This Is Uncomfortable July 11, 2025 Transcript

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Reema Khrais: I'm excited to talk with you about this. I think this will be fun.

Matt Levin: Me too 

Khrais:  It's a wild story. 

Levin: Yeah, it’s nice. It's like a nice little longitudinal study of what happens to a human being when they become suddenly crypto rich, and then not crypto rich, and then crypto rich again.

Khrais: I’m Reema Khrais, and welcome to this is Uncomfortable. This week, I’m talking to my colleague Matt Levin, Marketplace’s unofficial crypto reporter. For the last four years, Matt’s been following one man’s wild ride through the world of cryptocurrency. A guy named Glauber Contessotto. Glauber got internet famous for his bet on dogecoin 

Glauber Contessotto: I just spent all my money on Dogecoin. YOLO! What's going on, guys, welcome to my brand new channel, the Dogecoin millionaire, where I plan on becoming a millionaire by buying and holding Dogecoin. 

Khrais: Glauber didn’t grow up with money, he’s a regular guy who stumbled into crypto hoping to change his life. If you’re not familiar, Dogecoin is a crypto that started as a complete joke. Created by two programmers who were mocking crypto - it’s literally named after a meme of a dog. But then, it actually took off thanks to a ringing endorsement from Elon Musk. Just like all crypto, Dogecoin is famously unpredictable. One minute, people like Glauber are watching their investments soar, and the next, it’s all gone. 

Matt’s reporting uncovered a complicated portrait of Glauber, a story not just about the ups and downs of crypto, but about what it means to chase the American dream when your footing in this country isn’t guaranteed. 

Alright Matt, so tell me how does Glauber get into the world of crypto? How does that happen?

Levin: So starting around 2019, Glauber started investing in Tesla stock, which made him a good amount of money. Then came the pandemic, and like a lot of people during that time, he started scrolling Reddit and got a little bit into the memestock craze, and it was through Reddit that he ended up stumbling on a cryptocurrency called Doge coin; 

Archival Clip: Dogecoin was created by a couple of engineers in 2013 as a parody of bitcoin.

Archival Clip 2: Dogecoin is the biggest winner in crypto this week and there's some speculation that a tweet by Elon Musk helped push that price to a record of about 10 cents.

Levin: and so he decided in 2021 he was going to dump all of his life savings into this one cryptocurrency, Dogecoin.

Contessotto [archival]: So yesterday was February 5, 2021, and it was the day that I literally took everything out of my bank accounts, sold all my stocks, I maxed out two credit cards and took out cash advances and threw it all into Dogecoin.

Khrais: Okay, can you just paint me a picture of this guy? 

Levin: I first started talking with Glauber when he was 33. That was four years ago. He is originally from Brazil. He came with his family to the States when he was six, so he grew up here in the US. Never had a lot of money. When I interviewed him, he was living in kind of a dingy apartment in LA, before he became kind of crypto famous, which is how I found out about him. He was working for a hiphop YouTube channel where he was managing video content for them, but he had bigger ambitions. He's one of those guys that wanted to be rich, and you could tell by the type of people he idolized, too, like a lot of crypto bros, he was kind of an Elon Musk fan.

Khrais: Gotcha, okay so how much did he invest exactly in Dogecoin several years ago? 

Levin: 250 grand.

Khrais: Oh woah. 

Levin: Yeah, he had some money from his investments in the stock market ,and he borrowed some money from family, too. 

Khrais: Oh, wait, tell me about that. So how much money did he borrow and from who exactly? 

Levin: I know in one case, he asked his aunt, and asked for $5,000, and his aunt said, I can't give you 5000, I could give you 1500.

Contessotto: We actually made a deal with the whole thing, and I told her give me the 1500 and i’ll buy you a house, so… [laughs]

Khrais:  Wow that’s a big promise...

Levin: Yeah.

Khrais: Alright his aunt loaned him a little bit of money, he’s maxed out his credit cards, sold some stocks. He’s making a big bet on Dogecoin. Does it pay off?

Levin: You bet it does! At his peak he has $3 million in Doge.

Khrais: Oh my gosh… And so how is he feeling about it? What does he tell you?

