A parade of powerful legal minds has gathered over the past three weeks in the criminal trial of Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced cryptocurrency magnate. Damian Williams, Manhattan’s top federal prosecutor, has been sitting for hours in the 26th floor courtroom, alongside partners from prestigious law firms and a former deputy to Robert Mueller III, who served as special counsel in an investigation of President Donald J. Trump.
Then there is a man who calls himself Taco.
TO Prolific YouTuber With a channel dedicated to cryptocurrencies, Taco, 39, has become an unlikely fixture among the crowds of lawyers, reporters and curious observers who line up every morning before dawn to get a seat at Bankman’s trial. Fried in downtown Manhattan. Many days, the streamer smokes a cigarette or two before 6 a.m. and then logs into a crypto-themed video chat, regaling his roughly 5,000 online followers with the latest news about the case.
“Everyone talks about how important cryptocurrencies are to them,” Taco said. “But then they don’t go to any events.”
Taco declined to reveal his real name, citing privacy concerns. “The government thinks I’m dead,” he explained. But he said he felt obligated to show up for “technically something like the trial of the century.”
The trial of Mr. Bankman-Fried, on fraud charges stemming from the collapse of his FTX crypto exchange, has brought two disparate worlds to a strange collision, unleashing a hyper-online horde of crypto-obsessives (or “degenerates,” as some of them call themselves) in the serious and formal environment of the federal court.
As the trial unfolded, journalists competed for seats with crypto influencers and online personalities, at least one of whom managed to smuggle a vape pen into the courthouse. Outside the building this week, a lawyer who specializes in working with cryptocurrency investors handed out a business card emblazoned with the title “DeFi Defense Attorney,” a reference to an experimental type of crypto known as decentralized finance. And on the witness stand, FTX executives have had to explain jargon like “FUD,” an acronym for “fear, uncertainty and doubt” that cryptocurrency advocates use to dismiss criticism.
In the courtroom, I watched the culture clash up close as Caroline Ellison, a top figure in the Bankman-Fried business empire, testified last week. To my right was With coffee, a popular YouTuber who makes videos about crypto fraud and who had traveled from Texas to see Mr. Bankman-Fried in person. Behind him was Tiffany Fong, a crypto influencer who struck up an unlikely friendship with the FTX founder after his arrest.
“I’m like, ‘I don’t know why I’m here,’” Ms. Fong said. “I don’t quite belong and it doesn’t make much sense, but I’m very involved in the case.”
Throughout the trial, Ms. Fong has released videos on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, with their thoughts on the process. He has sometimes joined her Carly Reilly, who runs a podcast about non-fungible tokens, the crypto collectibles known as NFTs. An anonymous account that calls itself autism capital It has also provided a constant stream of conspiratorial analysis and speculation about X’s trial.
Much of the legal wrangling has failed to impress Taco.
During Ms. Ellison’s cross-examination last week, Taco leaned over one of the benches to tell me that Mr. Bankman-Fried would benefit from a “degen lawyer,” a lawyer who was immersed in the kind of issues that Cryptocurrency traders argue all night. in X.
But for all his cryptocurrency experience, Taco hasn’t always found it easy to navigate court protocols.
He showed up around 5 a.m. on the second-to-last Monday, only to learn that the courthouse was closed for a federal holiday. Sometimes you have to be reminded to take off your baseball cap, which is not allowed in the courtroom. And on his first day in court, he was asked to leave after guards caught him wearing a smartwatch he had managed to sneak through security. (Electronic devices are prohibited in the courtroom.)
By the end of Ms. Ellison’s testimony, Taco had mastered the routine and was complying with the judge’s strict ban on eating and drinking in the courtroom. During a pause, he reached into his back pocket and pulled out a can of Red Bull.
“I have to go,” he said with a smile and walked out the door.
