Barstool CEO Commits to Returning to ‘Ponzi Scheme’ Bitcoin

Dave Portnoy, the founder of sports blog and news site Barstool Sports, has had a rollercoaster relationship with cryptocurrencies in 2020. A newbie trader on the side, Portnoy has regularly moved from Bitcoin bull to skeptic. Now, he appears to be fixated on the latter, and he’s letting the world know.

Tough Love for Portnoy

This week, Portnoy took his anti-crypto evangelism to an episode of The Pomp Podcast with Anthony “Pomp” Pompliano. Pompliano is a popular crypto enthusiast and founder of hedge fund Morgan Creek Digital Assets. In his recent podcasts, Portnoy told Pomp why he likens Bitcoin to a Ponzi scheme. The company CEO added that while people can trade on the asset and make significant gains, most focus on not being left holding the bag at the end of the day. Despite his belief, however, Portnoy confirmed that he still has a lot of love for the leading cryptocurrency. As he explained, he would try going back to Bitcoin someday, but not now. Portnoy added that he doesn’t have as much money as he’d like to trade with for now, as most of his holdings had been locked in investments.

A Rough Trading History 

Portnoy’s crypto trading history has been a pretty interesting one. While he was never particularly a crypto enthusiast, he claimed that the billionaire Winklevoss twins had convinced him to give the asset a try in mid-August.

When he began trading, Portnoy regularly filled his Twitter followers in on what he was doing and how much gains he made. At some point, he announced that he was up by about $100,000 in two days of trading, predicting further that he’d have made a million in gains by the end of September. 

Portnoy had opened a portfolio that included Bitcoin and Chainlink. However, his Chainlink purchase came at the top of an almost 1,000 percent rally, and the bubble soon popped.

Sadly, it all came crashing down days later. In a video, Portnoy explained that he had “messed with Bitcoin,” and was now paying dearly. The investor, who calls himself “Dovey Day Trader,” told his followers that he had lost $25,000 in trades and would take some time off the activity. As he explained, he didn’t understand Bitcoin enough, and he had made the mistake of working with the “frauds” at Chainlink, who were running a pump-and-dump scheme. 

“I own the stock market. This Bitcoin — I don’t trust this market at all. I may be out of it by the end of today, and never come back. If Bitcoin people want to keep my money, you better get Bitcoin up today, or else I’m f****** out.”

Portnoy eventually confirmed that he and his $25,000 in losses would be leaving the Bitcoin market and looking for new opportunities.