Digital Social Hour | Episode #1429

"Mike Benz: Crypto's Role in Saving the US Dollar Explained"

Host: Sean Kelly
Guest: Mike Benz
Date: July 3, 2025

Episode Overview

This episode features an unvarnished, in-depth conversation between host Sean Kelly and guest Mike Benz, a prominent critic of government censorship and expert on the intersection of finance, national security, and digital media. The discussion spans the evolution of cryptocurrency, its (unexpected) role in propping up the US dollar, the realities of global money laundering, and the entangled web of media manipulation, government grants, and censorship—especially as influenced by elite institutions like Harvard. Benz connects the dots through a wide variety of geopolitical, economic, and technological topics, challenging popular and libertarian narratives while offering explosive insights on the present and future of free speech, digital assets, and US power.

Key Topics & Discussion Points

1. Crypto’s Evolution: From Libertarian Tool to Government Asset

[01:11—04:29]

• Transformation of Crypto:
  Mike Benz explains how crypto, initially built by "libertarian pirate ship" types aiming to disrupt traditional finance, is now harnessed as a tool by the US government to prop up the US dollar.

• "It’s gone from, you know, this libertarian pirate ship... To a complete tool of the US Government to save the US Dollar rather than fight it." (Mike Benz, 01:16)

• Stablecoins and US Treasuries:
  He outlines how stablecoins’ liquidity largely comes from their backing by US treasuries, turning crypto into a mechanism to counteract threats like Chinese divestment or the potential end of the petrodollar.

• Irony of the Crypto Community’s Support:
  The crypto community, once deeply anti-establishment, now cheers developments (record high bitcoin prices) that in fact reinforce the very governmental structures they originally sought to undermine.

2. Crypto, Money Laundering, and State Actors

[03:09—04:29 & 07:44—09:11]

• Illicit Usage:
  Benz notes that large-scale state actors use crypto for covert operations, including arms trafficking and drug trade, rather than merely street-level criminals.

• Pakistan and CIA History:
  He cites Pakistan as an example, referencing its rapid regulatory embrace of crypto and its longstanding status as a hub for international illicit finance, likening today’s crypto ecosystem to the CIA’s infamous BCCI bank of the 1980s.

• "Now you have crypto BCCI and it’s driving up the price of bitcoin to huge levels. And I think that’s likely to continue. But that’s not libertarian." (Mike Benz, 04:29)

• Crypto Stacking for Anonymity:
  Layering wallets (opening new ones repeatedly) confers a "quasi anonymity" that, while traceable in theory, can take authorities years to unravel.

3. The Geopolitics of Crypto and the Dollar

[09:11—13:37]

• US Strategy and Dollar Diplomacy:
  Benz elaborates on the symbiotic relationship between the US dollar and crypto: as foreign countries divest from US treasuries (notably China), US policymakers increasingly see crypto markets—anchored by stablecoins that buy US treasuries—as a new defense mechanism for dollar dominance.

• Potential Threats to Dollar Hegemony:
  He downplays Saudi threats to leave the petrodollar (viewed as political posturing) but argues that the real challenge would occur if stablecoin liquidity were routed through Chinese currency.

• "If the stablecoins were all Chinese ... I think the US might declare that a national security threat and pass some law criminalizing it." (Mike Benz, 09:34)

• Benz’s Personal Stance:
  He’s "bullish on bullshit"—recognizing the system’s exploitative elements, but also its profitability.

4. European Populism, Trust, and Censorship

[13:41—17:36]

• Rise of Anti-EU Parties:
  Benz walks through Europe’s anti-establishment turn: France’s Marine Le Pen, Romania’s Caitlin Jorgescu, Poland’s Law and Justice, Spain’s Vox, Germany’s AfD—each gaining traction as the most popular parties despite, or perhaps because of, EU opposition.

• EU Censorship Response:
  The European Union’s response, he says, is to jail or ban political opponents, restrict elections, or label dissent as "Russian disinformation".

