The Wolf of Crypto

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. — Jordan Belfort was lounging by the pool on a sunny April morning, sipping Crimson Bull and sharing a cautionary story. Not the same old one about his imprisonment on 10 counts of securities fraud and cash laundering: This time, he’d been the sufferer. Final fall, he defined to a bunch of businessmen gathered at his palatial house, a hacker had stolen $300,000 of digital tokens from his cryptocurrency pockets.

He had gotten the unhealthy information at dinner on a Friday, he stated, whereas he was telling a venture-capitalist buddy in regards to the time he sank his yacht throughout a drug-fueled romp within the mid-90s. After breaking into Mr. Belfort’s account, the hacker transferred giant portions of Ohm, a well-liked cryptocurrency token, to a separate pockets — a publicly seen transaction Mr. Belfort may do nothing to reverse. “You’ll be able to see the place the cash is,” he stated. “It’s probably the most irritating factor.”

Mr. Belfort, 59, is finest recognized for “The Wolf of Wall Avenue,” a tell-all memoir about his debauched Nineteen Nineties profession in excessive finance, which the director Martin Scorsese tailored right into a 2013 film starring Leonardo DiCaprio because the hard-partying protagonist. Today, the real-life Mr. Belfort is a marketing consultant and gross sales coach, charging tens of 1000’s of {dollars} for personal periods.

This month, at his home in Miami Seaside, he hosted 9 blockchain fanatics and entrepreneurs for a weekend-long crypto workshop — an opportunity to hang around with the Wolf and luxuriate in an “intimate monetary expertise” together with his crypto-industry mates.

An extended line of celebrities has tried to revenue from the cryptocurrency growth, showing in broadly mocked crypto commercials or flogging nonfungible tokens, the distinctive digital collectibles often called NFTs. Mr. Belfort stated he has refused to take part within the worst of the shilling. He has declined gives to launch a line of Wolf-themed NFTs, he stated, though “I may simply make $10 million.”

He’s additionally a latest convert away from crypto skepticism. Not way back, he shot a YouTube video in regards to the risks of Bitcoin, which he known as “frickin’ madness” and “mass delusion.” Over time, he stated, he steadily modified his thoughts, as he discovered extra about cryptocurrencies and costs skyrocketed.

Now, Mr. Belfort is an investor in a handful of start-ups, together with a brand new NFT platform and an animal-themed crypto venture that he stated is “attempting to take the dog-and-pet ecosystem and put it onto the blockchain.”

No matter his crypto bona fides, Mr. Belfort is certainly certified to debate the topic of economic fraud, a serious downside within the digital-asset {industry}. Within the Nineteen Nineties, the agency he based, Stratton Oakmont, operated a classy stock-manipulation scheme. On the top of their wealth, he and his enterprise companions consumed monumental portions of cocaine and quaaludes and usually employed prostitutes. Mr. Belfort finally served 22 months in jail.

Provided that historical past, it will possibly really feel barely surreal to listen to an older, extra grizzled Mr. Belfort proclaim that he’s “massively trying ahead to regulation” within the crypto {industry}. “I’m not involved in separating folks from their cash,” he stated. “That’s the alternative of how I act proper now.”

Nonetheless, the crypto workshop at his home was not free: Company paid one Bitcoin for a seat, or the money equal, which is roughly $40,000.

The workshop started at 9 a.m. on Saturday. The company — chosen from a pool of greater than 600 candidates — milled round Mr. Belfort’s yard, consuming made-to-order omelets and buying and selling recommendations on Bitcoin mining and tokenomics. A crypto miner from Kazakhstan relaxed within the solar with an aspiring blockchain influencer who runs a roofing firm in Idaho. A Florida businessman defined his plan to make use of NFTs in a start-up that he’s pitching as Tinder for music. A number of the company stated they paid for the workshop as a result of they’re die-hard followers of the Wolf; others merely needed to community with fellow entrepreneurs.

By 9:15 a.m., the mimosas had been flowing, however Mr. Belfort was nowhere to be seen. “The U.S. greenback goes to crap,” stated the roofing govt, Doug Bartlett. A couple of minutes handed. Nonetheless no Wolf. “The Wolf continues to be sleeping?” one visitor questioned aloud.

