Bankruptcy probe: Celsius cheated investors 'from the start' A court-appointed examiner investigating the collapse of cryptocurrency biz Celsius has issued a report of her findings, which are wrapped up in the very first sentence of its executive summary. "The business model Celsius advertised and sold to its customers was not the business that Celsius actually operated," attorney and …
It's really disappointing. I keep waiting to see some new and interesting scams.
(To be fair, the steady stream of oracle attacks on defi platforms have elements which you wouldn't see in centralized currencies. So those are sort of interesting, or they were when the started. These days they're very much did that, lost the $1.7M tee-shirt.
Crypto is just the flavor of the month. Scams have been around as long as commerce. The problem, of course, is that people in general are too trusting of promises to "get rich quick." Thieves seize on this, and are always willing to exploit the unsuspecting.
The moral of the story, as always, is caveat emptor.
I just wish that stuff like this wouldn't blow back against crypto in general, as the two have little to do with each other.
"I just wish that stuff like this wouldn't blow back against crypto in general, as the two have little to do with each other."
Evidence so far suggests otherwise. Correlation, of course, is not causation, but it is suggestive.
I suspect that "investing" in cryptocurrency requires a certain, um, "mindset".
I also suspect that mindset makes it more likely that the "investor" will
1) not undertake normal due diligence when selecting a financial institution to act as custodian/depository for their funds
2) fall for the classic get-rich-quick scams
Sure there's a certain portion of the population that will fall for the classic scams or hand over their money to obviously shakey institutions, but if you limit your audience to cryptocurrency speculators, I bet you're dealing with a population that has already had most of the tough marks filtered out.
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Cryptocurrencies are just another tool. Interestingly, most of the participants aren't interested in the parts of the system that AREN'T prone to enabling wild speculation and fraud.
That doesn't meant they don't exist. That also doesn't mean those that use them to commit fraud shouldn't be nailed to the wall of their local prison. It does lead one to question the mental faculties of those who poured money into things like Celsius and Terra/Luna. It also is interesting how many of the people committing the fraud had their faces plastered all over the businesses involved. Pretty much going to be a slam dunk on most of these idiots, followed by extensive jail time. I doubt that even the ones that plead out will be able to keep any of their now tainted holdings.
I hope the party was fun while it lasted, because the hangover is going to be a doozy.
> just wish that stuff like this wouldn't blow back against crypto in general, as the two have little to do with each other.
Hmm. A little optimistic.
"I just wish that all the negative coverage about scams wouldn't blow back against timeshares, double-glazing, herbal diet supplements, tulip bulbs and beanie babies in general, as they have little to do with each other..."
Until there is real regulation and transparency of these kinds of businesses, Cryptocurrency loan companies are either fraud from the start, or doomed to descend into fraud or bankruptcy.
Unregulated loans to people who are engaging in reckless speculation always ends the same way, and it's not fat stacks and a Bentley.
If it survives and can scale up there will be a place for credit and interest in these payment networks, but that is a business model where you have endless competitors and near perfect competition, so it's not going to make billionaires overnight. The real money in crypto is in cutting out the other rent seeking leeches in the payment chain, or holding their stake to a minimum. In that model, you are making your money in other lines of business, and losing less of that to the banks/creditcard networks/merchant fees.
That's what a peer to peer payment system was supposed to be. A cheap way for the end participants to cut out the other middlemen.
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