Stephen Colbert, the charismatic host of CBS’ The Late Present, is as soon as once more associating many cryptocurrencies with scams — however doing so by parodying the vernacular of a seasoned HODLer.
In a Wednesday phase on members of Technology Z falling for scams inside and outdoors of the crypto house, Colbert referenced the rug pull behind a token impressed by Netflix’s present Squid Recreation, wherein hundreds of traders misplaced greater than $3 million. Along with “licensed younger individual” and workers author Eliana Kwartler, Colbert debuted an “wonderful funding alternative” designed to acquire individuals’s bank card numbers, first pet names and the names of the road on which they grew up.
“If Gen Zs need to keep secure on-line, they need to make investments on this new, wonderful cryptocurrency token — it’s referred to as Colbert Coin,” stated Kwartler. “With Colbert Coin, you give us your financial savings, after which we cryptocurrency it. After that, you by no means have to fret about it any extra, my stans.”
Colbert added:
“We’re busy turning your money into future cash — to the moon, apes!”
The host of each the Late Present and Colbert Report was one of many few late-night discuss present personalities to debate crypto as early as 2013 when the value of Bitcoin (BTC) was fluctuating between $50–$300. On the time, Colbert described the crypto asset as one thing that has worth “simply because a bunch of individuals on the Web have agreed that it’s value one thing.”
Bitcoin funds are the ‘second stupidest concept I’ve heard,’ says Late Present’s Stephen Colbert
Fellow comic Jon Stewart — below whom Colbert labored as a correspondent on The Day by day Present — joked a couple of comparable token venture utilizing his title in December:
And in the event you just like the “web site” you’ll love my subsequent venture. Crypto “Stewcoin”!
— Jon Stewart (@jonstewart) December 16, 2021
Within the instances of each Colbert and Stewart, their pretend tasks parody a really actual drawback within the crypto house: Celebrities who shill tokens which will or might not transform fraudulent. Kim Kardashian promoted EthereumMax (EMAX) in an Instagram story in June 2021—a token that gained 116,000% in a single week earlier than falling greater than 99% and leaving many traders within the purple.
In accordance with a Thursday report from Chainalysis, scammers received $7.8 billion in crypto stolen from victims over 2021, of which greater than $2.8 billion got here from rug pulls. Whereas the report famous that 90% of the entire worth misplaced to rug pulls in 2021 was the results of main Turkish crypto alternate Thodex halting buying and selling and withdrawals, all others concerned DeFi tasks. Chainalysis attributed the prevalence of rug pulls to the “hype across the house” along with the shortage of code audits for sure DeFi tasks.
