A top crypto exchange has fallen. FTX is the latest casualty in an industry that has been rocked by numerous bankruptcies and collapses in 2022. The story of FTX's demise is a fascinating one.
There are some coins in crypto that have hard supply caps and that are supposed to be "buy and hold" assets. Bitcoin is the best example; only a certain amount of coins, if demand increases, the price of the coins should as well. Demand theoretically increases if more people actually use the Bitcoin network for transactions or if government fiat inflation gets out of control and the citizens want something else. These coins are safer relative to the majority of the garbage in the crypto space and these are the types of things I focus on.
Then there's the casino part of crypto. There are thousands of other coins that require "staking" to protect the value of the initial investment because the supply of the coins has intentional inflation. Those kinds of coins demand that the holder can't simply "buy and hold" but they have to stake the coins to generate a yield. Some of the yields on these coins were as high as 80 to 100% annually. This kind of annual yield is obviously absurd but those who are unsophisticated buyers see the yields and buy the coins not realizing that the yields decline programmatically over time and the investment return is generally negative in real terms when the coin prices collapse because of supply increases.
But if you got in very early when the yields were high, you can make a killing provided more capital flows in and buys the tokens when you want out. This is yield farming and it's what a lot of people in the space try to do. It's the part the business that makes other things with a "crypto" label look bad. And these types of schemes are what a lot of the centralized exchanges that have blown up this year invested in. FTX is the worst example I've seen so far. To be fair, Terra was a DeFi protocol that was structured this way as well and it's the reason it collapsed. It was a poorly constructed network.
Thanks for answering my question. Why would a pension fund ever consider buying in to such a thing? Were they offered a chance to get in on ground level too? I’m assuming that’s what CZ did. Got in as a founding funder and then bailed out with his loot.
I don’t know all that much about pension funds to be honest, but if I had to take a stab at it; stock multiples have been extended for years, bond yields were on the floor - a couple years ago there was very little upside in traditional investments. Private equity in growth areas could look attractive by comparison.
Side note: Buckle up, this FTX story just took an insane turn late last night. Working on a short follow up
Check this out aboutt his Mother
https://mobile.twitter.com/RudyHavenstein/status/1590814747540455424
Good God
@jagoecapital https://twitter.com/jagoecapital/status/1591341339320668160?s=46&t=lRO4AcZ6tuAnTMNMNR8w1g
Jagoecapital mega thread is pretty incredible
Al from Boston
https://youtu.be/GTvuohJcUqY
Dems gotta get their billions
https://seemorerocks.is/ukraine-military-aid-from-usa-was-invested-in-crypto-ftx-by-ukraine/
CIA intrigue... https://twitter.com/economicpilgrim/status/1587309267555700737?s=46&t=lRO4AcZ6tuAnTMNMNR8w1g
Audits for #FTX were performed by the “first-ever CPA firm in the Metaverse
https://twitter.com/realmeetkevin/status/1591119120611037185?s=46&t=lRO4AcZ6tuAnTMNMNR8w1g
Lawyer who took over Enron now takes over FTX.
https://www.reuters.com/markets/currencies/exclusive-least-1-billion-client-funds-missing-failed-crypto-firm-ftx-sources-2022-11-12/
https://twitter.com/farrisbaba/status/1591424258655358978?s=46&t=lRO4AcZ6tuAnTMNMNR8w1g
CEO of alameda research
https://twitter.com/milkroaddaily/status/1591137605613408256?s=46&t=lRO4AcZ6tuAnTMNMNR8w1g
Can you explain the “yield farm Ponzi scheme?”
There are some coins in crypto that have hard supply caps and that are supposed to be "buy and hold" assets. Bitcoin is the best example; only a certain amount of coins, if demand increases, the price of the coins should as well. Demand theoretically increases if more people actually use the Bitcoin network for transactions or if government fiat inflation gets out of control and the citizens want something else. These coins are safer relative to the majority of the garbage in the crypto space and these are the types of things I focus on.
Then there's the casino part of crypto. There are thousands of other coins that require "staking" to protect the value of the initial investment because the supply of the coins has intentional inflation. Those kinds of coins demand that the holder can't simply "buy and hold" but they have to stake the coins to generate a yield. Some of the yields on these coins were as high as 80 to 100% annually. This kind of annual yield is obviously absurd but those who are unsophisticated buyers see the yields and buy the coins not realizing that the yields decline programmatically over time and the investment return is generally negative in real terms when the coin prices collapse because of supply increases.
But if you got in very early when the yields were high, you can make a killing provided more capital flows in and buys the tokens when you want out. This is yield farming and it's what a lot of people in the space try to do. It's the part the business that makes other things with a "crypto" label look bad. And these types of schemes are what a lot of the centralized exchanges that have blown up this year invested in. FTX is the worst example I've seen so far. To be fair, Terra was a DeFi protocol that was structured this way as well and it's the reason it collapsed. It was a poorly constructed network.
Thanks for answering my question. Why would a pension fund ever consider buying in to such a thing? Were they offered a chance to get in on ground level too? I’m assuming that’s what CZ did. Got in as a founding funder and then bailed out with his loot.
I don’t know all that much about pension funds to be honest, but if I had to take a stab at it; stock multiples have been extended for years, bond yields were on the floor - a couple years ago there was very little upside in traditional investments. Private equity in growth areas could look attractive by comparison.
Side note: Buckle up, this FTX story just took an insane turn late last night. Working on a short follow up
I just read Fried lived with his coworkers and had sex with them in a type of crypto sex commune…