Well, did the entire digital currency world get hustled & screwed by Bankman?
Is BTC dead? Can cryptocurrency survive? Will investors ever trust it again?
If you currently own bitcoin should it be sold ASAP?
I’m not sure how the fact that Bankman-Fried (note his full last name) is living with his parents while he’s out on bail has anything to do with whether crypto is going to tank, but…
This isn’t the first cryptocurrency scandal, nor the first time that a crypto service has turned out to be fraudulent, and left investors holding the bag. In 2019, the Canadian crypto exchange Quadriga collapsed, after the alleged death of its founder/CEO, Gerald Cotten, who was said to have had the only access to the exchange’s “cold wallet.” It now appears that Quadriga was a Ponzi scheme, and there are still allegations that Cotton isn’t actually dead.
And before that, there was MtGOX.
More details on them in the Wiki link below; at the time when their issues started to become known (late 2013/early 2014), they were processing most of the world’s Bitcoin transactions.
I don’t think this will stop people from purchasing cryptocurrency. The advantages of cryptocurrency far outweigh the real chance of losing it all to nefarious companies.
It appears that the vast majority of people who own crypto never use it as currency. It’s an investment for most, and losing it all to nefarious companies would seem to be an issue for investments.
What frustrates me is that all those exchanges are not listed anywhere where there is a regulated trade and therefore cannot be shorted. At least I have found no way to short them.
Would you mind telling me one or two of those advantages?
I will Google that story, not recalling any of the names but just the general circumstances of the case, from time to time to see if the other shoe has dropped yet (the “rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated” shoe). I realize it might never. I realize he might really be dead. But it’s curious t say the least.
8 benefits of cryptocurrency
Transaction speed.
Transaction costs.
Accessibility.
Security.
Privacy.
Transparency.
Diversification.
Inflation protection.
Diversification, yes. It’s something completely different from other assets. The rest? I dispute.
ETA: And security, privacy and transparency flat out contradict each other.
As much as cryptobros complain that “fiat money” issued by governments is only backed by the reputation of the government, cryptocurrency literally has no actual basis in valuation except what market speculators value it at, which means as a medium of exchange it is remarkably unstable and prone to manipulation by innuendo and “pump & dump” schemes. Bitcoin still exists, of course, and it isn’t going away anytime soon but I thing plans to adopt it as some kind of anarcho-capitalist alternative currency that governments can’t effectively regulate is severely hampered by the twin facts of that lack of stability a d the fact that there is no real cryptocurrency economy, i.e. to buy most real goods and services, and anything regulated by governments such as real estate, market-regulated commodities, et cetera you have to convert it back into dollars, euros, yuan, or some other recognized currency where the transaction is occurring. Bitcoin and other crypto is really playing a high stakes game of “Hot Potato”, and while Bitcoin gets away with this by being the first and largest, most other upstart cryptocurrencies haven’t really made and impact or have any real endurance beyond their niche appeal.
Stranger
And “hard” fiat currencies have their value lie in that you know the issuing country (USA, UK, EU, PRC, Japan, etc.) are not going anywhere, have economies that use capital and labor to produce and consume goods and services that real humans rely upon, and that they will take stability thereof seriously ((looks at recent events and sweats a bit, 
))…
Crypto in the current world ISTM more akin to gold or some other metal store of value. There is a limited supply, mining more has an undesirable environmental impact, unlike land it does not in and of itself have a potential to be “worked” to generate an output, and your corner supermarket or car dealer is not taking it as payment – though TBF many merchants are adopting Bitcoin as an alternate method of payment if is only insofar as it can then be converted to Legal Tender.
We did a thread on Quadriga and the Cotten saga:
I have a CD maturing and was considering Bitcoin. I had just started reading about the market.
The Bankman arrest hit the news and made me reconsider. Posters here have pointed out there have been other fraudulent companies.
My best choice may be to renew the CD. I dont think the interest isn’t keeping up with inflation but the money is secure.
Bitcoin is a bubble. Bubbles burst. It is possible to make a lot of money on a bubble if you get in early and get out just in time. Early for Bitcoin was years ago. I say, stick with the CD.
Stranger
I’m very conservative with my investments. I’ve been watching Crypto for a long time. Waiting to see if it would prove its stability.
I’m glad Bankmam got busted before I did something stupid. FTX was one of the companies I had considered.
It’s not clear what use you have for crypto. But regarding your alleged “advantages”, I have to ask, advantages compared to what? For making purchases, a credit card’s “transaction speed” is essentially instantaneous, and transaction costs are zero for the purchaser. Furthermore, credit cards offer substantial protection from fraud, and are well regulated.
I don’t even know what “accessibility”, “security”, “privacy”, or “transparency” are supposed to mean. As far as “privacy” and “security” are concerned, there is no public record of my CC transactions, I’ve seen no evidence that banks use that information for data mining, I trust our regulated banks in this country far more than I trust some crypto-bro, and there’s nothing I buy with credit cards that I would want to hide from authorities. So why would I use crypto for payments?
And “diversification” and “inflation protection” sounds like it’s supposed to appeal to the idea of using crypto as an investment vehicle. Which to my mind is just crazy. Has money been made and lost on crypto? Sure. And money has been made and lost on Trump NFT trading cards. Some people enjoy gambling, sometimes to the point of ruinous dysfunction, but don’t call it “investing”. Investing means putting money into something with intrinsic value that you have good reason to believe will appreciate over time because of that durable intrinsic value.
The difference is that unlike crypto, gold and other metals are also commodities, which is the source of their value.
They call it an investment. So far, it seems to me to be more on the “gambling” end of the spectrum.