Connect with us

Published

on

Ran Neuner is the CEO of Onchain Capital, founder of Crypto Banter, and a vocal crypto commentator on X. 

Crypto Banter’s Ran Neuner has a “problem with the structure of XRP and Ripple.”

While he appreciates Ripple sticking it to the SEC, he is hung up on the “moral and ethical” side of things with Ripple.

He thinks Ripple is giving a bad deal to those holding XRP.

“Here is a centralized company that was selling tokens to fund the operations of a CENTRALIZED company for the benefit of the shareholders and not necessarily for the benefit of the tokenholders. I have an issue with that — morally and ethically.”

“Eventually, the shareholders are going to get dividends — it is despicable,” Neuner tells Magazine.

Neuner isn’t afraid to go against the norm and speak his mind. It is a trait that has helped him accumulate over 720,200 Twitter (now X) followers. Not that he’s bothered by follower numbers:

“To be honest, I don’t really care about the growth. I use Twitter as a platform to tell people what I think. It’s uncensored, unfiltered, and it’s not for everyone,” says Neuner.

Neuner serves as the CEO and co-founder of Onchain Capital, a crypto investment fund and consulting service. He also co-hosts a daily live broadcast on the Crypto Banter YouTube channel to hundreds of thousands of people.

Somehow, he still manages to also host a two-hour live Twitter Space session on a daily basis… and he has four children under the age of eight.

His kids know that dad is involved in the world of broadcasting and have picked up chart reading skills by osmosis. 

“I woke up on Saturday, the market was all green, my son said, ‘Oh oh, all the bubbles are green, does that mean you have to go to work today?’”



What led to Twitter Fame?

Neuner says he started a Twitter account for work.

“I started my Twitter account when I started the first televised crypto show in the world [Crypto Trader] on CNBC. I needed a Twitter account. In the beginning, I had reasonably fast growth,” he tells Magazine.

Despite lacking a formal growth strategy, Neuner now sees a constant flow of followers thanks to his daily live broadcasts on YouTube and his regular sessions on Twitter Spaces.

“It is a great place to test your opinion, and it is a great outlet when I feel strongly about something. I rally people in the community.”

Twitter Beefs

Spicy Beef: FatMan Terra

Neuner isn’t a fan of anonymous sleuth FatMan Terra.

“He hides behind an avatar, no one knows who he is… well, we know exactly who he is,” Neuner says.

FatMan Terra began investigating Neuner over his ties to Terraform Labs, shortly after its native token, LUNA, collapsed.

“He believes he can just spread misinformation to create narratives and stories about people,” says Neuner.

Neuner says that during a bear market, people are always looking for someone to blame, and FatMan Terra targeting influential people does “more damage than he thinks.”

“We get threats all the time because of his actions,” Neuner explains.

Beef with pleasant aftertaste: ZachXBT

Neuner has had a wild ride with crypto scam investigator ZachXBT but admits that he is still a fan of him at the end of the day.

“Even in my worst times of being attacked by ZachXBT, I believe the service that ZachXBT does is a really valuable service in the community,” Neuner declares.

Neuner explains that he ended up in a mediation process with ZachXBT after the investigator accused him of pumping and dumping on his followers. Neuner was considering suing because of “the damage” he sustained.

“In the mediation, we showed him his tweets and allegations were wrong, and he was man enough to write a thread about it saying he is wrong.”

What type of content do you do?

Most of his content is crypto-related and occasional veers into financial advice:

“90% of my tweets are crypto-related,” Neuner explains, adding that the other 10% is “complaining about bad culture.”

“I have a passion for good service. I have a complete dislike for getting bad service. So, I hate flying on any type of American airline. They don’t want your business.”

What content do you like?

Neuner explains he much prefers to follow people whom he disagrees with.

“The more people you hate on your Twitter feed, the better your experience will be. This is because Twitter becomes an echo chamber, and markets love echo chambers. Surround yourself with people you don’t agree with — they will show you why you don’t agree with them.”

Adam Cochran and Cory Klippsten are a couple of good examples. Cochran “is a neurotic, hysterical person” who acts like everything is the end of the world. 

Neuner “can’t stand reading his tweets” but forces himself to anyway. Klippsten, meanwhile, seems to think he is the chief Bitcoiner.

“He genuinely believes that he is the CEO of Bitcoin and has more of a share of Bitcoin than anyone else. I listen to him to understand what the Bitcoin Maxis are thinking.”

But there are accounts he follows for useful and insightful market commentary.

“If I want on-chain analysis, I’ll go to Dylan LeClair or Will Clemente,” Neuner says.

Read also


Features

Safe Harbor, or Thrown to the Sharks by Voatz? 


Features

Banking The Unbanked? How I Taught A Total Stranger In Kenya About Bitcoin

Predictions?

