@mkenya001 started a series of threads demonizing crypto recently. He called them a scam after being inspired by James Jani’s recent documentary. This makes me believe that we are at the bottom or very close to it. That’s when such doom and gloom stories come up. There is enough blood in the crypto streets and a general feeling of despondency in the market. In this post, I will disclose the list of winners and losers in the crypto space so that you can think for yourselves depending on where you are on that list. First, crypto is a zero sum game i.e. for one person to make money, someone else has to lose it because money isn’t created from thin air.
WINNERS:
Exchanges:- The wealthiest people in crypto (USD billionaires) are owners of exchanges. There are about 3000 billionaires according to Forbes and Bloomberg. Most crypto billionaires e.g. CZ, Winklevoss Twins, etc own exchanges. They are the biggest winners. They make money from fees charged on trades.
Affiliate Marketers for Exchanges:- Exchanges pay influencers and webmasters a cut of the fees, for life, if they introduce a client to their platforms. These crypto youtubers e.g. The Moon, MMCrypto, etc balling like crazy in Dubai are not professional traders. They are salesmen. When you sign up on Bybit or some other crypto exchange they promote using their link, they will earn a fraction of the trading fees that you pay for life. Any website, social media personality etc that introduces you to an exchange gets paid in cold hard cash when you deposit and start trading.
Educators:- People have made millions teaching others how to “trade”. Profitable traders don’t teach, they trade. So, these teachers you see on social media, telegram, etc have been minting money from people’s general stupidity.
Profitable traders:- People, trading at prop firms or at home, who have a statistical edge and an equity curve to prove their long term profitability. These are people who are highly skilled and have a profitable strategy that they follow religiously to win in the market. They don’t win in every trade, but after 500 trades, they are guaranteed to have made money. Most people think they belong here, but they don’t. If you are in the red in the last 24 months, you DON’T belong in this group.
Outright Scammers:- Owners of pump and dump telegram groups, influencers who buy coins before pitching them to their followers, frauds like SBF, etc.
Lucky people. Believe it or not, some people luck out in crypto just like in other speculative endeavors. In the long run, lucky people give back all their gains to the market if they mistake their luck for expertise.
LOSERS:
Everyone else. Basically, most of you guys. The bottom 95% has to lose money to the winners.
There you have it. If you are not in the first group, you are a loser. You lose your money to the winners and no new money is created - it simply changes hands. Open your exchange account and check your PNL since you created that account or as far back as they allow. That will tell you where you belong. This is not a game. You put your capital at risk and a smarter person takes your money.
You have two options if you are a loser: level up or stop playing.
It’s not personal. It’s business.
Crypto IS NOT a scam. You are just a loser in the bottom 95% group.
Your idea of what is and not scam is funny, a Ponzi scheme is a scam. It creates nothing, solves no problem but promise creation of wealth to steal from majority when the curve of deposit and withdraw meet
You make it seem like it takes this genius strategy to make money in crypto, but even as we saw in the Alameda leaks, the best way to make money in crypto is still through leveraged buy-and-hold, or creating a new coin, hyping it and holding. Alameda tried to do high-frequency trading to gain an edge, but they saw they were getting out-earned by guys who were just buying and holding for a few years. So they switched to leveraged longs and unfortunately their bet didn’t pan out. If quants from Jane Street saw fit to just buy and hold, wewe ndio nani?
PS: the exchange owners aren’t as rich as you think. Fees are next to zero in crypto exchanges now, and almost all the major exchanges (minus Coinbase and Kraken) have resorted to risky, unregulated fractional reserve banking to make their money. Given that, it is only a matter of time before even the likes of CZ find themselves crashing and burning overnight after a big enough bank run (ile ya juzi wasn’t big enough).
Mbona unakuwanga fala ivi?? Founders of major crypto exchanges are filthy rich and please don’t argue with me because I am not your grandmother. CZ, Winklevoss Twins, heck even Brian Armstrong (coinbase founder) is a billionaire. Ongeza Song founder wa Upbit exchange, Devin and Alex (founders Opensea nft exchange), etc.
Utaona most heavy hitters got rich by either launching an exchange, or launching a coin. You don’t have to argue against everything to appear smart kijana.
I don’t understand why bonobos argue against verifiable facts just to appear smart. At this point you are arguing for the sake. Paper wealth is still wealth. Most billionaires on the forbes/bloomberg list have paper wealth i.e. ownership in companies including Elon.
Elon’s main cash cow is a listed company. Publicly listed shares qualify as cash equivalents since unaweza uza saa uu huu na ziende zote. Most of these exchanges have no hope of listing or being acquired by someone.
Businesses can be valued. How do you think Forbes and Bloomberg arrive at those figures?? For your information they also include a discount for unlisted companies because they understand the reduced liquidity…yet those crypto billionaires still make it to that list. So, wacha kuargue juu ya vitu huelewi.
