Joe Grand had to hack open a crypto wallet with a lost password and millions of dollars trapped inside.I mean, I'm an equal opportunity hacker.
Eileen Ormsby had to figure out if this internet hitman that was threatening her was the real deal.
They started tracking me down and sending me emails saying, stop saying that we're a scam, we're the real thing.And Merrill Goldberg had to encrypt secrets into sheet music to smuggle them across the Soviet border during the Cold War.
And then we were brought into a back room and had our first heavy-duty interrogation.
And what did we get to do, Jordan?What did we get to do?We got to talk about it.That's because Hacked is a tech show about cybersecurity, internet grifters, people using tech to do weird, unexpected stuff.Sometimes we focus on one big story.
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This is around the blockchain.We have an electrifying episode for you because we're talking about Cardano and the explosive price action it's had over the last three days.And then a little bit of a darker turn.
We're going to talk about a crypto founder that was kidnapped two days ago and held for ransom and they built him out of his Bitcoin.This happened in Canada, folks.But first we have a wonderful guest with us, Leo.Leo, how are you doing?
I don't know if we've ever done this show together, man.How are you doing?
I don't think we have, but no, it's an absolute pleasure to be on here.A pleasure to meet everyone.And I'm excited to talk through these topics.
Oh, it's one thing to get DZ in the office, but it's a whole nother when DZ's on a show with you.All right, Leo, we're going to talk about your favorite altcoin. not named Solana.We're talking about Cardano here.
It's not really his favorite, but it might be one day in Cardano.We're looking at an 11 and a half percent pump.
When we look at the last seven days, you can just see an explosive price action bottoming out around 32 cents and then skyrocketing all the way up to 45 over the course of about 72 hours.
read a couple of sentences from this article here, surgeon 32% and four days.
And they have a few reasons why now number one has propelled Cardano back into the top 10 is now a top 10 cryptocurrency yet again, knocking out Tron from its spot, but partly pumping because the Donald Trump's victory looks like he might end the war on crypto, but also we're seeing a lot of unique Cardano addresses making transfers in a single day.
So we're starting to get a lot of activity here Not only that, it looks like Cardano just recently has passed the 20, the 50, the 100 and the 200 day moving averages just lately here.
But before we get into why it's surging, what your thoughts are on the surge, what are your thoughts about Cardano as a whole, as an ecosystem?
Uh, I think, I think it's awesome.It's been one of the OGs for a very long time.Um, and you know, it really picked up last cycle where we saw a ton of ecosystems.
start realizing the importance of building out and supporting projects building on top of it.
Cardano themselves did an absolutely great job and we saw that last bull run when we saw a ton of projects being developed on it and that really supported in building out a community and a community that is still around today, which is unlike some other projects which attempted to do the same thing.
So although I personally don't hold any Cardano, I personally chose to diversify into only a couple high cap blue chips and stick it that way, which were Ethereum and Solana.
I still do have a lot of respect for Cardano, and I think, you know, with such a strong community behind it, and hopefully with a team that continues building out some awesome developments, I think, yeah, it's a strong future.
I think the most exciting thing is just to see some life come back to the markets over the past week since the Trump victory and I'm excited to see a lot more of these blue chip alts really start picking up and getting some traction again.
All right.Well, you brought up the price action of the last bull run.Last bull run.We went from 2 cents to $3 closely, pretty close to 150 X. Now this bear market, it looks like Cardona bottomed out right around 25 cents.
There's a couple of times that touched down with this level.Where does Cardona go?This bull run?What is your price prediction?Last time, 2 cents to $3 this time, 25 cents to what exactly?
That's a good question.I've never been the kind of guy to do many price predictions, especially when it comes to these high caps.What I will say is a great target with a lot of these blue chips is focusing on their all time highs.
And I think after that is of course price discovery. And in my opinion, it's just speculation.And I think we're kind of entering a cycle this time, that's going to be slightly different to how we've seen it play out before.
Last cycle, we saw a lot of layer ones, ICOs were kind of the meta, meme coins really came into it at the end of the cycle.
