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Subject: Crypto goes bust Mon Jan 24, 2022 2:13 pm
$130 Billion Wiped Out by Crypto Market Drop in 24 Hours
The cryptocurrency market saw $130 billion of its value wiped out in just 24 hours as leading cryptocurrencies continue a major sell-off.
CNBC reports that the cryptocurrency market has seen $130 billion of its value wiped out in 24 hours alone as leading cryptocurrencies continue an almost week-long sell-off. Bitcoin dropped by four percent to around $33,755.57, its lowest price since July 2021, while Ether dropped seven percent to $2,239.08 its lowest price since late July.
Cryptocurrencies seem to be moving in the same direction as stocks, which have continued to fall since the start of the year and just had their worst week since March 2020. Investors have been selling off risk assets including tech stocks in preparation for tighter monetary policy from the Federal Reserve and an increase in interest rates.
Vijay Ayyar, vice president of corporate development and international expansion at the crypto firm Luno Global, commented: “Bitcoin and crypto have been reacting much more violently, given the nature of the asset class and we’re likely to test 30-32K given current sentiment and momentum.”
Back when I was kid I remember seeing ten and twenty dollar bills saying 'Silver Certificate' and 'Gold Certificate'. Apparently you could take them into a bank and exchange them for real gold and silver. Never got to do it myself as they disappeared before I was old enough to get ten bucks together.
Used to see silver dollars and quarters too.
Oh god I'm old
The Wise And Powerful Admin
Posts : 111040 Join date : 2014-07-29 Age : 100 Location : A Mile High
Posts : 111040 Join date : 2014-07-29 Age : 100 Location : A Mile High
Subject: Re: Crypto goes bust Tue Feb 08, 2022 10:46 am
U.S. arrests couple for allegedly laundering $4.5 billion in crypto tied to Bitfinex hack Sarah N. Lynch and Raphael Satter, Reuters Tue, February 8, 2022, 9:48 AM
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The FBI arrested a husband and wife on Tuesday morning, alleging they conspired to launder cryptocurrency stolen from the 2016 hack of virtual currency exchange Bitfinex, and said law enforcement has already seized over $3.6 billion in cryptocurrency tied to the hack.
The action represents the Justice Department's largest-ever financial seizure, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said, adding in a statement that it shows cryptocurrency is "not a safe haven for criminals."
Ilya Lichtenstein, 34, and his wife Heather Morgan, 31, both of Manhattan, are scheduled to make their initial appearances in federal court Tuesday at 3:00 p.m. in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
The case was filed in a federal court in Washington, D.C.
The pair is accused of conspiring to launder 119,754 bitcoin that was stolen, after a hacker attacked Bitfinex and initiated more than 2,0000 unauthorized transactions.
Justice Department officials said the transactions at the time were valued at $71 million in Bitcoin, but with the rise in the currency's value, it is now valued at over $4.5 billion.
"As the complaint alleges, the FBI and federal prosecutors were able to trace the movement of Bitcoin from this hack," said Matthew Graves, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia.
He added that the money moved through a major darknet exchange tied to a host of crimes, as well as cryptocurrency addresses tied to child sexual abuse materials.
Subject: Re: Crypto goes bust Mon Mar 21, 2022 8:47 am
Once upon a time in a village, a man appeared and announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10 each...
The villagers, seeing that there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest and started catching them.
The man bought thousands at $10 and as supply started to diminish, the villagers stopped their effort. He further announced that he would now buy at $20. This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again.
Soon the supply diminished even further and people started going back to their farms. The offer increased to $25 each and the supply of monkeys became so little that it was an effort to even see a monkey, let alone catch it!
The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at $50! However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would now buy on behalf of him.
In the absence of the man, the assistant told the villagers; "Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has collected. I will sell them to you at $35 and when the man returns from the city, you can sell them to him for $50 each."
The villagers rounded up with all their savings and bought all the monkeys.
They never saw the man nor his assistant again, only monkeys everywhere!
Now you have a better understanding of how the cryptocurrency market works.
The Wise And Powerful Admin
Posts : 111040 Join date : 2014-07-29 Age : 100 Location : A Mile High
Bitcoin Prophet of Doom Peter Schiff Predicts Possible Slump to $10,000 The most popular cryptocurrency is in free fall along with the stock market. LUC OLINGA | TheStreet | 1 HOUR AGO
Economist Peter Schiff is the favorite opponent of bitcoin evangelists on social media.
He's very active there, and he seems fond of his role as bitcoin's doomsayer, deploring its meteoric rise and predicting its collapse.
