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Ben Weiss Profile
Ben Weiss

@bdanweiss

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dubai correspondent for @dlnewsinfo | prior work in @wired @verge @guardian @slate @newshour @fortunemagazine etc. | bweiss @dlnews .com

Dubai, UAE
Joined February 2019
Don't wanna be here? Send us removal request.
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
6 months
brb, getting a law degree so i can be an executive assistant at condé nast
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
2 years
letting the whole big world know that i'm now at @FortuneMagazine on the crypto desk and open for any leads on any blockchain stories, big or small! email me ideas at benjamin.weiss @fortune .com
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
2 months
ryan selkis, one of crypto’s more vocal influencers, lives a charmed life. he owns a house near Baltimore. he’s well-educated. he has a large family. why, then, does @twobitidiot seem so pissed off? i dug into the source of his rage for @dlnewsinfo :
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
3 months
hello! starting today, i'm covering crypto for @DLNewsInfo from brooklyn. BUT, in a month, i'm moving to dubai to cover the crypto scene from there. please send tips, juicy gossip, and cool story ideas to bweiss @dlnews .com. and... if you live in dubai, let me know!
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
1 month
lil’ data story: @joanna_focus and i decided to count up the number of female-presenting speakers at the Bitcoin conference from 2019 to 2024. the results? surprise surprise... bad.
@DLNewsInfo
DL News
1 month
Trump puts spotlight on Bitcoin 2024 where men outnumber women speakers almost nine to one
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
8 days
many scoops: for the past few months, i’ve worked on a feature for the @verge about the rise and fall of NFTs and @opensea .
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
8 months
hey all, just wanted to tell all the PRs who follow me that im now freelance, as i wasn't kept on at fortune post the end of my fellowship
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
3 months
also, PRs, flood my inbox with potential source convos, exclusives, and embargoes. i need to get some stories in the pipeline!
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
2 months
he’s always online. just for fun, i downloaded his most recent posting history on X and found that he posts, including retweets, on average 117 times a day — often between 3 and 5 am.
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
1 month
and that’s not to mention that three out of the seven headliners at Bitcoin 2024 have allegedly committed serious sexual misconduct. h/t @molly0xFFF but… there is a “Women’s Brunch” scheduled for today!!
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
27 days
scoop: got shown first page of a subpoena the SEC issued to a crypto VC. at least two other crypto VCs received similar subpoenas, according to a source familiar with the investigation.
@DLNewsInfo
DL News
27 days
SEC subpoenas three crypto VCs in sign crackdown gaining pace
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
1 year
it was a landmark day for crypto as four ben weisses from across the U.S. gathered for the first inaugural roundtable of ben weisses in crypto
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
1 month
in 2019, about 17% of the speakers at the conference were identifiably female. in 2024, that number’s shrunk to 13%. in other words, men outnumber women speakers almost 9 - 1.
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
1 month
fact check: have seen conflicting reports about how much fairshake, crypto's largest super PAC, has raised. dug into the data and found numbers that were basically the same as those from @molly0xFFF
@DLNewsInfo
DL News
1 month
Why crypto’s Fairshake super PAC has raised 20% less money than people think
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
1 month
these stats are worse than data we compiled for Consensus 2024, where 26% of the publicly listed speakers were women. it’s also worse than the baselines for industry conferences writ large.
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
3 years
may this piece i wrote about obituaries dampen your holiday cheer
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
2 months
hello! i'm now in dubai, and i am bored. if you live in the city/know people who work from the UAE, please let me know! i'd love to grab coffees/drinks with anyone to avoid the heat!
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
3 years
Shameless self promotion, as is needed in this age of personal brands, but below is a piece in print I wrote for @WIRED !
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
10 months
Scoop: got more details on OpenSea 2.0 and how the company is mourning its recently laid-off employees—at a mansion once owned by Katy Perry and Russell Brand
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
8 months
HOWEVER, im still planning on doing some intermittent reporting on crypto for fortune and other outlets for the next few months, so continue to direct bigger interview offers/story ideas my way
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
2 months
former employees are divided on his rhetoric. He is trying to force his own agenda in his attempts to promote the industry, said one. “His delivery is destructive.”
