Is a16z pumping and dumping ponzi schemes?
In the episode of What Bitcoin Did, Peter McCormack is joined by Cory Klippsten, the CEO of Swan Bitcoin to discuss the FTX debacle, a16z ponzi schemes and their pumps and dumps, securities regulation, Swan Bitcoin as a media company and how to avoid the war against BTC.
Read our notes below to learn more.
Cory’s take on The FTX debacle
The speed of the collapse amazed a lot of people.
Everyone was illusioned by the manufactured PR and thought Sam was a genius until last week.
There were no nefarious actors or conspiracies, what happened would’ve definitely happened.
A lot of traders seemed to use FTX and now they’re gone, along with a lot of funds.
FTX was wrong from the start, Jason Choi’s thread sums it up well.
Amber Group tried raising capital by promising 6%/year in 2018, they might be under too.
The more such events happen in the short term, the better it is for $BTC.
There are still a bunch of fragile businesses out there that’ll collapse at some point like crypto.com.
Thoughts on a16z
A lot of journalists, founders and VCs are afraid to go after a16z.
A16z’s podcasts, articles motivated a lot of people to get into crypto but they were wrong and deceitful.
Kyle Davies and Zhu Su seem to be raising a new fund, they’re in Dubai currently.
A16z and multicoin capital have a lot in common and relied a lot on Sam Bankman-Fried.
Crypto VCs are selling a pipe dream and dumping tokens without product-market fit, revenue or any validation.
The way crypto has existed in the U.S. is the best industry vertical for the VCs to make money.
A16z appointed 80-140 people as reps to shill their investments in 2018.
VCs support crypto as the time to liquidity is the shortest and they can show the performance to stack more funds.
Most VCs in 2017-18 thought crypto was the best financial scam machine in history due to no regulations and no one governing the space.
A16z invested $300M in Solana in March 2021, then they promoted it heavily via Hollywood actors etc. to pump it and then dumped it.
Worldcoin might be the worst scam a16z invested in.
Helium is another grand ponzi VCs have invested in heavily and then promoted, they never had revenue and acted as a ponzi.
Braintrust is among 16z’s largest scam investments, it has no decentralization and nowhere close to a DAO.
A lot of funds act like a16z and worse but a16z has the most eyes on them in Silicon Valley thus it’s important to highlight it.
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Thoughts on Crypto regulation
Not pro-regulation but anti hypocrisy.
A lot of people want no regulation at all which is fine as it’s a principal stance.
People like Brian Armstrong want regulations in some places and not others as it aligns with his benefit.
Coinbase will have to register as a securities exchange but then everything on their exchange will have to be regulated as a security as well.
If all exchanges got regulated and had to allow only regulated securities to trade it would lights out for crypto.
A lot of exchanges and big projects have been pushing for CFTC to be the regulator instead of the SEC-to have lighter regulation.
SBF, Coinbase, a16z hire and send a lot of people to DC to lobby in their interests.
It’ll be interesting to watch what projects and exchanges do without SBF lobbying for them anymore.
What the race to avoid the war is:
10 million Bitcoiners-people who truly believe in $BTC-from the U.S., are invested deeply in it and would go lengths for it are necessary to win the war.
The current number is 50k-100k, if the adoption race is won bitcoin could dominate money by 2035-40, if not it will have to be rebuilt and could take upto the 2100s to enjoy freedom and prosperity that BTC brings.
Whatever anyone can do to push BTC further helps the mission.
The governments, banks and non-bitcoin crypto needs to be converted or crushed for this to happen.
Anyone pushing adoption in El Salvador or building privacy tech in other countries also gives more time to get to 10M Bitcoiners in the U.S.
Adoption everywhere is important but the one country it matters the most in is the U.S. as it can then coordinate other countries as well.
Defi and crypto innovation will always muddy the water for BTC and not push it forward.
A lot of people generally settle into “What is money” and attack people’s perspective of money to convince them about BTC.
95% of the people don’t understand Bitcoin the first time, they have to be hit with multiple messages and with the same message multiple times.
Swan Bitcoin as a Bitcoin company
Swan Bitcoin cannot get more sponsorships or partners, given their bias towards BTC and stance.
Swan Bitcoin feels like a media company that has a lot of Bitcoin services.
Check out these important links
TODAY’S EDITION IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY TREZOR HARDWARE WALLET
Navigating the waters of crypto is risky; even the biggest CEXs & stablecoins can have huge risks…
This Christmas you can help onboard your friends & family in the best way, by introducing them to self-custody. Don’t trust CEXs or wallet providers, trust yourself.
Act now, click the link below & give the gift of security.