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Coinbase from YC to DPO

blog.ycombinator.com

671–680 of 883 posts

Re: Coinbase from YC to DPO

#671

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's something pretty surreal about an actual multi-billionaire running the youtube investor guru schtick.

At least he's not selling a course

"How I Made $2B By Doing Almost Nothing", on sale now for a limited time. Only $19.99! Order today. And don't forget to like and subscribe. That would really help me out.

Re: Coinbase from YC to DPO

#672
post #570

The NYSEs parent company Intercontinental Exchange Inc (ICE) is worth 66.40B. Today's IPO puts Coinbase at 100B+. The NYSE has been in operation since 1817. Coinbase has been in operation since 2012. The value of all crypto is Trading fees in the crypto-world are getting more competitive as more established players support crypto. I don't see a defensible market position here, let alone established track record or st…

Agreed. As I've pointed out elsewhere, Coinbase trading fees are about 60x those of NYSE, Nasdaq, etc.; and Coinbase siphons off about 0.4% of the entire crypto market cap per annum. I don't see how that is sustainable at all.

It's not. But it doesn't have to be sustainable to justify the current valuation. Indeed if it were sustainable, Coinbase would be worth many many times what it is now.

Re: Coinbase from YC to DPO

#674

The NYSEs parent company Intercontinental Exchange Inc (ICE) is worth 66.40B. Today's IPO puts Coinbase at 100B+. The NYSE has been in operation since 1817. Coinbase has been in operation since 2012. The value of all crypto is Trading fees in the crypto-world are getting more competitive as more established players support crypto. I don't see a defensible market position here, let alone established track record or st…

[deleted]

Re: Coinbase from YC to DPO

#675
post #643

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you should be able to understand that even the possibility of that becoming the new ICE has to be priced in, of course you are free not to do it though.

Priced in, only if you're completely insane. Have you priced in the risk that the SEC shuts down the offramps before it gets there?

Obviously both of those possibilities are priced in. Investors aren't stupid, Gamestop notwithstanding.

Re: Coinbase from YC to DPO

#676
post #347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In theory yes. In practice, cashing out billions of dollars worth of stocks is easier than cashing out billions of dollars worth of crypto.

You wouldn't be selling those on the open market, institutions have been able to acquire billions of dollars worth of crypto OTC without moving markets. Another option is, now that it's becoming clear to people that Bitcoin is here to stay, you can just borrow against it to spend (avoid taxes, hold on to the upside). Case in point, this person/group borrowed 300M$ with about 1B$ net worth[1]. 1: https://defiexplore.c…

> institutions have been able to acquire billions of dollars worth of crypto OTC without moving markets.

This is misleading. The markets definitely move, they just don't show a massive spike in the charts.

Re: Coinbase from YC to DPO

#677
post #643

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Priced in, only if you're completely insane. Have you priced in the risk that the SEC shuts down the offramps before it gets there?

Obviously both of those possibilities are priced in. Investors aren't stupid, Gamestop notwithstanding.

I think severe regulation is more likely than Coinbase becoming the next NYSE, but the valuation suggests investors think the opposite.

Re: Coinbase from YC to DPO

#678
post #640

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I spoke to him on the phone within a few hours of that post, as I had already prototyped an app to do what was described. I didn't launch mine, nor participate in his (obviously). I suggested that a business in that space, if successful, would result in a similar outcome as happened to other founders of international money transmission systems that weren't under direct government control: i.e. swatting. He was not di…

> I'm still not sure why the hammer hasn't come down on something like Coinbase by now Perhaps you have a answered yourself: “re-centralizing everything in a place that is easily and instantly censored by the exact system it was built to replace”.

If compromising the permissionlessness of Bitcoin is the only way for Bitcoin to come to a certain market, then perhaps it would be better for companies like Coinbase not to exist, and people who want to use Bitcoin should have to take the steps involved in self-custody.

To me, it's a shame to see. Now that Gmail and Coinbase have captured so much of their markets, they (or anyone who can coerce them) are now free to start censoring what goes in or out, turning a federated, permissionless system into effectively a dictatorship.

https://cryptobriefing.com/bitstamp-begins-track-off-exchang...

I really hope that's not what ends up happening. It's a bummer that financial services in the global west engage in such legally-mandated gatekeeping, locking billions out of the most lucrative payments markets. The internet and cryptocurrencies present a new opportunity there, and re-using the same decades old regulation to segregate the technology into the haves and have-nots is, to me, a tragedy.

Re: Coinbase from YC to DPO

#680
post #432

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's just a smart contact vault, you can put collateral, take it out whenever you want, you just need to make sure that at any given point in time you have at least 150% of your debts value in collateral in the vault. This person is at over 400%, so very conservative borrowing, can withdraw some collateral. There are also centralized versions with blockfi if you prefer traditional loans.

150% collateral (66.7% LTV) seems fairly risky for an asset like Bitcoin tbh

I read a bit online after this, and saw various recommendations for people with CDPs to keep more like 300% collateral.

If it dips below 150% the contract is automatically liquidated. Should give ample time for the creditor to get their money back.

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