Levin: He's pretty happy. [laugh] And he's like, understandably. And then, you know, obviously his family this whole time is telling him: hey, you should sell, sell, sell, sell. And not just his family. Random people on the internet are telling him, you should sell, sell, sell, sell. And he's steadfastly refusing to. He's keeping it in Doge.

Khrais: Right, because I imagine at this point his aunt is like, “Okay, we have the money buy me a house. What are you doing? Like, let's… Yeah, sell.” And he refuses. Why do you think he, he's resistant to selling?

Levin: One is, he, he will argue that Dogecoin will become a more popular mainstream cryptocurrency, and that the value will continue to rise, right? So he believes in the product. This is also, at this point, his brand. He's the Dogecoin millionaire. 

Khrais: Right.

Levin: That's why I'm talking to him, right? 

Khrais: And he has a bunch of followers, right? Like, presumably, who are buying and following his lead? 

Levin: Exactly. 

Contessotto [archival]: What’s going on guys? Pro the Doge here. And today we’re talking about dogecoin. Dogecoin pretty much goes against every conventional thought of cryptocurrency there is. It’s the first cryptocurrency that has been able to translate into the mainstream. I can’t put a face to Bitcoin. I don’t know what ethereum looks like, but I know what Doge looks like.

Levin: And he's getting new revenue from it too. There are, you know, crypto companies that are asking him to endorse their products on his YouTube channel and elsewhere online. So he's married to Doge in this very, very personal way.

Khrais: Okay, so he's like, I'm not letting go of this identity. 

Levin: Yes.  

Khrais: Okay, then what happens?

Levin: Then, shockingly, Doge starts to go down. [laugh] So in 2022 we have crypto winter. 

Archival clip: A crypto winter in May is what we’re experiencing right now.

Archival clip: Check out bitcoin falling below $20,000 at one point today as the crypto crash continues. The entire crypto space still dealing with major losses this year… 

Levin: All cryptocurrencies start losing money, but Dogecoin is especially hard hit. 

Contessotto: I remember very vividly. I was in the parking lot of the gym that I would go to, and I was sitting in the car watching it just plummet, right? And watching the amount in my Robin Hood dump down all the way to 200 grand.

Levin: At his peak, as we mentioned, he had $3 million, and he watches his holdings plummet all the way down to 200 grand.

Khrais: Oh, wow. So he's lost money at this point?

Levin: He's lost a good amount of money at this point. 

Contessotto: I was right back, I was right back. It was a crazy feeling to go right back to where you were before everything, but yeah. It was pretty crazy, man. Emotional roller coaster. 

Khrais: Does he decide to sell at that point, or what does he do?

Levin: No. 

Khrais: No?

Levin: He decides, I've come this far. I've lost this amount. Let me get back in even more, because I've hit the bottom. So whatever remaining money he has, he puts back into Doge and other cryptocurrencies.

 Khrais: Wait, wait, he puts more money in?

Levin: Yes.

Khrais: Do you remember what you thought when you talked with him about this moment?

Levin: I, I felt bad. Like it's hard not… I, the guy did not have a lot of money before this, and then all of a sudden he's incredibly rich and kind of married to it, and then it just kind of disappears on him– predictably, like this is an incredible volatile cryptocurrency.

Khrais: Right, But you can't help but feel bad for the guy.

Levin: Yeah, yeah, I did. I mean, obviously, you know the part of your brain that's like, “Of course, you should have sold. I told you so. I told you so.” But…

Khrais: Do you think he regretted it?

Levin: Yes, I asked him that specifically. And yes, he did.

Contessotto: There are days where I think oh I kinda wish I would’ve sold, you know what I mean? But ultimately that’s not where my heart was, and I’m very big on just following my gut feelings on things. The same gut feeling that had me do what I did with buying that much Dogecoin and putting everything on the line, is the same gut feeling I had to not sell it. 

Khrais: Ok, so he, he doesn't sell, he puts more money into Dogecoin. 

Levin: Yep.

Khrais: And it pays off, right? What happens in 2024?

Levin: Donald Trump becomes the Republican nominee for president.

 Khrais: And that changes everything for Dogecoin?

Levin: Yeah, Donald Trump becomes a very pro crypto nominee.

Donald Trump [archival]: This afternoon I’m laying out my plan to ensure that the United States will be the crypto capital of the planet and the bitcoin superpower of the world, and we’ll get it done.

