Meet the guerilla artist who staged a crypto ‘rug pull’ in front of the SEC

cointelegraph.com:

Street vendors abound in downtown Manhattan’s Financial District. But weeks ago, on Sept. 14, an especially unconventional seller set up shop in front of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), transforming a patch of Maiden Lane into a colorful quilt of doormats, each spray painted with the straightforward instruction to “pull.” 

People enquired, but they were fake and not really for sale. The wares were part of “Rug Pull,” the latest guerilla installation by Nelson Saiers, a New York-based hedge fund manager turned artist who some consider “The Warhol of Wall Street” or crypto’s most creative activist. As an artwork, “Rug Pull” highlights the many victims affected by the type of scam it’s named after.

Over the past year, crypto has been forced to overcome its resistance to centralized regulations. At the same time, victims of rug pulls and other scams have yet to enjoy the protection that centralized bodies supposedly provide.

“The SEC’s shortcomings extended beyond merely failing to safeguard investors from clear scams,” Saiers told Cointelegraph, adding: “While they have a very difficult job, it seems they were too lax in some ways but also too aggressive in others. I feel their rejection of certain investments may have unfortunately led some investors into more fraudulent products.”

Saiers only works on-site when it makes sense. His art practice transcends crypto, too. He takes on other topics like unjust incarceration or the profound union of art and math.

The artist’s family moved from Ethiopia to the Washington, D.C. area when he was five. He earned his bachelor’s and Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Virginia by age 23.

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