC, you got to get rid of the bitcoins and the other tokens or anything, take out that kind of self-custody and rely on the government. And brother, let me tell you something. George Orwell is spinning in his grave because that's big brother come to life. If they can control your and my money programmably, cut it off geographically, turn it on and off for certain reasons,

Starting point is 00:12:47 then they control your life in every facet. And so it's not hyperbole for me to say freedom's on the line. It's not hyperbole for me to say that what she's doing and what you just described by the government is the biggest threat of freedom in my lifetime. I honestly believe that in my heart. And it's part of why I got in the race. Yeah, they control the money. They control everything. I just find it interesting that you described her as the crypto candidate.

Starting point is 00:13:16 Right. She's making her entire basically campaign based on this anti-crypto army, which seems wildly unpopular. There's nobody that hates crypto. Like there's plenty of people who would vote for someone who said, I am leading the crypto army. But very few people are so passionate about being against crypto,

Starting point is 00:13:31 even if they don't like it. That's not an issue they would vote on, right? Getting rid of crypto. So there has to be another angle to your point. But it's the, you talk about her being the crypto candidate. As a progressive, she should be, right? If you were true, crypto candidate as a progressive, she should be right. If you're true,

Starting point is 00:13:45 I believe that every progressive, every far left or even leaning left person should believe in Bitcoin because it gives the little guy a chance, right? It should be a progressive issue. Literally, this should be something that they're stumping on. Listen, I wrote this in my book. When I first came across Bitcoin and read the white paper, I thought of my mom. And that's the honest truth, because she couldn't keep a bank account. We always needed the money. So she'd get hit with the fees. So she had to go to the check cashing stores that you see in the hood.

Starting point is 00:14:21 And they would take 10%, 15%. When I sent her money from college, because I had two smaller sisters, I sent her 100 bucks. It had to be through Western Union. They took 12%. So they're taking 12 bucks. My mom gets 88 of the $100. And so I thought, wow, you cut all that out and the little guy gets more money in their pocket. But then I also thought about capitalism and freedom. You could be in Nigeria and if you got a smartphone and Bitcoin or crypto, you could create straw hats in a website and sell them, man. And you don't need a bank. You know what I mean?

Starting point is 00:14:56 These predatory intermediary institutions. It's amazing to me. And so I thought about someone who grew up poor. I thought about, wow, we eliminate money, Graham, Western Union, bank fees, the friction that goes on and under banked under all of that. So you're right. She should be ideologically, she should be pro-crypto. And the question that people have to ask is why is she so adamant and so strong about ending crypto in the United States? She's a smart woman, Scott. that validating nodes can't do AML KYC. And she knows that every off and on ramp where you actually get the fiat and you get the money does do KYC.

Starting point is 00:15:55 They're regulated. Right. I accept Coinbase Commerce I use on my campaign. So if people want to donate crypto, they can. Coinbase, even though I had a Coinbase account, it took two days because they were onboarding me, making sure that I'm legit. So it's almost mind-blowing how all in she has been, Senator Warren, against crypto. And the only explanation I have is that they want to control your money, man.

Starting point is 00:16:28 Without right lies. And it's without right lies because like obviously we had the Hamas terrorism funding that was disproven. Wall Street Journal retracted. She continued to beat that drum. Just last week, she said that Bitcoin is being used to fund child slavery.

Starting point is 00:16:45 Oh my God. This is what I'm talking about. And we know that, I don't know the exact number, but we know it's substantially less than 1%, right? If Bitcoin is used for any nefarious purpose or criminal transaction, right? We know that. The CIA, the FBI, all of them have come out and said that if you're going to be a terrorist, they hope that you use an open distributed ledger i mean right uh hamas actually issued a directive to not use crypto because it won't send

Starting point is 00:17:13 us bitcoin man scott why is the united states government the fourth largest bitcoin holder because they stole it all from soap road but yeah but they confiscated it is what i'm saying is that is that um if you're going to use it for illicit purposes you can get caught that's the point you know i mean and so um you'd have to be a moron quite honestly if you're going to uh do your criminal activity on a on a open ledger i want to talk i want to talk about Elizabeth Warren and Jamie Dimon because you talked about the Gary Gensler trial where we know she gave him the questions and the answers, right? Not long ago, there was another hearing

Starting point is 00:17:55 where Jamie Dimon sat on the floor. Elizabeth Warren was questioning him. It was extremely strange, very clear that they had planned it where he said nobody should hold Bitcoin. If he was the government, he would ban it. All of these things. And in that moment, I scratched my head and said, damn, Jamie Dimon works for Elizabeth Warren.

