Crypto entrepreneur Mahbod Moghadam is the latest shining example of ‘crypto bro culture,’ as one startling Instagram comment from the Rap Genius co-founder will attest.
Moghadam — responding to a maskless photo of Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti, San Francisco mayor London Breed, and famed basketballer Magic Johnson — wrote earlier today: “He prolly [sic] got rona and aids from the photo.”
Entertainment outlet Deadline had published an article 12 hours prior under the headline “L.A. Mayor Garcetti Says He Held His Breath For Maskless Photo With Magic Johnson.”
Moghadam’s social made the comment around seven hours ago under a post by account “fraud.cool,” and has so far attracted 11 likes.
Other cringeworthy posts by fraud.cool include a gymbro with his head in his hands over the caption: “Ok, next exercise is 3 sets of 3 minute conversations with women.”
Another captioned “hell yeah dude” under a BBC article titled “When Joni Mitchell wore blackface for Halloween.”
Garcetti, Johnson, Breed, and a raft of other celebs copped flak on social media for footage taken at a recent NFC championship game at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California.
A local public health order had advised wearing masks at outdoor “mega events,” such as football games.
California governor Gavin Newsom and film stars Jessica Alba and Leonardo DiCaprio were also pictured without masks at the event, although the latter was seen wearing one around his chin during conversation.
Earvin “Magic” Johnson Jr. publicly announced he was HIV-positive over three decades ago, in 1991. Since then, the Lakers star has become a worldwide ambassador for those living with the disease.
Johnson takes a daily regimen of drugs to stop his diagnosis progressing to AIDS, highlighting the tastelessness of Moghadam’s comments.
Moghadam is indeed mostly known for co-founding media annotation service Rap Genius (now just Genius) in 2009.
However, he was ousted five years later for annotating the memoir of far-right Santa Barbara shooter Elliot Rodgers on Genius’ site with insensitive comments.
At the time, Moghadam reportedly said Rodgers’ memoir was “beautifully written,” and that his sister was probably “smokin’ hot.”
Moghadam later resigned from Rap Genius’ board. Ben Horowitz, one half of the namesake fund Andreessen Horowitz which invested in Genius, had words with Moghadam in private over the comments, according to Recode.
As for what Moghadam is up to in crypto, he’s said to have been an early investor in Bitcoin and Ether, and founded EOS-powered Wikipedia clone Everipedia after raising $30 million from Galaxy Digital in 2015.
Read more: [Texas governor plea to Bitcoin miners: ‘Help me get through winter’]
Moghadam served as Everipedia’s Chief Community Officer before leaving for small-time venture capital fund Mucker Capital in 2019.
Last year, he launched social media platform Hella Doge which supposedly rewards users with Dogecoin for their posts and for viewing ads.
It’s unclear how much crypto Moghadam would’ve received for his ignorant comments about Johnson and HIV/AIDS on his own social media platform.
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