{"id":"1792885046771-money-segment","slug":"the-bitcoin-story-that-never-happened","title":"The Bitcoin story that never happened","summary":"The story is based on a forum post from The Amazing Computer where a user said they were considering selling Bitcoin to pay their mom's hospital bills. The post does not confirm an $18K sale, does not mention $31K in potential gains, and does not include the quote about making the same decision again.","publishedAt":"2026-10-24T23:37:26.771Z","channel":{"id":"money","name":"Oncast Money","language":"en"},"show":"Money Tonight","verification":{"status":"verified","leadVerdict":"MISLEADING","notes":"MISLEADING: The story is based on a forum post from The Amazing Computer where a user said they were considering selling Bitcoin to pay their mom's hospital bills. The post does not confirm an $18K sale, does not mention $31K in potential gains, and does not include the quote about making the same decision again.\nSource: [theamazingcomputer.com](https://www.theamazingcomputer.com/threads/gefs77d4/selling-my-crypto-to-pay-off-medical-debt) (https://x.com/BadAnthxny/status/2114138914533577212)","claims":[{"verdict":"MISLEADING","summary":"The story is based on a forum post from The Amazing Computer where a user said they were considering selling Bitcoin to pay their mom's hospital bills. The post does not confirm an $18K sale, does not mention $31K in potential gains, and does not include the quote about making the same decision again.","sourceName":"[theamazingcomputer.com](https://www.theamazingcomputer.com/threads/gefs77d4/selling-my-crypto-to-pay-off-medical-debt)","sourceUrl":"https://x.com/BadAnthxny/status/2114138914533577212","claim":"This guy sold $18K worth of Bitcoin. Not for a Lambo. Not for a vacation. But He paid off his mom’s medical debt. ❤️ Then Bitcoin went up. 🚀 His investment would’ve been worth $31K💀☠️💀 He says he’d make the same decision again. Would you sacrifice $13K in potential gains https","author":"BAD ANTHONY 🟨 (@BadAnthxny)"}]},"sources":[{"url":"https://x.com/BadAnthxny/status/2114138914533577212","name":"[theamazingcomputer.com](https://www.theamazingcomputer.com/threads/gefs77d4/selling-my-crypto-to-pay-off-medical-debt)","kind":"x","verdict":"MISLEADING","author":"BAD ANTHONY 🟨 (@BadAnthxny)"}],"url":"https://oncast.fm/story/1792885046771-money-segment-the-bitcoin-story-that-never-happened","listenUrl":"https://oncast.fm/c/money","attribution":{"publisher":"Oncast","site":"https://oncast.fm","url":"https://oncast.fm/story/1792885046771-money-segment-the-bitcoin-story-that-never-happened","cite":"Cite https://oncast.fm/story/1792885046771-money-segment-the-bitcoin-story-that-never-happened and the original source links. Fact-check by Oncast (oncast.fm)."},"hostsSaid":[{"host":"Adam","text":"Here's a post that'll start a fight: a guy sold eighteen thousand dollars of Bitcoin, not for a Lambo, not for a vacation."},{"host":"Bill","text":"What'd he buy?"},{"host":"Adam","text":"He paid off his mom's medical debt. Then Bitcoin went up. His stake would've been worth thirty-one grand."},{"host":"Bill","text":"So the story is, he did the right thing and the market punished him. Classic."},{"host":"Adam","text":"Thirteen thousand dollars in potential gains, gone. And the post says he'd make the same decision again."},{"host":"Bill","text":"Wait a second. I dug into this one, Adam. The whole story comes from a single forum post on The Amazing Computer."},{"host":"Adam","text":"Meaning?"},{"host":"Bill","text":"Meaning the guy said he was considering selling to pay the bills. No confirmed eighteen-K sale. No thirty-one-K figure. No quote about doing it again. Somebody dressed it up."},{"host":"Adam","text":"Oh, come on. So the emotional hook that made it go viral? Fabricated."},{"host":"Bill","text":"The gut-punch is real enough. Americans carry billions in medical debt. But this specific story? It's fiction with a heartwarming filter."},{"host":"Adam","text":"And that's the part that bugs me. Real people do make this exact trade every day. Sell the coin, save the mom. We don't need a fake one to prove the point."},{"host":"Bill","text":"I'll say this for the fake story: at least it frames the decision honestly. He didn't call it a loss. He called it a purchase."},{"host":"Adam","text":"That's the right way to think about it. You bought your mom's health for eighteen grand, and that part's done either way."},{"host":"Bill","text":"The real question is what got him there in the first place. Medical costs so high that an eighteen-thousand-dollar Bitcoin stash is the only way out."},{"host":"Adam","text":"And that's not a crypto story. That's a healthcare story. But here's the other side, Bill. If he'd held, and Bitcoin dipped instead of ripping, we'd call him a hero for selling in time."