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Javier Milei backtracks on $4.4B memecoin after 'insiders' pocket $87M

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Re: Javier Milei backtracks on $4.4B memecoin after 'insiders' pocket $87M

#101

Post by Daishiman »

raziel2701 wrote: post #18

How come Milei, a master economist, go on to promote something he later said he didn't understand? This is the quality of leaders coming into power all over the world. Bunch of incompetent people (in the most charitable read of the situation) or bunch of grifters (in the least charitable read).

He was never a master a master economist. This is a purposeful memetic disinformation campaign promoted by the owners of first-world mass media.

He holds a degree from a third-rate private university. Private university is where you go to school in Argentina for when you don't have the chops for public university and need to go to a degree mill.

His doctorate is from another bullshit institution made up by a rotting old landowning oligarch who holds prehistoric beliefs in just about everything.

Re: Javier Milei backtracks on $4.4B memecoin after 'insiders' pocket $87M

#102

Post by adriand »

bbor wrote: post #100
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not comparable, politically or financially Politically, Trump’s party controls the government and Trump is incredibly popular with his party. Financially, there hasn’t been a rug pull. The comparable situation would be Trumpcoin gets wiped out in 2026 amidst the Democrats taking back the House.

I mean... at a certain point, with memecoins, it's just about the scale of said pull, not the presence. There have been concerns of a pump and dump scheme and analysts have viewed it as a "disaster." A forensic analysis commissioned by the The New York Times concluded that 813,294 wallets lost $2 billion by trading the coin while the president's company and partners profited about $100 million from trading fees. Acco…

As was noted elsewhere (I forget the source), it's zero sum: anyone who makes money is making it off someone who is losing money. In fact, it's less than zero sum because of platform fees.

Re: Javier Milei backtracks on $4.4B memecoin after 'insiders' pocket $87M

#103

Post by Aurornis »

courseofaction wrote: post #95

Has the media or world at large even noticed the $TRUMP scam? I've only heard of it through Voidzilla, is that reflective of my bubble or is 'flood the zone' working?

The timing was definitely chosen to let it get lost in the noise.

It also plays neatly into conservative ideals of letting the free market reign and “do your own research” is an excuse for everything. It’s trendy to blame only the buyers of these coins while praising the creators as genius marketers.

That said, the Trump and Melania coins have generated a lot of anger in the crypto space. At first people were twisting themselves into pretzels to pretend it was all very good, but one by one they seem to be capitulating to the idea that it’s not even good for crypto.

Re: Javier Milei backtracks on $4.4B memecoin after 'insiders' pocket $87M

#104

Post by polsaker »

bbor wrote: post #99

That's hilarious/interesting/terrifying, but my naive outsider understanding is that "risks impeachment" is just something opposition lawmaker Leandro Santoro said once, not, like, an impending problem. Anyone know anything more specific/to the contrary?

The opposition party doesn't have the numbers in Congress to even start the impeachment process. Regardless it's still a decent reputational hit for Milei

Re: Javier Milei backtracks on $4.4B memecoin after 'insiders' pocket $87M

#105

Post by cwalv »

protocolture wrote: post #91
impossiblefork wrote: post #3

Surely all cryptocurrencies are memecoins. There's very little debt in these things, so that it isn't a source of value, and there are many popular systems, from Bitcoin to Ethereum, so isn't any that can be said to be somehow special.

I have heard every reasoning for regular currency to have more value over cryptos since 16/17 when I started paying attention. Gold Standard, Government Protection, Debt, Government credit instruments. But everything I read about currency tells me that its largely always just agreed upon make believe. The case with the Real absolutely confirmed that for me.

> largely always just agreed upon make believe

The benefits of having a common/standard unit for an economic ledger are enormous, as it greatly reduces trading friction. That added benefit has real (i.e., not make believe) value, and the more liquid the currency the higher the monetary premium.

Even after hyperinflation, if you normalize to the money supply, currencies generally don't lose value without losing liquidity (being less "agreed upon") .. "Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon"

Re: Javier Milei backtracks on $4.4B memecoin after 'insiders' pocket $87M

#106

Post by Aurornis »

> the company informed him about the Libra blockchain project and its aims to finance private ventures in the country.

I can’t believe people are still falling for these claims. Every single time someone launches a coin with claims that purchasing it will help fund some special cause, there is no basis to the claim.

If you want to fund or finance a cause, give your money to that cause. If you buy a meme coin, you’re only giving your money to insiders who held the coins before the pump.

