Here's another story for cryptocurrency lovers and a reason to get out of Coinbase

[thewayne]

Coinbase is the largest crypto exchange in the USA. They claim to hold $256 Billion in fiat and crypto currencies as of their latest earnings report. They also lost $430 MILLION in the last quarter, a 19% drop.

Which leads to the possibility in revenue.

And they say that accounts remaining, in such an event, could be seized as part of bankruptcy proceedings and the account holders could be left as UNSECURED CREDITORS, which means that their getting their money back is pretty much zero.

I would definitely move my money out of Coinbase, which will hasten its demise.

Pass the popcorn! Extra butter! Oh, and Penzey's Brady Street topping is good stuff, FYI!

BTW, while we're talking about crypto, Bitcoin is down 50% from its high last year.

Coinbase's shares fell 15.6% in after hour trading after their earnings report, including the above information, was released. There's interesting info in the article on how certain types of wallets held by Coinbase may not be as flexible for people as they might want.

https://fortune.com/2022/05/11/coinbase-bankruptcy-crypto-assets-safe-private-key-earnings-stock/

Comments

[lilysea]

Argh, cryptocurrency

I wish they would ban any cryptocurrency except that which could ROBUSTLY PROVE that 100% of it's electricity use came from wind/solar...

[thewayne]

To quote a movie that I consider one of the better B movies out there, Wayne's World, and not to be rude: 'Yeah, and monkeys might fly out of my butt.'  I have no idea what the inventor(s) of crypto were thinking, they either gave no thought to the environmental cost or just didn't care, I'm assuming the latter.  If I were a systems-level programmer, I'd like to create a virus that would corrupt as many blockchain ledgers as I could and unleash it on the world.

[disneydream06]

WOW, that does not sound good for cryptocurrency. :o :o :o
Hugs, Jon

[thewayne]

Just the fact that if I have money in my bank, and the bank goes under, my funds are insured by the Feds.  Coinbase?  ROFLMAO!

[disneydream06]

Exactly. :o

[blue_green_dream]

Waaaay back when crypto first became a thing, someone tried to tell me how it was so much better than standard issue currency because, "the government isn't involved!" At that moment, I knew exactly where Bitcoin would ultimately lead. Say what you will about bureaucracy, but I kind of enjoy knowing that at least some of my cash is FDIC insured. And yes, stock investments can be risky, but not, "Oops, all unsecured!" risky.

Thanks for the Penzey's recommendation, by the way. Their Mural of Flavor is great on popcorn too.

[thewayne]

I don't know where you're at, but in Scottsdale, AZ there's an operation called Outrageous Olive Oils.  They have a web site.  It's a franchise operation but each store franchisee is a different name.  Anyway, they sell literally 3-4 DOZEN different olive oil and balsamic vinegers and you can do absolutely amazing things with them.  I bring up Outrageous Olive Oils because you can look at their web site then look for olive oil stores in your area, match up the bottles, and find a franchisee that buys their stuff from the same vendor and have some fun!  We also use Mural of Flavor and quite a number of other Penzey's goodies.  We'll be in Phoenix in a couple of weeks and expect to be raiding their one store.

[blue_green_dream]

That olive oil place sounds *amazing*. We have a similar store near us, though I haven't been there for a while. I should go back, though. aseanchai and I will definitely have to check out Outrageous Olive Oils if we're ever in your neck of the woods!

[thewayne]

I first discovered Outrageous when my wife and I were at Paradise Valley Mall in Phoenix and they had a location there.  Marvelous place!  Then that location closed and we found out they had a site in Scottsdale.  Now that entire mall has been leveled!  The original Outrageous has changed ownership but still exists and we buy both mail order and when we're in town. I grew up in Phoenix but when my wife and I married I moved to New Mexico as she's an astronomer and telescopes don't easily relocate. :-)  But we get to Phoenix fairly often.  The Scottsdale location also has the advantage of being a couple of blocks from an amazing pizza/craft beer place called Craft 64 that I strongly recommend!  Their patio is also dog-friendly.

[devilc]

I've been contempt and pity for people who put all of their money in the Terra/Luna stablecoin. The $44Bn rugpull has come, and here's the plug pull.

I think this essay at Red Sails summs up the problems best with crypto. The result is catastrophic: multiple glorified variants of a furnace which directly consumes natural resources to generate heat and imaginary good boy points. No production of any use to anybody. Capitalism in one of its most suicidal modes.

And, back to coinbase, the seem to have locked the exchange, and/or have been having extensive "technical difficulties" when people try to get their money out.

[thewayne]

sigh So if you're one of the sods with the wallet that's locked with one of CB's private keys, you are now SOL.  That's an excellent definition that you have there.

[captainsblog]

Since you're my primary source for hearing about this stuff I do not understand, I thought of you when this beeg nooz just flew across one of my feeds:

The world's cryptocurrencies and NFTs and Dutch tulip markets all went into the shitter this week, with enormous losses in value in the weird janky digital "money" that seemed kind of fishy to most people. How bad was the collapse? Something called Luna that was worth $85 last week is suddenly worth a penny now, and that is apparently a really big deal, CNET reports. Big swings in cyrpto currencies like bitcoin and ether are "notoriously volatile assets reacting to tempestuous economic conditions."

[thewayne]

I hadn't previously heard of Luna, another friend here on DW, devilc, posted about it tanking a couple of days ago in this very thread.  The entire crypto market is thrashing about like mad.  Millions, if not billions of real dollars of value will be destroyed and it will be unrecoverable because these are not backed by assets.  I have almost zero sympathy to the people who thought these were actual investments.  Sometimes it is zero sympathy, depends on my mood.

[silveradept]

I mean, we've known crypto is a bezzle for a good long while, but these sorts of things will hopefully make it clearer to even the most dedicated of investors that there's no actual money in it and that it should die swiftly and ungracefully.

[thewayne]

If Warren Buffet says "There's no 'there' there", I'll take him at his word.  He didn't say such a thing in those words, but pretty much.