Good morning,

In 2008, Nouriel Roubini infamously started predicting doom. Never stopped.

Last week, the Financial Times published Rana Foorohar's "Crypto Coming Crisis" which was so spectacularly wrong about stablecoins, I had to check if the FT was doing satire. She claims T-bills in a payment wrapper will somehow crater markets.

First impression? OK, Doomer. Peddling fear to people like my grandma, who don’t know the T-bills from T-bone steaks.

Rana, I've managed crises that would turn your hair white but you’re the catastrophic doom expert? Receipts. Read on.

Read on,
Austin

Teaching Blockchain & DeFi at NYU Stern
Talking to institutions at Zero Knowledge

ZERO IN

BUT WHY

PERENNIAL PANIC

Anxiety begets attention. Bad news attracts views. Catastrophe incites clicks.

Professional doomers predict disaster. When it doesn't happen, they predict it harder. When it still doesn't happen, they go on TV and get a book deal. Roubini called one crash in 2008. Since then? He's called 50 more that never came.

Foorohar claims stablecoins will trigger the next crisis? No evidence. Hand-waving about "systemic risk" and "contagion."

Scholar or Scammer?

→ Pick a scary topic (crypto, AI, China, etc.)
→ Pepper scary words : "systemic", "contagion"
→ Obfuscate a 15 year record of being obviously, wrong.
→ Invoice think tanks for entirely biased "expertise".
→ Rinse. Repeat. Rinse. Repeat. Retirement.

I don’t need to answer to why stablecoins (backed by instruments like t-bills and money market funds) are dangerous. Already, your treasury desk holds billions of those.

REALITY CHECK

NOW WHAT?

POWER TO THE PEOPLE

GENIUS is a shift to the paradigm.

For decades, if anyone around the world wanted US dollars they bent the knee to banks charging 3%. To their governments’ access controls. To SWIFT taking its sweet time.

🌍 3B GLOBAL CITIZENS WILL WIN.

Ukrainian refugee: Sends USDs home in 30 seconds, not 5 days

Nigerian entrepreneur: Takes US customer payments without bank fees

Turkish family: Saves some stable value in USD while the lira craters 90%

Latin American workers: Keep 97% of remittances, not 85%

🇺🇸 US AND THE US DOLLAR WILL WIN.

GENIUS unlocks massive global demand for US Treasury bills, people around the world into buying American debt.

ZERO OUT

DELULU ≠ THE SOLULU

DO YOUR RESEARCH OR ASK US TO

Twenty years ago, "experts" explained “e-trading” would destroy markets.

Ten years ago, they said “e-payments” were too risky.

Five years ago, they said everything blockchain was bad.

Every stablecoin transaction shows how broken bank offerings are.

Every instant settlement shuttles SWIFT towards a swift death.

GENIUS stablecoins aren’t a risk. So what terrifies doomers?

Systemic risk? No—systemic obsolescence.

ZERO INSIDER

AUSTIN

Speaking at Ethereum NYC: NextFin Summit next week on what Tornado Cash means for institutional compliance. Preview: Nobody knows what's legal anymore.

DAVID

Deep in the Tornado Cash trial transcripts. The prosecution's blockchain "expert" admitted under cross he used tax accounting methods to trace crypto. The FBI's pie charts literally didn't add to 100%. Writing the definitive breakdown of how twelve jurors got bamboozled by vibes and bad math.

Also my friend Omid Malekan testified in the Tornado Cash trial as a witness about legitimate privacy uses (like hiding donations to Planned Parenthood, to avoid becoming a political target).

DAVID

Preorders are open for new book "Stealing the Future: Sam Bankman-Fried, Elite Fraud, and the Cult of Techno-Utopia" on Silicon Valley delulu and SBF’s dirty.

1  Long form article on DeFi dooming, available at Zero Insights.

2  Missed out? Read previous issues of Zero In 004, 003, 002, 001.