Luke Lintz

investor in DeSo since 2021 | CEO of HighKey

[Luke Lintz @lukelintz]

For anyone who doesn't know me...

Google does a good job outlining my active business. My investments are pretty much all in crypto and real estate.

[Republicans against Trump @RpsAgainstTrump]

CNN aired a montage of Trump’s past claims that the U.S. was on the cusp of a deal with Iran, with Anderson Cooper noting that today’s announcement marks the 39th time he’s made a similar claim.

[Blue Georgia @BlueGeorgia]

CNN montage of all the times Trump announced deals with Iran.

Anderson Cooper: Today marks 39 times that he has said something like that.

[Luke Lintz @lukelintz]

@Mericamemed What if I eat 8 eggs every morning?

[Luke Lintz @lukelintz]

The top feels very soon

[Kalshi @Kalshi]

JUST IN: S&P 500 closes at record high of 7,412

[Luke Lintz @lukelintz]

This is so far off and deceptive in SO MANY ways.

[Jesse Cohen @JesseCohenInv]

1999 vs 2026 👀👀

Big if true.

[Luke Lintz @lukelintz]

Literally the exact same thing they said at the start of Covid 🤦🏼‍♂️

[Leading Report @LeadingReport]

Health Sec. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says they have the hantavirus outbreak “under control.”

“We’re not worried about it.”

[Luke Lintz @lukelintz]

There is no data to back up that this is the largest gap ever.

Largest since Redfin started tracking this dataset in 2013.

Still very concerning for the housing market.

[Kalshi @Kalshi]

JUST IN: US home sellers now outnumber buyers by 630,000 — largest gap ever.

[Luke Lintz @lukelintz]

Trump is literally saying the same things that he did back with Covid:

- that the disease was “under control” or manageable,
- that spread was limited or difficult,
- and reassurance that the U.S. was in a “good position.”

[Fox News @FoxNews]

BREAKING: President Trump addresses growing concerns about the hantavirus in the United States:

"The one thing with this one is that it's much harder to catch... It's been around for a long time, people are very familiar with it."

"I hope it's fine... It seems like it is not easy to spread."

“We think we're in very good shape."

[nader.deso @nadertheory]

What it's like to be arrested on your way to a joyful family vacation...

Around August of 2024 I was on my way to Turkey for a family vacation. I hadn't heard from the DOJ for a year at this point and my impression was that everything DOJ-related was fully resolved. I was going to Bodrum to introduce my young son to my wife's family (she is Turkish and they hadn't met him yet). I booked the flight two weeks in advance to boot.

As I'm about to board the plane, three FBI agents intercept me, put handcuffs on me in front of me in front of my wife and my son (only eight months old at the time, thankfully) and walk me through LAX in handcuffs. The agents didn't even think twice about walking me in front of a crowd of what had to be a thousand people on my way to their car. Thankfully, they were at least helpful enough to reluctantly grant my request to put a jacket over my handcuffs, which prevented too many pictures from being taken.

So why was I arrested when it seemed like the case was over and done with? Unbeknownst to me, the original prosecutor working my case quite possibly had determined that there was no wrongdoing, and was on his way out of the DOJ. However, instead of the file closing, it was instead handed off to a more junior prosecutor who got excited about it and thought I was "fleeing the country." Whether she actually thought that or she was using it as an excuse to arrest me and take my passport from me I'm not sure. But suffice it to say that if I booked a flight two weeks in advance I'd have to be the stupidest flight-risk ever...

I spent the rest of the day in a jail before being transferred to an actual prison for two more days. Why so long? Because they arrested me on a Saturday morning and the court couldn't process my bail until Monday afternoon. Government inefficiency at its finest. The first thing I did when they let me out was hug my wife and son.

At one point I was made to sit in the "visiting area," awaiting my lawyer, where I watched inmates sitting across from their family members, five feet away, no touching allowed. At one point a young child ran to quickly hug his dad and was reprimanded harshly by the warden. "Sir, this is your last warning. I would like to remind you that seeing your family is a privilege." Indeed, it really is.

Now, almost two years later, the government decided "oopsie-daisy" and dismissed all charges, both DOJ and SEC, and the latter with prejudice. Sorry we put you in chains from your hands to your feet in front of your son and had people brutally tell you to "face the wall" every time you entered an elevator. Sorry we put you in a cage for three days with violent prisoners. These things happen. Oopsie-daisy.

There's a lot more to this story that I look forward to talking about in full soon.

It sounds horrible, but I was weirdly zen about the whole experience. Not only did I know I'd done nothing wrong, but the whole experience made me realize just how important what I was working on was to me. It made me realize that to be able to work on something that you're willing to fight for, to risk being put in a cage by the state for, is something very special that not many people have. I've meet a lot of people in crypto who feel this way, and I think this is one thing that's truly unique and inspiring about our industry.

[nader.deso @nadertheory]

This is so true, and it's disappointing to see the reporters from top publications who rushed to report on my arrest now publishing absolutely nothing upon full reversal of the charges.

