I just saw CZ’s warning on Twitter and couldn’t help laughing—though it’s also pretty frustrating. These days, even just meeting up with an old friend or supporter can turn into a “pay-to-meet” racket run by scalpers and scammers. CZ made it clear that meeting him costs nothing, and that he’ll flat-out refuse anyone trying to pull this kind of middleman scam.
When you think about it, that’s what makes crypto so surreal: anywhere there’s traffic or influence, even a brief in-person meetup can be packaged by some people as a “VIP pass to an elite circle” to fleece retail investors. I recently saw Arkham’s figures showing Sun’s on-chain net worth had soared to $2.25 billion, putting him firmly in second place globally behind Satoshi. Everyone’s watching the whales’ asset drama unfold. Meanwhile, Deribit saw net outflows of over $1 billion in a week, and trading volume for tokenized stocks on Robinhood’s on-chain DEX surged more than 400-fold. The lines between traditional finance and the on-chain world are getting blurrier by the day.
Big money is shifting around on-chain, and exchange reserves are quietly changing—but what about retail investors? They have to watch out for sudden price wicks that liquidate their leveraged positions, and now they also have to guard against fake “middlemen” trying to scam them when they just want to meet an idol in person. These days, being a crypto believer means knowing your tech and reading the charts—and keeping your scam radar switched on.
Have you ever run into people at in-person meetups or industry events charging an entry fee or “refreshment fee” in the name of some big-shot? Share your stories in the comments and let’s warn each other—don’t hand your hard-earned money over to these scammers.
When you think about it, that’s what makes crypto so surreal: anywhere there’s traffic or influence, even a brief in-person meetup can be packaged by some people as a “VIP pass to an elite circle” to fleece retail investors. I recently saw Arkham’s figures showing Sun’s on-chain net worth had soared to $2.25 billion, putting him firmly in second place globally behind Satoshi. Everyone’s watching the whales’ asset drama unfold. Meanwhile, Deribit saw net outflows of over $1 billion in a week, and trading volume for tokenized stocks on Robinhood’s on-chain DEX surged more than 400-fold. The lines between traditional finance and the on-chain world are getting blurrier by the day.
Big money is shifting around on-chain, and exchange reserves are quietly changing—but what about retail investors? They have to watch out for sudden price wicks that liquidate their leveraged positions, and now they also have to guard against fake “middlemen” trying to scam them when they just want to meet an idol in person. These days, being a crypto believer means knowing your tech and reading the charts—and keeping your scam radar switched on.
Have you ever run into people at in-person meetups or industry events charging an entry fee or “refreshment fee” in the name of some big-shot? Share your stories in the comments and let’s warn each other—don’t hand your hard-earned money over to these scammers.