And this cycle, we're seeing a lot of meme coins, you know, people are calling it a meme coin super cycle, which of course, in turn is going to bring value back to you know, layer ones and alts like Cardano, of course.
because of course meme coins are built on top of those depending on what ecosystem they build into.So I think, look, we've seen it and I don't know if we're going to touch on it.
We've seen other layer ones and ecosystems really try and take advantage of the meme coin meta.And what they've done is just invested a ton into projects building on top of it to pretty much bring volume back to the network.
And I think if Cardano have a good business development team and a good marketing team, then they have the potential to do that.
And as long as they're interacting with the community and the ecosystem, and they help support projects that are building on top of there, potentially do larger marketing campaigns.
And I think they have a chance at, you know, really, you know, stabilizing themselves in that top 10, and hopefully making some really awesome new hires.
Do you think they consider themselves too serious to ever fund the meme coin ecosystem?Because they did do it on Avalanche.We're seeing it on sweet.We're seeing it on other competing L ones and L two's will Cardano follow their footsteps.
Are they too business oriented and too serious with their Plutus and Haskell coding to ever do that?
Well, I think that's actually a mistake that so many other blue chip alts have made in the past is thinking you can only play into the serious solution that you're trying to be, which is completely wrong.
I think when you enter into the web through in the crypto space, you really have to encompass and take it in for what it is, which is a slightly degenerate gambling space, but also is a pathway to the next generation of financial technology or whatever they're trying to build out.
uh, whatever the project is that they're trying to build out and do.
Uh, and I think if you can encompass the community and the degeneracy part of it, and understand that if that is where the volume is this cycle, then it'd be silly for them not to try and take advantage of that.
If it means bringing volume back to the network and in turn bringing, you know, uh, a lot of, well, making the ecosystem itself a lot of money, uh, it puts them on the map.
And I think in, in everything, it really is how much noise you're making, how much volume is going through your network, which means.
In turn, they can then focus that and use that as leverage in the future when they do want to continue on, which they're going to do anyway, but continue on with the serious part of their building.
All right.Well, you heard it here first, Charles, you got to start market buying snack, Charle, Nike, you name it.Meme coin on Cardano.Let's go ahead and start using some of those Cardano foundation funds, folks.
A perfect example of other ecosystems that have done that are the likes of what you mentioned.Avalanche did it really well at the beginning of the year in the first leg of this cycle.
We've recently seen Tron come in and do it as well with Justin Sun.Realistically, that is just Justin Sun injecting a ton of liquidity into the Tron ecosystem.And of course, Sui is the latest one to enter into that landscape as well.
So I think, you know, for Godano to do it, it will still have respect.It's an, it's an OG coin.Um, I think it could easily build up some momentum if they do the right, do it the right way.
Great corollary.Justin sun did it with Tron Charles.I think you can do the same thing with Cardona.Now, speaking of Cardona, there's something that Cardona. is somewhat famous for at least on X is famous on Twitter for this.
And that's never losing a poll.I have a couple of examples.This is one of the more popular ones.This is a very popular poll at the time.
Coin Bureau, one of the more respected names in all of crypto 120 or 12,000 votes, 162,000 views Cardano beating Solana, beating avalanche, beating sweet.Obviously, if you put your money and any of the other three, you probably did better.
And then we also have this K dog Fred just learned the first rule about Cardano.We don't lose polls.How do they keep winning polls on X?And does that surprise you?
I mean, honestly, as someone, I guess, who's not fully involved in the Cardano ecosystem or community, I never even knew that they don't lose polls.
I have the most famous example, Vitalik's post.This was January, I think it might've been, I'm not sure if it was 21 or 22, but poll for Ethereum community.You wake up 2035, 80% of all transaction savings in the world is in one currency.
That is not Ethereum. Cardano beat Bitcoin and Solana.Mind you, this was Vitalik's poll.So yeah.How, if you had a guess, how the heck do they do it?
