On June 2, Billy Markus, the co-founder of Dogecoin, strongly criticized the cryptocurrency industry. He described the market as a “rigged casino” full of dumb people, reflecting his disillusionment with the industry.
Deep Dive Behind Billy Markus Insights
In a post on X, Billy Markus tagged the crypto market as a place where most people pretend to be smarter than they really are.
it is a rigged casino with mostly dumb people larping as smart people
— Shibetoshi Nakamoto (@BillyM2k) June 2, 2024
The Dogecoin creator’s statement was in response to a post by Nate Alex, a prominent NFT collector and creator who criticized the current state of the crypto market.
Alex compared the crypto market to a rigged casino, suggesting that the aim is often to lure in clueless retail investors so that insiders can dump scam cryptocurrencies.
finding it hard to gaf about crypto
feels like a rigged casino
99% of the focus appears to be "onboarding retail" so insiders can dump scamcoins on them
— natealex (@natealexnft) June 2, 2024
Markus’ criticism points out the manipulation and exploitation in the crypto industry. This matches the recent wave of “meme coins” like Pepe (PEPE) and BONK rising in popularity despite having little utility. Some of these new meme coins have been used to target retail investors in multiple scams, including rug pulls.
Notably, Crypto News recently reported that scammers target crypto influencers’ X accounts to promote meme coins. Some of the victims of the hack were popular celebrities, including rapper Rich the Kid and media personality Caitlyn Jenner.
Rich the Kid’s account promoted a new token called $RICH, which generated a $90,000 market cap within the first two minutes of its launch. The value is down 87% at press time. Similarly, Caitlyn Jenner’s account promoted a meme coin named $JENNER, which saw its market capitalization surge to $22 million based on aggregated data. Both celebs claim their accounts were hacked by memecoin collaborator Arora to run a pump-and-dump scheme. These examples showcase the manipulation and exploitation concerns within the crypto market, echoing Markus’s criticism of the industry.
Billy Markus Continues “Expressive” Approach to Crypto Market
Crypto enthusiasts believe that the Dogecoin creator has continued his trend of openly expressing his thoughts on events and developments in the crypto markets.
On May 16, Markus expressed pessimism about the spot Ethereum ETF approval. He argued that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is biased and that its decision on these ETFs would not significantly impact Ethereum or the overall cryptocurrency market.
His perspective stemmed from the skepticism surrounding spot Ether ETFs and highlighted broader concerns within the cryptocurrency community regarding regulatory challenges.
However, on May 23, the SEC surprised many by approving spot Ether ETFs. While the 19b-4 forms of the potential ETF issuers have been approved, they still need their S-1 registration statements to become effective before trading can commence.