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
1 year
proud to say @FortuneMagazine 's inaugural list ranking the best companies in crypto went live. i not only wrote a good number of blurbs for these but helped out on the backend, writing a bunch of code to parse through public data.
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
1 year
i am convening a ben weisses of crypto roundtable on 8/17 at 2 p.m. ET. if you meet the following criteria, you may join: 1. your name is ben weiss 2. you do something with crypto we have three confirmed ben weisses, and we are looking for more!
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
2 months
@GaryGensler “i have no idea what his deal is,” @mcuban told me in an email re: selkis, who has challenged him to duke it out. “he knows exactly what my deal is,” @twobitidiot told me.
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
1 month
one study found that, from 2016 to 2018, women made up 25% of keynote or standalone speakers at tech conferences globally.
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
13 days
spoke with @JDonoghueAuthor about his crypto tell-all he released yesterday. got into an interesting conversation on pseudonymity and when it's accepted/criticized in crypto:
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
8 months
On Chub AI, for as little as $5 a month, users can visit a virtual brothel staffed by girls under 15 and chat with whomever they like. And who helps power these chats? Meta, @iamsternlicht and I found in my most recent story for @FortuneMagazine
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
2 months
fun lil' FOIA: i saw a rumor spread on X that CFTC staffers were gathering evidence at Consensus. texts, docs, and emails show that there was no coordinated sting, it was mainly feds having fun...
@DLNewsInfo
DL News
2 months
Why a CFTC investigator attended Texas’ biggest crypto gathering: ‘This conference is so odd’
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
2 months
said another: “I think his antics have been pretty consistent for the last seven or so years,” they said, later qualifying that his online chatter has recently become a bit more aggressive.
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
2 months
perhaps our pubbing this now is good timing, given the recent ryan selkis back-and-forth that took over Crypto Twitter for the past day:
@twobitidiot
Ryan Selkis (d/acc) 🇺🇸
2 months
I actually feel nothing but total contempt for the people who are piling on right now when they know that this is a ridiculous overreaction. We should have legal and skilled immigration (as I’ve said many times in the past), and limit the cultural suicide of imported socialism.
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
3 months
first(ish) story with @DLNewsInfo : salame may serve 5.5 years or less because of potential discounts for good behavior and entrance into a substance abuse program
@DLNewsInfo
DL News
3 months
Convicted FTX exec Ryan Salame may serve shorter sentence because of substance abuse
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
2 months
some highlights from my profile, in no particular order: i made an incomplete list of the names he’s called @garygensler : rat, snake, liar, fraud, loser, beta, toady, sociopath, and the Grinch.
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
8 days
this was smart maneuvering on opensea's part. they announced this right before we went live with our piece.
@dfinzer
Devin Finzer (dfinzer.eth)
8 days
OpenSea has received a Wells notice from the SEC threatening to sue us because they believe NFTs on our platform are securities. We're shocked the SEC would make such a sweeping move against creators and artists. But we're ready to stand up and fight. Cryptocurrencies have long
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
2 years
debt ceiling, trillion dollar coin, and crypto???? read story to #understand
@jeffjohnroberts
Jeff Roberts
2 years
Could the $1T coin happen? And does it have to be platinum or could it be crypto? @bdanweiss digs deep to find out. Congrats on your first @FortuneMagazine story Ben!
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
6 months
i was traveling, so i didn't get around to publicizing this piece. HOWEVER, here's a lil something i wrote for the guardian about AI porn companies that emphasize consent and boundaries more than existing products:
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
11 months
Hot take, but the star of the SBF trial is not Caroline Ellison or SBF himself but Grant Bianco, the guy who’s pulling all of the evidence up on the screen for the jury and doing the red circles and highlights. LONG LIVE BIANCO
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
6 months
Scoop with @leomschwartz : Monad Labs in talks to raise more than $200 million round led by Paradigm, valuing the Jump Crypto-linked startup at $3 billion
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
8 months
truly apocalyptic beginning to the year for media... send me back to the warm bosom of grad school stat!