Uh, well, there's the, the, the, the cool way, which I'm thinking everyone would prefer it to be.And there's the other way.Um, Charles Hoskinson is a very innovative man, of course.
Uh, but I do believe that, you know, either you have an extremely strong community, which I already know the Cardano community is strong and they've, they've been around, they were here last cycle.
And I imagine some people got in at $3, did their research and thought this was, you know, the. the be all and end all, this is the most amazing asset in the world.
And then they would have had to ride through the whole bear market, which isn't easy for everyone.We've all had to do it.And of course, they've just built a core community, which is diehard and the polls is their number one priority.
Or the other side is that potentially you have some whales that just enjoy purchasing bots and, you know, taking advantage and running along with it.But I hope it's the first one, of course.
I would like to think it's the first one because you don't see the bot activity from coins that definitely use bot activity for wallets.
And so if there's funny shenanigans with, I'm just going to throw this out there because it's popular Solana wallets.You see Solana wallet creation.And you're like, Oh, you know, how much does each one have on average a fraction of a penny?
Like, well, maybe this is an organic human.So you would think they would do the same thing as Charles, but I like to think it's natural folks.All right.Last question here on Cardano.
And then we're going to talk about the crypto kidnapping folks is going to be wild. Cardano.I do think retail is going to start FOMOing in.This is the price sheet.
When does retail FOMO in, do they start FOMO in, in the near term because of the pump, do they FOMO in at a dollar or do they FOMO in at all time high and just get wrecked as Cardano then barely pumps and then starts to crash.
That's a good question.There's a lot of things to take into account there.I think it's going to come in stages because it really is subjective on who you deem as retail.
I think you're even going to see people FOMO in that have been here through the whole bull run over the next few months when we see Bitcoin really start firing up on its first proper leg entering these new highs.
Um, I think we're going to see some FOMO there, but I think, you know, inevitably it will be in about six to eight to nine months when we really see that retail, like we did last cycle, just flood in and they're going to be looking to buy.
Look, of course, there's going to be the side of it where they want to get involved in meme coins, but there's going to be a lot of people that go down the, the. the crypto rabbit hole, which we all have gone down, which is why we're all here today.
And they're going to be looking at utility assets.And of course, Cardano being in the top 10, with there being so much content about it, breaking it down in a simple way.It's not an asset that's hard to understand for the retail mind.
So I think we're going to see a lot of people FOMO in even after probably $1.50 upwards.
All right, chat.Some of your comments are just too insane for me to not mention them.A Darth Mike chastity cage is coming off today for Cardona holders.That's a pretty good one right there.
A lot of people upset about anything negative you might say about Cardona.So Leo, you know, you might be getting some haters, but Seth completely agreeing with you.They definitely need better marketing.A Darth Mike also agreeing here.
They definitely need to lean into the memes about it and learn to be less serious about itself.So I think Chad, you know, largely agreeing with what we're putting here now.
I just want to say a perfect example of projects that have done the same thing that had huge cult communities and they've pretty much almost killed them off is the likes of Ripple with XRP.They really supported the XRPL.
And as the lawsuit went further onwards, they completely neglected the ledger and all of the builders building on top of it. which is one of the biggest mistakes because you are killing your core community.
So as a project and an ecosystem, you have to encompass them, support them and be on that journey with them because you are acting as a form of motivation.
They want to see the project putting in the work and investing in them as much as they are investing in the project and working on it.
Daniel nailed it.They need a dog face on the token last thing.And then we'll switch to the crypto kidnapping here.Seth, bring it up.Charles and RFK are friends.
Do you think there's any world where Charles could be brought on in some sort of capacity with the Trump administration as an advisory role?
I think yes.As in like, Do we think these huge billionaire crypto founders are going to have the opportunity to have an input on what legislation will look like for crypto in the future?
And if he is really good friends with RFK, and RFK is feeding information to Trump, especially about crypto, I think there's going to be pretty much any US-based founder is going to be asked for their opinion and probably will be sitting at a table with them to be working out the correct path forward for the industry.
a, what would work better?He's friends with RFK or friends with Baron Trump.
