Ben

wanderer and wonderer, building permissionless access to opportunity; all opinions and views are my own - not investment advice, legal advice or marriage advice

[Ben @biddzalot]

2025 predictions 🧵

[Ben @biddzalot]

@dhh Crypto

[Ben @biddzalot]

I keep saying, if you're critical of data centers but you golf, you're kind of a hypocrite

[Jonathan Lacoste @lacostejonathan]

Petition to measure data center impact in units of Golf Courses (GCs) ⛳️

Land: 500 acre campus = 3.3 GCs

Water Usage: Massive 1GW closed loop facility = 0.48 GCs

[Ben @biddzalot]

@jito is cooking. join the JTX waitlist with my referral code https://t.co/eClilV7tF7

[Joseph Chalom @joechalom]

0 debt.

Nearly 100% of our ETH is staked.

Generating ~$1M/week.

While markets are volatile, we are quietly compounding.

[Ben @biddzalot]

@Codie_Sanchez Did it just wash the sink and the toilet with the same brush? Is that sanitary?

[Ardi @ArdiNSC]

The $TRUMP coin was one of the largest liquidity extraction events in crypto history.

Once valued at $67.5 billion FDV. Now down 94% and total silence.

We don’t talk enough about the damage this did to genuine retail confidence in crypto.

[Shanaka Anslem Perera ⚡ @shanaka86]

BREAKING: The US Just Changed the Rules of Oil Warfare

At 6am today, US forces boarded the Skipper off Venezuela’s coast.

1.1 million barrels seized. Two helicopters. Twenty operators. Zero resistance.

This is not about one tanker.

The Skipper was sanctioned in 2022 for financing Hezbollah and Iran’s Revolutionary Guards through an illicit oil network run by Gulf businessman Viktor Artemov. It loaded Merey crude at Port José on December 4.

Destination: Cuba, then Asia.

It never arrived.

What happens next will reshape global oil markets.

Every Venezuelan shipping contract now requires “war clauses.” Freight costs are exploding. Merey crude discounts have doubled from $8 to $15 per barrel below Brent. PDVSA has lost all negotiating power.

One analyst: “When enforcement moves from paper sanctions to boots on deck, the market dynamics change completely.”

The mathematics of deterrence are brutal. Venezuela exports 921,000 barrels daily. Analysts estimate 300,000 to 500,000 barrels per day could vanish as shadow fleet operators recalculate risk.

The collateral damage is visible. Cuba’s oil imports have collapsed 35% this year. Provinces receive 2 to 4 hours of electricity daily. The seized tanker was their lifeline.

Meanwhile: 15,000 US troops in the Caribbean. The USS Gerald R. Ford carrier strike group on station. 87 killed in 22 strikes since September.

Trump yesterday: “Maduro’s days are numbered.”

Maduro today: “It’s not a time for cowards. It’s time for combat.”

The shadow fleet era just hit its breaking point.

This is not a seizure. This is a demonstration.

Paper sanctions are over. Physical enforcement has begun.

Watch the insurance markets. Watch China’s teapot refineries scramble.

The cascade is starting.

[Ben @biddzalot]

@cometwtf Gambling losses

[Polina Kalashnikova @kalashnikovapv]

Can we take a moment to talk about the smart campaign Metamask did at Devcon

• Hosted a football game with crypto creators
• Gave each creator little bags filled with prizes (mUSD, swag, experiences)
• Let the creators decide how to distribute them
Creators then posted about having prizes and basically launched an impromptu scavenger hunt.

It was effortlessly shareable, and as a result, they go tooon of content.

They basically leveraged each creator's community to create intimate experiences.

@nikkinood9 put it perfectly when we talked on the podcast: "we want the Metamask card to feel like a surprise, a delight, and an adventure"

This delivered exactly that.

TLDR:
Events aren't for reach. They're for memory.

We need to design experiences that anchor emotion to product.
MetaMask figured this out.

[Ben @biddzalot]

@Jeremybtc OF

[Ben @biddzalot]

The Aave app is cool and all but have you tried Axal?

[Axal @getaxal]

The Axal App is now available on iOS and Google Play soon.

Earn real yield, on your terms.

Secure, permissionless stablecoin yield. In one click.

Download below ⬇

[Ben @biddzalot]

@AutismCapital My Garmin Enduro smartwatch

[Ben @biddzalot]

Don't act surprised

[Sachs @gudmansachs]

Unpopular opinion:

Trump used the crypto narrative for the crypto bros to vote for him and so he can get elected and steal billions

[Ben @biddzalot]

Nah, we good. Y'all are welcome to come visit but no need to move here, thanks.

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

Move to Austin! It gets better very year.

So many cool, world-class people are moving to Austin from SF, LA, NY, London and many other parts of the world!

Austin++

[Ben @biddzalot]

💯 All expansion, no market feedback to trigger a contraction. Believe it or not, layoffs can be healthy. Maybe the government needs mandatory layoffs whenever Congress/state and local elected officials fail to pass a balanced budget.

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

The reason government programs are so inefficient is that, unlike a commercial company, the feedback loop for improvement is broken, because they have a state-mandated monopoly and can’t go out of business if customers are unhappy.

No matter how bad the service is at your DMV (sorry to pick on DMVs), you still have to use your DMV, because it’s a monopoly.

[Ben @biddzalot]

It's not a bear market, it's builder szn - time to cook

[Ben @biddzalot]

Sign up for @MetaMask Rewards using my referral code (D38KXK) and start earning with me! All you need is the latest version of the mobile ap https://t.co/MlEPX5ANJD

[MetaMask 🦊 @MetaMask]

dear algorithm:

please show this post to everyone that needs to know metamask is cooking. perps trading is here, polymarket prediction markets are coming, and a future metamask token has been confirmed.

thanks

[Ben @biddzalot]

@alpha_pls @TreeNewsFeed First onlyup, then echo

[Ben @biddzalot]

@amandalfischer Don't hate the player, hate the game