Charlie Kirk vs Crypto-Fiat
Charlie Kirk and my father messaged back and forth about this and that, for my father never met a stranger and is loved by many, and I think Charlie liked hearing a wise-based boomer’s take on things.
Through their interactions Charlie ended up on my website and read, “Orange Man Good” and a few of my posts on Bitcoin: Feudal Fiat, and Fix the Money, Fix the World. As he so often was, Charlie was incredibly kind and complimentary to me and the ideas discussed in these articles, and he asked if I would vet a Crypto exchange he was considering investing in.
It was not a good investment. Worse still, it was an immoral investment. It was, and is an immorality everyone on every side has been getting on board with these days to make a quick buck. Men I respect like Trump, Tucker, Don Jr, and many others have dipped their toes into this alluring trend that siphons wealth from the people who love them. These ruses turn good men into their own mini central banks… all the same rules apply… all the same evils apply.
Charlie was different, and it was certainly different for someone of Charlie’s status to reach out to someone on the opposite end of the notoriety scale when hundreds of millions were on the line. I immediately knew Charlie must not trust his inner circle as much as his public profile might suggest. I work in the corporate world and know how one “should” speak to people above one’s pay grade. He clearly was getting enough tiptoeing around the tulips from those around him, I decided to be ruthlessly honest.
Charlie, who never invested. Unlike the others with his reach, he didn’t drink from this fiat cup.
Several friends, both great men, helped me vet the exchange. My responses to Charlie are below:
Hi Charlie,
Galaxy initial risk evaluation: Extremely High
Summary:
Crypto exchange businesses are incredibly competitive, with tight margins and massive liability risk. This risk is exponentially higher for offshore exchanges as they are not bound by the same custody, KYC, and legal requirements that US exchanges are.
This space is dominated by highly capitalized legacy players like Coinbase, Kraken, Strike, Crypto.com, and Binance.
Galaxy-Xchange has numerous unsubstantiated claims on their rather glitchy website. Even if each of those claims were accurate, they don't have the scale, brand recognition, or reputation to compete with the abovementioned household names.
As you know, President Trump was a headliner at The Bitcoin Conference last week. This was by design. Bitcoin and "Crypto" are not synonymous. The crypto space is rife with scams, fraud, business closures, and lawsuits.
Questions:
Who is the founding team?
Who are the key investors? The “About Us” page is not working.
What unique offering separates them from established exchanges? (Speed isn't going to matter to 99% of retail participants; all other exchanges are plenty fast.)
Where does Galaxy custody their digital assets? If they do not hold it themselves, they are not able to control it and therefore cannot ensure its security.
How is yield created on these products?
Are they rehypothecating customer funds?
Initial Recommendation:
Avoid investment and public association with this exchange. Financial, legal, and reputation risk is extremely high.
More Candidly:
The masses will flock to the highest name recognition. Upstarts in a space dominated by whales need to gain an edge with the types of people who attend the BTC conference. Galaxy is not bringing anything attractive for early adopters. They are trying to out-Coinbase Coinbase.
I then recommended speaking with a few experts far more qualified than myself.
Charlie reached out for further vetting. See below:
Hi Charlie,
I hope your weekend is going well.
Your gut must have told you there was something amiss with Galaxy-Exchange for you to reach out and get such a broad range of opinions.
My bank will not allow any funds to go to Galaxy. And upon further review, it isn't necessary.
You mentioned that you have friends invested, and I'm sure you have many people telling you how great this opportunity is. The founders include Novogratz, who is highly respected. If you were to show them my initial feedback they would undoubtedly scoff at my concerns. They would show you this or that data point about the market and how they are changing the game in an exciting way with buzz-word here and buzz-word there... backed with lithium, governed by a DAO, self-custody, decentralized. Charlie, your gut instinct to question Galaxy was dead on. This exchange is a scam. This entire side of the industry is a scam. Its main revenue stream prays on its user base by extracting their wealth. Galaxy-Exchange is a fancy pump-and-dump scheme. What they are doing is no different than what pre-fed banks did by printing their own paper money to steal wealth from their constituents.
The right isn't inherently good; it is good where it adheres to first principles, it is good where it makes good decisions. The right isn't immune to evil. I know you know the test of good leadership is not making decisions that everyone knows to be true, but having the wisdom to see clearly and then the courage to cut against the grain when everyone else is slapping lipstick on a pig, calling it an emperor, and admiring its clothing. This is one of those moments.
Even if every claim Galexy-Exchange is making is robustly true and not simply harnessing viral terms through loose affiliation and exaggeration, it is still designed to be a scam. Could you make a lot of money? You could. Yet, it is not worth your reputation and the years of explaining when the Overton Window shifts away from these get-rich-quick scams.
The 9 planned exits are strategic offramps for early investors to realize large returns by extracting wealth from the user base.
Tucker, Don Jr., and many other moral, well-meaning, good men are falling for scams similar to Galaxy. It would certainly be easier to listen to them than it would be to listen to me. And yes, businesses like this are all the rage.
Someone in the conservative world will be the first to really understand this emerging technology. I hope that person is you. Whoever it is, will certainly pay a price in the short term. What righteous thing doesn't come with such a cost? To me, the Mount Rushmore of the conservative movement includes Bannon, Kirk, Bongino, and Shapiro. None of you really understand this industry. If one of you mighty men is willing to take the time and backlash to understand this space, it would undoubtedly change the trajectory of the people winning.
Galaxy, and every company like it, is a prima facie scam. I don't enjoy being the bearer of bad news. I was hoping this project would be an exciting venture that I could give a good report on.
Sound money is a crucial ingredient in the pursuit of life, liberty, and property. Fix the money, fix the world is all too true. My recommendation:
• Take a call with Matt and Jack. (credentials detailed in the previous message)
• Reach out to Ron Paul and ask what he thinks of Galaxy-Exchange.
Charlie, I know a few men in different industries at your level. I know how uncommon it is for people in your position to be spoken to the way that I have. Many would call my certainty and vehemency an error in boldness and reason. So be it. I am my father's son; this blood helped form the nation. I am telling you a consequential truth.
With great admiration and highest respect,
Samuel Adams
P.S. I live in Nashville TN. If there is anything I can ever do in support of your mission it would be an honor to do what I can.
Charlie ended up leaning more into Bitcoin. I was excited to see Charlie continue to grow into a larger and larger advocate for sound money. But the evils that have captured the pillars of our society took Charlie from a family and world who looked up to him.
No matter how limited, anyone who had interactions with Charlie knew he was different. Greatly different. I have had many interactions with “important people,” and for almost all of them you can tell that the most important part of them interacting with you is that you know they are more important than you. Many times it feels as though they are trying to find why you suck and they rule. Charlie wanted everyone to know how amazing they were. I hope to the degree I am someone anyone wants to know, that I am like Charlie.