Starting point is 00:18:13 It's like really clear that like this entire anti-Bitcoin stance is like canned quotes that she sent him. When I listened to you and thought about it, it seems like actually it's the opposite. Maybe she works for J.P. Morgan or the banking industry that she was, as you said, built her entire career by railing against. Yeah, I think it's fair to say that she's the number one banking lobbyist in America at this point. She's supposed to be the dead opposite. Her bill was written by them. And so, you know, I was sitting there listening to Jamie Dimon and I was wondering a couple of things. One, how come she didn't ask any questions about the $35 billion in fines that JP Morgan has done for illicit criminal fraudulent

Starting point is 00:18:58 activity? But then I also thought, you know, here is a woman who claims to be a defender of the women. And I know that Jamie Dimon's JP Morgan settled for $275 million the Epstein stuff. He's Epstein's banker. He's Epstein's banker. They were funding Epstein's stuff. And she didn't ask one question about that. She asked everything about what do you think of crypto? And for the Massachusetts voters out there that are old like me, that would be like, you know, Bitcoin was meant to replace Jamie Dimon.

Starting point is 00:19:32 So the functional equivalent would be going back in time and asking Drew Bledsoe, what do you think about Tom Brady as a replacement? Right. He would say bad things about knowing that it's better. So it's silly, man. It is silly, but it really is depressing. And even not just about her, I think it just speaks, as you said, to what a decade or 12 years or 15 or 30 or 50 years in government does to people. The idea that you should make this a career that enriches you is absurd to me. I mean, I'm sure you agree with term limits. I can't put those words in your mouth, but I know that you're a rational thinking human being. I mean, can anybody come out of that environment

Starting point is 00:20:18 after 20 or 30 years, not utterly corrupt or in somebody's pocket, even just because of the nature of fundraising and how you have to win an election? The answer is I don't I don't think so. I think and I'm already on record of supporting term limits and saying that if I'm not successful in getting them implemented, I won't run a third term because I use her as example. Let's give her the benefit of the doubt, Scott, and say that she genuinely went there against the bankers. And, you know, she couldn't beat him. So she joined him because now they write her bills. I mean, you couldn't write this any more accurate as far as what's wrong with Washington, D.C. And so I think you're right. I think you can't go and be a career politician for 30 years, 20 years without selling out on some level. You either compromise your values

Starting point is 00:21:13 or your principles and you stop fighting for what you claim or you somehow sell out. And, you know, we also have to ask ourselves, how do these politicians go to D.C. broke and 10 years later, they're multimillionaire? I mean, because they're really good, really good traders, man, really, really talented. Like that's, you know, a skill you learn in Washington is how to hedge with puts. Right. Well, you know, you're talking about Elizabeth Warren also. Why in the world would she favor the accredited investor rule? You know, her boy, Gary Gensler, actually wants to increase it from a million to three million.

Starting point is 00:21:54 Right. And so your viewers know that you don't even get to clout your home, or you've got to make a couple hundred grand a year for three consecutive years to be able to do what Nancy Pelosi does and own pre-IPO shares of stock. I would just say, or just to invest in your friend's company. Like it could be your best friend that you grew up with and you've heard him tell you an idea for 10 years that you think is the most amazing thing, but you're not rich enough to invest in it, right? I mean, you could serve 30 years in the Marine Corps, give up your life potentially for your country, but you can't own pre-IPO shares, the visa, you know, before it went public or any other company. That's just absurd. It excludes 92% of the population. And Elizabeth Warren's one solution to everything, which is tax the rich, tax the wealthy. Scott, I want your viewers to know that, you know, listen, I'll go on record to say the wealthy should pay their fair share. Yes, I agree. But you know, there's 759 billionaires

