A current Vainness Truthful piece painted a cartoonish profile of what they known as “crypto’s true believers”, framing lengthy‑time individuals as cultish die‑hards who received’t admit the dream is over.
The unique caption on the quilt image o the article reads “the most costly faith on the world”. Supply. Vainness Truthful.
Crypto: “The Most Costly Faith In The World”
Dim lights, deep distinction shadows, wealthy jewel tones, animal print, vibrant coloured fits and a decadentism-old cash aesthetic. That’s the depiction of Vainness Truthful’s “Crypto’s True Believers”: a gaggle of overdue-old Hollywood ingenuos folks that refuse to simply accept that they’ve fallen out of grace. A competition of banality and naivety led by capricious individuals throwing a “tantrum” after residing a maximalist-multimillionaire life-style 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 manner that might make Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum’s co-founder, elevate his arms in desperation: this portrayal, your entire piece, is the whole lot that he has been tirelessly warning towards — a proven 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 kind of Wilson Fisk, Daredevil’s Kingpin. Supply. Vainness Truthful.
As if the photographs weren’t sufficient, the captions take issues to the subsequent 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 your entire world, Vainness 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 technology in search of a unique strategy to rebuild a world that had simply collapsed on high of them, crushing their desires and ambitions with it.
The article positions itself because the “critical” view of crypto from the standard media bubble, implicitly antagonizing and instantly mocking the plead of the themes they depict to be taken severely: what might be critical about them, the degen-extravaganza champions? Why anybody might nonetheless care in regards to the crashes, frauds, and regulatory crackdowns of those out of contact group of crypto aristocracy?
Devin Finzer cited unfavorable market situations as the rationale for the delay of $SEA but flaunted this type of life-style within the Vainness Truthful article titled “Crypto’s True Believers Demand to Be Taken Severely” that launched on the identical day
We aren’t a critical business 😭 pic.twitter.com/olXPf6itgb
— JBond (@jbondwagon) March 18, 2026
The Group Takes A Rightful Stand
For apparent causes, the piece triggered rapid backlash on social media X from builders, founders and on‑chain governance individuals. One among them is Dennison Bertram, Tally’s founder, who argues that the issue is manner greater than “simply one other hit piece in a protracted line of forgettable nonsense”: it’s the angle, the selection to depict all crypto individuals like “degen” stereotypes.
Legacy shops preserve 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 can be truly making an actual impression on this 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 Vainness 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 by way of 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 pictures a piece of deep distain and mockery.
You may be mad at each the themes 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 a protracted line…
— Dennison (@DennisonBertram) March 17, 2026
The takeaway of all of this appears to be that if you happen to’re going to jot down that crypto is useless, not less than speak to the individuals nonetheless delivery code, operating DAOs, sustaining testnets and governance boards every single day.
On the time of writing, BTC trades for $73k on the day by day chart. Supply: BTCUSD on Tradingview
Cowl picture from Perplexity, BTCUSD chart from Tradingview
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