American Comedy TV Series ‘Shameless’ Name-Drops Bitcoin in Confusing Dialogue

Popular cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin were mentioned in a famous TV show, albeit in a sense that shows a lack of knowledge on how they operate.

Does the Show Understand Crypto investment?

“Shameless,” a famous TV series on SHOWTIME, recently gave the nod to Bitcoin. In an episode titled “This is Chicago,” a character provides a not-so-nuanced description of Bitcoin and its investment stance.

The conversation revolved around the character, named Dash, and his efforts to use Bitcoin to leverage his Tether and Ethereum. Dash went on to explain that he had built a portfolio primarily consisting of oil futures and crypto. While the crash of oil futures in May gutted his portfolio, he needed to ensure that his crypto holdings held up.

The entire dialogue would probably be confusing to most of the viewers. It’ll make even less sense to professional crypto traders since Dash’s sentences appear to be a combination of crypto buzzwords mumbled together. 

While a trader could use Tether in a leveraged Bitcoin trade, doing things the other way around is illogical. Dash’s comment on Bitcoin being “do 30” is also not clear, especially since the asset is on an uptrend and hasn’t been down as much as 30 percent in months.  

If he was referring to Bitcoin being down $30, then that’s a minute a drop as any. The only accurate comment in the statement was the crash in oil prices, which happened after the West Texas Intermediary (WTI) index dropped into negative territory for the first time this year. Even at that point, Bitcoin wasn’t down.

The reference failed to give a rudimentary explanation on Bitcoin, especially for viewers who might not be so familiar with the leading cryptocurrency. It could be an oversight on the writer’s part or just a poorly executed name-drop.

Other Bitcoin References in TV Shows

Several shows have referenced Bitcoin in the past. “The Big Bang Theory,” a hit comedy series, had a fun episode in its eleventh where the main characters searched for some lost Bitcoins they had mined and forgotten about in its early years. There are claims about Bitcoin also being featured on Dragons Den, where the dragons supposedly invested in a bitcoin trading software like Bitcoin Prime, with promises of high returns upon investing a fixed amount of money. We haven’t been able to verify this claim, or even see if the episode is real.

That episode had a simple premise. The characters had mined Bitcoin when it was essentially worthless, mainly because they felt it was like a game. They left it dormant and practically forgot about it for almost a decade, only to remember it following the 2017 bull run.

Another excellent Bitcoin reference came in 2019’s HBO series “Euphoria.” A character had convinced another that Bitcoin was a perfect way to make and receive payments anonymously. That might not seem so true with new government tracking facilities, but it’s easy to see where the showrunners were going with it.