Re: Javier Milei backtracks on $4.4B memecoin after 'insiders' pocket $87M

#107

Post by IAmGraydon »

tombert wrote: post #87
IAmGraydon wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fraud runs rampant before large market collapses. https://www.history.com/news/roaring-twenties-scams-ponzi-wa... It happened in the 20s, before 2008, and it's happening again. Trump doing this is an extra level of depraved, and I suspect the coming crash will follow suit.

It makes me wonder if I should pull my savings out of index funds and just keep cash in a savings account in the short term. Normally I'd buy treasury bills, but honestly considering that Elon has been fucking around with the treasury's code with no oversight, and considering that Trump's big strategy for eliminating national debt has been to "declare bankruptcy" (whatever that would even means in regards to an entir…

Whatever you do, do not buy bonds right now. As they sell off and rates rise, the value of your bonds on the secondary market will get trashed. You'll also have an opportunity to buy bonds with massive yields if the market crashes due to a debt crisis. I mean imagine getting paid 20% per year, tax advantaged, for the next 30 years.

Honestly, the rule with indexes is buy and hold. Although I'm confident we have a crash incoming, unless you need the money soon, you should just hold your index funds and add everything you can to it at the bottom. You'll also have to pay taxes on the realized gains if you go to cash. I do believe that Trump's entire presidency is going to be a massive crash, temporary rebound, and then downtrend through 2028. We will probably not return to highs until the 2030s.

Re: Javier Milei backtracks on $4.4B memecoin after 'insiders' pocket $87M

#108

Post by greenavocado »

This is a variant of a pig butchering scam. Pig butchering scams are a dime a dozen and screw over many who get so deep in the game they can't stop.

Cryptocurrency 'pig butchering' scam wrecks Kansas bank, sends ex-CEO to prison for 24 years

The massive embezzlement led to the collapse and FDIC takeover of Heartland Tri-State, one of only five U.S. banks that failed in 2023.

https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/cryptocurrenc...

Re: Javier Milei backtracks on $4.4B memecoin after 'insiders' pocket $87M

#109

Post by tombert »

adriand wrote: post #102
bbor wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean... at a certain point, with memecoins, it's just about the scale of said pull, not the presence. There have been concerns of a pump and dump scheme and analysts have viewed it as a "disaster." A forensic analysis commissioned by the The New York Times concluded that 813,294 wallets lost $2 billion by trading the coin while the president's company and partners profited about $100 million from trading fees. Acco…

As was noted elsewhere (I forget the source), it's zero sum: anyone who makes money is making it off someone who is losing money. In fact, it's less than zero sum because of platform fees.

Yeah, this is the thing that made me realize that cryptocurrency is pretty much always a bad investment.

Stocks aren't zero sum, at least in their idealized form; if I buy a share of some company, they can use that investment to create products or provide value in some form, and if the product is good then that gets reflected in the stock price increasing. It creates value, and the stock price follows.

With cryptocurrency (with maybe the exception of the more computation based stuff like Ethereum?), it doesn't really do anything, it's not creating value. It's just transferring between wallets, and the value increase is pretty much entirely speculative.

Obviously not all stocks are "ideal" like I mentioned above; there have been plenty of cases where stocks are ponzi-adjacent, and it's certainly not uncommon for stocks to be overvalued during bubbles and the like, but my point is that stocks aren't inherently zero-sum like cryptocurrency is.

Re: Javier Milei backtracks on $4.4B memecoin after 'insiders' pocket $87M

#110

Post by Aurornis »

hermanubis wrote: post #24
topranks wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Crypto adherents seem to have given up on any other narrative this time yeah. Scammers gonna scam. Suckers gonna lose (including the suckers who fancy themselves as scammers but don’t realise it’s a rigged game).

In the US you can’t grant coins any ownership or benefits that might vary in value. Meme coins are the only legal crypto so that’s all you get. It’s like Obama only legalizing giant pickup trucks.

We had an entire saga of ICOs launch and fail to deliver value.

The notion that laws are preventing a golden age of crypto prosperity doesn’t make any sense. There are numerous countries where these coins can operate and they still don’t deliver any of these claims.

> It’s like Obama only legalizing giant pickup trucks.

What a weird claim. I assume you’re talking about CAFE regulations, but with an extremist conservative talking point twist.

This is a favorite talking point, but people conveniently ignore the fact that we have small and fuel efficient pickup trucks that people don’t buy. Honda made a FWD unibody pickup that fit many needs, but people just don’t want it.

Not to mention the fact that the CAFE regulations were 2025 targets, or that we have had multiple presidents since then and different political parties have had their chance to change things.

Yet blaming Obama is fun, so let’s go with that.

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