Fortunate Son: Crypto Senator’s Kid, 22, Raises $30 Million
“Welcome to the age of Nepomaxxing.”
A twenty-two-year-old man graduated from Stanford University last Sunday.
While there, he wrote for Peter Thiel’s right-wing Stanford Review, worked at venture capital firms Andreessen Horowitz and Paradigm.
Now he’s starting a new futures exchange with a $30 million venture capital investment that values his fledgling company at $300 million.
His name is Theodore Gillibrand, and he’s the son of pro-crypto Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-New York.
From Fortune reporter Ben Weiss, who broke the story:
The 22-year-old son of a crypto-friendly senator plans to launch his own exchange for a type of derivative popularized by digital asset traders. Theodore Gillibrand, whose mother is Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), has drummed up $30 million in a fundraise led by the venture firm Lux Capital, according to two sources familiar with the matter. The deal valued Theodore’s startup at $300 million, said the sources, who asked for anonymity to discuss private business dealings.
(Read the full story: Exclusive: Son of pro-crypto New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand raises $30 million to launch a derivatives exchange)
The story describes Gillibrand as “a key Democratic ally for the crypto industry” and “part of a group of lawmakers who first introduced the Genius Act, or legislation that regulates stablecoins, a type of cryptocurrency pegged to real-world assets like the U.S. dollar.”
“My son is a grown adult starting his own independent business,” Gillibrand said in a statement to the New York Post. “I have no involvement in it whatsoever. That said, I’m enormously proud of him and wish him nothing but the best.”
The Post describes Sen. Gillibrand as “one of Capitol Hill’s most prominent boosters of cryptocurrency legislation.”
During his time at Stanford—while his mom was pushing the crypto agenda—Theodore interned at Andreessen Horowitz and did a fellowship at Paradigm, two venture capital funds heavily invested in crypto.
I often warn that Republicans aren’t the only problem when it comes to the tech fascist takeover of our democracy. The crypto, AI and venture capital barons have enough money to try to buy both sides. That’s why it’s disturbing that Democrats who ought to know better—including Gavin Newsom—are cozying up to crypto.
Surely, it’s just a coincidence that the beneficiary of this miraculous VC investment is the son of a pro-crypto senator.
Nice work if you can get it.
As one commenter put it on BlueSky: “Welcome to the age of Nepomaxxing.”
Related:
Gil Duran
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