How a Kid Stole $40,000,000 in Crypto (from his dad)
Watch on YouTube ↗  |  February 08, 2026 at 16:37 UTC  |  12:57  |  Thread Guy
Speakers
Narrator — Host/Investigative Commentator
ZackXBT — On-chain Investigator (Referenced)
John Lick — Threat Actor/Son of CMDSS CEO (Subject)
Dean Dagetta — CEO of CMDSS (Subject)

Summary

  • A massive security breach occurred involving the US Government's crypto assets. John Lick, son of Dean Dagetta (CEO of government contractor CMDSS), stole approximately $40M–$90M in seized crypto.
  • The US Government currently holds ~$25 billion in Bitcoin (seized from Silk Road, Bitfinex, etc.) but lacks the internal infrastructure to custody it securely.
  • The DOJ hired CMDSS, a small, opaque "project fixit" company with a "sus" website, to manage these assets. The firm's lack of institutional controls allowed the CEO's son to access and steal funds.
  • The theft was exposed not by government oversight, but by on-chain investigator ZackXBT after the perpetrator bragged about the funds in a Telegram group chat.
Trade Ideas
Ticker Direction Speaker Thesis Time
LONG Narrator Flight to Quality in Institutional Custody "The United States government has $25 billion of crypto and they don't know what to do with it... CMDSS was hired... a small business... nobody really knows anything about the CMDSS." The US Government just suffered a humiliating loss by trusting a small, obscure contractor with billions in assets. This creates an immediate political and operational mandate to migrate assets to "Too Big To Fail," publicly traded, regulated custodians. Coinbase (COIN) is the market leader in institutional custody (holding assets for BlackRock/ETFs) and is the only logical, SOC-compliant partner large enough to absorb this liability and restore public trust. LONG. The government will likely cancel small-vendor contracts and consolidate custody with the industry leader to avoid future embarrassment. The government may choose traditional banks (BNY Mellon/State Street) over crypto-native firms if regulations allow, bypassing Coinbase.
BTC
WATCH Narrator Supply Overhang / Liquidation Risk "The US government is 25 billion in Bitcoin alone... they really have no [__] clue what to do with it. They don't want to sell it and so they have to basically figure out these weird niche ways to custody it." The incompetence revealed by this theft may force the government's hand. If they cannot securely custody the assets, the political pressure to "liquidate and hold cash" increases. A forced liquidation of $25B in BTC due to security incompetence would be a massive supply shock. Conversely, if they simply move to a better custodian (like Coinbase), the supply remains locked. WATCH. Monitor DOJ announcements regarding asset disposition. Any signal of "liquidation due to security concerns" is a sell signal; announcements of "new custody partners" is neutral/bullish. Immediate knee-jerk selling by the government to "close the hole" could crash spot prices temporarily. 0:13