A current Self-importance Truthful piece painted a cartoonish profile of what they referred to as “crypto’s true believers”, framing lengthy‑time contributors as cultish die‑hards who received’t admit the dream is over.
The unique caption on the quilt image o the article reads “the costliest faith on the world”. Supply. Self-importance Truthful.
Crypto: “The Most Costly Faith In The World”
Dim lights, deep distinction shadows, wealthy jewel tones, animal print, vivid coloured fits and a decadentism-old cash aesthetic. That’s the depiction of Self-importance Truthful’s “Crypto’s True Believers”: a bunch of overdue-old Hollywood ingenuos those that refuse to simply accept that they’ve fallen out of grace. A pageant of banality and naivety led by capricious individuals throwing a “tantrum” after residing a maximalist-multimillionaire way of life that might make Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan blush.
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Even worse: the “zealots who’re holding the road”, because the hit piece calls them, are condescendingly framed as cult members in a method that might make Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum’s co-founder, increase his arms in desperation: this portrayal, all the piece, is every thing that he has been tirelessly warning in opposition to — a undeniable fact that the article itself, with none sense of self-awareness, is gracious sufficient to acknowledge.
Michael Novogratz, CEO of Galaxy Digital, is made to appear to be some form of Wilson Fisk, Daredevil’s Kingpin. Supply. Self-importance Truthful.
As if the images weren’t sufficient, the captions take issues to the following degree: from “the bitcoin playboy” and “the couture evangelist” to “the build-a-bear and the product mommy”: the followers of the “sixth asset class” are the successors of Satoshi Nakamoto’s unique “hyper on-line” followers.
Regardless of acknowledging that the implosion of Lehman Brothers took with it “the parable of institutional safety” for all the world, Self-importance Truthful depicts the “early believers” of Bitcoin’s White Paper as “cypherpunks on message boards, creating their very own echo chamber and satisfied that cryptography might do what regulators by no means would: redistribute energy”. A cyberpunk caricature of a rightfully disillusioned era in search of a unique strategy to rebuild a world that had simply collapsed on prime of them, crushing their desires and ambitions with it.
The article positions itself because the “severe” view of crypto from the standard media bubble, implicitly antagonizing and straight mocking the plead of the topics they depict to be taken critically: what may very well be severe about them, the degen-extravaganza champions? Why anybody might nonetheless care concerning the crashes, frauds, and regulatory crackdowns of those out of contact group of crypto aristocracy?
Devin Finzer cited unfavorable market circumstances as the rationale for the delay of $SEA but flaunted this type of way of life within the Self-importance Truthful article titled “Crypto’s True Believers Demand to Be Taken Severely” that launched on the identical day
We aren’t a severe business 😭 pic.twitter.com/olXPf6itgb
— JBond (@jbondwagon) March 18, 2026
The Neighborhood Takes A Rightful Stand
For apparent causes, the piece triggered fast backlash on social media X from builders, founders and on‑chain governance individuals. One in every of them is Dennison Bertram, Tally’s founder, who argues that the issue is method larger than “simply one other hit piece in an extended line of forgettable nonsense”: it’s the angle, the selection to depict all crypto individuals like “degen” stereotypes.
Legacy shops maintain interviewing the identical individuals, some customers on X claimed, as a substitute of people that truly shipped protocols, requirements, and tooling for billions in on‑chain worth: media loves “degen” archetypes as a result of they’re clickable, however that lens erases the intense, boring, resilient elements of the ecosystem which are truly making an actual influence on the planet.
I used to be a style photographer for over a decade earlier than crypto. I labored for magazines like @ELLEmagazine @marieclaire @Cosmopolitan and types like @LouisVuitton @gucci and extra.
The Self-importance Truthful article was a setup to mock crypto and people it depicted. pic.twitter.com/vGOiKhwrVj
— Dennison (@DennisonBertram) March 17, 2026
On his X’s thread, Bertram analyzes every image via the lenses of somebody who labored as a style photographer for over a decade earlier than crypto. With this authority, Bertram argues that not solely is the article imply spirited, however photographer Jeremy Liebman’s work “is a deliberate work of mockery”.
The article is a success piece, the writing and images a piece of deep distain and mockery.
You may be mad at each the topics for his or her naivety to sit down for such a caricature, and @VanityFair for his or her imply spiritless.
Sadly it’s simply one other hit piece in an extended line…
— Dennison (@DennisonBertram) March 17, 2026
The takeaway of all of this appears to be that should you’re going to write down that crypto is lifeless, not less than discuss to the individuals nonetheless transport code, operating DAOs, sustaining testnets and governance boards every single day.
On the time of writing, BTC trades for $73k on the every day chart. Supply: BTCUSD on Tradingview
Cowl picture from Perplexity, BTCUSD chart from Tradingview
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