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The Coinbase lawsuits were a hoot. At one point the stock was down 90% from the IPO seemingly on the basis that they'd get bankrupted by federal lawsuits. It was a fun and profitable bet to take the other side of. They had assets on the book worth more than their market cap. I'd had this theory that Coinbase would execute a regulatory capture strategy for crypto in the US, as they'd always played well with regulators and generally licked their boots and did whatever they were asked to do to the consternation of /r/bitcoin. I never counted on the feds just having an insatiatable hardon that verged on a medical condition for destroying them on principle. I especially enjoyed the SEC being hoisted by their own petard when the Bitcoin ETFs were approved, effectively by court order.
Sometimes I do wonder what would have happened if the Biden administration hadn't nakedly antagonized so many interest, and driven them into the arms of Trump not out of affinity, but existential desperation. I guess I can be thankful that this once at least, evil did contain the seeds of it's own destruction.
And to a smaller degree Lina Khan going after tech companies. Blocking acquisitions and saying they need to be broken up. Not an idle threat when the head of the FTC keeps taking companies to court over it. Amongst other anti-big-tech Biden administration actions.
Then after the election I'm listening to Pod Save America and they are outraged that these same tech companies give a million dollars to the Trump inauguration or Bezos commands the Washington Post to not endorse Kamala. Not that they love Trump, but in desperation trying to avoid more punishments from Democrats.
Ok, but what’s the likelihood democrats will won them back? It seems like they’d need Newsom ‘28 to not go after people who donated to his opponents(lol).
In order for Big Tech to rejoin the Democrats, the Democrats would need to make some kind of credible commitment to not backstab Big Tech the second they get back into power. I don't think it's very likely. I wouldn't even trust the Democrats to hold off on the backstab until after they regain power. They're a very stabby people.
Say what you will about Trump but he's capable of playing ball, at least in the short term. If you help him get what he wants then he'll hold off on betraying you for at least a few months. That's not great, but it inspires more loyalty than the Democrats, who will betray any ally at any time if enough activist groups demand it.
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I'm sure FTX also had assets 'on the books' large enough to cover all their liabilities and even lawsuit/regulatory risk if they got targetted.
But the books were cooked, which is seemingly a common factor in crypto exchanges, with insider trading and light fraud showing up with some regularity. Ironically given that one use of crypto is keeping all books open for easy scrutiny at all times.
Mostly joking. Coinbase is, I think, the longest running American Crypto Exchange and has weathered several storms so I'd not be the one betting against them. I've had an account with them since they used to hold private keys printed on physical paper stored in physical lockboxes. But there was definitely a period of time around and after the IPO where it wasn't clear if the Gov't was going to really crack down on exchanges or liberalize the rules.
We're clearly in the liberalizing timeline.
Coinbase has always been more professionally run that other crypto companies. They brought on experienced corporate lawyers, auditors and executives early, and were probably the most serious and normie coded crypto company. I think they are the only one who's been regularly audited by an accredited outside firm as well, something FTX and Binance and others refused to comply with claiming it was impossible.
Yeah, I will say they might literally be the ONLY exchange I know of that was fully expecting, well in advance, the need to navigate regulatory environments and fight off attempts by regulators to bully them, and the plan was more than "ignore it until they're kicking the door in to serve a warrant."
I was in early enough to see what happened to Mt.Gox, so my choice of exchange way back then was very carefully reasoned, and Coinbase seemed like the only one that wasn't grown from tainted seeds (i.e. drugs, gambling, or money laundering).
Would make very little sense to chase 100x gains whilst ignoring the 20-30% chance of your preferred exchange getting fined or sued into oblivion or crashing due to incompetent leadership.
Kraken has been alright to me as well.
...which is sometimes a rational choice, because the penalty for getting caught is frequently less than the gains from crime. Changpeng Zhao seems to be doing alright for himself.
Seriously, more countries need to have the penalty of "all your money are belong to us" on the table for financial criminals and/or actually use it.
No real disagreement from me.
I just think people who do pull these shenanigans will blow themselves up more often than not, for want of knowing when to stop/being able to stop.
I want to identify such folks and be far enough away that the explosion doesn't catch me.
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tfw when all your bitcoin is just in cash app
Not your key, not your coins. Ideal to live by.
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