Today on X (formerly Twitter), Skycoin founder Brandon Smietana formally demanded a public apology and retraction from Condé Nast and its flagship media, The New Yorker. The demand follows the publication of an article titled “Pumpers, Dumpers, and Shills: The Skycoin Saga” in August 2021, which Smietana alleges is filled with false claims and fabrications.
“Today, I am demanding a formal, public apology and retraction from Condé Nast and its flagship media, The New Yorker, for their defamatory article, Pumpers, Dumpers, and Shills: The Skycoin Saga. These allegations have threatened my and my company’s reputation, while putting my family’s safety at risk!
This isn’t just about me and my personal vendettas — this is about holding the media accountable! No one should have the power to fabricate stories and put profits over integrity. It has been years since the article’s publication, and many of its claims have been proven false. Yet, the article remains. After all of this time, The New Yorker has failed to apologize to me for publishing its damaging words.”
False Claims in “The Skycoin Saga”
The article, written by Morgan Peck, highlights the need for accountability in the media. To start, Peck recounts accusations of Smietana’s involvement in dumping the Skycoin. Immediately after Binance listed the token, its price sank. Sell-offs ran rampant. With its community demanding answers, the project’s Chinese marketing team kidnapped Smietana.
The kidnapping happened because Harrison Gevritz and Adam Young of EWA were attempting to take over Skycoin as a company by pressuring Brandon to sell it to them or risk it being destroyed under their actions. Brandon Smietana was released shortly later. Peck falsely stated that these kidnappers were let go without serving prison time.
Peck ignored public records and criminal filings from China that confirmed each perpetrator was arrested, confessed, and was sentenced to prison, while the “orchestrators” remain the ones unpunished.
Moreover, Peck’s article includes fabricated quotes from key witnesses such as Michael Terpin. When reached out to by The New Yorker fact-checker Anna Boots, Terpin noted such discrepancies. Regardless, the published article retained these false quotes.
As detailed by Bitcoinist, The New Yorker sent Smietana 198 questions as a part of their fact-checking process. “I did my best to answer them as well as I could,” he said. “I gave her the documents, and she agreed and said, ‘This statement is untrue. And yet, she published it. She put the same statement in the article that she admitted to me she knew to be false.”
Peck’s defamatory article slanders ’s reputation — and Skycoin’s as a byproduct — and mitigates the founder’s positive effects on the crypto space. For example, Smietana went to the Shanghai Supreme Court, the highest court in the country, and won the first case in China to declare Bitcoin legal property — a landmark case he carried out while under court and police protection.
This legal victory was significant not just for Smietana but for cryptocurrency as a whole. The recognition of Bitcoin as a legal asset broke through China’s strict regulatory policies, bringing the asset legitimacy in the eyes of an otherwise stringent government. It leaves one to wonder why Peck and The New Yorker would ignore such important information.
The Personal Impact on Smietana
Smietana’s personal life has greatly suffered from Peck’s misreporting. To this day, Smietana’s family are the targets of various harassment campaigns, including death threats and persecution from The Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi media.
The Daily Stormer continued where The New Yorker left off, accusing Smietana of hiring “assassins” to eliminate Bradford Stephens, a former member of the Skycoin marketing team.
Peck published her article in 2021. It’s 2024 now, and its resonance continues to plague Smietana and his family. This isn’t to mention the damage to Skycoin’s credibility, which has forced the company to overcome hurdles to attract new customers.
Systemic Failures at Condé Nast
These issues point to a broader ethical problem at Condé Nast. In addition to the hit piece on Smietana, the mass media company has been accused of workplace discrimination, editorial manipulation, and union disputes.
In fact, there is evidence that Peck and her affiliates had been bribed to write such a hit piece. Shortly after Skycoin paid Peck for a promotional piece, the journalist contacted Smietana, asking for additional money during the COVID-19 pandemic. Smietana declined.
It is believed that Peck sought funds from those who had grievances against Smietana. In 2023, Smietana learned of naysayers paying Peck to defame him. Bribery would explain Peck’s ignorance of the facts — ones that Boots and Terpin highlighted long before publication. It’s worth noting that Boots later resigned from her fact-checker position. Smietana’s case is not isolated. It highlights the need for media accountability and journalistic integrity, showing the real consequences of defamation and unverified information.
When outlets known for their integrity publish misinterpreted stories, the effects can be devastating for those involved, and those effects extend to the industries and companies they work for. Overall, Smietana’s demand for an apology concerns more than his personal problems. Influential figures within the crypto industry are often under fire from the traditional media, which misrepresents cryptocurrencies and presents them in a negative light.
This case serves as yet another reminder of the power and influence these outlets carry and the harm they so easily produce.