Starting point is 00:22:59 in America. Their cumulative wealth, Scott, is $5 trillion. So let's just take all their money from them. What's that do? It pays the interest only on our national debt for five years. That's all it did. It doesn't solve problems. So her class warfare of pitting American versus American, rich versus poor, black versus white, gay versus straight. All of that nonsense has got to end. You know what I mean? We got to get back to just, you know, focusing on solving problems instead of dividing everybody. It's a strange form of populism, I think, on the polar ends of both sides, right? Cancel all your student debt. That's to get votes, right? Say that you're going to tax unrealized capital gains or raise

Starting point is 00:23:45 capital gains to 45%. Anyone with a thinking brain knows that would crash markets because they would have to sell everything into the market every single year to pay taxes on profits they never even realized, right? I mean, these things would destroy capital markets, would disproportionately end up hurting the little guy again. But they float these things because it's a great soundbite that won't pass that could potentially get them votes by attacking the wealthy who are actually paying the bulk of the taxes in this country, whether they're fair share or not. Sure. I mean, you said it best. Student loan forgiveness. I'm someone who had massive student loans. And that's all about buying votes because listen, we can talk about fairness of people who didn't go to college. Why should they pay? But you know what the number one reason people get personal bankruptcy, 65% almost is for medical debt. If you're going to,

Starting point is 00:24:38 people don't choose to get cancer. They choose to go to college. They choose to get a loan, right? That they should pay back. They don't choose to get cancer. So that to go to college. They choose to get a loan, right, that they should pay back. They don't choose to get cancer. So that just goes to show you if it was to help people, it wouldn't be the avenue they're on. The avenue they're on are just trying to buy votes in election year. Is it a coincidence that that's all she's talking about in election year? I mean, I would say that it's older people that are getting buried by medical debt and it's younger people who are more likely to vote that are getting buried by student debt.

Starting point is 00:25:11 I think it's sadly easily explained, but she was supposed to be fighting for the little guy. You have a extremely long history of fighting for the little guy, right? And most notably, certainly for our industry, you effectively gathered up all of the Ripple holders and you made their voices heard and played a significantly impactful role in the decision against the SEC that effectively deemed secondary sales of Ripple as not a security. And to my knowledge, you didn't make much money doing that. No, I did it all pro bono.

Starting point is 00:25:45 Listen, it was all about government overreach. And that whole case was, hey, you know, Scott, any asset can be packaged, marketed, and sold as a security. Beavers have been used. They're little furry animals. They were packaged. Bitcoin was packaged at one point. Condominiums. But this time they were saying the underlying was packaged at one point condominiums but this

Starting point is 00:26:05 time they were saying the underlying token itself was a security and back then I said they're going to make potentially the same argument against ETH and against ADA and against Algo and against every other token and so yeah I it went viral and 75 000 x XRP holders joined. And I'm proud of it. I did make money on it. It was the right thing to do. And I'm looking for it. And just so you know, 627 of those token holders were Massachusetts residents. I actually went to Senator Warren's office long, we're talking about a couple years ago, saying, hey, you're on the banking committee.

Starting point is 00:26:44 We want you to just make an inquiry. Scott, I couldn't get a meeting, not even with an intern. Like she would not take a meeting at all or have any of her people do it. And I had 627 of them. And so, yeah, we, I think we played a role. I just filed an amicus brief on behalf of Coinbase customers. There's about 4,700 of them. The token holder deserves a voice. You know, Coinbase has great lawyers. Ripple have great lawyers. The SEC, you know, has got the taxpayers paying their bills.

