Rakoff repeatedly treats "crypto" as a monolith, collapsing decentralized networks, centralized frauds, meme tokens, and algorithmic stablecoins into a single object of derision. This is not analysis; it is rhetorical convenience. The Terraform Labs fraud he describes depended on secrecy, centralization, and false representations - the very features Bitcoin was designed to eliminate. Rakoff describes Bitcoin as gambling "untethered to economic reality." But his definition of economic reality is faith-based: central bank discretion, elastic supply, and institutional trust.
"In those years, I stayed in the George V [hotel] in Paris. I went to New York first class. I really had a great time spending that money," he tells Katie Byrne on the latest episode of the Money Talks podcast "I loved it, but I spent it with the faith that there'd be more money. I was never going to sit on a suitcase of money out of fear."