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Benzinga
Benzinga
Business
Chris Katje

Vitalik Buterin 'Full Of S***': Martin Shkreli Bashes Ethereum Founder, NFTs In Latest Crypto Talk

“Pharma bro” Martin Shkreli is quickly becoming known outside of prison for his takes on the cryptocurrency market, which could make him a textbook “crypto bro.” Here’s the latest take from Shkreli.

Shkreli Takes on Buterin: In a Twitter Spaces presentation on social media platform Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR), Shkreli criticized Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH).

Shkreli, who recently said he learned to trade on Uniswap while he was incarcerated, said he does not believe in Buterin’s concept of blockchains making tradeoffs by attempting to have decentralization, scalability and security at the same time, as reported by DeCrypt.

The concept known as trilemma was proven as a “mathematically weak idea” by Algorand founder Silvio Micali, Shkreli said.

“I guess he’s mad at me because I think he’s full of s***, that, you know it’s sort of been proven that there is no blockchain trilemma,” Shkreli said.

While he criticized Buterin, the convicted felon also labeled the Ethereum co-founder as “brilliant.”

The criticism comes after Buterin potentially took a shot at Shkreli over Twitter.

“How do we create a culture where it’s harder to set (or become) the topic of public conversation by doing something terrible and easier to do so by doing something great?” Buterin tweeted.

Related Linik: Pharma Bro Martin Shkreli Is Chilling At A Halfway House After Being Released From Prison 

Other Crypto Takes: The Shkreli Inu token was recently launched and named after Shkreli. The coin, which launched on the Ethereum blockchain, has seen over $1 million in trading volume on Uniswap in the last day.

Shkreli said on the Spaces that he did not create the token, but did receive around half of the supply.

Along with criticism for Buterin, Shkreli took a shot at non-fungible tokens.

Shkreli called CryptoPunks and Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs “retarded,” hating on two of the most popular and valuable NFT collections.

The Pharma Bro also hit out at a word that defines the cryptocurrency and NFT sectors: Web3.

“It means nothing.”

Shkreli labeled web3 as a “buzzword” and said he’s interested in the space but not impressed by it yet.

Why It’s Important: Shkreli is a polarizing figure who is hated by a lot of people for his previous role within the pharmaceutical industry, where he famously raised the price of a drug by more than 5,000% after acquiring the rights to it.

“I don’t really give a f***,” Shkreli said of previously raising drug prices.

The former hedge fund manager said that high drug prices are morally OK because most Americans have health insurance.

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