'Black Swan' Author Bashes Coinbase Insiders and CEO for Getting Rich by Dumping COIN After IPO

Nassim Taleb, well known as the author of "Black Swan," "Antifragile," "Skin in the Game" and other nonfiction books on handling risk and uncertainty, has taken to Twitter to again confirm his anti-crypto position and also to criticize those whom he believes to be charlatans in the crypto space.

Along with crypto and blockchain, he also slammed start-ups with a "neuro" prefix, calling them fraudsters.

"Great refuge for the charlatans"

Taleb posted a tweet, saying that " 'Neuro' something" has always been a "great refuge of the charlatans."

However, the caricature on the blackboard in the picture clearly says "Bloke chain. Hedge" and shows a man in a suit in hysterics from laughter next to it.

Taleb is a former Bitcoin advocate who made a U-turn on this subject a couple of years ago, and since then, he has been criticizing BTC and all cryptocurrencies overall, calling Bitcoin a "tumor" in particular and other similar names, constantly displaying his skepticism toward crypto.

As reported by U.Today, roughly a month ago, Taleb appeared on a Bloomberg podcast with Joe Weisenthal and criticized Bitcoin as a "very fragile commodity."

He believes that the flagship cryptocurrency is in fact controlled by a small number of people, and it is just a book entry that needs to be maintained all the time.

"Neuro" something has always been a great refuge fo the charlatans. https://t.co/TeyqCV3XDd pic.twitter.com/rEcTP89DAG

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb (@nntaleb) May 4, 2023

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Slamming Brian Armstrong and other COIN sellers

In another recent tweet, the scholar commented on the tweet of analyst Ed Elson dated May 2, in which the former shared a list of people who sold COIN shares right after the IPO of major U.S.-based crypto exchange Coinbase was conducted in April 2021.

That list of people who sold their COIN a month after the IPO includes several Coinbase executives and chief executive Brian Armstrong. He, in particular, earned $291.8 million on that sale and comes second after Fred Wilson, a U.S. venture capitalist and early Coinbase investor. He made $1 billion by selling his COIN shares. They got rich on that, Taleb stressed.

Taleb called this "inverse 'Skin in the Game,' " contrary to the title of his book. He stated that Coinbase "sold a story" to investors and then "transferred the downside to suckers."

Inverse #SkinintheGame. You get rich selling a story and transfer the downside to suckers.

Many techies were upset with the criticism of the insiders cashing out upon the "debut", w/a legal trick that allowed them to sell immediately, unlike with standard IPOs. https://t.co/KrbU1yA12r pic.twitter.com/rVwS1GfYYs

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb (@nntaleb) May 4, 2023