$1.5 billion stolen in a nano-second. Should this become “Trump’s problem” now . . . ?

Photo above - Former Fox channel talk show host -and new FBI assistant director - Dan Bongino. This reporter reached out Director Dan for a comment on the billion-dollar crypto heist, but her call was not returned by press time.

In a column last week I satirized the mainstream media for trying to foist off high egg prices as “Trump's inflation”. Thank you for your thoughtful replies, brickbats, and rants.

But here’s one problem which I do think Trump deserves some credit for. North Korean hackers made off with $1.5 billion of “someone’s” cryptocurrency in the middle of the night. See link below.

The victim was Bybit, a slippery crypto company founded in Singapore, operating in Dubai, but registered in The British Virgin Islands (a tax haven). Bybit’s founder Ben Zhou was born in China, went to college in the US, returned to China to work at a Cypriot registered currency exchange company called XM. Mr. Zhou then became a YouTube apostle for cryptocurrency before founding Bybit. Mr. Zhou may currently be residing in New Zealand where he also holds citizenship, although internet sources are in disagreement on this.

Would it help if we put a map on the wall festooned with colored thumbtacks, like they do in "True Detective" shows?

What does Bybit do? It keeps your crypto currency “safe” in their wallet. Stop laughing, this is absolutely true. Bybit shares are down 50% over the past week (from $280 to $140). Solana, a similar wallet company (SOL-USD) has also lost half its value. But Solana was already having problems; it's the creator of those Trump and Melania meme-coins, and is implicated in last month's Argentina crypto fraud.

So other than Trump hawking a bunch of questionable meme coins, why should this ginormous North Korean hack be his problem?

Well, it IS the largest crypto hack in world history. And it was pulled off by a bunch of guys in some Pyongyang basement subsisting on Kimchi (fermented cabbage) and dog soup (yes, that’s really a thing in North Korea). If THOSE guys can break into the crypto vaults, is anyone or anything safe?

I’ve been saying – since the Biden administration – that crypto and “investment” don’t belong in the same sentence. Crypto currency is imaginary, made of bits and bytes and electrons. It doesn’t produce food, energy, or shelter. You can’t buy any of those things with it either. However you CAN store it in a Bybit and Solana wallet and hope it’s still there on the day you want to convert it to real money. "Remember to change your password regularly".

President Trump (and Musk) want us to think of crypto as real money. The North Koreans clearly do already. Trump got major campaign contributions (millions and millions) from crypto-friendly A-listers. He has floated plans to have an official US crypto currency. Which presumably will have to be stored in someone’s “wallet”. If the USA invents it's own official crypto wallet to store "Eaglet meme coins" I’m not going to feel any safer. America already can't protect its electrical grid, water supplies, hospitals, and other vital infrastructure from hacking. Why would a US crypto wallet be any more secure?

The real problem isn’t Bybit, Solana, or crypto of course. It's the constant hacks of our infrastructure, the pentagon, our satellites/GPS, banks . . . everything that we need to maintain the standard of living to which we have become accustomed. Electronic World War 3 is already underway. And if North Korea can attack us with impunity, we are sure to lose.

Over the past 4 years I continually urged the Biden administration to stop daydreaming about harvesting votes with student loan forgiveness and windmill subsidies. We have much bigger problems the government doesn't want to talk about. Mr. Trump, this is now your problem. If you want to create a new cabinet level czar for hacking protection, you have my endorsement. I doubt if Secretary of Defense Hegseth, or FBI assistant director Bongino are the right men for this problem.

I’m just sayin’ . . .

North Korean hackers behind $1.5 billion crypto hack: Security firm