Starting point is 00:27:27 And so I think the little guy deserves a voice, and I'm glad to give it to him. What I think is sad, I'll say, is that I saw you get pushback from Bitcoiners for helping Ripple holders, even though I believe you would have done what you were doing regardless of what the asset was, because it was the right thing to do for the people who needed help. They focused on the fact that it was XRP, not the fact that you gathered 75,000 people who had no voice and had a common view and you got it to the courts. Yeah, listen, I don't get it. Government overreach is government overreach. And what was crazy is that when I filed the case, I had a small investment in XRP, 75% of my net worth in Bitcoin, right? I mean, it was huge. And I got labeled the XRP attorney and the Bitcoin max, these would call me a shit coiner. And I'm like, dude, it's about government overreach. They may not call, be able to call

Starting point is 00:28:21 Bitcoin a security now, but they could come after Bitcoin in a different way. And look what's happened, Scott. Everything you summed it up perfect, you know, 20 minutes ago where you went through all the attacks on self-custody in the last several weeks. Government overreach needs to be fought regardless whether you're a fan of the underlying asset or underlying issue. You know what I mean? And they're supposed to be libertarian freedom lovers, but for some reason it's stunted when it comes to any other asset. I don't even want to talk about the fact. It just seems like if you really truly believe in Bitcoin or any of these assets, crypto, freedom, you should support freedom no matter what,

Starting point is 00:29:03 even if it's something you disagree with. Right. It's like the free speech argument. Everybody loves free speech. So somebody saying something bad about you. Sure. And also, I always looked at it as we have a level playing field. The best technology will win Bitcoin. If it is the be all end all crypto asset, it will prove it. It certainly has been proven over time so far to be that one. And it will continue. And whether XRP or ETH or any other token gains some kind of use case and popularity,

Starting point is 00:29:40 let it happen. Let the market choose you know what was i was discouraged about is when i saw bitcoiners celebrate the scc's actions early on and i was and i was trying they did celebrate and i was trying to say to them it's not about ripple like i don't care if like if ripple sold it uh as an investment contract security so what But don't tell me that the token that my daughter bought because her father said, oh, you know, I gave my daughter, she got 15 grand on her 18th birthday, right? All her little birthday money and stuff. And I said, you know, just be smart girl. And she bought a Bitcoin for 10,000. It was 10,000 at the time. And she took five grand

Starting point is 00:30:23 and she split 2,500 each for ETH and XRP because they were the top three. And she goes, oh, my dad keeps talking about, you know, this revolution and this new asset class. That's all she did with it. She never heard of Brad Garland. She didn't know who Ripple was. And so to say that what she owned, that she bought off Coinbase, never heard of this company, that it was an illegal asset. It's absurd. And that should offend any libertarian. That should offend any Bitcoiner, regardless if you think XRP is a shit coin or not. Like that should offend you.

Starting point is 00:30:57 Yeah. And you keep going, right? You just said that you filed a brief on behalf of Coinbase. Yep. of Coinbase. Listen, I've been extremely surprised at how egregious the pushback has been from the courts against regulators in the last year, because from the outside looking in, we saw them go after Coinbase and Binance back-to-back days. We thought the industry was done. The altcoins they would passively name without any evidence would drop 30% in a day when they were named, right? We saw that and we thought it was over. Then you got the ripple judgment. We saw Grayscale, obviously, win a case that effectively gave us the Bitcoin spot ETF. We saw Debtbox, which is crazy. Two SEC attorneys resigning because of the like egregious criminal actions and perjury in that case.

Starting point is 00:31:48 I mean, you've got to think the SEC is on their heels, it would seem. But it seems Gary's mandate hasn't changed and that maybe he actually doesn't care about losing, which is strange because all we used to hear was how the SEC won 99 percent of the time and they haven't won a thing in a year against our industry. Yeah, I would encourage anyone to in the amicus brief that I wrote, there was a section there where I basically say the SEC, Gary Gensler in the SEC is a bad faith regulator. And I literally give facts and proof and I quote some of those judges. In the Ripple case, it was the SEC lacked faithful allegiance to the law and would say anything to win an argument. Then we saw arbitrary and capricious with grayscale. And we got the debt box and then we got flat out sanctioned by the court, the SEC, for lying repeatedly. Like the judge in his opinion goes off like list one after the other

Starting point is 00:32:41 of intentional lying to the court. And I think, Scott, what happens is when you have a regulator who is that bad faith, it permeates down. And, you know, that doesn't mean I used to always say that there's good people at the SEC, and I'm sure there are. But right now, the entire enforcement division, in my opinion, has been infected with bad faith by Gary Gensler, who's set on a mission by Elizabeth Warren and others to stamp crypto out in the United States. And that's really where we're at. And it is an all out war. It reminds me of war. No, it is. And thank God we have this third branch called the courts. And I'm hopeful that the Coinbase judge, Judge Failure, will certify it to the Second Circuit and then maybe even go up to the Supreme Court and then get some of this resolved. You know what I mean?

