BlockFi-nally Goes Bankrupt |
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| After months of uncertainty, BlockFi has finally kicked the can.
When BlockFi’s financial troubles were first revealed in July, FTX and SBF appeared to be the perfect saviors – angels sent from crypto heaven to save BlockFi creditors from a lengthy bankruptcy.
Oh, what sweet summer children we were…
As we are all too painfully aware, FTX has gone bust. And, unfortunately, BlockFi was not able to escape the blast radius quickly enough.
Hits on Hits
In many ways, you have to feel for BlockFi. Yes, their current woes were largely self-inflicted. We don’t dispute that.
But just look at the string of unfortunate events raining hell down on BlockFi in recent months: After all of this, the only thing that kept BlockFi standing was the $400 million line of credit from FTX. With the credit gone, BlockFi has finally fallen.
Again, this is largely BlockFi’s own fault. However, the simultaneous combustion of many of crypto’s largest players definitely didn’t help the cause.
The Bankruptcy
Simply put, the bankruptcy filing is pretty rough.
With only $257 million in cash on hand, north of 100,000 creditors, and assets and liabilities between $1 and $10 billion, the odds of retail investors getting their money back are unfortunately slim to none. Even the SEC has a $30 million unsecured claim with BlockFi.
At this point, if you have money stuck in BlockFi, it’s probably time to write that down to $0.
At the end of the day, the contagion from the LUNA / 3AC / FTX collapses is what may have exacerbated BlockFi’s bankruptcy, but what really caused it was the business model of lending customer deposits to high-risk outlets that were taking reckless bets with leverage.
What BlockFi’s management team did was grossly incompetent and one more reason why investors should steer away from leverage and be skeptical of third parties with lofty promises.
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Binance Launches $2 Billion Recovery Fund |
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| Binance founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) is officially the main character.
Fresh off taking down rival FTX and SBF with a string of Magnus Carlsen-Esque chess moves, CZ is now holstering his gun in favor of a helping hand.
The helping hand? A $2 billion industry recovery fund.
Buy Low, Sell High
The recovery fund makes a lot of sense for Binance and the other prominent crypto companies participating.
The crypto markets have taken an absolute beating this year, with major crypto companies Celsius, FTX, BlockFi, and 3AC going belly up.
That said, it's arguably a pretty good time for those with money and conviction to scoop up cryptoassets on the cheap, which is exactly what Binance and the recovery fund plan to do.
If the markets eventually turn bullish again (which we wholeheartedly believe will happen), the payoff will be immense.
FTX = Binance?
This is diving a bit into the conspiratorial, but humor us for a minute.
In many ways, this fund is no different than what FTX did as recently as a few months ago. At the time, we thought that FTX was doing it for (1) the good of their industry and (2) the good of their wallets.
As we now know, it turns out that they were doing it to stave off their collapse.
Is Binance up to something similar? We don’t think so, but in a year as crazy as 2022, would it really surprise you if this blew up in their face?
For years now, CoinSnacks has written with a healthy level of skepticism regarding CZ and Binance. And with the SEC investigating the company and interesting ties to Justin Sun, we continue to live by one of Bitcoin’s original sayings: Don’t trust, verify. |
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| The man who picked Bitcoin in 2014 when it was trading for just $369… picked Ethereum in 2016 when it was trading for just $7, and even warned his followers of the 2020 crash.
Now he believes a tiny $2 coin is set to take off. Maybe even as soon as next month.
So if you missed Bitcoin and Ethereum... this could be your final chance at mind-boggling crypto gains. Learn how to get in front of this massive opportunity. Click here now before it's too late. |
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Bitcoin Miners Fall On Hard Times |
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| Although exchanges and hedge funds have received a lot of press in recent months, we shouldn't forget about the ongoing troubles for bitcoin miners.
The often-overlooked heroes who power bitcoin and other proof-of-work cryptoassets are currently bleeding money, and the ramifications could be systemic.
