In this edition of YAP On The Record, we speak with Mahmoud Elhalawany, who writes under the pen name Vince Quill, about his journey from political opinion writing to crypto journalism, the state of the industry, and his thoughts on institutional adoption versus the cypherpunk ethos that originally shaped the movement.
Mahmoud Elhalawany, better known by his pen name Vince Quill, brings a diverse background to his analysis of crypto markets. A former real estate investor and current restaurateur, Quill shares his perspective on Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and the broader crypto landscape.
What did the transition from political opinion writer to crypto writer look like?
I think it started in 2021 when I began to see what happened in the crypto markets during the last bull run, and I started to pay attention to it. Then someone told me about Bitcoin and how it could revolutionise the human paradigm, which completely transformed everything I was focused on because, for the first time in history, the state lost its monopoly on the money printer. This is the first time it’s ever happened, and so that’s really what got me into Bitcoin specifically.
What do you think about the state of the crypto industry right now?
I’m afraid of a lot of regulatory capture and that a lot of these institutions and the government might come in and ruin the libertarian ethos, the cypherpunk ethos that this movement started with. That’s really what I’m worried about right now.
We see all these global strategic reserves in different countries, and it’s good for the price, but I wonder if it’s good for the assets themselves? Is it good for the movement? As these institutions and governments adopt crypto, the price is going to skyrocket. But price isn’t everything. What about the ethics behind it?
What are some of the most exciting use cases in crypto right now?
Presently, real-world asset tokenisation is interesting because this technology is really useful for a lot of other things! For example, tokenising intellectual property rights—tokenising the deed to your house would be huge. Trying to sell a house and keep track of the maintenance is hard, and none of it’s standardised. What if it had a price ticker that tracked the price in real time of your house, and you could take out loans against it or track the equity in your house very precisely. Imagine tokenising the title to your car in five minutes and transferring it over, and there are no issues.
What do you think has been the biggest hurdle to mainstream adoption?
I think the problem with a lot of this stuff is that before you even begin to understand Bitcoin and why it’s valuable, you should understand the stock market, currency movements and economics and have to have a education in finance. I feel once people understood those things, then Bitcoin would be a no-brainer. But The vast majority of people don’t understand any of those things.
What’s your usual process when picking a story to cover?
I would say there’s no real process. It’s just whatever’s going on that day. Sometimes I plan it ahead of time. I’m like, I want to talk to this person or write an article about this subject. Other times, something is just blowing up, so I have to cover it and then do follow-ups that way. So, it depends on the day and on what’s going on. I like conceptual topics within crypto that answer real questions like: how is this affecting the economy? How’s this going to bank the unbanked? How is this solving a social problem? etc.
Have you noticed a shift in how mainstream media covers crypto?
I mean, crypto used to be called a Ponzi scheme and scam money and whatnot. And now there’s a United States strategic reserve. The president has councils dedicated to crypto. It’s huge!
Purely financial outlets like Bloomberg, Forbes and Wall Street Journal they’re very receptive to it (the crypto industry).
But then, if you go into the more political or just straight up like CNN, MSNBC, they’re still calling it a scam. The political mainstream news is not down with crypto, but the financial mainstream news is.
I think part of it’s also their sponsors, a lot of these outlets are sponsored by some of these financial companies that do invest in web3 projects. I mean, there’s a Bitcoin ETF. It was the most successful ETF launch in history. They have ticker symbols for it displayed on these channels now. If you watch CNBC, they’ll have the Bitcoin and Ethereum price rolling with the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
Vince Quill’s journey from political writing to crypto journalism is rooted in a deep belief in decentralisation and individual empowerment. As real-world adoption grows and institutions enter the space, he remains focused on the movement’s original promise: not just financial gains, but real, systemic change.
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