Neuner thinks that the “raging bull markets” era is finished, blaming it on regulatory uncertainty.

“There is less money in because of regulation uncertainty, [so the next bull run] will not be as violent. We will have a slow, sustained market,” he says.

He hints that it might be wise to keep a close eye on Solana, Aptos, Sui and Ethereum as potential game changers. “It’s probably going to be one of them,” he says.

“If I was going to put my money on one of them, I’d say Sui over Aptos. I think technically, the people working there are better.”

Neuner explains the whole space is still waiting for that “one killer” application to get mass adoption for blockchain.

“If we get an app where we get 500 million retail people not knowing it is on a blockchain, whatever app that blockchain is written on, is going to fly to the moon,” he predicts.

“That could be the moment where overnight we see one go from $29 to $290,” Neuner adds.

Ciaran Lyons

Ciaran Lyons is an Australian crypto journalist. He’s also a standup comedian and has been a radio and TV presenter on Triple J, SBS and The Project.

Continue Reading

Politics

Lawyer hopes Hashflare co-founders can ‘self-deport’ after sentencing

Published

on

By

<div>Lawyer hopes Hashflare co-founders can 'self-deport' after sentencing</div>

<div>Lawyer hopes Hashflare co-founders can 'self-deport' after sentencing</div>

A lawyer representing one of the co-founders of crypto mining service Hashflare has addressed how their criminal case may move forward after the pair received “self-deport” letters from the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

In an April 11 filing in the US District Court for the Western District of Washington, Hashflare co-founders Sergei Potapenko and Ivan Turogin reported they had received a DHS letter directing them to “leave the United States” as part of a push by the Trump administration to effect mass deportations. The government letter contradicted orders from Judge Robert Lasnik, who restricted travel for Potapenko and Turogin as part of their bail conditions.

In February, the Estonian nationals pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud as part of a deal with authorities. Between 2015 and 2019, the two were responsible for defrauding Hashflare users out of more than $550 million. They also raised $25 million from investors in 2017, claiming they would establish a digital bank called Polybius. The firm was never created.

Indicted in October 2022, Potapenko and Turogin were arrested and held in Estonia before their extradition to the US in May 2024. Both have been free on bail since July 2024 but could face up to 20 years in prison each at sentencing.

Ordered to leave, forced to stay

“[Potapenko and Turogin each] got letters from DHS to their personal email saying ‘deport immediately,’” Reed Smith partner and defense counsel Mark Bini told Cointelegraph. “It caused some angst because [our client and his co-defendant], their conditions of release include that they comply with the law. And here you have this letter saying if you stay in the country, you’re breaking the law. And of course, their bail conditions say they can’t leave the Seattle area.” 

Related: Russian Gotbit founder strikes $23M plea deal with US prosecutors

The DHS letters ordering certain people to “depart the United States immediately” were reportedly sent to thousands of immigrants who had used the government’s CBP One app to enter the country legally. However, some citizens reported receiving the same letter in US President Donald Trump’s attempts to effect deportations through his office.  

Bini initially thought it was a possibility that the US government was suggesting that Potapenko or Turogin “self-deport” to Estonia after the Justice Department issued a memo hinting it would change its enforcement policy in criminal cases involving crypto. The Hashflare co-founders had been expected to remain in the jurisdiction until at least Aug. 14 for their sentencing hearings.

“I have not encountered this situation before, where you have essentially two folks in the federal government telling you conflicting things,” said Bini. 

The attorney added that Potapenko or Turogin now carried letters with them at all times that stated DHS had deferred action on their “self-deportation” for one year in the event that authorities mistakenly tried to detain them and remove them from the country. Though the pair could still receive prison time, Potapenko, Turogin and Hashflare reported returning $400 million in crypto payments to users and “agreed to forfeit their interests in assets that the government froze in 2022.”

“We’re going to try and convince the judge to frankly side with DHS and let them self-deport to Estonia to their families because we believe that there was no actual financial harm to the customers of Hashflare,” said Bini. “It’s a weird [case] because for our clients, we want to be deported. Our clients are Estonian. Their families are Estonian.” 

Magazine: XRP win leaves Ripple and industry with no crypto legal precedent set

Continue Reading

Politics

League table of foreign criminals awaiting deportation and their offences set to be published

Published

on

By

League table of foreign criminals awaiting deportation and their offences set to be published

A league table of foreign criminals and their offences is set to be published for the first time.

The plans, due to be announced on Tuesday, will reportedly focus on those offenders awaiting deportation from the UK.

The latest data shows there were 19,244 foreign offenders awaiting deportation at the end of 2024, a rise from 17,907 when the Conservatives left office in July and 14,640 at the end of 2022.

Despite more offenders being deported since Labour came to power, the number waiting to be removed from the UK has been growing.