Lot of Work, Little Pay
As a brief refresher, bitcoin is secured by a proof-of-work consensus mechanism. This sounds fancy, but in a roundabout way, all it means is that people dedicate computer energy to verify the legitimacy of the blockchain. In return, they receive new bitcoin as a reward.
This process of verifying and rewarding is known as mining, and the people securing bitcoin are known as miners.
Because bitcoin has become so valuable, mining has become an extraordinarily profitable enterprise, with multiple mining firms worth hundreds of millions and even billions of dollars.
However, these profits have been decaying this year due to two factors: - High competition: A profitable sector inevitably becomes more competitive over time. This is the case with bitcoin mining, with hash rates (a measure of the energy currently mining) sitting near all-time highs for most of the year. As bitcoin mining gets more competitive, it becomes more difficult to earn bitcoin rewards, making mining less profitable.
- The Bear market: The profit from bitcoin mining is naturally correlated with the price of bitcoin. It’s much easier to make money when bitcoin is $60,000 versus ~$17,000, as it is now.
Unfortunately, these factors have taken a toll on miners, and especially those who overleveraged themselves during the bull market.
Combine overleverage with a hostile atmosphere, and you get Core Scientific posting a $435 million loss in Q3 and warning that they could go under soon, Compute North going bankrupt, Iris Energy defaulting on a $108 million loan, and Argo Blockchain shares recently falling 50%.
Consequences
Although bitcoin miners may seem like an area of the market that isn’t worth thinking about, in reality, the rippling impact of struggling miners can impact crypto prices. Think about it, what is the first thing that miners will sell to cover their debts?
...The bitcoin they mine.
We’re not sure how much bitcoin is in miners' hands ready to be sold, but it’s certainly a lot, and it looks increasingly likely that miner capitulation is coming soon. |
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Tune Into the Future of Crypto |
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| One of the hottest crypto conferences of the year is coming to New York City next Wednesday, December 7th, and CoinSnacks will be there.
We’re talking about none other than the Benzinga Future of Crypto conference.
This one-day event is all about moving forward after the hardships of 2022, and Benzinga has recruited some of the premier names in all of crypto, finance, and tech to talk about just that: - Kevin O’ Leary: Investor and Venture Capitalists, star of Shark Tank
- Greg Solano: Co-Founder, Yuga Labs
- Boris Alergant: Head of DeFi Markets, Ripple
- Sunny Aggarwal: Co-Founder, Osmosis
- Maartje Bus: General Manager of Research, Messari
And dozens of others.
So seriously, buy your ticket, say what’s up to CoinSnacks writer Stephen (@steveflanders22), and talk about the future of crypto with hundreds of the smartest people in the industry.
Plus, if you use our link to sign up, you’ll get a 20% discount on your ticket order. |
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Kraken Settles With The Treasury Department |
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| The U.S. Treasury Department’s coffers got a little fatter on Tuesday, courtesy of crypto exchange Kraken.
As part of a settlement between Kraken and the Treasury Department, Kraken has agreed to pay more than $362,000 to settle allegations of violating U.S. sanctions against Iran by failing to prevent users in Iran from using Kraken.
It’s the latest act of enforcement by the Treasury Department, following August’s Tornado Cash crackdown and October’s $29 million sanction against crypto exchange Bittrex.
We’ve discussed the Treasury Department before on CoinSnacks, but it bears revisiting with the latest Kraken news.
The relationship between crypto and nation-state sanctions is complex.
On the one hand, the U.S. government has a credible case that sanctions are needed for national security reasons. One could also make the ethical argument that crypto shouldn’t be available to oppressive regimes like Iran.
But, on the other hand, is it really right for an entire nation to be unable to use crypto? More fundamentally, isn’t the point of crypto for it to be uncensorable and accessible to all? If the government can tell us when and where we’re allowed to use crypto, how is that any different from fiat?
These are tough questions. Kraken settled in this case but, in the past, has resisted pressures to censor Russian users. It really shows that this is an issue with a lot of gray area. |
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