• "My ratio was: When North Korea makes posts like this, we make fun of them. This is the way you need to look at the European Union. It is... West Korea." (Mike Benz, 15:47)

5. US-EU Clashes Over Digital Speech

[17:36—22:25]

• New EU Digital Censorship Act:
  From July 1, all US social media companies face mandatory compliance with the EU’s Digital Censorship Act, risking massive fines if they allow speech Europe deems disinformation—an act Benz calls reminiscent of US colonial subjugation.

• US Government’s Countermeasures:
  Benz details new US retaliatory moves (e.g., threatened visa revocations for censorious European officials) and traces the long tradition and complications of "free speech diplomacy".

6. The Rise and Funding of the Censorship Industry

[22:25—38:17]

• US Government’s Role:
  Benz claims that, cut off by the First Amendment domestically, the US government funded censorship and counter-disinformation programs abroad (Europe, Brazil, Canada, Australia) and built up foreign institutional networks to influence judiciary, media, and online platforms.

• COVID and ‘Cybersecurity Censorship’:
  He recounts DHS using its cybersecurity authority to rebrand censorship as "digital resilience" or "information integrity," and accuses them of manipulating public sentiment, even to the point of instructional cartoons urging kids to report relatives for "disinformation."

• The Censorship ‘Industrial Complex’:
  He draws a parallel between the military-industrial complex and the censorship-industrial complex—describing a self-perpetuating ecosystem of labyrinthine government grants, academic labs, and NGOs whose survival hinges on ever-expanding censorship efforts and budgets.

• "If you think about that term censorship, industrial complex. You have to focus in on that word industrial. That means a business enterprise." (Mike Benz, 32:29)

7. Funding Cuts and Ongoing Battles

[34:08—38:17]

• Recent Victories Against Censorship:
  Benz celebrates heavy cuts and shutdowns of major grants, offices (USAID, National Science Foundation, NIH), and Pentagon projects that previously funded digital censorship under the "disinformation studies" umbrella.

• Fragility and Persistence of Censorship:
  But he warns that with potential political shifts (e.g., Democrats retaking the House), resuscitation of these funding streams—and the censorship agenda—remains a live threat.

8. Media Capture and Narrative Control: From Gov’t to Philanthropy

[38:17—46:45]

• State (and Philanthropic) Media Buying:
  Benz describes how, after 2016, the US government escalated direct funding/buying of media and influential "alternative" voices—especially abroad—to counter the insufficiently controllable nature of social media and viral memes.

• "Freedom House is a great example of this... the worst offenders had the word freedom in their name." (Mike Benz, 42:41)

• Rise of Philanthropic Power:
  With government funding now diminished, he warns that mega-donors (e.g., Gates Foundation, Soros, Pierre Omidyar) will now step in to fund censorship and media manipulation efforts.

• "Bill Gates announced that he will be spending... $200 billion over the next 20 years on Gates foundation grants. So the Gates foundation is basically stepping up to become the new big daddy USAID for all these issues." (Mike Benz, 46:45)

9. Microsoft and the Corporate Endgame in Censorship

[48:47—53:04]

• Microsoft’s Deep Involvement:
  Benz uncovers how Microsoft, for reasons of profit and geopolitical positioning, is deeply involved in funding and seeding censorship projects, such as NewsGuard (whose advisory board is crammed with former CIA, NSA, and NATO upper echelon).

• "Microsoft doesn’t give a flying fig about democracy. They care about profits." (Mike Benz, 51:12)

10. Academic Complexity: Harvard as a Censorship & Intelligence Node

[59:13—92:46]

• Harvard’s Role:
  Benz argues that Harvard is less a beacon of enlightenment and more the operational arm of US intelligence and financial interests—he alleges the university ran government-level censorship programs, played an outsized role in the post-Soviet privatization of Russian assets, and remains a primary "backchannel" for US government foreign influence operations.

