The arrest this week of Andrew Tate, the controversial former kickboxer and social media personality, has sparked a wave of conspiracy theories.
Tate, who was arrested in Romania as part of an investigation into allegations of human trafficking and rape, posted to his Twitter account that “the Matrix sent their agents” following his arrest.
Earlier this month, Tate appeared on bitcoin and crypto investor Anthony Pompliano’s podcast, claiming he “doesn’t trust the Romanian government” and that bitcoin is “the only logical conclusion” to prevent governments from seizing assets.
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Controversial social media influencer Andrew Tate was arrested this week in Romania.
“I don’t want to own any more property,” Tate told Pompliano ahead of his arrest. “I don’t trust the Romanian government or the Russian government. If I piss the government off, they’re just going to take it. They say you own it until you annoy the government and then you don’t own it.”
Tate has previously said he bought $600,000 worth of bitcoin at the height of the Covid-19 market crash in March 2020, claiming to have held it through the downturn. However, Tate, who has made a name for himself with inflammatory comments about women and masculinity, has also claimed without evidence to be “the world’s first trillionaire.”
Tate told Pompliano he was “added to a travel list” and had to do “backflips” for banks when he tried to buy a $900,000 property in Qatar, pointing to money laundering controls as why he supports bitcoin.
“I’m going full crazy, Mr. Blockchain, now because it’s the only time I feel like I have control over things,” Tate said, referring to bitcoin’s underlying distributed ledger technology and adding, “with cash you have to deal with inflation.”
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Earlier this year, demonstrators in Canada turned to bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies when their protests at Covid-19 restrictions resulted in the government ordering banks to freeze their accounts. However, authorities then ordered regulated crypto companies to suspend transactions involving protest-linked crypto wallets.
“People should be scared of what the government did to them in the name of corona,” Tate told Pompliano. “They’ve taken your business from you … you’ll see how quickly they’ll take your little house from you.”
Following his arrest, Tate’s Twitter account also posted: “The Matrix will only tell you what The Matrix needs you to believe.”