Name: Tiffany Fong
Anonymous: No
Twitter followers: 51.7K
Known for: Breaking leaked information on Celsius and interviewing Sam Bankman-Fried after the FTX collapse
Who is Tiffany Fong anyway?
Tiffany Fong is 28 years previous, has a background in advertising, and describes herself as a “reluctant crypto content material creator” who developed a following after $100,000 price of her crypto belongings have been locked up by bankrupt crypto lender Celsius.
She’s posted greater than 20 essential movies concerning the firm since June 2022 and has been blocked by Celsius, founder Alex Mashinsky and his spouse, Krissy.
“I had no plans to be an influencer or citizen journalist or something. I simply personally misplaced a bunch of cash to Celsius Network, and I used to be simply mad and wished someplace to vent.”
“So, I began posting on YouTube and Twitter about it after Celsius went down, after which it type of snowballed into extra,” she provides. Fong says she obtained into crypto again in 2010 as certainly one of her relations was mining Bitcoin. Scooping up a bunch of BTC and another belongings early on, Fong mentioned she hodled and remained on the periphery of the house till the Celsius catastrophe.
How did she get widespread on Twitter?
Fong attributes a lot of the progress of her Twitter following to her reporting on leaks from Celsius insiders and her interactions with FTX founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) — to not point out some good old school shitposting.
“I began getting leaks from Celsius workers. [From that] I believe I gained just a little bit extra newsworthy consideration,” she says. “So, I believe that grew my viewers a bit larger. And that’s when Sam [Bankman-Fried] began following me.”
Her well-known follower would develop into an enormous alternative down the highway. Amid the chaos of the FTX chapter, Fong reached out to SBF on a number of events and managed to attain a collection of interviews and personal conversations with him, and even visited him twice just lately throughout his home arrest in Palo Alto.
As such, she has drawn loads of consideration from the media, and even U.S. politicians.
One cellphone interview, particularly, was additionally featured in a collaborative YouTube video between Fong and Coffeezilla, which now has 1.8 million views. She copped criticism on-line from those that questioned her lack of finger-wagging at SBF, particularly given Coffeezilla’s extremely essential tone.
“I undoubtedly handled loads of pushback after I initially began posting about my conversations with SBF. Like to me, even when I don’t consider what the particular person is saying, I’m type of personally fascinated about listening to their claims,” she mentioned, including that:
“Even if I believe that they’re mendacity, to me, extra info is best as a result of they’ll find yourself hanging themselves with their very own phrases. Like I believe SBF has achieved a number of instances.”
What you may anticipate on her Twitter?
When not posting scoops, she’s most definitely shitposting. Sometimes actually.
There isn’t any higher instance of this than her Twitter posts regarding her go to to the White House again in December.
Sharing a photograph of her standing subsequent to President Joe Biden through Twitter on Dec. 17, she captioned the photograph: “I let @Potus [Biden] odor my hair.”
It’s a reference to a well-liked meme about Biden apparently invading girls’s private house by whiffing their hair.
Adding context on how the hell she managed to attain an invitation to the White House, Fong mentioned that certainly one of her followers labored for the key service and lined up an invite for her.
“I made him ship me a photograph of him holding his authorities ID with three fingers up prefer it was an entire factor. But, like, I’m not going to show down a go to to the White House without cost — I’m not an essential particular person. And there’s no different means I’m gonna have the ability to go to the White House,” she mentioned.
“Yeah, that changed into an enormous conspiracy principle on Twitter that I’m like a fed that’s like working with Biden or one thing like that. I’m not even political in any respect.”
Twitter beefs
Mild beef: BitBoy Crypto
Crypto YouTuber Ben Armstrong traveled to the Bahamas in late November to confront SBF.
Knowing Fong had a direct line to SBF, Armstrong DMed her for a connection, however after she ignored him, he began flaming her. “He apparently claimed that I used to be jealous of him being within the Bahamas, and I used to be like, ‘Why would I be jealous in any respect that you just flew internationally to unsuccessfully try and interview SBF?’” she says.
Medium uncommon beef: the Daily Mail and the New York Post
Reporting on Fong’s interactions with SBF in December, the Daily Mail and the New York Post each used bikini pics, known as her a “attractive crypto influencer” and prompt that Fong may very well be courting SBF. She slammed them on Twitter for his or her slimy clickbait.
This led to a spat with the Daily Mail journalist who wrote the article and the publication eradicating her bikini footage of their article thumbnails. The New York Post didn’t comply with swimsuit.
“It’s undoubtedly annoying,” she says, mentioning that she obtained admissions out of SBF about “donating to the Republican Party and admissions concerning the Bahamian withdrawals.”
“But I really feel like all of that’s missed. And then they beautiful a lot simply pulled like previous bikini pictures to make that the central focus of the truth that I spoke with SBF.”
This is how @DailyMail approached me: noting I used to be not happy with the usage of an irrelevant previous bikini photograph within the @NYpost. As quickly as I supplied a sliver of commentary in response to their questions, @DailyMail instantly switched their photograph of me to a bikini photograph.🤮 pic.twitter.com/aZy7Kg1uAW
— Tiffany Fong (@TiffanyFong_) December 29, 2022
Top high quality beef: Krissy Mashinsky
Alex Mashinsky’s spouse, Krissy, has taken purpose at Fong, claiming she is a part of SBF’s internal circle.
Fong’s header photograph on her Twitter web page shows a tweet from Krissy Mashinsky claiming that she hacked into Celsius Zoom calls.
The two had quite a few spats on Twitter (earlier than the blocking), and Fong doesn’t mince her phrases: “She’s achieved loads of stuff that’s insane. She posts movies of their multi-million-dollar penthouse in Manhattan after they’ve ruined the lives of 1000s of individuals. So, I believe she’s simply completely deranged.”
Twitter likes and dislikes
“It’s enjoyable having a neighborhood. And I suppose it’s good to a point to have a voice that some individuals are fascinated about listening to,” she says concerning the positives.
“What do I not like? I imply, issues can develop into inflammatory actually rapidly and, clearly, taken out of context. And I don’t know — Twitter can develop into an echo chamber the place everybody simply needs to listen to the identical factor,” she mentioned.
Looking forward
Fong says she has no concept the place her social media fame will take her. “I by no means had a plan about any of this. I used to be simply posting, initially simply upset about Celsius,” she says.
“And it snowballed into this. So, I really feel like I’m simply taking it daily and simply in no matter path the wind blows me. So, I don’t have a profession plan with this. And I didn’t plan on turning into an influencer or citizen journalist.”
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