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Internet personalities Dave Portnoy and Kanye West got into a beef this weekend over cryptocurrency and Kanye’s recent flagrant anti-semitism. Portnoy, the 47 year old founder of Barstool Sports, is Jewish.
In recent months, Dave Portnoy has got himself heavily involved in the cryptocurrency space. So involved, in fact, that some of his behavior has sparked speculation of whether or not he could wind up in jail.
Then there’s Kanye, who, in between desperately seeking attention by posting vile anti-semitic comments on social media, is reportedly gearing up to launch a cryptocurrency. Portnoy, now active in the crypto space, called a potential Kanye “meme coin” a scam, prompting Kanye’s video message.
“Rumor is Kanye (worst human alive) may be launching a scam meme coin and morons will buy it. Snipers will get rich. Normal people will get crushed. People will cry. I fear I was the only honest man to ever exist in celeb coins,” Portnoy posted on social media on Saturday
Rumor is Kanye (worst human alive) may be launching a scam meme coin and morons will buy it. Snipers will get rich. Normal people will get crushed. People will cry. I fear I was the only honest man to ever exist in celeb coins. #greed3
— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) February 22, 2025
In the video, the disgraced rapper and producer is wearing a t-shirt with a swastika on it, which he was selling on his website earlier this year until Shopify shut it down. West has since deleted the video.
“So Dave Portnoy, I don’t know you, I saw you was tweeting, I have no idea who you are, we’ve been going back and forth joking, but when you try talking about telling people that my coin is not real and you’re trying to play with my money, now this is the last time we’re going to be talking online,” West says in the video.
“I thought Adam Sandler cured him of being a Nazi. Either way I f—— hate this guy so much I don’t even care he appears to have been taken hostage,” Portnoy responded.
As for Portnoy, the betting market website Polymarket currently puts his odds at being sent to jail over crpytocurrency scams at 9%, with certain sectors of the cryto space accusing him of organizing “pump and dump” schemes with meme coins, similar to Hawk Tuah, who has essentially disappeared from the public eye since her crypto controversy in December 2024.
> Dave Portnoy deploys a coin
> Owns 30%+
> Promotes it
> Full stack sells it
> All within 1 hourcrime.
— Iced (@IcedKnife) February 18, 2025
2025 summarized, everyone. Better strap yourselves in for the rest of the decade.