Murad Mahmudov is stirring up our X-timelines again, but you may have noticed that the “former” Bitcoin maximalist isn’t posting much about Bitcoin these days.
For the uninitiated, Murad is one Bitcoin maximalistalbeit one who has stoked the culture’s ire over taboo ideas: see his 2021-2022 embrace of packaged Bitcoin assets on other blockchains, and most recently his incessant writing about a “memecoin supercycle.”
It’s a far cry from his posts around 2018, when they were featured on “The Pomp Podcast,” saying things like “Bitcoin is the most solid currency ever invented in history.”
So, how did he go from that confession to advocating a portfolio of PEPE and GIGA, his latest mantra that you should ‘invest in cults’?
Well, it starts with the post above, one of the few that makes me think Murad is on to something.
To be clear, what we’re talking about here is a complete disregard for the idea that belief in Bitcoin as a means of payment requires one to have some kind of moral obligation. While this has become fashionable lately, advocated by the likes of Michael Saylor and Jimmy Song, I’ve never seen a convincing argument that Bitcoin maximalism requires you to abandon financial speculation.
It is simply a moral choice, which lies beyond technology and which everyone is free to make. Yes, it’s bad to scam people. No, no one can stop you but yourself.
In view of this, Murad seems to indicate that he wants to take advantage of the next cycle general collapse in trust that continues in altcoin land, and that only goes against the grain.
Leaving aside the moral issue, there is much to like about Murad’s thesis. I would go so far as to say that most Bitcoin maximalists would agree with most of it.
Essentially, he’s betting on two simultaneous trends that really get to the heart of the movement:
- Bitcoin is truly on its way to becoming the dominant asset in the world. It is currently completely mispriced and will one day be the only remaining crypto asset and the world’s money.
- The crypto VC apparatus is slowly collapsing. Despite their years of claimed technological progress, there is little to see in the way of engineering. All altcoins will fail to compete with Bitcoin, and we’re starting to see this because retail investors are just buying random memecoins.
All this is to say: is it really that hard to believe that between these two truths will lie a messy period of complete crypto degeneration?
IMO, you don’t have to speculate about this to think it’s hilarious.
Expect Murad to become more relevant as this thesis develops.