Starting point is 00:33:36 I was going to say it literally sounds like war where you have the grunts on the ground who said, I was just doing my job. I was just doing what they told me when atrocities are committed, right? You just do what the guy up above you tells you, and eventually, it just poisons the entire world. I mean, these SEC guys are not getting jobs after they leave the SEC. I mean, listen, as I wrote in the amicus brief in the Coinbase case, the reality is the SEC is in a non-fraud, when you take out FTX and Celsius, that kind of world, if you're just talking about strict liability enforcement cases, the SEC has caused much greater investor harm than someone like a Ripple or a Coinbase or a Kraken who may have not registered some token that you can't

Starting point is 00:34:27 register under the law. It's almost impossible to do. But the SEC is the real culprit of causing investor harm in this country right now. Can we talk about that more specifically? Like in what ways? We talked about accreditor investor laws, I think. I mean, we all know that they've missed the most gratuitous Ponzi schemes in the United States, like Bernie Madoff, FTX, right? So they didn't protect anyone from those. The Ripple case alone was $15 billion of token holder losses. And here's the thing, Scott, people got wiped out. Now, maybe they shouldn't be on leverage. I don't think they should be. I think it's a mistake to be highly leveraged. But if you're going to lose your money, it should be because of the market. It shouldn't be because the the what happened to all the tokens when Algo was named in the Wahi case, when they listed those tokens, all of the investors that lost money. So and just the cost of innovation in America, I'm behind the scenes. You know, people will come to me for advice and whatnot, or I'll be in a conference call, Scott, where others and they just want me to participate.

Starting point is 00:35:45 I can't tell you the last time any potential innovators said, let's open it up to U.S. investors. Every single project says we're just going to exclude the United States. We have to exclude anyone other than an accredited investor in the United States. That's not fulfilling capital formation, investor protection, and all the other things the SEC is supposed to do. So when you think about the cost of innovation that it's cost in America, it's crazy. Why? Why would they want to kill innovation in the country that's led in innovation forever? Attack the entrepreneurs and capitalists who have made the country arguably great. Alienate the citizens.

Starting point is 00:36:36 Don't give them opportunity. This can't all just be CBDC, right? This isn't one huge coordinated effort towards a central bank digital currency. It feels like it's a big pendulum swing in a direction because it's not just crypto. It's all tech to some degree. It's this fundamental belief, I think, in the nanny state. Elizabeth Warren, she was being interviewed and she said, well, crypto is a terrible investment. Okay, don't invest.

Starting point is 00:37:05 It's easy, right? Just give the disclosures. I can understand if they want more disclosure. Okay, they blew that like Celsius, Voyager, Accreditor. We all know that. They blew the disclosures. Those are frauds, but they're frauds whether it's crypto or not. Yes, and here's the thing.

Starting point is 00:37:20 A guy like you, a guy like me, we've been out here yelling for years that we want smart regulations, that we want smart. Because we know if we get that, the industry can then really fulfill whatever potential it has because it's the regulation or the lack thereof that's holding it back. So even from an innovator's perspective, you want smart, tailored regulations. Instead, what we have is, you know, imagine this thing with consensus in ETH. 2018, ETH's not a security, according to Hinman. He gets up there and he tells everybody, we at the SEC, we at the SEC. You have the CFTC chairman says ETH is not a security. And at the same time now you have the SEC saying that it's been a security since at least 2018. And you have Gary Gensler testifying in real – even here, Scott, I want your viewers to think of this. This is what I mean by bad faith to the nth degree. At the same time that the SEC approved the ETH futures ETF, there's an investigation

Starting point is 00:38:33 by the SEC claiming the underlying asset is an unregistered security. Now, you can't reconcile those two things. You can't reconcile. And who gets screwed? The little guy gets screwed. The professional hedge funds, they can invest in E-Futures, but the little token holder guy, right, they're the ones that are going to get crushed. It is really, really a pathetic thing that's happening in this country. But how do you reconcile that?

