Identify: Tiffany FongAnonymous: No Twitter followers: 51.7K Identified for: Breaking leaked information on Celsius and interviewing Sam Bankman-Fried after the FTX collapse
Who’s Tiffany Fong anyway?
Tiffany Fong is 28 years outdated, has a background in advertising and marketing, and describes herself as a “reluctant crypto content material creator” who developed a following after $100,000 value of her crypto property had been locked up by bankrupt crypto lender Celsius.
She’s posted greater than 20 essential movies in regards to the firm since June 2022 and has been blocked by Celsius, founder Alex Mashinsky and his spouse, Krissy.
“I had no plans to be an influencer or citizen journalist or something. I simply personally misplaced a bunch of cash to Celsius Community, and I used to be simply mad and wished someplace to vent.”
“So, I began posting on YouTube and Twitter about it after Celsius went down, after which it type of snowballed into extra,” she provides. Fong says she acquired into crypto again in 2010 as one in every of her kin was mining Bitcoin. Scooping up a bunch of BTC and another property early on, Fong stated she hodled and remained on the periphery of the area till the Celsius catastrophe.
How did she get widespread on Twitter?
Fong attributes many of the development of her Twitter following to her reporting on leaks from Celsius insiders and her interactions with FTX founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) — to not point out some good old school shitposting.
“I began getting leaks from Celsius workers. [From that] I believe I gained a bit bit extra newsworthy consideration,” she says. “So, I believe that grew my viewers a bit greater. And that’s when Sam [Bankman-Fried] began following me.”
Her well-known follower would grow to be a large alternative down the street. Amid the chaos of the FTX chapter, Fong reached out to SBF on a number of events and managed to attain a sequence of interviews and personal conversations with him, and even visited him twice lately throughout his home arrest in Palo Alto.
As such, she has drawn quite a lot of consideration from the media, and even U.S. politicians.
One telephone interview, specifically, was additionally featured in a collaborative YouTube video between Fong and Coffeezilla, which now has 1.8 million views. She copped criticism on-line from those that questioned her lack of finger-wagging at SBF, particularly given Coffeezilla’s extremely essential tone.
“I undoubtedly handled quite a lot of pushback after I initially began posting about my conversations with SBF. Wish to me, even when I don’t imagine what the individual is saying, I’m type of personally involved in listening to their claims,” she stated, including that:
“Even when I believe that they’re mendacity, to me, extra info is healthier as a result of they’ll find yourself hanging themselves with their very own phrases. Like I believe SBF has finished a number of occasions.”
What you may count on on her Twitter?
When not posting scoops, she’s most certainly shitposting. Generally actually.
There isn’t a higher instance of this than her Twitter posts regarding her go to to the White Home again in December.
Sharing a photograph of her standing subsequent to President Joe Biden through Twitter on Dec. 17, she captioned the picture: “I let @Potus [Biden] odor my hair.”
It’s a reference to a well-liked meme about Biden apparently invading ladies’s private area by whiffing their hair.
Including context on how the hell she managed to attain an invitation to the White Home, Fong stated that one in every of her followers labored for the key service and lined up an invite for her.
“I made him ship me a photograph of him holding his authorities ID with three fingers up prefer it was a complete factor. However, like, I’m not going to show down a go to to the White Home totally free — I’m not an vital individual. And there’s no different approach I’m gonna be capable to go to the White Home,” she stated.
“Yeah, that became an enormous conspiracy principle on Twitter that I’m like a fed that’s like working with Biden or one thing like that. I’m not even political by any means.”
Twitter beefs
Delicate beef: BitBoy Crypto
Crypto YouTuber Ben Armstrong traveled to the Bahamas in late November to confront SBF.
Figuring out Fong had a direct line to SBF, Armstrong DMed her for a connection, however after she ignored him, he began flaming her. “He apparently claimed that I used to be jealous of him being within the Bahamas, and I used to be like, ‘Why would I be jealous in any respect that you just flew internationally to unsuccessfully try to interview SBF?’” she says.
Medium uncommon beef: the Each day Mail and the New York Publish
Reporting on Fong’s interactions with SBF in December, the Each day Mail and the New York Publish each used bikini pics, known as her a “attractive crypto influencer” and urged that Fong may very well be relationship SBF. She slammed them on Twitter for his or her slimy clickbait.
This led to a spat with the Each day Mail journalist who wrote the article and the publication eradicating her bikini footage of their article thumbnails. The New York Publish didn’t comply with go well with.
“It’s undoubtedly annoying,” she says, declaring that she acquired admissions out of SBF about “donating to the Republican Get together and admissions in regards to the Bahamian withdrawals.”
“However I really feel like all of that’s ignored. After which they stunning a lot simply pulled like outdated bikini photographs to make that the central focus of the truth that I spoke with SBF.”
High quality beef: Krissy Mashinsky
Alex Mashinsky’s spouse, Krissy, has taken goal at Fong, claiming she is a part of SBF’s interior circle.
Fong’s header picture on her Twitter web page shows a tweet from Krissy Mashinsky claiming that she hacked into Celsius Zoom calls.
The 2 had quite a few spats on Twitter (earlier than the blocking), and Fong doesn’t mince her phrases: “She’s finished quite a lot of stuff that’s insane. She posts movies of their multi-million-dollar penthouse in Manhattan after they’ve ruined the lives of 1000s of individuals. So, I believe she’s simply completely deranged.”
Twitter likes and dislikes
“It’s enjoyable having a neighborhood. And I assume it’s good to some extent to have a voice that some individuals are involved in listening to,” she says in regards to the positives.
“What do I not like? I imply, issues can grow to be inflammatory actually shortly and, clearly, taken out of context. And I don’t know — Twitter can grow to be an echo chamber the place everybody simply needs to listen to the identical factor,” she stated.
Trying forward
Fong says she has no thought the place her social media fame will take her. “I by no means had a plan about any of this. I used to be simply posting, initially simply upset about Celsius,” she says.
“And it snowballed into this. So, I really feel like I’m simply taking it daily and simply in no matter path the wind blows me. So, I don’t have a profession plan with this. And I didn’t plan on turning into an influencer or citizen journalist.”
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