The media space is coming to terms with how powerful bitcoin is, and will be in the future. The number of trades carried out on exchange platforms such as Redot shows that many people are buying, trading and holding cryptocurrencies.
So, it is not surprising to see one of the world’s popular comedy series, South Park, allude to bitcoin being the currency of the future in one of its episodes.
Bitcoin will take every shred of positive news it gets right now, seeing how bearish the market is and how sentiments on cryptocurrencies viability are rearing its head.
But is South Park the first TV series to approve of bitcoin?
The answer is a resounding no.
Other TV shows, as far back as 2012, had approved of bitcoin and decentralised finance. Even the Simpsons, one of the world’s longest running shows, had also, in the past, mentioned bitcoin in one of its series.
Other TV shows and movies that have referenced bitcoin in the past are:
● The Good wife
● The Simpsons
● The Blacklist
● The Big Banh Theory
● Silicon Valley
Referencing Bitcoin In the Media Is Good For Crypto
Referencing crypto and bitcoin in mainstream media is beneficial to bitcoin and cryptocurrency adoption worldwide. The more mainstream media talk about it, make it normal, the more people stop seeing bitcoin and cryptocurrencies as strange. The more bitcoin and cryptocurrency is seen as normal, the more people will embrace the currency, and the more decentralised (we hope) the world’s economy will be.
But...
It was in the 24 Season of the show, the post-Covid episode, that bitcoin was referenced. Stan Marsh, South Park’s protagonist, referenced bitcoin when he said that ‘we’ve all decided that centralised banking is rigged so we must trust more in fly-by-night Ponzi schemes.
Now, that is a lot to unpack, especially the last words.
But before revealing how problematic those lines might be, and the conversations going on online, let’s understand the context of the quote.
So, Stan was at a hotel. He tries to pay for his hotel room. It is 40 years after the pandemic, and the world is close to seeing an end to the deadly disease. We are in the future, remember. Forty years into the future.
Stan is at the Super 12 Motel Plus. The hotel accepts only cryptocurrencies and nothing else.
It was at the hotel Stan said those words, “we’ve all decided that centralised banking is rigged so we must trust more in fly-by-night Ponzi schemes.”

What Are Crypto Enthusiasts Saying?
The comments from crypto enthusiasts globally have been mixed. Some are happy that more and more media outlets are referencing bitcoin. It is a win for cryptocurrency, many of these people say. If we continue on this path, the supporter opined, we will have bitcoin and cryptocurrency become the major currency around the world.
But there are other people who are the least impressed by the reference on South Park.
These people are of the opinion that Stan Marsh’s words were not beneficial to cryptocurrency but negative. The last words, “fancy Ponzi schemes” makes it hard to look past the jab taken at cryptocurrency.
The creators of South Park are taking jabs at Cryptocurrency by calling it a “fancy Ponzi scheme”. The comparison to Ponzi schemes gives the idea that cryptocurrency is fake, and will wind up as a scam in the same way ponzi schemes do.
And it isn’t just semantics when Stan Marsh said cryptocurrency was a ‘fly-by-night’ scheme. The character’s words reflect the dismissive nature with which people perceived cryptocurrency.
The show is an animated comedy show, so maybe the words used was an attempt by the writers to do comedy.
But many people aren’t having it.
Calling cryptocurrency “a fancy Ponzi scheme” is bad PR for the currency at a time when the price of BTC has been falling badly. If media outlets keep referencing bitcoin in the light that the comedy series did, it will be doing more harm than good to the crypto fight for adoption and legalization.
While there is a bogus notion in media circles that there is nothing like bad PR, there actually is. When an idea or concept is constantly put down as being unworthy of trust and not credible enough, people who know nothing about the idea will associate unworthiness to the idea or concept. That is why the choice of words on South Park does more disservice to bitcoin than it promotes crypto.
However, the backlash from enthusiasts, while understandable, should be tempered with caution. The show’s creators, it seems, meant no harm.
Recent history reveals that the show's creators are cryptocurrency enthusiasts and have been for years.
However, moving forward, whether it’s a comedy animated series or a show about aliens returning from Halloween, cryptocurrency should be portrayed in the positive light, many have said. The decentralisation idea behind blockchain technology and cryptocurrency is definitely here to stay. The price of bitcoin and altcoin nonetheless, decentralised finance is here to stay.

HOW IS BITCOIN DOING IN THE MARKET?
Crypto enthusiasts and investors are currently going through a horrific time in the crypto marketspace. On trading platforms, investors and traders are counting their losses as many accounts have been liquidated.
At the end of November when bitcoin was experiencing a dip in price, many had predicted (more like hoped because the current price is a far cry from the support level bitcoin had surpassed just months ago) that the price of bitcoin will rise to as much as $100,000.
Claims like that were not unfounded, given how the price of bitcoin soared to an all-time high of $67,000. But instead of new all-time highs as predicted, the price has constantly been falling. As at the time of this writing, bitcoin’s price was $47,000, more than $30,000 less than it was in November.