Note that the Dogecoin developer scandal happened in July 2021. At that time, he called crypto the worst component of the capitalist system, which only contributes to the enrichment of its owners, including through tax evasion. Although, as we learned earlier this month, some members of the blockchain community can evade taxes without the involvement of coins.


Now Jackson’s criticism even extends to individual celebrities. In an interview the day before, Palmer openly railed against Mark Cuban, the billionaire and host of the financial show Shark Tank. According to him, Cuban has allegedly been “indoctrinated” by the cryptocurrency community and is not at all aware of all the downsides of the industry himself. In other words, the rich man has allegedly become part of the cult of digital assets, yet does not understand the nature of the industry.

The billionaire is aware of Palmer’s point of view – he responded to it in a conversation with journalists from the news outlet Decrypt.

Why people don’t like cryptocurrencies

As a reminder, Jackson Palmer left Dogecoin development back in 2015. He made next to no money from his project, so there may be an obvious reason for his criticism – regret for the lost profits. That said, DOGE saw explosive growth early last year after several tweets from Elon Musk mentioning the coin.

Dogecoin exchange rate from early 2020

Palmer now refers to crypto as a “scam” and big investors in digital assets as participants in a big profit-making scheme. Here’s his quote on the subject.

It’s not that they’ve been paid once to promote something – it’s that they want to be the ones who control, own or have a big stake in this sort of stealing, greedy cryptocurrency system.

Note that this approach to the coin industry is quite popular. Many newcomers really believe that the coin niche is run by a few big investors, well the whole blockchain ecosystem is supposedly almost a scheme to enrich "whales" with regular "hamster mowing", i.e. the elimination of novice traders. For some reason, such novice investors do not want to believe in the existence of a large market with an abundance of participants and their various interests.

Dogecoin developer Jackson Palmer

In general this is quite in line with statements Jackson made on Twitter last year: at the time he called cryptocurrencies “a combination of the worst parts of today’s capitalist system in terms of corruption, fraud and inequality. Cuban himself, however, was not offended by such remarks at all. Here is his response.

Everyone can say what they want. I am still a big fan of cryptocurrencies. The hardest part is separating speculation from the core value. Some people are into speculation. I am not.

Billionaire Mark Cuban

Back in January, Cuban said on The Problem with Jon Stewart podcast that 80 per cent of his investment portfolio was split between crypto projects outside of Shark Tank. However, he now admits that “that number is definitely down”. The billionaire allegedly invests far less often at all and is predominantly focused on his own pharmaceutical startup Cost Plus Drugs.

There are other oddities among the “big fans” of cryptocurrencies. For example, well-known crypto-enthusiast Anthony Pompliano recently removed Bitcoin from his Twitter profile description. He also changed his profile avatar. Previously, there was a picture of him with “laser eyes” – the symbol of crypto holders who are waiting for the bull run of the market and the growth of BTC to almost a million dollars.

Anthony Pompliano’s Twitter profile home page

That said, it’s important to understand that during the spring 2021 bullrun, Anthony was actively PRing cryptocurrency investments and even claimed that 95 percent of his fortune was in Bitcoin. In particular, this claim was made on Lex Friedman’s podcast.

Video of Anthony Pompliano claiming to have 95 per cent of his fortune in BTC

And this is a dangerous trend, as newcomers come into the coin industry just as rates are rising rapidly. Accordingly, Pompliano could then indirectly force them to invest in crypto, but now for some reason he denies it. This format of influencer activity is definitely not good for the coin niche.

We think Palmer's criticism is unfounded, because the crypto industry is not a religious cult where the concept of "indoctrination" would be appropriate at all. Whether or not to invest in coins is up to everyone. And the fact that digital assets generate huge returns is not a bad thing. In addition, high returns on investments in BTC or altcoins right now are due in part to the relative newness of the industry, which doesn't yet have the big capital that traditional markets do. On top of that, Palmer himself has had a hand in popularizing digital assets, which makes his criticism sound even more bizarre.

What do you think about it? Share your opinion in our Millionaire Crypto Chat. There we discuss other important developments in the world of blockchain and decentralization.