Cryptocurrency scams cost owners $7.7B in 2021, driven by DeFi-based “rug pulls”

Post by rfw300 » Thu, Dec 16, 2021, 5:35 PM UTC

mdoms wrote: post #118

TacticalCoder wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, and although likely a scam, here's another datapoint: Coinbase, an Y combinator unicorn, is behind Centre/Circle and the USDC stable coin. And there are now $41.5 bn USDC circulating. At one point it was billion of USDT circulating and USDC didn't exist yet. Then USDC began to took off and there were, out of memory, $5 bn USDC and $23 bn USDT. But, overall, the trajectory is clear: USDC is growing faster than US…

> It's an american company, with real people behind it. It's not some scammy thing in the Bahamas. Oh yes I forgot Americans can't be scammers.

Post by vmception » Thu, Dec 16, 2021, 5:37 PM UTC

Animats wrote: post #165

vmception wrote: post #74

I think "rug pulls" is not defined well. One example of a "rug pull" is that the team provided liquidity to the AMM liquidity pool, and then removed it, leaving people with no where to trade the token. Its honestly hard for me to call that a scam, although I understand the community expectation being undermined. First: the SEC exacerbates this reality. Tokens that don't want to be considered a security have to consid…

(OK, who went and made Hacker News text uncopyable?) I think "rug pulls" is not defined well. It's a standard type of investment scam, "take the money and run". The SEC even has a video for the clueless.[1] And a web site on ICOs.[2] This scam long predates cryptocurrency, or the Internet. Newspapers made mass-marketing a scam possible. That started about two centuries ago. Most scam types, like this one, are old. Th…

Post by ivalm » Thu, Dec 16, 2021, 5:38 PM UTC

yrral wrote: post #111

TacticalCoder wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, and although likely a scam, here's another datapoint: Coinbase, an Y combinator unicorn, is behind Centre/Circle and the USDC stable coin. And there are now $41.5 bn USDC circulating. At one point it was billion of USDT circulating and USDC didn't exist yet. Then USDC began to took off and there were, out of memory, $5 bn USDC and $23 bn USDT. But, overall, the trajectory is clear: USDC is growing faster than US…

Another datapoint: USDC minted 7b in the last 30 days. Does 3b tether in the same time period seem unreasonable?

Post by realce » Thu, Dec 16, 2021, 5:40 PM UTC

darkwizard42 wrote: post #206

Animats wrote: post #195

Scams that will collapse in 2022: * Axie Infinity. That's a Ponzi in the collapse phase. Their Smooth Love Potion token is down 90% and in a screaming dive, and their Axie token is down 37% from peak. That one is going to hurt a lot of poor people in the Philippines. Many quit their jobs to play Axie's play-to-earn game. All the money comes from later entrants, so it's a Ponzi by definition. * OpenSea. The NFT market…

Agreed on Axie. Disagree on NFT. NFT is art (VERY LOOSE COMPARISON). If you believe that then of course there is TONS of art that not only has zero bids but also never gets sold. I think NFTs are overhyped now but there is clearly a market for them. Speculating on them is similar to art collecting, all speculative. So I don’t see anything inherently wrong with it (something being puffed up isn’t illegal)

Post by kyruzic » Thu, Dec 16, 2021, 5:44 PM UTC

jcrawfordor wrote: post #136

sroussey wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Slow and expensive is relative… try transferring money internationally.

Is that really that true any more? From my podunk credit union I have used SWIFT to send overseas and it took under a minute and cost me $20. That's both faster and cheaper than Ethereum transactions. It's costlier than Bitcoin but not that much, and still faster. And that's wire transfer, the expensive bank to bank option... Western Union has been faster than Bitcoin for decades and cheaper for probably a decade now…