Well, I think Barron Trump, the media is having a ball right now with him, aren't they?Because he was advising his dad on which podcasts he should be going on.And he apparently supported Trump in his campaign far more than people realized.
So I think being friends with Barron is also a bit of a cheat code.And Barron's already proven in the past that he is involved, invested, and paying attention to the industry.
All right.Everyone in there having a good time with Charles's age folks.We looked it up.He's not 35.He's 37.Okay.So yeah, a little bit younger than a lot of people expect right there.There's a way younger than I expected.I I'm older than him.
And you know what?If I also co-founded Ethereum and founded a billion dollar asset, I probably would have a few extra gray hairs and you know, maybe an extra inch on that belt line.All right, let's talk about the crypto kidnapping.
Everybody hit the like button.If you don't want to be kidnapped, hopefully that's most of you trip Toronto crypto company.CEO was kidnapped, held for a million dollar ransom before being released.This just happened to 6 PM the day before yesterday.
And so he's the head of a cryptocurrency company. This happened at University Avenue, Richmond Street in Toronto.For any of our Canadian brethren out here, we want you to avoid this area.
The suspects forced the founder into a vehicle and made a demand for money.The man was later located in a park. uninjured.Now we've learned the victim's name is Dean Skirka.
He is the president and CEO of wonderfi and he was released after a ransom of 1 million was paid electronically.
A source close to the investigation revealed here and they said he has been involved in an incident, but is now safe and it looks like client funds and data remain safe and were not impacted by this incident.
Now we don't know the exact details, but if I had to guess Probably kidnapped him and forced him to open his Meta mask, Bitcoin wallet, Coinbase account, and send crypto from his phone to another anonymous wallet.Does that sound likely to you?
Yes.Uh, and this is actually a trend we've seen really picking up over the last few years.Um, and it's something a lot of people that, uh, you know, docs, uh, and well off in this industry needs to be paying attention to.
You need to understand there are a ton of illicit figures out there that want to take advantage of you and exactly what's happened to this guy, steal from you.So yeah, I think it sounds realistic what you said.It's just, it's a sad thing to see.
And in my head, the reason why I'm starting is I'm trying to work out ways to actually go around this and avoid it.But it's tough to be if you want to market your project and dox yourself.
And if people see the project doing well, by default, you're going to become a target.
All right.Uh, chat still letting, uh, not letting Charles his age go.Damn.I thought he was 50.So come on, man.Put a little respect on his name here.Now, what can people do to avoid this?I see chat has some suggestions here.
How can people avoid this without spending an arm and a leg on private security?
How can people avoid this?Um, do not store crypto on your phone for, for, for one don't even have access to it.Um, I think in this case, This is the part I was struggling with is how do you avoid this?
If you are a project founder, you should have multi-sig wallets, but I imagine you're going to have your personal funds as well, which is going to make it slightly harder.
And if you want to avoid paying the big bucks, which is for the private security, then I guess very much, it's such a crazy thing to even have to talk about, stick in very public areas, which you would have thought Toronto is, but I imagine it, I think Toronto is a, is a slightly fallen city.
Uh, maybe even, you know, I have a friend that lives there.He said, you can relate parts of it to what parts of Los Angeles are like.Um, but I I'd be interested to hear what you think.
I can't think of the top of my head right now, ways in which that you can avoid this.
You could read a lot of Robert Ludlum novels.He is the author of born identity.
And so you can like learn spy techniques where it's like, if you're pulling up to a red light, you always keep enough distance between the car and the car in front of you to be able to turn, you know, you know, make sure you check in your mirrors often, but you know, carry things upon you.
I got to be careful with what I say.This is a YouTube channel that, you know, we're not trying to talk about pew pews or bang bangs here, but there's little things like that situational awareness, you know, train yourself on situation awareness.
And also someone else said, don't go to shady parties.Do not go to a ditty party.That's going to be number one, smell your drink.If you do.In fact, don't even do that.Bring your own water.Make sure no one's messing with it.
