Long Reads: The Crypto Scam Goes Mainstream w/ Ramaa Vasudevan
Jacobin Radio
Jacobin
4.7 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 25 July 2025
⏱️ 50 minutes
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Summary
Back in 2023, Long Reads spoke with Ramaa Vasudevan of Colorado State University for an episode about the development of crypto capitalism. Since then, the crypto industry has launched a concerted effort to establish itself at the heart of the global economic system. Just a few days ago, Donald Trump gave his approval for a major bill designed to boost the sector.
Ramaa Vasudevan spoke to Long Reads again about the mainstreaming of crypto and the threat it poses to global economic stability. This conversation was recorded at the end of March.
Read a transcript of the interview here: https://jacobin.com/2025/06/the-crypto-state
And find Ramaa’s essays for Catalyst here: https://catalyst-journal.com/author/ramaa-vasudevan
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by features editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies with music by Knxwledge.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, you're very welcome to Long Reeds, the Jacobin podcast where we look in depth of political topics and thinkers. |
| 0:08.4 | My name's Daniel Finn on the Features Editor here at Jacobin, and I'll be presenting the show. |
| 0:15.1 | Back in 2023, we spoke with economist Rama Vasudevan of Colorado State University for an episode about the development of crypto capitalism. |
| 0:26.1 | Since then, the crypto industry has launched a concerted effort to establish itself at the heart of the global economic system. |
| 0:35.0 | Just a few days ago, Donald Trump gave his approval for a major bill designed to boost |
| 0:41.0 | the sector. |
| 0:42.0 | President Trump signing that landmark cryptocurrency bill right now. |
| 0:45.3 | Let's go ahead and listen in. |
| 0:46.5 | ABC reported live on the physical signing of the bill, where Trump was keen to stress that |
| 0:52.3 | he was using a regular pen. |
| 0:56.6 | This is not an auto pen, by the way. |
| 1:06.2 | All right, President Trump has now signed that landmark cryptocurrency bill, the so-called Genius Act. |
| 1:12.6 | ABC went into more detail about why this bill was so important for Trump and his crypto allies. Why does he care so much about this? |
| 1:14.6 | Yeah, Jay, you know the president's strategy very well when it comes to members of Congress. |
| 1:18.6 | But look, this is something that President Trump had campaigned on. |
| 1:21.6 | He was once a crypto skeptic, then he vowed to make America the crypto capital of the world. |
| 1:26.6 | And on the trail, he had also pushed Congress to take action when it comes to this. |
| 1:31.8 | And you can see there in the room the president was surrounded by a lot of top crypto executive. |
| 1:36.4 | This is a huge win for the cryptocurrency industry. |
| 1:40.4 | What this does is essentially it creates this regulatory framework for stable coins. |
| 1:45.0 | These are a type of cryptocurrency that's more stable, hence the name that's tied to a more stable asset like the US dollar. |
| 1:53.0 | So the goal here is to make this more mainstream and to make this more accessible. |
... |
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