He does not hesitate to return the blows given by the champions of crypto. When the prices of bitcoin and alt coins rise, Schiff knows that he will, of course, be the object of ridicule from crypto supporters who often take the opportunity to bring out his pessimistic predictions.
But when prices fall, he does not hesitate to hit back. This is currently the case as the prices of bitcoin and digital currencies are melting to levels not seen since July 2021.
'Bad Decision' Bitcoin prices were down sharply, dropping as low as $31,434.54 at last check, according to CoinGecko. We are 54% below the $69,044.77 record reached Nov. 10. The crypto market broadly fell to $1.53 trillion from its $3 trillion record.
"If #Bitcoin breaks decisively below $30K it seems highly likely that it will crash below $10K," Schiff wrote on May 8 to his more than 708,000 followers on Twitter. "That means anyone who owns Bitcoin now has a very important decision to make. What will you do? You had better decide now so you don't panic and make a rash spur-of-the-moment decision."
Schiff. who is chief economist and global strategist for Euro Pacific Capital, held a poll in which he gave Twitter users who invested in bitcoin four options to choose from:
Bitcoin:
- won't break below $30k
- I'll HOLD
- I'll sell and rebuy lower
- I'll sell and won't rebuy
"I left out the option of buying the dip," Schiff said. "I'll assume many HODLers will do this until they run out of money. Bad decision."
HODL stands for hold on for dear life and it's a popular term among crypto enthusiasts. It's similar to the investment strategy of buy and hold.
'Bitcoin Is About to Crash' The prices of cryptocurrencies have been moving for some time now in correlation with the stock market, and more particularly the shares of tech groups.
According to a number of experts, investors who back tech companies often also bet on crypto. Therefore, when growth fears escalate, as is currently the case, risky assets are the first that investors liquidate.
Schiff does not hesitate to remind crypto fans -- and companies that have invested in bitcoin -- of this connection.
"Take a look at some other big crypto names today," Schiff posted on May 9. "$GLXY-T down 20%, $BITF down 16.5%, $HIVE down 15%, and $SQ down 13.5%. This is not normal stock market action," he added referring to Galaxy Digital, Bitfarms Ltd and Hive Blockchain Technologies.
"#Bitcoin is about to crash. Wake up HODLers and sell while you still can. Don't say I didn't warn you!"
Schiff may well not be done since he has also attacked other companies with bitcoin investment strategies, such as billionaire Michael Saylor's MicroStrategy (MSTR) - Get MicroStrategy Incorporated Class A Report, crypto exchange Coinbase (COIN) and Grayscale Bitcoin Trust. (GBTC) - Get Grayscale Bitcoin Trust Report
"The three most important #crypto bell weather stocks are getting killed today," Schiff said. "$MSTR is down 22%, $COIN is down 16% and $GBTC is down 13%. These stocks are down 74%, 76%, and 63% from their respective highs. All this with #Bitcoin still above $32K. Wait until Bitcoin crashes!"
So far, Schiff's favorite opponents have not responded to his attacks. If the market were to turn around suddenly -- crypto prices are very volatile -- we would definitely hear them.
In the meantime, the economist savors the situation.
Bitcoin Prophet of Doom Peter Schiff Predicts Possible Slump to $10,000
Schiff. who is chief economist and global strategist for Euro Pacific Capital, held a poll in which he gave Twitter users who invested in bitcoin four options to choose from:
Coinbase warns users could lose their crypto holdings if the company goes bankrupt
Coinbase, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges, said its users might lose access to their holdings if the company ever went bankrupt.
The disclosure was included in the company's first-quarter earnings report, and that was the first time the risk factor was mentioned. It also noted that Coinbase held $256 billion in fiat currencies and virtual coins.
"Because custodially held crypto assets may be considered to be the property of a bankruptcy estate, in the event of a bankruptcy, the crypto assets we hold in custody on behalf of our customers could be subject to bankruptcy proceedings and such customers could be treated as our general unsecured creditors," the company said.
That means users would lose access to their balances because they would become Coinbase's property.
"If Bitcoin breaks decisively below $30K it seems highly likely that it will crash below $10K" Schiff wrote on May 8 to his more than 708,000 followers on Twitter.
Market Summary > Bitcoin
22,489.90 USD
−4,065.10 (15.31%)
today
The Wise And Powerful Admin
Posts : 111040 Join date : 2014-07-29 Age : 100 Location : A Mile High
"If Bitcoin breaks decisively below $30K it seems highly likely that it will crash below $10K" Schiff wrote on May 8 to his more than 708,000 followers on Twitter.
The list of victims of the Bitcoin and cryptocurrency crash continues to grow every day. Tesla (TSLA), the manufacturer of electric vehicles is now part of it.
