It’s time for crypto fans to stop supporting cults of personality
Many of the centralized cryptocurrency platforms that collapsed this year had something in common: a young, outspoken and cocky leader. Each gained outsized influence not by virtue of outsized intellect or talent but because of their piles of money and large Twitter followings. And each time, misplaced trust in their abilities resulted in disastrous consequences.
If crypto wants to avoid similar catastrophes in the future, it’s time for us to rearrange our leadership priorities. We need to ditch the cults of personality.
Before FTX collapsed, founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) had garnered a reputation as one of the loudest voices in the industry. He was active in the political world and frequently commented on what was happening in Web3.
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But perhaps most notable was his active involvement in a myriad of Twitter feuds and spectacles. SBF first stepped into the spotlight as the successor of SushiSwap after Chef Nomi abruptly abandoned the project — a drama that played out almost entirely on Twitter’s public stage. His ensuing Twitter antics, combined with the image of unstoppable success that FTX was broadcasting far and wide, gained him more than a million followers.
But even as SBF’s influence grew, it seemed he just couldn’t resist shitposting, regularly engaging with other Twitter users who threw stones.
Indeed, SBF’s penchant for Twitter drama played an important role in exposing FTX’s insolvency. It was his recent spat with CZ that ultimately led to the run on FTX’s deposits. His attention-grabbing antics carried on through the current ordeal, culminating in a bizarre series of cryptic tweets.
While SBF is the latest example of an industry
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