Archive: ftx

Where Silvergate, SVB and Signature Went Wrong

By Vin Narayanan on March 17, 2023

For people my age, Han Solo telling Luke Skywalker “Great, kid! Don’t get cocky!” after Luke shot down a ship for the first time is a seminal movie moment. As a kid, I didn’t even know what “cocky” meant! But I knew the line was hilarious. I repeated it over and over again — no doubt annoying everyone around me. I really wish some bank executives had listened to…
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New Pick: With Great Risk Comes Great Reward

By Vin Narayanan on February 16, 2023

We talk about risk all the time in investing. In the stock markets, companies can fail or not meet expectations. And if that happens, stock prices can go down or tank. In real estate, a property’s value could drop over time. Or it might not generate as much…
Crypto Market Musings Back in December, I dug into the concept of “effective altruism,” or the goal of making as much money as possible to maximize philanthropic impact. Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), founder of fallen crypto exchange FTX, was one of its biggest proponents. Ironically, in…

Keep an Eye on Ethereum’s Next Big Upgrade

By Yasmin Sharbaf on January 20, 2023

Crypto Market Musings Crypto investors might finally be seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Over the past month, bitcoin has risen 25% to reach around $21,000 as of this writing, and ethereum is up by nearly 30% at a price of $1,560.  This…
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Banking regulators are worried about crypto. Again. On January 3, the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) issued a joint statement warning about “significant” risks crypto assets may pose to the broader banking system. “It…
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New Pick: A Storm-Proof Decentralized Exchange Crypto

By Vin Narayanan on December 22, 2022

There are many things we can learn from the FTX debacle. First, and most importantly, FTX’s core problems had little to do with crypto. Fraud, mismanagement, hubris and lack of board oversight — among other things — created an unnecessary crypto crisis where…
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Between FTX’s collapse and Binance’s current problems — which I wrote about for Early Investing this week — it’s clear that large centralized exchanges have become pain points in the crypto ecosystem. There are good reasons to…

Crypto Regulations Are on the Horizon

By Vin Narayanan on December 14, 2022

I had planned on writing about startups today. A major scientific breakthrough in fusion happened this week. The implications for humanity and startups are astounding. But then two massive crypto stories broke, so startups (and fusion) will have to wait.
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Crypto Monitor: BlockFi Goes Under, Blames FTX

By Early Investing on December 9, 2022

The ripple effects of the FTX collapse still aren’t over. Crypto lender BlockFi filed for bankruptcy on November 28. BlockFi had been relying on a $400 million line of credit from crypto exchange FTX — and we all know what happened to FTX. …

SBF and the Fear of Future AI Overlords

By Olivia Strobl on December 9, 2022

Crypto Market Musings Over the past week, bitcoin and ethereum have begun to stabilize following the spectacular collapse of FTX and the fall of crypto tycoon Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF). BTC prices have hovered around $17,000, and ETH prices have hovered around $1,300. According to…
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Crypto Monitor: Sports Tokens Rally Around the World Cup

By Early Investing on December 2, 2022

It’s an exciting time for soccer fans around the world. The FIFA World Cup is underway in Qatar. But sports fans aren’t the only ones who are rallying. Sports tokens also rallied ahead of the World Cup in mid-November — including Chiliz (CHZ), which…

What DeFi Needs to Mature Into a Thriving Ecosystem

By Vin Narayanan on December 2, 2022

Crypto Market Musings There are two things driving the market right now: FTX collateral damage and potential interest rate hikes. Every time an FTX domino falls — like BlockFi declaring bankruptcy a few days ago — crypto…
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Angel Insider: Investing Lessons From the FTX Disaster

By Early Investing on November 29, 2022

The FTX disaster is still getting top billing in the financial press these days. The crypto exchange — which was backed by major venture capital (VC) investors — collapsed after news broke that founder Sam Bankman-Fried had been secretly moving customer money to his trading firm and blowing…
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Crypto Insider: FTX News Goes From Bad to Worse

By Early Investing on November 28, 2022

The bad news about FTX just keeps coming. Sam Bankman-Fried, or SBF, told CNBC he is still trying to lock down a multibillion-dollar deal to bail out his bankrupt crypto exchange — a deal that seems highly unlikely to happen given SBF’s tarnished reputation. And we recently found…
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FTX and the Crypto Regulations Still to Come

By Vin Narayanan on November 21, 2022

It’s been a crazy couple of weeks in the crypto market as it tries to sort through the fallout of crypto exchange FTX filing for bankruptcy. For a more detailed account of how it happened, please read this update I wrote…
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Stargate Finance Still Has a Shot at Success

By Vin Narayanan on November 18, 2022

I like to have the TV on while I write. The background noise helps my mind focus. And because I have YouTube TV, I can record almost anything I want and watch/listen to it later. Earlier this week, I put Meet the Press…