Crypto Conspiracies and Political Ambitions

Brian Merchant and Paris Marx are back with the very first guest of System Crash: Molly White! With Molly’s help, we walk through the biggest stories in the crypto world. We explore the resurgence of crypto, how its backers influenced the election and won Trump’s favor, what the crypto industry wants from the incoming administration—and how it plans to wield power. 

Mentioned this week:

• Molly White is the creator of Web3 is going just great and Follow the Crypto.
• Paris wrote about the return of self-driving hype and its relationship to the broader AI bubble.
• Molly was part of a complaint alleging Coinbase violated campaign finance laws.
• Brian wrote about Luigi Mangione and how the rise in violent politically coded acts reflects a growing despair over failing institutions.
• The Hawk Tuah girl launched a memecoin and (unsurprisingly) seems to have done a rug pull.
• OpenAI launched a $200 ChatGPT subscription and claimed to make its Sora video generator public, but many people couldn’t actually access it.
• GM has pulled the plug on its Cruise robotaxi and self-driving division after spending nearly $10 billion on it.

Theme music is “Dystopia” by YACHT. Production is by Eric Wickham.

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