Factors are understood to include the early release of inmates due to prison overcrowding, instability and diplomatic problems in some countries and a backlog of legal cases appealing deportation.

Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said the decision to publish the nationalities of foreign criminals showed Labour had “buckled” under pressure from the Conservatives to disclose the data.

The latest government statistics show there were 10,355 foreign nationals held in custody in England and Wales at the end of 2024, representing 12% of the prison population.

More on Crime

The most common nationalities after British nationals were Albanian (11%), Polish (8%), Romanian (7%), which also represented the top three nationalities who were deported from the UK in 2024, according to Home Office figures.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper is understood to have ordered officials to release the details by the end of the year, according to The Daily Telegraph.

The newspaper reported Ms Cooper overruled Home Office officials, who previously claimed it was too difficult to provide quality data on foreign criminals.

A Home Office source said: “Not only are we deporting foreign criminals at a rate never seen when Chris Philp and Robert Jenrick were in charge at the Home Office, but we will also be publishing far more information about that cohort of offenders than the Tories ever did.”

The source added that ministers wanted “to ensure the public is kept better informed about the number of foreign criminals awaiting deportation, where they are from and the crimes they have committed”.

In March, the government announced £5m in funding to deploy staff to 80 jails in England and Wales to speed up the deportation of foreign offenders.

Read more from Sky News:
‘Return hubs’ get UN backing
Sex offender allowed to stay in UK
Woman born in UK faces being deported

Foreign nationals sentenced to 12 months or more in prison are subject to automatic deportation, but the home secretary can also remove criminals if their presence in the UK is not considered desirable.

Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick welcomed the news, saying: “We will finally see the hard reality that mass migration is fuelling crime across our country… Frankly, the public deserved to know this [detail on foreign criminals] long ago.”

Continue Reading

Politics

Starmer and Zelenskyy discuss ending Russia’s ‘brutal war’ – as Putin says says he is open to bilateral talks on longer ceasefire

Published

on

By

Starmer and Zelenskyy discuss ending Russia's 'brutal war' - as Putin says says he is open to bilateral talks on longer ceasefire

Sir Keir Starmer and Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke about ending Russia’s “brutal war” on Ukraine in their latest phone call on Easter Monday, as Vladimir Putin said he was open to bilateral talks.

The prime minister and Ukrainian president spoke on Monday afternoon, when Sir Keir “reiterated his iron-clad support for Ukraine“.

A Downing Street spokesperson added that the prime minister “said that the UK supports Ukraine’s calls for Russia to commit to a full ceasefire and that now is the time for Putin to show he is serious about ending his brutal war”.

“They discussed the latest developments on the Coalition of the Willing, and looked forward to further progress towards a just and lasting peace,” the spokesperson added.

Mr Zelenskyy later said on social media that he had a “good and detailed conversation” with the prime minister, and added Ukrainian officials will be in London for talks on ending the war with Russia on Wednesday.

“We are ready to move forward as constructively as possible, just as we have done before, to achieve an unconditional ceasefire, followed by the establishment of a real and lasting peace,” he added.

The Ukrainian president added that the 30-hour Easter truce, which both Kyiv and Moscow accuse the other of violating, showed that Russia “are prolonging the war”.

It comes as Mr Putin proposed bilateral talks with Ukraine on a longer ceasefire, which would mark the first time Russia held such talks since a failed peace deal soon after the invasion in 2022.

Speaking to a state TV reporter, the Russian president said: “We always have a positive attitude towards a truce, which is why we came up with such an initiative (the Easter truce), especially since we are talking about the bright Easter days.”

When asked about Mr Zelenskyy’s calls to extend the 30-hour ceasefire into a 30-day pause on civilian targets, he added: “This is all a subject for careful study, perhaps even bilaterally. We do not rule this out.”

The Ukrainian president said on Sunday evening that the Russian army had “violated Putin’s ceasefire more than 2,000 times” during the day, and accused Russia of “failing” to “uphold its own promise of a ceasefire”.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

From Saturday: Why Putin offered an Easter truce?

It also comes after Donald Trump has said he hopes Russia and Ukraine “will make a deal this week,” after he and his secretary of state Marco Rubio warned that the US will walk away from efforts to broker a peace deal unless there are clear signs of progress soon.

The US president said on his Truth Social platform that both countries would “start to do big business” with the US after ending the war.

Read more from Sky News:
Murder arrest after woman stabbed to death
Who could be the next pope?

Last month, Ukraine accepted Mr Trump’s proposal for a 30-day truce, but Mr Putin refused to back a full 30-day ceasefire, saying crucial issues of verification had not been sorted out.

He then said he would agree not to target Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. However, both sides have accused each other of breaking the moratorium on attacks on energy targets and at sea.

Continue Reading

Trending