Cryptocurrency: Winners are the Rich, Like the Trumps, Criminals, and Criminal Hacker States Like North Korea: Losers are the Planet, Air Quality, and Those Who Lose from the Volatility

     Ok, I have never been a fan of ‘crypto.’ It just seems so impractical to me to use so much of our valuable energy capacity to assure financial transaction security. That is an expensive security system, a safe, to protect from theft. But it is not safe from cyber theft at all. I was a bit aghast when I realized that 30% of so-called projected data center power demand growth is not AI data centers but crypto-mining data centers. I sure as hell don’t want my electric bill to climb to help support crypto miners. There are other issues, too, like the high water usage of data centers for cooling and effects on computer chip prices and supply chains. 

     Crypto has long been favored among criminals, organized crime syndicates, and drug cartels as an easy way to launder money and otherwise hide it. It is being successfully used by criminal hacker states like North Korea, which achieved a record $2 billion in crypto theft this year and a running total of $6 billion, which could well be a significant underestimate. Thus, one could say definitively that the current global cryptocurrency system has yielded billions to Kim Jong Un’s sinister regime. Many thefts are thought to be unreported or unknown, so the total values are likely to be higher. It was also revealed recently that North Korean hackers were using fake job offers to infiltrate the cryptocurrency sector and steal digital cash. As someone who has had to look for work in recent years, I know very well that there are many fake jobs out there and scams galore. Some are easy to detect, but others are more sophisticated. It was also reported that these crypto-hacking successes by North Korea were feeding their nuclear weapons ambitions. Kim Jong Un-fair. Way to go, crypto.  

     It’s not just rogue criminal states that are profiting heavily from crypto. Well-connected political grifters, i.e, the Trump family, are also profiting heavily. It was recently reported that the Trump family’s World Liberty Financial profited on paper by $5 billion, despite the coins losing value. In other word’s the Trump family made billions while those who bought coins, because they like Trump, lost value. Of course, the official statement from White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt is quite believable (massive sarcasm alert): "Neither the president nor his family have ever engaged, or will ever engage, in conflicts of interest." These and many other grifts make Hunter Biden’s financial finagling like a penny in a dump truck full of gold. Of course, these billions the Trump family is making are just a drop in the bucket since they have other crypto ventures and many other business ventures. If you buy enough Trump crypto, you might even get to have dinner with the prez, but that is not influence-peddling. Trump used to not like crypto like me. Instead, he embraced it and got way richer. These days, when the word “trillionaire” is beginning to look like a real possibility, the grotesqueness of the super-wealthy is on full display, and we get to hear constantly from Trump how other countries are ripping us off. It all just nauseates me. It’s hard not to be cynical.

     It is well known that crypto mining uses vast amounts of energy, thus causing air pollution and increasing energy costs for the rest of us, but making the super-wealthy and criminals wealthier. Crypto is well-known to be a risky investment for run-of-the-mill people investing, but a pretty solid bet for the initial coin owners. Some neuroscientists say we have an inherent sense of fairness. I guess, for me, one could say that cryptocurrency and how it is distributed, vulnerable to criminals, and energy-intensive, assault that sense of fairness. As Billy Idol once said, “There is nothing fair in this world.”

 

 

   

References:

 

North Korean Hackers Set Record With $2 Billion Crypto Heist. Namrata Sen. Benzinga. October 8, 2025. North Korean Hackers Set Record With $2 Billion Crypto Heist

New crypto token boosts Trump family's wealth by $5 billion. Aimee Picchi. Edited By Alain Sherter. Money Watch. CBS News. September 2, 2025. New crypto token boosts Trump family's wealth by $5 billion - CBS News