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
6 months
every time twitter/x/elon purges the bots who follow me, i mourn for them
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
1 year
📢 the first inaugral Ben Weiss roundtable is upcoming in one hour! 📢
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
11 months
no response yet from kathy hochul PR team about whether she met sbf at the capital grille on sept. 16, 2022. we have cell data and a calendar invite, but we are still looking for info on alleged venue and potential menu choices, including filet mignon
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
2 years
ok, there are a bunch of big names here, but some of my favs are and a trend of moon-named entities: moon pod, moon overlord, mooncolony, and moonstone read the lil' write up @FortuneMagazine and @FortuneCrypto
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
8 months
also, direct embargoes to @leomschwartz and @marcoquiroz10 !
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
2 years
wrote this piece about faith in Bitcoin and God amid crypto's recent collapse!
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
9 months
probs one of the most detailed/exhaustive profiles of GG out there, props to @leomschwartz and @jeffjohnroberts
@leomschwartz
Leo Schwartz
9 months
I profiled Gary Gensler for the new print issue of @FortuneMagazine . We dug into staff burnout, agency turf wars, and Gensler's trajectory from Goldman banker to Dodd-Frank steward at the CFTC to divisive SEC chair. W/ @jeffjohnroberts :
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
1 year
if you don't get orbed, you don't get to pub (my humble opinion)
@jeffjohnroberts
Jeff Roberts
1 year
The NYT finally discovered Worldcoin. Description is reallllly similar to Fortune's account from March. Also, unlike his NYT counterpart, our reporter took one for the team and got his iris scanned. (Thanks and hope you don't get enslaved @leomschwartz )
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
3 months
scoop w @Liam_Gallas : stani kulechov, founder of Aave, etc., is shopping lens protocol around to VCs after Farcaster's big raise
@DLNewsInfo
DL News
3 months
EXCLUSIVE: Aave’s Stani Kulechov seeks $50m for Lens Protocol at $500m valuation
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
3 months
looked into SEC filings to see how some top crypto VCs did in 2023 and Multicoin's assets under management almost tripled, jumping from about $1.36 billion in 2022 to $3.81 billion in 2023
@DLNewsInfo
DL News
3 months
Top crypto VCs bounced back in 2023 as Multicoin led the way with 180% increase
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
2 years
Had a lot of fun helping report out this piece with @leomschwartz . This niche world of crypto scammers is colorful but also dangerous
@leomschwartz
Leo Schwartz
2 years
Yesterday, the prolific crypto scammer Monkey announced his departure on Telegram. Luckily, @bdanweiss and I have been tracking Monkey for weeks, so we have the full account of how he changed the draining game. h/t @zachxbt for all his work on this:
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
8 months
im ramping things down a bit to recuperate after a long year of hustling, but i'll still be around!
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
1 month
lol. and i just moved to dubai...
@leomschwartz
Leo Schwartz
1 month
Remember Debt Box, the infamous SEC crypto lawsuit where a federal judge sanctioned the agency for misleading the court? The story gets even stranger, including an alleged kidnapping in Dubai and $400 million of disputed funds:
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
3 years
I just spent almost two hours wrangling with my health insurance and pharmacy to get a medication that my health insurance, from the get-go, told me was covered. How much unpaid labor do we perform to smooth over all the administrative inconsistencies of the healthcare industry?
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
1 year
did a vibe check with legal experts, developers, and investors for @FortuneMagazine on the effects the Binance and Coinbase lawsuits may have on Solana:
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
4 years
how do i get on american love island
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
20 days
silly item for the week: talked to two of the least deep-pocketed donors to Fairshake, a pro-crypto super PAC that gets the vast majority of its money from incredibly wealthy execs like Brian Armstrong and Marc Andreessen
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
2 years
Just pubbed this piece with @AnnaRachaelMil1 and @lizamayschmidt about Bosnia's tech industry!
@restofworld
Rest of World
2 years
Bosnian tech industry leaders are working to stop the accelerating brain drain of young people leaving the country
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
8 days
conveniently, one day after returning responses to a list of assertions we sent them, opensea said it received a wells notice from the SEC. here’s what else i found out:
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
3 years
extremely angry that wordle today redirected me to NYT. I just want my word games to be non-corporate!
