Just before Snoop Dogg took the stage, an excited buzz began to spread. The crypto elite broke the news in tuxedos and floor-length gowns. President-elect Trump, who was absent as the guest of honor at the gala, became interested in Bitcoin on social media, and the topic is still rampant. Rampant fraud — a summary of what it means to be part of the government itself.
Despite the jubilant atmosphere where (obviously fake) Trump-branded slippers were handed out along with “Make Bitcoin Great Again” hats, the crypto industry has experienced similar heights before. , some warn that there was a big drop off soon after. The 2021 Bitcoin conference in Miami, where Paris Hilton performed a DJ set and companies set fire to a dumpster of Venezuelan bolivars, served as a cautionary tale before a rapid collapse the following year.
As one attendee watched the commotion, one participant said, “These violent pleasures have violent ends,” as quoted by Shakespeare’s line from Romeo and Juliet on the HBO show Westworld. “There is,” he said.
And indeed, there are many signs that despite cryptocurrencies’ newfound political respectability, many of the driving forces that made them so infamous in the first place have not disappeared. That includes the recent debacle surrounding the Hawk Tua girl, aka Hayley Welch, who shot to fame on TikTok and tried to cash in on her fleeting fame with cryptocurrencies. In December, Welchid announced the Hawk Tua memecoin, with a market capitalization of up to $500 million, but it was revealed that corrupt insiders manipulated the project in a pump-and-dump scheme. It collapsed immediately.
Additionally, there are ethical and legal concerns surrounding President Trump’s new meme coin. The surprise launch had a fully diluted market cap of $70 billion as of Sunday morning, and the project has been linked to the president-elect and his family, even though the project has revealed few details about its future plans or business case. It will bring great wealth. Is blockchain technology destined to change the world’s financial structure, or will it always be subject to get-rich-quick schemes that end in disaster?
But during the several-hour celebration, thorny questions about the future of cryptocurrencies were put aside as guests watched a set from Snoop Dogg, including himself on Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’.” It also included a performance. Once the party was over, waiters walked around with trays of snacks like macarons and mango cheesecake, and a final surprise. It was President Trump’s favorite, McDonald’s hamburger and fries.
This article originally appeared on Fortune.com