19th April 2026 > > The stench of corruption.

tl;dr

Greed, grift, fraud, thievery, and general all-round bad behaviour plagues us honest citizens. Blockchain technology can help fix that.

Market Snap

Market Wrap

The rally through $78k could not be sustained in the face of conflicting news stories out of the Middle East, though it seems highly likely that Trump is looking desperately for the off-ramp. With emboldened Mullahs happy to continue funding terrorism globally, with the ever-present and highly effective threat to the Strait of Hormuz, it increasingly looks like this war was the most ill-conceived of all the recent acts of US aggression.

Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – A sorry tale of greed and grift

There is no doubt that the current US administration, with its crypto-friendly stance, has been helpful in driving forward the wholesale adoption of cryptos, but there is a big downside in the form of World Liberty Financial, the Trump family crypto vehicle, and its coin, WLFI.

WLFI has a FDV of $8bn, based on total issuance of 100bn coins and a quoted price on major exchanges of 8c. 32bn coins are currently in circulation, the rest presumably earmarked to enrich prominent members of the Trump family at some undetermined date in the future.

Though perhaps not, for World Liberty Financial deposited 5bn coins with a theoretical market price of $400mm into DeFi protocol Dolomite in exchange for a $75mm loan. That trade does not sound like a vote of confidence in the future of WLFI to me, a trade made by its executives. But here’s the kicker. Daily trading volumes of WLFI are in the region of $10mm to $20mm. Any attempt to sell the WLFI collateral to repay the loan will simply tank the market. In effect, the lenders can never force the borrower to repay, a situation that any mortgage holder would love to emulate.

So, how did this sorry situation come to pass?

The co-founder of Dolomite, Corey Caplan, also happens to be the CTO (with an undisclosed annual salary) of World Liberty Financial. He has personally and deliberately screwed over the investors who provide crypto assets to support his platform in favour of the Trump family’s crypto venture.

The stench is overwhelming.

Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – Dirty fiat

J.P. Morgan Chase, Citibank, Bank of New York Mellon, HSBC, and Standard Chartered have been ordered by a US judge to hand over documents to assist an investigation into evading sanctions placed upon Iran. Of course, by using cryptos it is easy for them to do so.

Doh!

I meant by using dirty fiat it was easy for them to do so. If those banks had used cryptos to evade sanctions, which they didn’t, then the evidence would have been there for all to see on the blockchain.

It is worth noting that just because the judge believes they are hiding something does not mean that is the case.

It is also worth noting that J.P. Morgan has paid more than $40bn in fines and penalties since the turn of the new millennium related to misconduct including the facilitation of money-laundering. The bank seems to have an ingrained habit of carelessness (if one is being generous) when it comes to dealing with fraudsters, drug dealers, and terrorists.

I think that stench gets ever more powerful.

Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – So, how are we left?

The tale of World Liberty Financial vividly demonstrates the greed and grift that some people have always exhibited, but this time using a platform in the form of two crypto initiatives (WLFI and Dolomite) that are not nearly as decentralised as they claim to be. These initiatives are merely masquerading as true crypto applications, a cosplay that does disservice to the real vision of decentralisation.

As for J.P. Morgan heading for the naughty step yet again – to literally no-one’s surprise – this is just another damning indictment of how the combination of dirty fiat and centralisation offers too many opportunities for the immoral and the unprincipled to steal, cheat, and lie their way through life.

For the first time in history, the blockchain revolution gives us a sporting chance to properly nail the grifters and thieves, those who do so much damage in pursuit of their personal greed.

With cryptos, the world will be a less smelly place.

That is good for all of us.