Levin: And crypto currencies across the board, start to rise, and then the most surreal moment happens: 

Archival clip: Donald Trump wants to make the government leaner and more efficient…

Levin: which is, it gets announced that, should Trump become president, this little thing called the Department of government efficiency – D.O.G.E. or Doge – headed by Elon Musk, will come into existence.

Archival clip: Handing the task to Tesla CEO Elon Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy. They’ll co-lead the new Department of Government Efficiency, DOGE for short. 

Levin: And that reignites interest in… 

Khrais: That’s huge!

Levin: Yeah, it's manna from heaven for him. And so… 

Khrais: Right.

Levin: …Doge goes up in value again. It's almost like an inside joke for those who have been following. You know, now we just think of DOGE the Department of Government Efficiency. Elon Musk knows that there's tons of people out there who think of it as Dogecoin, right? The money bounces back for Glauber. It's amazing.

Contessotto: My net worth has gone up millions. It was a huge joke about D.O.G.E., D.O.G.E. And then when we see the actual real filed paperwork, we're like, oh my god, this is real. He's really gonna do this. He's really gonna be CEO of D.O.G.E. That's perfect, right? And Trump's appointing Elon to do this, and Trump is a crypto president. You know what I mean? Everything is just like, I couldn't have created that in a better way that it's happening the way it is now.

Khrais: That's wild. Because that's what he was betting on, right? Like he was betting on this, on Dogecoin becoming a bigger part of the cultural consciousness, and there was, it's like, it's unbelievable that that actually happened in the most absurd way.

Levin: Yes, 100%. You know, and meanwhile, the rest of the country is like putting their money into, you know, mutual funds and… [laugh]

Khrais: Right, wow. 

Levin: It's amazing. So right after the election, he has $2.2 million in Doge, and millions in other cryptocurrencies as well. He's back, baby! This time around, he does say, eventually I'm going to sell. 

Khrais: Okay.

Levin: But he has a plan that he's going to kind of diversify more in crypto, and he's going to hold Doge and other crypto, because he thinks once Trump does become president, values will continue to skyrocket. So he doesn't want to sell just yet.

Khrais: Gotcha. Okay, so you’re in semi-regular touch with Glauber, and I know when you all talked last year, shortly after the election, you discovered something about his story that very much complicates his situation, right?

Levin: Yes, so we were actually talking about the election, and I asked who he had voted for, because obviously Trump would be good for him financially, but the sense I got from Glauber was that he wasn’t a Trump voter. And you know, sometimes there's a moment when you are interviewing somebody, and, you know, there's a little bit more to what they're saying. 

Khrais: Right, right? 

Levin: But you're not, you're just not getting it.

Khrais: yeah, And you're like, should I push.

Levin: That's right? So this, this was that moment.

Contessotto: I’m not allowed to vote so I didn’t vote at all…

Levin: oh, you’re. Ohhhh! okay.

Contessotto: I'm not a US citizen, I'm just a natural born Brazilian, I guess [laugh] 

Levin: gotcha. So you're, you're a green card holder, I'm assuming? 

Contessotto: Well, something like that. I'm in the process, actually, of getting that right now through my mom, because my mom's a citizen.

Levin: Gotcha. Okay… You know what? I'm gonna, I'm gonna stop the recording here for a second, if that's okay?

Levin: So I stopped the recording, and then I just straight up asked him, like, are you undocumented? And he was like, Yes. And I was: Oh, that makes a lot of sense with a lot of kind of your life trajectory here.

Khrais: Yeah, wait, say more.

Levin: Well, I think we could actually just let let him say it:

Contessotto: I was wired from early in my life to think of different ways to be successful and to be able to make money in my lifetime, like I've been fired from far too many jobs because the companies couldn't legally pay me without a social security number. Without a social security number, I can't get a 401K, like, all of these things are very closely tied to legal status. And so from the very beginning, that was not a path for me. And so it's like, I was just back against the wall.

Levin: And just to be clear, Glauber was comfortable going on the record, partly because his legal status was hinted at in this documentary that was made about him a couple years ago. 

Khrais: And so it sounds like it changed how you saw his his story, too, and everything he told you up until that point, and even as you're explaining it to me now, I'm like, yeah, it makes sense that he was, you know, hustling and trying to find whatever opportunity he could, and why he gravitated towards something like Dogecoin.

