![]() ![]() His other holdings add several billion more.Īlready in 2021, cryptocurrencies have become one of the strangest financial manias in human history. Their first recorded price five months later - a princely sum of $0.0000000013 - would have valued Buterin’s coins at just $560,000.įast forward to today and his SHIB coins alone are worth well over $9 billion. Other joke cryptos - from Akita Inu ( CCC: AKITA-USD) to Dogelon Mars ( CCC: ELON-USD) - have since done the same.Īt the time, the 505 trillion Shiba coins were worth precisely $0, according to CoinMarketCap. By sending him 50% of the outstanding coins, the gag went, the currency would become immune to a “rug pull” where controlling stakeholders hijack the coin for personal gain. Instead, the Shiba community had gifted him the crypto as a joke. A frustrating sign-off to a film which felt like a wasted opportunity.The strange thing? Buterin never bought the Shiba coin himself. Was it the end for the crypto dream? Or just a temporary blip in this volatile new market? Nobody seemed to know. Adepitan’s £500, incidentally, was now worth £340. It was the most exciting moment in the entire hour. This was filmed, I spotted, in my local pub. A new ending was hastily tacked onto the documentary. In a bid to pep up proceedings, he adopted the credulous style of Gregg Wallace on Inside The Factory – going wide-eyed and exclaiming: “Wow! That’s mad!” Colourful explainer graphics lent the feel of a Blue Peter segment, rather than prime-time factual fare.įilming took place shortly before the June crash which saw values of cryptocurrencies fall through the floor. I like Adepitan as a presenter but he was ill-served by this dumbed-down production. “People who lose their life savings don’t.” By the time we heard about the environmental cost of “mining” crypto and the high risk of being scammed, it was beginning to resemble fool’s gold. “People who buy Lamborghinis with crypto put it on Instagram,” he pointed out. The closest he came was ex-City trader Gary Stevenson, who compellingly argued that it’s a dangerous pyramid scheme, fuelled by social media hype. Adepitan didn’t meet anyone, just for balance, who’d lost a fortune or had their house repossessed. In East London, he met grime artist Tarm, who rapped about crypto changing his life. After all, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.Īdepitan visited the sprawling Cotswolds pile of multi-millionaire Jon Joseph Bourgerie, who sunk $1 million into crypto and doubled his money. The former were, as I’d suspected, of a type: nerdy men aged 20 to 40 (often bearded, bespectacled and baseball cap-clad), convinced they were cleverer than the rest of us and about to get rich quick as a result. He sought advice from both believers and sceptics. Adepitan gamely joined them with £500 of his own cash. “But when it comes to cryptocurrency, I haven’t a clue.” You could almost hear the nation chorusing: “Us neither, mate.”Īn estimated 3 million Britons have invested in crypto. “I like to think I’m pretty savvy when it comes to money,” said Adepitan by way of introduction. This ploddingly mediocre documentary found presenter Ade Adepitan taking a crash course in the so-called future of finance. It’s always nice to have one’s blind prejudices confirmed. Cryptocurrency: Has the Bubble Burst? (Channel 4) did little to disabuse me of this notion. People who evangelise about it tend to be the sort of po-faced young men who believe in online conspiracy theories and the benefits of a keto diet. ![]() I’ve never paid much attention to cryptocurrency, not least because I never quite understood this made-up virtual money.
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