They call him “El Presorte.” But unlike the second president, Dave Portnoy draws a line at the launch of a Memecoin. He cares that his followers are losing their shirts.
“I got involved in Memecoins because I wanted to launch a bar stool Memecoin, but I didn’t want my fans and supporters to lose money,” he said in an interview with Coindesk. Memecoins are “legalized Ponzi schemes,” he said, “There is no value for it, so you have to come in and get out before it goes down.” [Note: memecoins aren’t legalized in the U.S. but they are popular.]
While Portnoy has not launched a bar stool brand Memecoin, he has launched other memcoins. In February he launched Greed, a token that reached a market capital of $ 41.5 million. According to Lookonchain, Portnoy bought 357.92M $ greed, a total of 35.79% of the total offering, and then sold everything in a single transaction, causing the price to go down. He earned about $ 258,000.
Barstol Sports founder went to X in the wake of saying, “I warned people that I could sell. I could have paid +1 million. I let it fall 75%before I paid off. Many people made money. I made a profit + poured it into #jailstool, which I can’t touch. I didn’t make a dime on it. Some people won.
Portnoy began trading shares under the Covid-19 pandemic and even launched YouTube channel Davey Day Trader where fans could follow his trades. His trades were not always successful and there was not always a clear strategy, but they were entertaining. At one point he pulled letters out of a scrabble bag, put RTX (Raytheon Technologies Corporation) together and put $ 200,000 on the stock.
It was around this time that Portnoy was introduced to Bitcoin. “I don’t think you can be involved in anything, stock market [or] Financing without crypto was an important part of it, ”he says now. He has a love/hate relationship with Bitcoin because he says he has been on the wrong side of it every time it rips. “Over the years, he is also experimenting with investing in cryptocurrencies such as XRP.
Although Portnoy entered Memecoins because he would launch one to the bar stool community, he admits he still does not understand how he implements blockchain technology or cryptocurrencies in his business model. Barstool once accepted Bitcoin as part of his Barstolfond to help small businesses, but out of $ 50 million raised he said only $ 30,000 came from Bitcoin.
“They spoke big, big talk, but it didn’t work,” he said, reflecting on the Bitcoin community that persuaded him to accept cryptocurrency. “Crypto is the league leader in people who tell you what [you] Should do, and so are the league leader in people I don’t trust. “
Portnoy has experimented with Memecoins, Bitcoin, and even launched an NFT associated with his popular One Bite Pizza Reviews YouTube channel that sold for $ 138,000. And even though he doesn’t always understand them, he says “As much as I have back and forth with the crypto community, I actually love them. I think they are funny […] An interesting group that I assume I am a part of. “
Dave Portnoy shares more about his crypto journey at Consensus 2025 in Toronto on May 15. Get your tickets here.