You know, that'd be some tips right there, but I'm going to have you guess and chat.I want you to guess as well.Wonder if I has a stock.Don't look it up.Don't cheat is the stock up or down today.Leo throw out a guest chat.
I want you to guess is the stock up is the stock down.And then we're going to reveal in a minute. I'm going to say it's up.There's no such thing as bad press.No such thing as bad press right there.
Uh, workout, learn, mix martial arts, hire a, the dude has the dough.I mean, yeah, if you do have the money that would work, uh, Seth, I hope Elon makes a robot for security.I just want one of the dogs.You give me one of those dogs.
I don't think anyone's messing with me.
Uh, did you see the video of, um, one of those dogs, uh, doing go around the premise of premises of, uh, Mar-a-Lago.
I did.And I think I'm for it.I think I'm for it here.Someone said, avoid being a creature of habit.Then people are able to find you.Did he says he wants to give me five Bitcoin for some baby oil hazard shot.You avoid that with, with your life here.
All right, let's check in on the stock now down all the way up.All is up, up.It's up.Everybody like Leo said, no publicities, bad publicity is up five and a half percent today.
It looks like, it looks like maybe someone front ran the, the kidnapping there.Now, Leo, this is hypothetical.What do you do in this situation? So in this situation, you're thrown in the car, you know, it's, it's Liam Neeson's enemies.
You know, they, they got thick accents, some of the years, but a little more Eastern European sort of Western European.They've got you in the car.They're holding up something to your head.Say, open your Meta mask.What do you do?
I mean, I'm not giving them anything personally.I mean, even even a gun to it's just for one that they do something to you opens up a can of worms for themselves.And to you know, if you don't give them anything, they don't have access to it.
They can't get it anyway.So it's kind of a lose some game that they should you shouldn't.I actually feel bad for this guy.I feel like he's open a can of worms.He's just broadcasted for some reason he's doing PR about it.
himself to thousands, hundreds of tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, if not a million people that he will give his money away if you shove him in a car.
I would like to clarify, I do not wish bad on anyone there.And I obviously this is a horrible thing you went through.
I tell you what I'm going to do.I'm not that brave.I'm opening up my Meta mask, but I tell you what I'm doing, Leo.I got five wallets on that.He ain't seeing two through four through five.Also, I'm not pulling up base chain.I'm not pulling a BNB.
I'm not pull just the ETH main net.Oh, you got me for everything.That's what I'm doing.So all my base tokens, I'm holding onto it.You're not getting my Polygon tokens, not getting any of my L2s out there.So that would be what I would do.Flaming
retro car.I would welcome it to get away from the fam for a few days.Uh, you need to get yourself a little safe space in your home there.Uh, I also like wisdom.Stop telling strange people that you're a dev or owner.
Stop showing strange chicks, your wallet full of mills or bills.Uh, do it on your own.Trust only few friends wake up.All right.Probably some Sage like advice.All right.Well, fun story.It's been an excellent episode, folks.Sorry about the lateness.
We had some audio issues on our end, but we have everything handled.Leo, I'll leave you with the final word, but let's talk about, I'll say you could do Cardano or the kidnapping final word.What are your thoughts of one of these stories here?
I think that's the thing, guys.If you are doxxed in this industry, do not boast or brag or show off, especially if you show your face as well.That is a lose-some situation.Just get a few likes.
And in regards to Cardano, shout out to the OG community.I wish you guys nothing but a lot of profits as we do enter into the very exciting part of this bull run. But it's been a pleasure.Thanks so much.
And I'll end it with this.Do the same thing Vitalik did.You just carry a big stick in your pants, folks.We could just share the photo here one last time.Just carry a weapon, because Vitalik, he's definitely carrying, if you know what I'm saying.
So hit that like button on the way out, folks.It's been an excellent episode.Thank you, Leo.Go follow Crypto with Leo.He's putting out fantastic content.He's all over X. Very, very unique insight.Wise beyond his years, just like Charles Hoskinson.
That's all we got for you today.We'll see you folks in the future.
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