Crypto-currency Melt Down Exposes Epstein, Trump Links
Economist Ed Hirs of the University of Houston discusses the murky world of crypto-currency, which is currently collapsing after years of speculative investment
As a good friend once told me, money and I are not friends. While some are gifted at acquiring and multiplying money, that gene passed me by. Nor did I compensate for my deficiency, trying to learn the secrets of money, by working the finance beat. At heart, I’m still a blue-collar kid eking out a living by the sweat of my brow. Or, these days, by my fingertips. All of which to say that I have never understood crypto-currency.
Instead, I followed the lead of others. My good friend, who understands the mysteries of markets, told me that crypto was a Ponzi scheme. Stay the hell away from it, he advised. Good call, as it turns out.
Crypto peaked in November and then crashed as the world fled to more traditional safe assets like gold. Bitcoin, the granddaddy of crypto, is down 50 per cent. Other altcoins are down a quarter to a third from their highs.
Why do we care?
In 2025, US President Donald Trump and his family financially benefited from the booming crypto market through a range of ventures tied to their name and business network. Trump-linked firm World Liberty Financial issued its own token (WLFI) and stablecoin (USD1), with the family entitled to a large share of proceeds from token sales and stablecoin yields; by late 2025, this reportedly generated over $1 billion in cash and paper gains and boosted their holdings significantly. A $500 million minority stake sale to a UAE-linked investor further enriched insiders. Trump-branded meme coins and related projects also brought in hundreds of millions for affiliated entities.
According to the Wall St. Journal, these gains were intertwined with policy shifts under Trump’s presidency.
Politicians aren’t supposed to use their office to enrich themselves. Trump doesn’t care. His intent is not to govern for the benefit of Americans, but to “ungovern” the US government to benefit his supporters. Check out our YouTube playlist of expert interviews, Trump, Canada, Administrative State, for a deeper dive into why and how authoritarian libertarians like Trump and Danielle Smith in Alberta are breaking the machinery of government.
This brings me to my interview with University of Houston economist Ed Hirs, one of our regular American experts on the US economy and energy industry. Ed’s a Texan, so he doesn’t pull his punches. The role of the late billionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein—not surprisingly, a good friend of Trump’s for a long time—is particularly interesting.
For my Canadian readers, remember that CPC leader Pierre Poilievre was a huge fan of crypto in the not-too-distant future. Grist for another essay. In the meantime, I hope you find this interview interesting.
Very much enjoyed the interview with Ed Hirs, and I appreciated his blunt views on crypto-"currency".
Like you, I'm not trained in economics, but a perspective I've acquired from reading elsewhere is that bitcoin et al are a combination of
- a ponzi scheme,
- a stock pump and dump scheme,
- a platform for various illicit transactions, notably but no doubt among others money laundering, bribery, and ransomware payments.
It is not and never has been a usable for ordinary payments or a store of value, as one would expect of an actual currency.
About 10 years ago, when stock markets were moving in percentages/day rather than points, I concluded that they no longer reflected real assets. I converted to cash. I hold only a couple of companies that are actually DOING stuff, building, creating, innovating.
The bulk of it, crypto especially, is not REAL.
It is a bunch of geeks swapping pixels on their computers in their parents basement, pretending it's money, and hurting a lot of "investors".
Back away!