Whatever Happened To “Potcoin”? The Crypto Dennis Rodman Advertised At North Korea Summit
• August 11, 2022 6:17 am • CommentsLet’s take a trip down memory lane.
As some of you may know Dennis Rodman has been one of the most eccentric NBA champions ever.
From almost missing games because he was partying in Vegas to cross-dressing after a big win, Rodman has always been in the spotlight.
Rodman’s random lifestyle doesn’t end there, back in 2013 Dennis Rodman met dictator Kim Jong Un in North Korea, and in the following year, Rodman brought an entire basketball squad with him to North Korea to play in front of Kim.
Well flash-forward to 2018 when Kim Jong Un met up with President Trump at a summit in Singapore, Rodman visited Singapore and wore a shirt that read potcoin.com.
So what is potcoin.com?
According to Investopedia, it’s “a digital currency that allows consumers and businesses to buy and sell cannabis products”
The project is surprisingly still alive and is selling at $0.003 which is far from its all-time high of $0.40.
Donning a MAGA hat and a shirt advertising cannabis cryptocurrency PotCoin, NBA Hall of Famer Dennis Rodman cried tears of joy about the historic summit. https://t.co/IFej7t7xVE
— VICE (@VICE) June 12, 2018
So-called "digital gold" (AKA cryptocurrencies)not faring so well with 80% of top 55 cryptos losing at least 25% over past few days. Bitcoin now 4,886. Lesser known cryptos even worse. Ex: Dennis Rodman-sponsored PotCoin, once sporting $92M valuation down 97% from Dec 2017 "high" pic.twitter.com/iD8BsV9ghz
— fred hickey (@htsfhickey) November 19, 2018
Vox added these details:
It was one of the strangest moments of the summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un: Former NBA star Dennis Rodman showed up beforehand wearing a “Peace Starts in Singapore” T-shirt promoting PotCoin.com.
There’s much about this we can’t explain. But we can at least tell you what PotCoin is: Think of it as bitcoin’s marijuana-themed Canadian cousin. The company claims to be solving a real problem for legal marijuana dealers — the need to do business in cash because of federal banking regulations — by creating a digital cryptocurrency.
But according to experts, PotCoin mostly good at getting attention through stunts like this.
Because marijuana in the United States is classified as a Schedule 1 drug — on the same level as heroin and LSD and a grade above cocaine — most of the money that touches the marijuana business can’t be put into the banking system because it is federally regulated. PotCoin’s creators claim they’ve built a workaround that helps those in the legal industry avoid dealing in all cash: digital currency.
PotCoin’s debut in 2014 made quite a splash, with write-ups appearing in publications such as TechCrunch, Vice, and Business Insider, but then it sort of fizzled out. That is, until the company teamed up with Rodman, claiming to have sponsored foreign trips for the basketball player, including his latest travel to Singapore.
PotCoin spokesperson Shawn Perez told the Washington Post that the PotCoin team has been “incredibly supportive of Rodman’s peace mission from the beginning” and is “thrilled to see how the political climate has been improved between North Koreans and the US since he became involved.”
People who work with cryptocurrency or marijuana, though, aren’t exactly convinced on PotCoin.
Dennis Rodman and Potcoin: How Crypto Gatecrashed a Historic Summit https://t.co/WRGvy7sd1o pic.twitter.com/1aqKOlpVJQ
— CoinDesk (@CoinDesk) June 13, 2018
Coindesk shared these details:
The historic summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korea’s Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un got the crypto community’s attention – and held it – thanks to Dennis Rodman and the notorious cryptocurrency that funded his travel to Singapore, potcoin. CoinDesk reported on June 7 that retired basketball star Dennis Rodman was headed to Singapore for the Summit with the help of the marijuana-themed cryptocurrency. As a celebrity who have visited North Korea several times, Rodman’s trip was considered as “a celebrity twist” to the historical geopolitical event.
According to The Washington Post, Rodman was “in discussions with” the team behind potcoin last week to get financial support for the trip. He later officially confirmed the news on Twitter highlighting the fact his trip was sponsored by the group. In fact, it is not the first time that potcoin has helped Rodman with his travels.
Just last year in June, the former Chicago Bulls star went back North Korea through potcoin’s sponsorship. At the time, the price of cryptocurrency spiked as Rod announced the news on Twitter in a “potcoin” t-shirt and a baseball cap.
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