71–80 of 120 posts
It seems the bitcoins went up 10x since he bought them. It would be really tragic if he still has to pay capital gains tax on the 450k of gains.
I'll stick to physical gold, thank you very much.
I never understand, why people who already have money, want to have more. Personally, I keep my money at the bank, for days when I will have to spend it (Buying things, going on holidays, etc)
The bank is gambling it for you, some people prefer gambling it themselves
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The first part of this assumes having money is some sort of proxy measure for intelligence. It is not.
It definitely is. The correlation between money and intelligence is very high.
How can someone be smart enough to earn that kind of money, but stupid enough to fall for this hilariously obvious scam?
His original investment was only 40k in 2017. Admittedly still a chunk of change to have invested in a risky asset like bitcoin but it's not like he earned 400k by being "smart enough" and then emptied it into bitcoin.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The bank is gambling it for you, some people prefer gambling it themselves
The bank is gambling it for you, in the same sense taking a road trip is a life gamble.
This is a terrible scam, but I am astonished by the frivolity with which people would move life-changing amounts of money into something with absolutely no due diligence. When I took on a financial advisor I verified their identity with the govt regulator, verified their written bank details over the phone, and then verified those details with my bank before I even considered sending a single penny. Even then I sent…
- Him having made so much money on a highly speculative asset, at one point having decided to pour a significant amount of money into it in the first place and it paying off? Almost certainly.
- Musk's seemingly irrational nature, tendency to do crazy things, to the point of that a 'fan' of his would actually deem him capable of doing a bitcoin giveaway? Almost certainly. You most likely wouldn't even believe this, verified or not, if it was a more 'reputable' CEO tweeting this.
- Current social media investing frenzy from stocks to altcoins to everything in between? The speed of social media, hype, buy and dump activism? People desperately trying to find their own 'opportunity' to strike gold? Imagine he wakes up the next morning, the giveaway was real, and what regrets would he have? Urgency forces stupid decisions.
I am not trying to attribute responsibility, but there are quite a few factors at play here, and they explain why he did what he did. Not trying to pass judgement on him, but at that very moment, he was a gambler, a speculator, not an investor or rational person. And then this happens. It happens to people in the financial industry all the time.
Sure, some scames are complicated - credit swaps, sub prime mortagges, etc, I can see why people fall for that. Sometimes you're relying n a greater fool, sometimes you're relying on unlikely events (horse winning etc), because you value the potential reward more than the risk. All of that's rational - hell even buying a lottery ticket is rational for many people.
But in all those areas I can see why the other person is involved and what they're getting. My risk/reward ratio is different to theirs.
I go into a greater-fool situation and yes, I expect that I'll find a greater fool, the person selling me the $whatever doesn't.
I could buy a Tesla and think that they will take over the entire planet's energy grid. I can see why someone is selling me a TSLA share at $800 (they don't think tesla is worth that much), that's reasonable.
I could even see a transaction where I give my email address to "Elon" and he sends me money, because he's a gajillionaire and doesn't value it, but does value email addresses, or maybe a transaction where I make or share a DOGE meme and he likes it, so gives me money instead of a "like".
But what possible reason would there be for me to send Elon Musk money and him to send it back? Why would he do this? Why not just send me the money for sharing a DOGE meme or something? Or just send it for being the first person to click his link?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It definitely is. The correlation between money and intelligence is very high.
Yeah, it is super clever to inherit money, or be born in the right place at the right time, or not being abused by alcoholic parents turning you chronically depressed, etc, etc. Please..
> The 42-year-old says he first invested $40,000 in Bitcoin in 2017, and quickly made his money back as the value of the coins rose on the open market. He cashed out and got his initial money back, but then watched excitedly over the years as the 10 coins grew to be worth nearly 500,000 euros. Fortunately this sounds like he didn't lose anything, just never realised extra gains. I know it's slightly nitpicking, but l…
"Fortunately this sounds like he didn't lose anything, just never realised extra gains." Sounds like if someones house caught fire the owner did not loose anything because he did not sell it? That were His bitcoins he was the owner of the bicoins and he was scammed.