pretty remarkable to see Coinbase making the argument that crypto is not like stocks, it's like baseball cards, American Girl dolls, or Beanie Babies
it's the future of finance! except when the SEC comes knocking, then it's just a harmless little toy, your honor
MEMORANDUM OF LAW in Support re: 35 MOTION for Judgment on the Pleadings . . Document filed by Coinbase Global, Inc., Coinbase, Inc...(Savitt, William) (Entered: 08/04/2023)
@RodentRachel @molly0xfff Beanie Babies were never widely used by drug cartels.
At least, they weren't that I know of. Although I am now amused to think, what if they had been....
The role cryptocurrency plays in subverting elections and destabilizing democracies is too often glossed over.
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/07/26/democrats-gop-cryptocurrency-bill-00108230
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/08/04/francis-suarez-2024-bitcoin-00109880
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/business-and-practice/finance-brief-crypto-bill-coming-from-gop-leaders-this-week
If Tuberville is in favor of crypto, you know there's national defense implications
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/07/22/china-investment-rules-republicans-00107533
https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2022/02/16/canada-sanctions-34-crypto-wallets-tied-to-trucker-freedom-convoy/
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/17/us/politics/sam-bankman-fried-political-donations-doj.html
https://www.xignite.com/blog/crypto-market-insights-from-cryptocompare-february-2022#:~:text=Key%20takeaways%3A,close%20the%20month%20at%20%2440%2C329.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/emergencies-act-lich-fundraising-1.6638333
@molly0xfff
if they aren't collectibles how come i can trade them on Magic The Gathering Online Exchange
checkmate, regulators
(alternate joke: Coinbase presents: the Beanie Baby Roth IRA)
@molly0xfff All of the examples they provide are tangible assets with (varying levels of) inherent value.
Crypto never provides anything tangible. It's treated like money, but without a government to make its value stable. It's treated like stocks, but there's no business that increases it's value.
I think regulators are having a difficult time because it's clearly a scam, but people are trading real money for something that doesn't quite fit existing definitions in regulations.
@fic8 @molly0xfff Baseball cards have intrinsic value by nature of being a physical object and they gain extrinsic value through social value (fans).
Security of crypto is dubious, as most technologies use a public blockchain where wallets are easily tied to individuals. And because the value fluctuates rapidly, by the time the transaction has been verified, one of the two parties will have lost value vs government backed currency. Which is important, because you still need to pay rent in $$$
@Wbud @molly0xfff the only intrinsic value of baseball cards (or cash) is that they can be recycled into useful paper.
baseball cards "gain extrinsic value through social value (fans)"? Sounds like how many treat crypto... even if they shouldn't.
The security of cryptocurrency is well-defined. Privacy, on the other hand...
As for price volatility, the receiving party typicially bites the volatility (for better or worse) in exchange for a small ~1% fee.
Drug cartels, narco states, and sanctioned rogue states don't launder their money using beanie babies.
They use Russian & Chinese state sponsored scams to do so.
The #crypto in-plain-sight Kansas city shuffle.
It's an out-in-the-open (OITO) scam where the people you sell it to know it's an OITO scam, but these people expect to sell it themselves OITO to others, and those others plan to.......
Everyone relies on the recursive loop, but even infinite loops eventually fail.
OIW, it's not a #Ponzi scam, until the very last step, but it's OITO so even then there's deniability.
"I thought it would work, and so did everybody else."
@molly0xfff @slightlyoff What I'm understanding is that Beanie Babies need more regulation.
I still have my collection, 25 years later. Their time is soon neigh..
@molly0xfff It's like collectables! That we make! Except you never actually get the collectables! And we hold them and your money for you! And we promise to exchange them for the money! Except we cash ourselves out first and leave you holding the bag!
Just like collectables!
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