Levin: That's right. This was an avenue that was available to him, and he took advantage of it.

Khrais: Mhm. 

Levin: It was instrumental to his financial freedom and his, like, branding of himself.

Khrais: And yeah, it's like, you don't… you don't need a resume for that. You don't need, like, connections. Just like a willingness or an eagerness to take a big risk

Levin: Exactly, exactly.

Khrais: Coming up after the break, how Glauber’s aunt feels about his new crypto wealth. 

[MIDROLL BREAK]

Khrais: Okay Matt, so let’s get back into the story. Since dogecoin shot up late last year, it seems like it’s had some ups and downs, and so now I’m curious, how are things looking for Glauber right now? 

Levin: They’re looking pretty good. So Glauber’s still the Dogecoin millionaire. He has about $1.2 million in Dogecoin, and he has millions in other cryptocurrencies as well.

Khrais: Okay, and he still hasn’t sold?

Levin: Nope, he still has not sold. 

Khrais: how does his family feel about that? 

Levin: Certain members are not so happy about that.

Khrais: Yeah, I just want to take a second and sit with the family dynamics, because I find it so fascinating. So you mentioned that his aunt loaned him some of the money he used to invest in Dogecoin back in 2021, and I’m just curious, like, how has his pursuit of wealth changed his dynamic with his family, and particularly with his aunt?

Levin: That's part of the story that is very interesting here. So his aunt Cristiane has less than $10,000 in savings. She's a housekeeper in Maryland. Her husband is an Amazon driver. So they’re obviously in a very different financial place than Glauber is. I first spoke with Cristiane in 2021 which was relatively quickly after Glauber became a Dogecoin millionaire, and then lost hundreds of thousands, he was down to about $800K in Doge when I first talked with him and his aunt. And I asked her how it felt to have lent him some money, especially considering that she didn’t have much in savings to begin with.

Levin: Do you ever get frustrated?

Cristiane Almaraz: No. No, because he like I told you he's passionate about it. And he believes that so much and he put his heart on it. That you know, it might, it might happen, you know, it might go to the moon the way they say so. I don't know.

Levin: But didn't it already go to the moon? Aren't we at the moon if he's got a million dollars?!

Almaraz: Exactly!

Levin: I’m curious about that $1500. So you guys haven’t asked for that money back? That’s like your piece! 

Almaraz: No we did not because he told us you are investing in me, so If I get that money, I’ll buy you a house. That’s what he told us. And I say are you sure about that? [laugh] And he said yes, “Okay you’re ready, let’s see what happens.”

Khrais: You sound so frustrated in the questions yourself where you’re like I don’t understand.

Levin: I know, listening back you can hear my disbelief, yeah. 

Khrais: Yeah, so that was in 2021. Four years later, how do things look today? Is he any closer to getting her a house? 

Levin: So I actually caught up with them pretty recently and asked how things were going.

Levin: How are things between you guys?

Contessotto: It's good, okay, I'll be honest: I think I need to be a better nephew.

Almaraz: Ohhhh [laugh]

Levin: So how do you feel about he's still holding on? He's diversified a little bit in crypto, but he's still holding on.

Almaraz: Well, I feel…

Contessotto: She's probably given up at this point.

Almaraz: …uncertain about his plans, because I think he lost a lot of opportunity to sell Dogecoin and get money. Because for me, I don't know, I'm old school. For me, money is dollar, is cash. You know, crypto is not money for me. I don't know. I think he's going to the end with that, you know, holding the Doge.

Khrais: So you could hear that tension between them. I feel like it says a lot about how quickly money can shift family dynamics. And yeah, you could hear that frustration in her voice too, because it sounds like she's worried about the money, but she's also worried about him?

Levin: Yes, I think that's 100% it. And she is especially worried about him because he’s in Brazil right now. 

Khrais: Oh, what is he doing in Brazil? 

Levin: So he’s taking care of his dad who’s had some medical issues, and Cristiane is worried that he’ll be a target because of all of the crypto money he has. And she’s also worried that he may not be able to come back into the country. 

Khrais: That's what I was just thinking. And does he seem nervous about that? 

Levin: Yeah, he’s nervous about it, too. And the the irony is, is coming to the US when he was six, he feels like he's an American.

