Host Of 'The Late Show' Stephen Colbert, Parodying The Fraud Around Crypto

Stephen Colbert, charismatic host of The Late Show. (photo: twitter screenshot)

JAKARTA - Stephen Colbert, the charismatic host of CBS' The Late Show, has once again linked many cryptocurrencies to scams. But he does so by parodying in the language of an experienced HODLer.

In Wednesday's segment about Generation Z members falling for scams in and outside the crypto space, Colbert referenced the carpet tug behind tokens inspired by the Netflix show Squid Game, in which thousands of investors lost more than $3 million.

Together with "certified youth" and staff writer Eliana Kwartler, Colbert debuted an "extraordinary investment opportunity" designed to get people's credit card numbers, first pet names, and the name of the street they grew up on.

“If Gen Z wants to stay safe online, they have to invest in this amazing new cryptocurrency token — called Colbert Coin,” said Kwartler. “With Colbert Coin, you give us your savings, and then we cryptocurrency. After that, you don't have to worry anymore, my booth.”

“We are busy turning your money into future money — to the moon, monkey!”

The Late Show host and Colbert Report were one of the few late night talk show hosts discussing crypto in early 2013 when the price of Bitcoin (BTC) fluctuated between 50–300 US dollars. At the time, Colbert described crypto assets as having value “simply because a group of people on the Internet have agreed that it has value.”

Fellow comedian Jon Stewart – who Colbert works with as a correspondent on The Daily Show – joked about a similar token project using his name in December:

In the case of Colbert and Stewart, their bogus project parodies a very real problem in the crypto space: Celebrities dumping tokens that may or may not turn out to be scams.

Kim Kardashian promoted EthereumMax (EMAX) in an Instagram story in June 2021—a token that rose 116.000% in one week before falling more than 99% and leaving many investors confused.

According to a Thursday report from Chainalysis, scammers received 7.8 billion US dollars in crypto stolen from victims during 2021, of which more than 2.8 billion US dollars came from “carpet” withdrawals.

While the report notes that 90% of the total value lost due to carpet recalls in 2021 is the result of Turkey's major crypto exchange, Thodex, halting trading and withdrawals, everything else involves the DeFi project.

Chainalysis attributes the prevalence of carpet pulling to the "hype around the room" in addition to the lack of code audits for certain DeFi projects.