Starting point is 00:39:00 In the meantime, Gensler just seems to be able to get through it. Someone's going to write a letter to him and be all pissed off in the letter. Gensler also was on record in lectures saying that Ethereum is a commodity before he was at the SEC. Sure. It's the job that changed his opinion, apparently. Right. He got his mission. If you look at those MIT, and I cite that in the brief, the Coinbase brief, but if you look back, he went from legitimately being called a proponent. He called Algo an amazing technology.

Starting point is 00:39:37 We were so excited for this guy to get appointed. We were so excited. He gets it. He teaches blockchain at MIT. He's one of us. No, we were excited because we thought the industry thought that Jay Clayton was too hands off. Right. Like he wasn't proactive enough. He didn't agree with Hester Peirce's Safe Harbor proposal. He wouldn't comment on anything other than bitcoin and eth after the

Starting point is 00:40:06 hinman speech who knew that that would be an amazing thing compared to what gessler came and so yeah we a lot of people in the industry were like okay this guy gets it he taught it mit he knows this technology uh and i cited in the brief, when he was at MIT, he was interviewed, he literally said, well, Ripple, and he used Ripple, Ripple and ETH need clarity in the market, becomes chairman, and then says, criticize anyone who says there's a lack of clarity. Now, that's not bad faith. I don't know what it is. So I want to know is what does the world look like when you beat Elizabeth Warren, A, for our industry?

Starting point is 00:40:53 Let's focus on our industry because that's not the story that you get to tell on every stage that you go to where you're talking about the greater issues. But for the purposes of this, what does a world without Elizabeth Warren running things look like? Well, I think that it opens up to innovation being able to foster. And I think that my goal is we get Elizabeth Warren out and we get people in there who is truly about technology advancing in a way that protects the consumers. I'm someone who wants to absolutely go after the fraudsters and hit them hard. I favor huge punishment against intentional fraud. You steal someone's life savings and you make political donations with it, or you buy your mom and dad real estate in the Bahamas with it, or you give your mom and dad $10 million, you deserve to rot in prison forever. Like, that's my approach.

Starting point is 00:41:52 But we have to get innovation, an environment that fosters it. I personally believe the FCC should have done a safe harbor proposal. Imagine where we would be if, and here's the thing, Scott, if you give guidelines and you say, listen, here are the, we're going to call them decentralized markers. Here are five decentralized markers. And you can even make token ownership one of the markers, right? No entity can own more than 25%, 30%, whatever it is. And you got to have these many validating notes or whatever the market, you and I can debate, you know, those markers or disagree. But if you set it, entrepreneurs will reach it, they'll meet it, and then industry will grow. And so that's all that's needed for this industry, in my opinion. But if she loses, is Gary gone?

Starting point is 00:42:48 Like, let's say that Biden wins, but you beat her, right? So we still have the same theoretical regime, but she's gone. Can that mean that Gary loses his sponsor? Well, the first thing I'm asking for is I'm lobbying to be on the Veterans Committee and on the Ethics Committee and on the Banking Committee. And so for selfish reasons, I wouldn't want Gary to resign immediately because I'd want him to be before me answering my questions. Right. So I'd want to postpone it. That's worth the price of admission alone. If you guys don't max donate just for the chance to potentially see that, I can't help you.

Starting point is 00:43:26 What are the odds that you get on a debate stage? You mentioned, you said, when I'm on the stage, what are the criteria that require her to debate you? Because we know it seems like everybody dodges debate stages these days. Yeah, well, she's debated the last two senatorial races twice each. I just was interviewed by the local TV station here that does one of the debates. They told me that she's never declined a debate. So she's going to have to debate me. It's almost, there's no written rule, but it's almost an unwritten rule. On Fox Business the other day, I suggested five debates. I don't think she'll take me up on five. I may be stuck with two. I hope to get three. But yeah, she's never faced someone. Listen, Scott, she wants to talk about income inequality. Let's spend the whole

Starting point is 00:44:17 debate on it because that's what I've been my life, right, coming up from poverty. I just don't have her approach. I have a different approach that I think is a better approach to solving those problems. And so I'm looking forward to that. And but we'll see. It's going to be it's going to be worth it. No doubt. I will be the nominee for sure that and you're going to see me and Elizabeth Warren debate. My only challenge right now, and listen, we got 64% of the voters are called unenrolled. That's independent Massachusetts. She lost, if she ran against Governor Baker, she loses by 15, 17 points. She's only passed one bill out of 350 some in 12 years, and it had to do with flags.