Elon Musk's company had invested $1.5 billion in Bitcoin on February 8, 2021. This investment lost a lot of value as cryptocurrency prices plummeted. Bitcoin has fallen and is currently trading at its lowest level since December 2020.
Bitcoin is at $22,499.99, compared to $69,044.77 reached last November. In eight months, Bitcoin has lost 67.5% of its value.
This fall caused important losses to Tesla.
The value of the 43,200 bitcoins that the group has on its balance sheet is now only $968.103 million, according to Bitcoin Treasuries. Tesla has already lost around $530 million. It would therefore make sense for the vehicle maker to announce a depreciation charge related to this digital asset at least when announcing its second-quarter results in July.
Tesla claimed that its investment in Bitcoin was aimed at diversifying its sources of liquidity and gaining flexibility.
Posts : 111040 Join date : 2014-07-29 Age : 100 Location : A Mile High
Subject: Re: Crypto goes bust Sat Jun 18, 2022 11:46 am
#Bitcoin dips below $19,000. Ethereum drops under $1,000.
Their pyramid scheme is collapsing and as expected when everyone wants to sell this worthless crypto, than no one wants to buy and boom, everything starts to collapse. And this is after FED only raised interest rates of about .75 %. Nothing. Cryptos are gambling assets that bet on the idea that will always find a bigger fool to sell it for more dollars. Calling this currency or digital gold or anything like that was and is always a lie use to hook in suckers. Just like ones and zeros, are presented as an image of golden bitcoin. lol I mean how dumb one must be to buy into that one. I guess many were. And those that did not exist in time are left holding the bag of this worthless virtual excrement.
I can't wait for the age when people go back to actually working for a living.
oliver clotheshoffe Regular Member
Posts : 1723 Join date : 2019-02-04 Age : 64
Subject: Re: Crypto goes bust Sat Jun 18, 2022 8:14 pm
This is the guy at my work who's really into crypto -
The Wise And Powerful Admin
Posts : 111040 Join date : 2014-07-29 Age : 100 Location : A Mile High
The cryptocurrency market has become a 'postmodern pyramid scheme' and its stunning crash is an opportunity to regulate it, famed economist Paul Krugman says Jennifer Sor Wed, July 13, 2022, 11:12 AM
Paul Krugman characterized the crypto market as a "postmodern pyramid scheme" in a New York Times op-ed.
"The industry lured investors in with a combination of technobabble and libertarian derp," he wrote.
His comments come after a stunning crash that wiped out $2 trillion in crypto market cap.
The cryptocurrency market has turned into a "postmodern pyramid scheme," the top economist Paul Krugman said in a New York Times op-ed – and the spectacular crash investors saw this year is a chance for federal regulation.
The vocal crypto critic, who previously called the digital asset the "new subprime," said the industry has yet to develop products that are useful in the real economy and has instead marketed itself successfully as being both cutting edge and respectable.
"The way I see it, crypto evolved into a sort of postmodern pyramid scheme," Krugman wrote. "The industry lured investors in with a combination of technobabble and libertarian derp; it used some of that cash flow to buy the illusion of respectability, which brought in even more investors. And for a while, even as the risks multiplied, it became, in effect, too big to regulate."
His latest salvo against crypto comes after the stablecoin Terra and sister token Luna plunged in May, resulting in a domino crash of crypto companies that paused customer withdrawals or declared bankruptcy. The total crypto market cap has since collapsed to less than $900 billion from a peak of $3 trillion last November.
Krugman also noted last week's speech by Fed Vice Chair Lael Brainard, who said the recent crypto sell-off shed light on "serious vulnerabilities in the crypto financial system," as the appeal of a decentralized currency often made the space a hiding ground for fraud, money laundering, and other financial crimes.
Meanwhile, payment apps Venmo and Cash App allow transactions to be made with digital currency. And top institutions offer courses on maneuvering yourself around the blockchain, among them Princeton, Harvard, and MIT.
"Why were these mainstream institutions and people lending cover to what as Brainard made clear, a highly dubious industry?" Krugman said.
But this year's crypto crash could be a golden opportunity for regulation, Krugman said. So far the federal government has taken some early steps. In March, President Joe Biden signed an executive order on cryptocurrencies to unify the US government's oversight. And in June, two senators introduced a bill that lays out a framework for regulation.
Although Brainard's speech acknowledged cryptocurrency was still growing, it wasn't so large yet as to hurt the existing financial system.
That means there's no time like the present to regulate the industry, Brainard said, before crypto threatens to topple the economy itself.
"That's very good advice. I hope the Fed and other policymakers take it," Krugman wrote.
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