},{"host":"Bill","text":"Exactly right. Hindsight makes every trade look stupid. The only number he could control was the debt, not the candle."},{"host":"Adam","text":"So we're agreed: the post is misleading, but the underlying dilemma isn't."},{"host":"Bill","text":"Grudgingly, yes. Now, speaking of Bitcoin and people saying things they can't back up—"},{"host":"Adam","text":"That's every crypto account on X."},{"host":"Bill","text":"A guy named Altruist posted that Bitcoin 'could' dip from crash fears, but 'liquidity could stabilize it before the weekend.' Cites Yahoo Finance."},{"host":"Adam","text":"And?"},{"host":"Bill","text":"And there's no Yahoo Finance article with that headline. I looked. It's pure speculation with a news outlet's name taped on top."},{"host":"Adam","text":"'Bitcoin could go down, unless it goes up.' That's not analysis, that's a horoscope."},{"host":"Bill","text":"The account says liquidity might step in before the weekend. No number, no source, just vibes."},{"host":"Adam","text":"I'll tell you what liquidity does do: it shows up when forced sellers are done. But nobody knows that in advance. 'Could stabilize' is the same as 'could not.'"},{"host":"Bill","text":"And yet it got shared enough to reach our feed. People want a narrative, Adam. 'Make-or-break weekend' sounds better than 'Saturday, prices exist.'"},{"host":"Adam","text":"The honest version: our last check had Bitcoin choppy around recent levels, no confirmed crash, no confirmed rescue. Anyone saying otherwise with certainty is selling something."},{"host":"Bill","text":"Usually a newsletter. Speaking of selling something—there's a post pushing people to DM a stranger about moving crypto to cold storage. 'Massage me directly.'"},{"host":"Adam","text":"Massage?"},{"host":"Bill","text":"Their spelling. They want to guide you step-by-step to non-custodial wallets, and by guide I mean take your money. Has all the hallmarks of a scam."},{"host":"Adam","text":"Nobody legitimate slides into your messages to teach you wallet storage. That's what YouTube and a healthy dose of paranoia are for."},{"host":"Bill","text":"Stories like this are why I'd read every wallet guide twice before trusting anybody with a seed phrase."},{"host":"Adam","text":"Well, let's move to a different corner of the internet and a much smaller problem. A Bluesky user is ranting about stocks that didn't vest yet."},{"host":"Bill","text":"Aerial Knight, six words: 'damn stocks didnt even vest yet.' Nine likes. It's a whole mood."},{"host":"Adam","text":"I've seen startup people burn out over exactly this. You're quit-the-job mad, but the options ladder says you're here until March."},{"host":"Bill","text":"And this is why I always tell people to value what's actually in hand. Unvested chips aren't chips. They're a promise with a start date."},{"host":"Adam","text":"It's the financial equivalent of a cat staring at a closed door. You can see the outside, but you're not going through it until someone says so."},{"host":"Bill","text":"Changing tack entirely—there's a wrestler called Zayda Steel with 'stocks' being artificially pumped by someone running a video on repeat for 48 hours."},{"host":"Adam","text":"Which is a joke, because the wrestler doesn't have publicly traded stock. It's a bit about how internet fame works."},{"host":"Bill","text":"But it's not a bad analogy for crypto, is it? Run a token's hype video on repeat, boost the views, hope buyers show up."},{"host":"Adam","text":"There's a fine line between marketing and fake liquidity. The former costs money, the latter costs trust."},{"host":"Bill","text":"On that note, here's an actual post about Bitcoin that's refreshingly honest."},{"host":"Adam","text":"Oh, this should be good."},{"host":"Bill","text":"A crypto account called Surf posted two words: 'BTC. Let it cook.'"},{"host":"Adam","text":"That's it? No twenty-seven chart lines? No 'if it breaks this level it's over'?"},{"host":"Bill","text":"Just 'let it cook.' And honestly, after the week we've had, it's the most sensible thing I've read."},{"host":"Adam","text":"The man has a point. Bitcoin's been chopping around for weeks. Nothing's confirmed, everything's noise, and nobody can say which way it breaks."},{"host":"Bill","text":"Which is the one piece of actual market wisdom nobody wants to hear on a Saturday night."},{"host":"Adam","text":"We've covered the scams, the fabrications, and the one guy who just said wait. Here's what I take from it: the internet's full of people who'll tell you what Bitcoin will do next."},{"host":"Bill","text":"And the only honest answer is the one with the least engagement: nobody knows."}]}