Starting point is 00:45:06 She has an approval rating of 41 percent or somewhere in there. So she's underwater there. She's not very well. I would remind everyone out there, she finished third in Massachusetts when she ran for president behind Biden and Bernie. So she couldn't even win her home state as the Democratic nominee in the primary for president. That's how unpopular she is. And so my challenge is making sure I can raise enough money to stay competitive so that I get my name recognition out there. And I'm going to surprise people. I'm telling you right now, brother, I wouldn't be doing this if there, I'm not saying that the path to victory is huge,

Starting point is 00:45:51 but there is a path to victory. You know what I mean? And I'm on it and I'm going to prove people. We're going to take the head of the snake. That's basically what we're going to do. I have no doubt. I mean, if we don't get regime change of some sort, how bad could it be for the crypto industry for the next four years? the Bitcoin community would pay more attention. She has 20% of the Senate already on board to pass her bill as is, which bans self-custody. So if Biden wins and the House flips and the Senate stays Democratic, she could get this bill passed, you know or or a similar bill of some nature because her current bill has lindsey graham is supporting it okay he's a republican marshall from kansas is a republican he's supporting it and so she is presenting this bipartisan bill she she calls it, which according to her is only enforcing the AML KYC rules to crypto. And these fools that we have in office, they don't even understand. You think Lindsey

Starting point is 00:47:16 Graham understands that it actually bans Bitcoin in the United States self-custody? No. And so it's very dangerous. We could go into the dark ages of crypto. They want us all to just own the BlackRock ETFs. Basically, we're headed to, you will only own that ETF and nothing else. Yeah, it really feels that way. Man, it's really terrifying. It's really terrifying. It is not hyperbole to say that freedom is on the line man it really honestly is imagine this imagine uh it is a programmable cbdc from the federal reserve and you know scott you uh you made a donation to um to that abc company uh we think that's a bit of an extremist uh turn it off um well we're gonna limit you geographically your cbdc only works in these geographical locations

Starting point is 00:48:16 maybe you've had too many diet sodas i don't know now am i am i making an extreme extreme kind of point? Yes. But it's a very dangerous slope once you allow the government to have that kind of access and control over your financial life. It's China. It's China. It's just like this. I tell people, I don't want the government to know where I spend all my money and how I spend my money. I'm not doing anything illegal. If you knock on my door and you're a cop and you want to search my house, you better have a search warrant. I don't have any illegal guns or drugs

Starting point is 00:48:51 or anything, but if you're going to search my house, have a search warrant. And so it's the same kind of concept. You don't have to, I think those people would go, well, why does that bother you so much? Why does it bother you if you're not doing anything wrong for the government to, to know how you spend your money? That's a slippery slope to, to, yeah, to a full surveillance state. Unfortunately.

Starting point is 00:49:14 No, it's, we live in a very dangerous time, man. Well, okay. We talked about all that, all the dangers,

Starting point is 00:49:21 all the reasons we need them gone. How do we get them gone? How do we support you? Make sure you win this thing. I'll say on May 30th at Consensus in Austin, Texas, myself and James Murphy, Meta Lawman, Anthony Scaramucci, a big list coming in behind it. We've just started throwing a fundraiser for you. So I'd recommend everyone in the industry who's there. You show up, you can meet John, shake his hand, and hopefully old school like the maitre d', you got a check in it when you shake the hand. But how can people help right now? Obviously, most people won't be there. How do we help you win? If they go to johndetonforsenate.com

