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Culture War Roundup for the week of July 21, 2025

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They had assets on the book worth more than their market cap

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.

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."

...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.

tfw when all your bitcoin is just in cash app

Not your key, not your coins. Ideal to live by.