• "Harvard boys get rich not from having the best and brightest scientists. It’s by the Harvard Endowment... insider trading is what it is." (Mike Benz, 84:00)

• Historical Context:
  He dives into Harvard’s history of involvement, from the "Harvard Institute of International Development" (catalyzing Russian asset selloffs and enriching western oligarchs) to its intimate ties with government agencies orchestrating regime change or color revolutions.

• Russian Studies, CIA, and Russiagate:
  Drawing on newly declassified documents, Benz traces the roots of academic "Russian studies" programs to explicit CIA initiatives, and notes the circular relationship between Harvard, the intelligence agencies, and political operations such as the Trump-Russiagate scandal.

11. The Broader Implications: Power, Secrecy, and the Public

[82:02–92:46]

• Connecting the Dots:
  Benz urges listeners to examine the paper trail rather than trusting any single source—pointing to academic papers, declassified CIA memos, and institutional histories as public evidence of elite collusion in narrative and policy manipulation.

• Personal Costs:
  He laments how ordinary content creators, influencers, and niche news figures have had lives upended by this system, all while the "censorship-industrial complex" insulated itself from consequences via guaranteed government contracts or philanthropic money.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "I’m bullish on bullshit. And I’ve been saying this for a decade now..."
  —Mike Benz [02:21]

• "Now you have crypto BCCI and it’s driving up the... price of bitcoin to huge levels. And I think that’s likely to continue. But that’s not libertarian."
  —Mike Benz [04:29]

• "The stablecoins buy the treasuries to do that. And I’m bullish on CIA money laundering."
  —Mike Benz [02:28]

• "My ratio was: when North Korea makes posts like this, we make fun of them. This is the way you need to look at the European Union. It is... West Korea."
  —Mike Benz [15:47]

• "This is what happened in April 2022. They made the disastrous misstep of calling it what it was—the Disinformation Governance Board—then it’s like, holy, holy crap."
  —Mike Benz [28:23]

• "That’s government control over the news. That is the thing we said we fought the cold war to stop... They just were using much more boring, mundane names to hide it."
  —Mike Benz [30:18]

• "If you think about that term censorship, industrial complex. You have to focus in on that word industrial. That means a business enterprise..."
  —Mike Benz [32:29]

• "Bill Gates announced that he will be spending...$200 billion over the next 20 years ... the Gates foundation is basically stepping up to become the new big daddy USAID for all these issues."
  —Mike Benz [46:45]

• "Harvard boys get rich not from having the best and brightest scientists. It’s by the Harvard Endowment...insider trading is what it is."
  —Mike Benz [84:00]

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 01:11—04:29: Crypto’s transformation & use by US government
• 09:11—13:13: Crypto’s role in global finance and dollar diplomacy
• 13:41—17:36: Populism vs. the EU & mechanisms of censorship
• 17:36—22:25: US/EU power struggle over digital speech
• 22:25—32:29: How US built "censorship diplomacy" networks abroad
• 32:29—38:17: The Censorship Industrial Complex
• 38:17—46:45: State and philanthropic capture of new and legacy media
• 48:47—53:04: Microsoft, NewsGuard, and the corporate angle
• 59:13—84:12: Harvard’s entanglements with US statecraft, global privatization
• 82:02—92:46: Connecting elite institutional power, foreign policy, and domestic censorship

Final Thoughts

This episode is a whirlwind tour through the complex, murky interplay between finance, technology, government, and elite institutions. Mike Benz’s uncompromising, documentation-based approach delivers hard-hitting, eye-opening perspectives on everything from the true drivers behind crypto’s rise to the shadowy networks perpetuating censorship and narrative control. By the end, listeners will find themselves deeply questioning mainstream narratives on both cryptocurrency and the "trusted" institutions running the global show.

Follow Mike Benz:

• X (Twitter): @MikeBenCyber
• Instagram: @ikebencyberg
• YouTube: MikeBenCyber
• Foundation: foundationforfreedomonline.com