One of the most disliked figures in cryptocurrency is easily Trevon James, otherwise known as “Bitcoin Tre”. The cryptocurrency influencer was once a popular Youtuber in the cryptocurrency space, and his Youtube channel still boasts over 120,000 subscribers. Since he joined Youtube in early 2016, he has impressively amassed over 8 million views.
The Bitconnect Debacle
The reason for the dislike is simple – Bitcoin Tre was an influential pumper of Bitconnect, which closed in January 2018 as a result of essentially being exposed as a Ponzi scheme. The cryptocurrency completely crashed as a result, which caused losses for many investors. Through it all, Trevon James claimed to be buying more Bitconnect. Here is a tweet where James claimed to be purchasing more, even after the price of Bitconnect plummeted:
I will buy your bitconnect coins.
Just stop saying scam and watch how it will back.
Dm me if you want to sell.#bitconnect— Trevon James (@BitcoinTro) January 17, 2018
In a particularly ridiculous video, James stated to his viewers: “You didn’t lose your money…okay, you lost your money”. He ended up deleting almost all of his videos related to Bitconnect.
James has not appeared to be too remorseful about his involvement with Bitconnect. He posted a video on January 30, 2018, entitled “Some Things Off My Chest”, where he emphasized that he was not worried about the lawsuit. He stated: “I think Bitconnect the company has something to worry about, but I don’t”.
Although it is unclear whether he received threats as a result of the financial losses that some may have incurred by following his advice – it would appear so, as he seems to bait individuals into confronting him, stating which hotel in Myrtle Beach he was recording the video. He stated that this was in response to him seeing videos claiming to “track him down”.
Remarkably, James claims that he was “never promoting anything. I don’t like that word now. I wasn’t promoting Bitconnect, I was doing videos about it.” The cryptocurrency community immediately showed their disgust with the video, to the point where James had to disable comments and turn off the like/dislike option on Youtube.
Attempts to Reinvent
James has come back onto the Youtube scene, although it is clear that many are not too happy about it. He now hosts a series called “Crypto Weather” that attempts to focus on humor. It is obvious that the series is not nearly as successful as his past videos, considering that his videos in 2017 were receiving tens of thousands of views each.
One obvious example where the cryptocurrency community shows their dislike for James is in one of his serious videos released in October of this year. The video is titled, “All you Youtubers need to shut the f*** up”. In the video, James claims that Bitcoin is not breaking out, and that he is still bullish. The video still has more dislikes than likes (318 to 289), and many in the Youtube comments have pointed out his hypocrisy, considering the earlier Bitconnect debacle. Some users were amused that he wasn’t in jail, considering that James was actually served in a lawsuit regarding Bitconnect.
Back and Bitter
James has again become active on Twitter, with his pinned tweet advertising merchandise related to his “Cryptoweather” show. He appears to be extremely bearish with regards to Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general, and – understandably – many are skeptical of his tweets and opinions. For example, on December 3, he tweeted that Bitcoin will eventually be worthless:
10 Years from now it won’t matter if you bought Bitcoin at $4,000 or $3,000………because it will be at $0
— Trevon James (@BitcoinTre) December 3, 2018
Many chimed in, referencing the fact that James might end up punished for his Bitconnect association, with some tweets mentioning “jail” or “parole”. He has continued the bearish tweets today, claiming that Bitcoin will be worth $10 by January 1, 2020:
If Bitcoin isn’t $10 by January 1st 2020, I will eat my dogs poop Live on YouTube.
— Trevon James (@BitcoinTre) December 4, 2018
It is likely that James was imitating John Mcafee, in one of his more vulgar tweets regarding Bitcoin’s future price:
There you have it. We win in any case. If Bitcoin is not at $1 mil by Dec 31, 2020, I will eat my dick.
— John McAfee (@officialmcafee) June 15, 2018
