Immy Dorse 
Well, this is one of those stories that just feels a bit strange from the start. Crypto.com, the big cryptocurrency exchange, found itself in a real mess over the weekend because of a game board. A Chinese checkers board, to be specific.
They posted an image of this crypto-themed game on their X account. The caption was simple enough: “Strategy always beats luck.” The board showed different player pieces as cryptocurrencies—bitcoin, ether, solana, and a few others. It seemed harmless. Maybe even a little clever. But the internet, as it often does, had a very different take.
A Misinterpreted Symbol Sparks Backlash
Almost immediately, users began drawing comparisons to the flag of Israel, pointing out the six-pointed star pattern on the board. And then, things took a dark turn. The post started attracting antisemitic comments, with some accounts using it to push ugly conspiracy theories.
One account in particular, @trading_axe—which itself has a history of sharing antisemitic content—quote-tweeted the image. They used it to push the old, hateful trope about a secret Jewish cabal controlling global finance, suggesting Crypto.com was somehow in on it. After Crypto.com deleted the original post, that same account proudly took credit, calling it “diabolical work.”
The Unfortunate Confusion
But here’s the thing. The intended imagery really wasn’t that deep. It was just a Chinese checkers board. The game, invented in Germany in the late 1800s, uses a star-shaped board. That’s it. There was no hidden meaning or symbolism aimed at anything else. It was a post about crypto using a game’s layout. The connection to the Star of David was entirely coincidental, and frankly, a pretty big stretch.
Yet, the damage was done. The post was pulled, but the Australian version of the Crypto.com account kept it up for a while longer. That one was also flooded with similar comments, mixing confusion with outright prejudice.
It’s a weird situation. A company tries to make a lighthearted post about strategy, and it gets twisted into something hateful. It says less about the image itself and more about how quickly things can spiral out of control on social platforms. Sometimes a game board is just a game board.
Protos has asked Crypto.com for a comment on the incident. We’ll update if we get a response. For now, it’s a reminder of how easily things can be misread—and how some are all too eager to push a dangerous narrative, no matter how flimsy the connection.