Contessotto: I didn't jump a border. I didn't cross over anything. I went with all the legal documentation as a child. You know what I mean? Like, I was educated in the United States. Everything I know, love is in the United States. Culture-wise, everything is just like growing up into this, this is all I know, read, write, English, history, everything. And then all of a sudden, because of paperwork and legalities, I become illegal, right? And it's like, but I'm American, though.

Khrais: That's such an interesting tension. It's fascinating how financially reliant he is on people like Elon Musk and Trump, people who are also making it harder for someone like him to come back to his home in the US. How does he grapple with that tension? Like, how does he make sense of it?

Levin: I don't know if he really does. 

Contessotto: Well, I have conflicting emotions about Trump, on one side, financially speaking, he’s probably the best bet for crypto currency, you know, my financials, all that good stuff, I heavily benefit from him being president, but at the same time, he’s so against immigration, even the DREAM Act, you know what I mean, something I’d applied for. So on one side I’m all for it, and on the other side, I could get a knock on the door and I’m deported, right? And everything I know just goes up in flames. So yeah ya, no, it’s tough, it’s a very tough position to be in. 

Khrais: Hmm. There's so many twists and turns to this guy's story, and you know, you've talked with him for four years now. I'm curious, when you take a step back and think of his story, what are some of the main takeaways for you?

Levin: Beyond I should have put all of my life savings into a dog cryptocurrency?

Khrais: Right! Beyond that we, like, made the wrong choices?

Levin: Yes… it's, it's a really hard question. This is a story unlike any other I've really covered before. I think it does say something about what options you have if you are undocumented in the US and have big ambitions and aspirations. And kind of the way crypto fuels that ambition and, like, meets that ambition in a certain place. And the, the other part of this is like, life is unpredictable. It is incredibly unpredictable. So every time you thought, “Oh, he made the mistake, he lost it,” it came back! 

Khrais: Yeah. Mmhm.

Levin: So you know that the version of this story you thought you were gonna hear was: “Guy goes all in on Dogecoin, loses all his money. It's an allegory for don't go all in on crypto.” That's not what this is. It is clearly not what this is. It is way more complicated and weird.

Khrais: And I keep just going back to all the contradictions in his situation: how much he admires people like Elon Musk, and at the same time, how those in power their policies are keeping him, you know, might keep him stuck in a place that is not home. And it makes me think of just how people who've been historically sidelined, or at least feel like they're on the margins, can be drawn to people in power like Elon Musk or Trump– not necessarily because they'll support them or watch out for them, but because of what they represent. Right? They symbolize the kind of, like, the kind of autonomy and success that people like Glauber crave, and I can imagine proximity to that is appealing.

Levin: Elon was also an immigrant.

Khrais: Mmhm, right! So you look at someone like him and you think: he reinvented himself, maybe I can too. So what do you think's gonna happen next for Glauber?

Levin: I have no idea. 

Khrais: So, I guess we'll see if he sells.

Levin: I think he will. I think he will eventually.

Khrais: Yeah.

Levin: The timing is what's unknown. Is he going to sell because he absolutely has to? Because he has no money left. Or is he going to sell when he has some money left? But I would have sold. I would have sold at…

Khrais: Oh, yeah. Same, Yeah, same. I would have taken that $3 million and ran.

Levin: I would have taken $20,000 and ran, I would have just been like, "I'm out. 

Khrais: Right.

Levin: Yeah, but that's the difference between Glauber and I think most other human beings.

Khrais: Alright that’s it for our show. You know we wanted to drop this episode in your feeds, but we are on a bit of a break right now, so if you want to stay in touch with us in the meantime, we’d love to hear from you all. If you’ve got thoughts about this episode or a story idea, you can always email me and the team over at uncomfortable@marketplace.org. 

This episode was lead-produced by Katie Reuther. Hayley Hershman was our Senior Producer. Original reporting by Matt Levin. And I’m your host, Reema Khrais.

Zoë Saunders is the show’s senior producer. Alice Wilder is our producer. Sound design and audio engineering by Drew Jostad. Bridget Bodnar is Marketplace’s Director of Podcasts. Francesca Levy is the Executive Director of Digital. Neal Scarbrough is Vice President and general manager of Marketplace. And the theme music is by Wonderly.

All right, I’ll catch you later.