Starting point is 00:49:58 and they could donate via crypto, if they want to be symbolic, they can donate traditionally. A campaign is about three things. It's about money, message, and work ethic. The message is on point. She won't outwork me. So it's only a question of, can I raise enough money to be competitive to get out there? And I promise people, I'm not asking people to just hate my opponent or donate just because of who I'm going against. I want them to believe in me. I can do this. I've been making a life of what seemed to be difficult or impossible possible all my life. And I can do it on this occasion too. And the final thing I would tell you is I was at a event. It wasn't a fundraiser. There was like three dozen voters there. They

Starting point is 00:50:42 asked me to speak. I spoke. And this 83-year-old woman asked me some tough questions. When it was over, I'm leaving. She comes up to me, Scott. She says she wants to shake my hand. She says she never met a candidate like me, and she believed in me. And she handed me $50 check. And she told me, I wish I could give you more, John, but I'm on fixed income, social security. And this is where I'm not a good candidate. I'm trying to give her this. Here's your 50 bucks. Yeah. And I'm telling her, hey, you can answer, you can call phones, you can do things to help me out. You don't have to give me your $50. And she pushed it back and said, no, I want to be able to say

Starting point is 00:51:20 that I contributed in every way I could for change. And I just want people to know that I can win and I will win, but I need their support and I need their help. And I will not disappoint them. I promise you that. And I guarantee you, come debate time, get your popcorn ready. I mean, everybody needs to donate right now, but I do have to say just in a vacuum how messed up it is that that's what drives these races and determines how you win

Starting point is 00:51:51 and that everyone has to play the game. One of my best friends, the state attorney, watched him on the phones, even a much smaller than the Senate, obviously, campaign, but you become a fundraiser, you know? No, it is. I mean, you have to buy the radio ads and the TV ads, and it's expensive. And you got to do the digital advertising and all of that. Listen, but here's what I want them to know. I put in a ton of my own money. So before I could ask you or a viewer to believe in me, I'm proving that I believe in myself. I would not spend that kind of money or waste my time if there wasn't a really specific path to victory. And so if they want change, this is their opportunity to help make it happen. I won't

Starting point is 00:52:37 disappoint them. I got to say, man, as we finish here, it's wild to me. You and I just started talking on Twitter spaces about Ripple and about crypto. You started coming on my shows, helping, obviously, to unpack what was happening with the law. Crazy to see you in this position, man. The gravitas of this interview, it just feels different. It feels like I'm talking to a different guy, man. I know you're the same person, but such a mega challenge and such just incredible position you've put yourself in here willingly well listen this is what i'm telling everyone i got in because scott you really are looking at the american dream i don't want to get emotional about it because i do sometimes man

Starting point is 00:53:15 but from welfare and food stamps listen to my mom cry at night when we when we when she had to put us to bed hungry from that where my first day of, I had a gun put in my mouth and a gun cocked. And I was a high school dropout for the first three months from that to running against the most entrenched Washington elite in D.C. for the United States Senate. If that's not the American dream, brother, I don't know what is. And so I'm going to go there and I'm going to fight to keep that kind of dream alive. Because to me, that gets my hair on my neck up. Like, wow, I can't believe it. Not only am I going to do it, I'm going to win. Amazing.

Starting point is 00:53:57 So now everyone listening, we can actually help him fulfill that complete American dream all the way to the top. So I highly recommend, where can people donate? You mentioned it before. I just wanted to hear it again. JohnDeaton4Senate.com. And we'll put it obviously down in the description. John, man, thank you so much for taking the time. I hope we can keep going, do some more fundraisers. I truly believe in this. I've tweeted about it. I've said it on my shows. You can't pick every fight, but this is one I'm willing to have your back on and pick with you. Listen, man, you've had my back from day one when I told you I was thinking about it.

Starting point is 00:54:34 I appreciate it. You've been there. We haven't known each other that long or that well, but I consider you a friend. I can't be more appreciative than I am right now. Thank you for having my back. I promise you I'm not going to disappoint you, brother. Well, we appreciate you taking the fight, man. Appreciate it. Everyone donate John Deaton for Senate dot com. Go do it right now while you're listening. And now I got to let John go so he can do much more important things. Thank you, man. Thanks, man.

The Wolf Of All Streets - It’s War! This Is How We Save Crypto In The United States | John E. Deaton

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