But what's even more disappointing, honestly, is the behavior of the government. Both the DOJ and SEC issued and promoted flowery press releases explicitly calling me a liar when they arrested me. This is a literal quote from the SEC's press release about me:

"The dedicated staff of the SEC uncovered Al-Naji’s lies and will now hold him accountable for misleading investors." - Gurbir S. Grewal, Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement

He didn't even say ALLEGED lies! And yet when I asked them to issue a simple press release about the dismissal to correct the record they refused. Not only that, but they made sure to file the dismissal paperwork on Friday right before the weekend to try and bury the story. My lawyer says this is an intentional and common practice to try and hide their mistakes.

Ironically, the lack of accountability and truth-seeking when it comes to traditional media channels is precisely why I became so passionate about decentralized social media and DeSo in the first place. Elon buying X has done a lot for people being able to directly tell their story, and we should be extremely grateful for that. But there's clearly more work to do.

[Shaun Maguire @shaunmmaguire]

This was one of the craziest things I’ve seen in my career

@nadertheory was dragged to hell by the SEC

But he made it back, and he’ll be stronger for it

[Cointelegraph @Cointelegraph]

🚨 NEW: The SEC has dropped its two-year case against BitClout founder Nader Al-Naji with prejudice, citing a reassessment of the evidentiary record.

[Luke Lintz @lukelintz]

@nadertheory So happy for you Nader!

Been here since the beginning, back in 2021
and couldn't be more excited for the years to come.

[nader.deso @nadertheory]

Big news! Last Friday the SEC officially dismissed its enforcement action against me and against DeSo.

This was the last legal issue I had to deal with and I am now completely and totally free to innovate and build again, unhobbled for the first time in years.

Three important points:

1) This dismissal was NOT a settlement. It was "without costs or fees" to me or anyone involved (extremely rare) because there was no wrongdoing and no actual aggrieved parties.

2) This dismissal was "with prejudice" (also rare). This means they can't bring any related action back against me or DeSo in the future.

3) In the SEC's own words, it was based on "a reassessment of the evidentiary record," meaning the actual facts regarding my innocence were heavily scrutinized and drove the decision.

Simply put: The government made a mistake in bringing this case in the first place.

The government accused me of misleading an investor who I knew I had a great relationship with, as in they backed me two separate times and I literally had breakfast with them at their house not long prior to the charge. As a result, soon after the charge I found out that not only were they not upset with me, but they wanted the government to go away as badly as I did. As I understand it, the government compelled the investor to do an interview and then took their neutral testimony and represented it as adversarial. It was an alleged fraud with no actual misrepresentation nor any actual aggrieved parties. My lawyers said they'd never seen anything like this, and I think it speaks to how dogmatically anti-crypto the prior administration's SEC was.

In the coming days and weeks, I will be hopping on some podcasts to tell the whole story, and boy is there a story to tell. Stay tuned, and if you know anyone who'd like to have me on as a guest please reach out.

I'm also excited to start sharing more about what my team has been working on soon. We haven't been twiddling our thumbs.

For now, though, I just want to explain why DeSo is so important to me. DeSo is still the only platform on the internet where you can post content directly to a blockchain without fear of censorship, and where you can monetize your content directly with crypto (including stablecoins). It's really quite shocking how in 2026 we not only have virtually no viable alternative for this clearly-important category, but also other important efforts are actually shutting down. The world needs more people working on decentralizing social media, not less. I'm excited to finally be able to share our vision directly again, and to start bringing more people who care about freedom and censorship into our community. What we have built with DeSo is something people take for granted until they really need it, but hopefully we can convince them sooner than that.

Lastly I want to say how grateful I am to everyone around me. My family, my friends, my backers, and everyone in the DeSo community. For me, this experience showed me just how trusting, loyal and caring everyone around me really is, and reaffirmed my belief that always trying to do the right thing really does pay off.

We're just getting started.

[Luke Lintz @lukelintz]

@tvbzify Looking pretty good right now mate

[Luke Lintz @lukelintz]

@Jaxweah @grok Savage!

[Luke Lintz @lukelintz]

It's hilarious how you can go on X about stocks and crypto at any point and it's pretty much a 50/50 of people being massively bullish and bearish.

[Luke Lintz @lukelintz]

@Noahhcalls DeSo.... it the only chain that will have utility in the next 6 months

[Luke Lintz @lukelintz]

Not all eggs are equal 🥚don't buy the wrong ones.

Go for pasture-raised, soy & corn-free. Clean fuel only 💪

[Luke Lintz @lukelintz]

This is the step by step process to buy AB coin:

Step 1: You need to go to https://t.co/04xXRztu8Q

Step 2: in the top right you want to click "Create or import wallet" and then setup your crypto wallet and go through the steps. On the last page of the setup process it gives you the option to buy FOCUS Tokens. 

Step 3 : Now you can go back to 
https://t.co/04xXRztu8Q

Since the coin hasn't launched yet it's completely fair between everyone to get coins at a fair market price. You click the blue button "Get Tokens Early." This will take you here: 
https://t.co/LCtQwRea1P

Now this is where things get REALLY COOL. This platform is basically the decentralized version of Coinbase and you can buy creator coins and other cryptos directly on here without any identify verification or KYC checks. 

Step 4: You can click the green button that says "buy $AB" and place a buy order for AB