Eventually, Mr. Belfort emerged from the home, sporting pale denims and darkish sun shades. Mr. Belfort has quick darkish hair; he’s extra wrinkled than he was within the ’90s, however his face continues to be set in a perpetually boyish grin. He stopped on the staircase down from the porch to survey the scene: 9 males wearing numerous shades of enterprise informal — polo shirts, flip-flops, untucked button-down shirts. “I assume we nonetheless have to work on female adoption of cryptocurrency,” he stated. “We obtained to get some women right here subsequent 12 months.” He paused. “Ladies.”

Somebody handed Mr. Belfort a can of Crimson Bull. (It was about 9:30 a.m.) “I’m gonna want the sugar,” he stated. After a couple of minutes of chitchat, he ushered the group into the eating room, the place every place on the desk was set with a pocket book and a replica of “Means of the Wolf,” a gross sales handbook Mr. Belfort printed in 2017.

Mr. Belfort has spent the previous 20 years attempting to rebuild his status, however indicators of the outdated Wolf had been in every single place. Behind his spot on the head of the desk, a completely stocked liquor shelf took up a lot of the wall. (He hasn’t gotten excessive in 25 years, he stated, however he generally drinks.) Subsequent to the shelf hung a poster designed to resemble an entry on the periodic desk — Qu for quaalude — itemizing numerous “drug info,” together with “finest intercourse ever.”

After a spherical of introductions, Mr. Belfort started a lecture on the trivia of cryptocurrencies, from the variations between Bitcoin and Ethereum to the rise of decentralized autonomous organizations. He shared his knowledge on crypto-based “sensible contract” methods (“a few of them are actually sensible; a few of them are silly”) and recounted outdated tales about his collaboration with Leo and Marty.

“Leo had by no means performed medicine,” he stated. “I needed to educate him on that.”

For a gathering of crypto evangelists, it was hanging how a lot time everybody spent reliving their largest losses. Almost half the group stated they’d been hacked. One visitor stated he’d misplaced cash when the cryptocurrency trade Mt. Gox collapsed in 2014. Two others stated they’d burned giant portions of tokens in dangerous trades.

The vitality within the room lifted with the arrival of Chase Hero, one among a sequence of visitor audio system Mr. Belfort had recruited for the weekend. A crypto investor and gaming fanatic, Mr. Hero declared that stablecoins — cryptocurrencies whose worth is pegged to the U.S. greenback — are “the largest innovation since sliced bread.”

“It appears vivacious and insane and virtually borderline a Ponzi scheme,” Mr. Hero stated of his favourite stablecoin venture. “Which makes it the proper asset for cryptocurrency as a result of that’s what these children love.”

One among Mr. Belfort’s company, Svein-Erik Nilsen, a Norwegian entrepreneur, began describing his personal enterprise ambitions. Did Mr. Hero have any suggestions? The important thing to beginning a brand new enterprise, he replied, is aggressive advertising and marketing. “Think about going to a Brazilian seaside and looking for one single sizzling chick. There’s eight million,” Mr. Hero stated. “The concept is identical factor right here. You need to do silly, dumb advertising and marketing to get it on the market.”

A number of hours later, the group adjourned for dinner at Carbone, a high-end Italian restaurant in Miami Seaside the place Mr. Belfort eats as typically as twice every week. As they dined on caviar and rigatoni, among the company shared tales of their very own debauchery; Mr. Belfort, it turned out, was not the one wolf within the room. Two company mentioned the mechanics of pursuing youthful ladies with out risking entanglement in a “sugar child” state of affairs. Somebody speculated about how an enterprising strip membership proprietor would possibly incorporate NFTs into the enterprise.

Quickly dialog turned to a membership in Japan the place ladies are stated to cavort with octopuses. Mr. Belfort needed to know extra: Had been the ladies in Japan stunning? Later, he confirmed the group an iPhone video he took at an S-and-M-themed bar, the place the waitresses flog the purchasers.

Artem Bespaloff, the chief govt of the crypto mining firm Asic Jungle, leaned throughout the desk to explain his private conversion to the way in which of the Wolf. He was planning to go to medical faculty, he stated, when he discovered a replica of “The Wolf of Wall Avenue” on the library.

“I stated, ‘That is what I wish to do,’” Mr. Bespaloff recalled. “I ended up stealing the guide from the library.”

“So I used to be a very good affect,” Mr. Belfort stated with amusing. Nonetheless, he stated, he regrets his habits in these days — it was improper, and he may have gotten even richer if he hadn’t damaged the regulation. “I missed the web growth,” he stated. “I might’ve made 100x more cash.”

“Properly,” Mr. Bespaloff replied, “you’re in crypto now.”

“You reside and be taught,” Mr. Belfort stated.