Jake Donoghue used to be a crypto insider. Now, he's a crypto whistleblower. He wants his new tell-all to expose the “rotten” industry as if it were in its death throes.
When Jake Donoghue called from London's Cafe Din on Monday, his camera was off.
A pixelated headshot of a man in a sports jacket and light blue button-down hovers on the screen.
“So, to bring it out,” he said News As soon as the call begins, “Jake Donoghue is a nickname.”
Aliasing has long been an aspect of crypto. Crypto believers are often libertarian, with a right to privacy.
But Donoghue's decision to use a made-up name — granted, isn't nearly as funny,”13 years old with a credit card” — Cypherpunk Secrecy does not spring from love.
He's a self-passionate whistleblower whose crypto tell-all hits shelves on Thursday.
The memoir, titled “Crypto Confidential” and published by Flint Books, is similarly full of pseudonyms.
“Many of the projects I've worked on directly have had to change their names on the advice of legal advisers,” he said.
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A former crypto insider, Donoghue wants to talk about what he says is the industry's rampant fraud.
Crypto critics are a dime a dozen. Everyone from journalists to Hollywood B-listers have taken a swing at the industry, but it's often not crypto's own.
Donoghue's book comes as the industry goes from strength to strength. The market recovered from its 2022 funk, investing in new projects and so did crypto. presentation On the Republican Party's Policy Platform for the 2024 US Election.
However, Donoghue argues that the recovery hides a fundamental truth: Crypto is done for — it just doesn't know it yet.
“The industry is dead,” he says matter-of-factly.
'huge sums'
In August 2020, Donoghue met Miles at a dinner party hosted by a university friend.
Miles was called an “early Bitcoin evangelist” by Donoghue, and he was working on a project that would allow users to bet on the future price of Bitcoin.
Donoghue, then working in public relations, piqued his interest, and eventually he teamed up with Miles' cousin Miles and Archie to form what he called the Portant Protocol.
What made Donoghue jump into decentralized finance? Well, money, for one.
“There's obviously a greed factor,” he said News. “We're dealing with a lot of money. We're dealing with huge sums.”
Also, Donoghue bought into the industry's pervasive brand of idealism. “There's a sense that we're operating on the front lines of some kind of economic revolution,” he said.
News He provides selected screenshots of cross-referenced passages from Donoghue's book, his memoir claims backed up with evidence.
'The whole place is ruined'
Although Portent Protocol itself was not successful, its launch attracted the attention of other entrepreneurs and investors.
Soon, Donoghue, Miles and Archie were advising projects on token launches, crafting marketing campaigns and designing NFT collections – plus a grab bag of other responsibilities.
At its height, their company expanded to about 80 people, Donoghue said.
“It's a lot of responsibility for people of that age and it's great,” he added. “We have guys with very famous and long careers who work for us.”
All this happened during the crypto bull run of 2021 and 2022. The cash came in quickly, the crypto parties raged, and Donoghue eventually grew bored with his role in the industry.
“Especially as time goes on, projects are not delivering on their roadmaps, they're not delivering on their white papers,” he said. “It's becoming increasingly clear that it's a lot of bluster.”
So, he decided to quit.
“If I could go back and never sleep with the Crypto Brothers, I would,” he wrote at the end of his memoir. “After a long time in the industry, I was left with one basic and unbreakable truth: the whole place is rotten.”
Naming
In his tell-all, Donoghue did not name names. He did not reveal who he was, what was the scammiest project he worked on, or the names of the projects' investors.
Donoghue wants to call out the industry, but if everyone has a nickname for the stuff he has, who is he? Actually are you calling
“I'm really trying with this book to show how some of the mechanics of these scams work and the logistics behind it,” he said.
He later said in an email that the nickname was one of the main criticisms he received while working on the memoir.
“I find it very ironic because pseudonyms are not only very common in the industry, but anonymity is a core tenet and founding principle of blockchain tech,” he wrote.
It is a double standard, he said. Crypto loves “anons” when they shill tokens on social media. Industry condemns them when their criticism threatens the financial viability of a project, he argued.
Regulators, law enforcement
Privately, however, Donoghue said he was naming names.
He speaks to advocacy groups such as Americans for Financial Reform and the Transparency Task Force; Representative Ben Waxman, Democrat of Pennsylvania; and Tulip Siddique, UK Member of Parliament and Financial Secretary to the Treasury.
He also said he was in contact with law enforcement agencies, but could not disclose which at the time of publication.
Americans for Economic Reforms confirmed they are in touch with Donoghue. None of the other organizations or legislators responded to requests for comment News.
Death to crypto
If Donoghue's willingness to say that the crypto industry is “rotten” doesn't inspire crypto diehards, perhaps his statement that crypto is dead will.
Yes, the price of Bitcoin is up more than 130% from last year, and it seems that venture capitalists are ready to pour $12 billion into new crypto projects this year. However, Donoghue expects the industry to move sideways rather than forward.
“It's a more subtle, stealthy death than just a full blast,” he said.
He said he believed crypto had a chance to go mainstream in 2021 and 2022, but it blew.
“I think it's really the industry at its peak, the last cycle is a big opportunity for this term, 'mass adoption', that keeps getting thrown around,” he added.
For now, as entrepreneurs continue to attend lavish conferences, VCs continue to throw tens of millions of dollars at startups, and lobbyists make crypto a campaign issue in the US, Donoghue will continue to speak out.
And maybe, one day, he will reveal his real name.
“I'm very interested in removing the mask, as it were,” he said. “At some point.”
Ben Weiss is the Dubai correspondent News. Got a tip? Email him [email protected].