Waterboarded for Bitcoin: The Real-World Risks of Flaunting Crypto Wealth

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Matt Diemer

. It’s Ohio-focused with spillover into tech, stablecoins, and the Epstein files, all in my own voice.

MARKET VIBE CHECK

Thanksgiving week always gets weird. Half of America is traveling, Black Friday has apparently been running since Halloween, and risk markets are touchy. We’re trying to reverse an ugly stretch and claw back a little green today. Insert Perma Bear Jason here.

BINANCE HIT WITH NEW LAWSUIT

More than 300 American families are suing Binance, arguing weak KYC, pooled wallets, and an offshore maze let Hamas-linked users move funds tied to October 7. The claim leans on the 2017-2023 “no fixed HQ” era and internal guidance that allegedly masked user locations. This stacks on last year’s $4.3B settlement and CZ’s plea.

My bar: show intent. If plaintiffs cannot prove Binance leadership knew they were facilitating terrorist finance, “on-chain address X once touched address Y” will not be enough. Let’s see the receipts.

THE RISE OF THE WRENCH ATTACK

A brutal home invasion in British Columbia laid out a nightmare scenario: impostors get in, family is assaulted, and attackers demand crypto. One perp got seven years.

My view is simple: if you torture a family, you deserve far worse. If you sexually assaulted someone’s daughter in front of them… the parents have the right to shoot you in the fucking head.

The core lesson for crypto folks is even simpler: do not broadcast your holdings, practice plausible deniability, and separate keys, knowledge, and access. Opsec is not theoretical anymore.

MONAD’S MAN TOKEN: TEXTBOOK OR TEPID

About 76K wallets received roughly $105M in MAN at ~3.1 cents. Many expected a pop above sale price, many sold, many complained. I get the disappointment, but investing is not “do task, number go up.” If anything, tight pricing that avoids a day-one sugar high looks like grown-up markets. If you contributed for the tech, build. If you farmed for a flip, manage risk and move on.

GRAYSCALE LAUNCHES GDOG AND GXRP

Grayscale listed Dogecoin and XRP ETFs on NYSE Arca (tickers GDOG, GXRP) with a 0% fee window to seed flows. TradFi wants exposure through wrappers, not private keys, and the floodgates are opening. Prices still follow the wider slump, but the product shelf is getting very real very fast.

SEC SAYS “NOT A SECURITY” (THIS TIME)

Fuse’s Solana-based ENERGY token received no-action relief that frames it as a consumer rebate, not an investment. Key ingredients: capped redemption value, direct real-world utility, and payoff unrelated to issuer performance. It is narrow, but it is a usable template for compliant, non-spec tokens with actual purpose.

UAE YANKS DEFI INTO THE PERIMETER

The UAE rewrote rules so that if you enable payments, exchange, lending, custody, or investment using any tech (including smart contracts), you need a license. DeFi cannot hide behind “we’re just code” for UAE users. There is a transition through 2026. It does not touch self-custody, but it will force projects and infra providers to decide: apply, geo-fence, or exit.

LISTENER MAIL

• “Epstein money went into MIT DCI and paid core devs; a 2014 email hack used the alias ‘Jeffrey.’ No coincidences.”
  Spicy, but extraordinary claims need extraordinary proof. Until then, it is an interesting thread, not a conclusion.

• “If Hal Finney was Satoshi and died, how much BTC is lost forever?”
  Best estimates put 2.3–3.7M BTC permanently lost, maybe closer to 4M when you include mistakes, deaths, and abandoned keys. Dust adds up too. Either way, real circulating supply is meaningfully lower than 21M.

MY TAKE

We are living through a sorting hat moment. Lawsuits are forcing exchanges to grow up, regulators are drawing clearer lines, and jurisdictions like the UAE are saying “get licensed or get out.” On the tech side, tokens that do real-world work and price fairly are going to outlast candy-sprinkled airdrops. Security has shifted from “don’t click phishing links” to “don’t become a physical target.” On markets, I like that some green is peeking in, but my plan is unchanged: DCA for long-term conviction, trade what is in front of you if you have rules, and ignore clout-driven calls for tops and bottoms.

CRYPTO PRICES (9:14 a.m. ET)

• Bitcoin (BTC): $86,999 • 24h +1% • Market Cap ~$1.62T

• Ethereum (ETH): $2,911 • 24h +3.7% • Market Cap ~$350B

• XRP: $2.20 • 24h +5.8%

• BNB: $847 • 24h +1.4%

• Solana (SOL): $135 • 24h +4.7%

• TRON (TRX): $0.272 • 24h −1.7%

• Dogecoin (DOGE): $0.148 • 24h +2.1%

• Cardano (ADA): $0.411 • 24h +1.3%

Total Market Cap: $2.99T • Fear & Greed: 15 • RSI: 50

Happy HODLing, Everyone.

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References & Affiliates

📰 Matt Diemer on Substack

⚖️ Binance Faces Fresh Anti-Terrorism Lawsuit Over Alleged Hamas Transactions

💰 Bitcoin Heist: Family Members Waterboarded and Sexually Assaulted to Steal $1.6 Million

🎁 Monad’s $105 Million Airdrop Underwhelms Speculators

🐶 Grayscale Dogecoin and XRP ETFs Lead Flurry of Altcoin Fund Debuts

🏛️ SEC Clears Fuse Energy Token in Win for U.S. Crypto Regulatory Clarity

🇦🇪 UAE’s New Financial Law Expands DeFi Regulatory Scope

Self-Custody Crypto Roth IRA: athenic.xyz
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Disclaimer

This content is not financial, legal, or tax advice. It reflects personal opinions for educational and entertainment purposes only.

I am not a financial advisor or expert, and I do not guarantee any specific outcome.

Always do your own research before making any investment or financial decisions.

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