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
1 year
zero-knowledge proofs are in the weeds for a layperson, but for some, the stakes of this piece of tech could be quite huge, i.e. it's going to be an important tool to hold A.I. accountable. read what i wrote for @FortuneMagazine :
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
8 days
up until june 2022, opensea kept most of its cash reserves in ether. as a result, the company saw the value of its cash reserves plummet along with the broader crypto market.
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
9 months
. @Techmeme must stop mixing me up with an invented account called @bencoinflip ! this is the height of discrimination against crypto ben weisses... crypto ben weiss army assemble! CC @ItsBenWeiss @BenjaminSWeiss @benmweiss_
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
2 months
great narrative piece by @leomschwartz
@leomschwartz
Leo Schwartz
2 months
NEW: In June, Kanav Kariya stepped down as president of Jump Crypto, the blockchain arm of the famed Chicago trading firm. The move marked a staggering few years for the 28-year-old wunderkind, from overseeing billions to becoming enmeshed in one of crypto's worst scandals
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
1 month
spoke with the new Eclipse CEO about how he wants to put Neel Somani's resignation behind the company
@DLNewsInfo
DL News
1 month
Eclipse’s new CEO strives to move past predecessor’s scandal with more product and less drama
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
8 days
it’s a scoop-laden piece that i wrote as a narrative — it’s a tale as old as silicon valley: a company rides a wave of hype for tech’s newest, shiniest innovation, and then, as the hype dissipates, it becomes a shadow of its former self.
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
3 months
email me at bweiss @dlnews .com!
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
4 years
pandemic life in NYC = going to nearest bodega in slippers and pajamas to buy beer to drink while watching How To with John Wilson
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
8 days
thanks to @alexhcranz and @knguyen for all of their edits and guidance on the piece!
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
11 months
the fortress fallout continues…
@leomschwartz
Leo Schwartz
11 months
Scooplet from @bdanweiss and me: Scott Purcell, founder and CEO of the embattled crypto custodian Fortress, stepped down after its failed Ripple acquisition, a ~$15 million hacking incident, and previously unreported staff layoffs
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
4 years
just got threatened with a lawsuit. i guess i can cross this off if i ever play journalist's bingo
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
1 year
thank you @BenjaminSWeiss @benmweiss_ and @ItsBenWeiss for talking with me today. as a reporter for @FortuneMagazine and @FortuneCrypto , i truly appreciate your support for a fellow... ben weiss
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
2 years
just published what will be my last dispatch about bitcoin missionaries for now!
@Gizmodo
Gizmodo
2 years
Christian Missionaries Are Turning to the Gospel of Bitcoin in Latin America
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
8 days
opensea has an “SEC matter,” which I can now say with certainty is an investigation and a potential litigation threat.
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
1 year
Great read from @leomschwartz and @AnneSraders and use of on-chain data
@leomschwartz
Leo Schwartz
1 year
Crypto tokens have changed the game for venture capital, so @AnneSraders and I delved into the deep impacts of the bear market in this feature for @FortuneMagazine . With lots of scoopy details about Tiger, Paradigm, Braintrust, and more:
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
3 years
I would happily wade through bureaucratic red tape for a fair hourly rate 😇
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
7 days
tiny scooplet: saw a pitch deck for a new market maker that's planning to come onto the scene
@DLNewsInfo
DL News
7 days
Ex-Nexo trading boss to launch crypto market maker amid ‘fresh’ opportunities
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
1 year
@lordkeklol Hey! My name is Ben Weiss, and I'm a reporter on the crypto desk at Fortune. We're doing a story on the meteoric rise of Pepecoin, and I was wondering if you'd be willing to speak about it, since it looks like you're (potentially) the creator?
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@bdanweiss
Ben Weiss
8 days
as the AI zeitgeist continues to dominate headlines, perhaps it’s helpful to think about one of silicon valley’s former favorite startups and what happens after the hype hollows out.
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