Grayscale, is this the next crypto domino to fall?

Again, if it's not your keys, it's not your crypto ... I can't understand why anyone would buy a "Bitcoin Fund", with a 2% yearly fee and premiums on buys and sells, when it's so simple to just buy bitcoin and store it in your own wallet.

There is also absolutely no reason why they can't make their wallet address public so people can see what's in it ... so yeah, sounds pretty scammy. Trading at a 50% discount is not good for all the suckers that bought it. Since they operate an ETF (I think) that is available to the public, the SEC should be all over this.

 

To show how suspect their claim is that they can't share wallet addresses for security reasons, Binance, which holds 2 times as much crypto, made all their addresses public a couple weeks ago.

Our Commitment To Transparency | Binance Blog

 

Bitcoin (and crypto in general) doesn’t seem terribly viable if it can only be safely stored in an offline USB device. Do we really think people are going to value digital nothing in an end times scenario? They are going to whip out USB sticks preserving their life savings? Even Gold is a bit questionable as a store of value in this scenario, crypto seems downright laughable.

The brokerages and exchange funds I guess were supposed to make crypto “accessible”, but I agree it’s insane they don’t have to verify their holdings. No investors should trust them, and without trust of the value of their holdings they simply shouldn’t exist. Only a broken system allowed them to exist in the 1st place.

 

This. WarDamn, please wake up before your crypto assets go to 0. Crypto is being exposed as a scam. You don't find anything fishy about a Bitcoin fund refusing to prove reserves when BTC is in a severe downturn and there was just a major bitcoin exchange exposed for fraud?? Bling is completely right. If you have to take your money out of the bank and stuff it under your mattress just to feel safe, does that not send off alarm bells in your mind??

 

Depends on what "end times" look like.

If we're talking supply shortages, no law and order, complete chaos, then yes bitcoin will be valueless.

If we're just talking the decline of the US dollar and the Euro, more likely for Bitcoin to be the way of the future. Doesn't necessarily make it "likely" though.

 

A "commitment to transparency" by an exchange that is not even legal to use in the US.

 

Thing is, it's not "bitcoin' that's the ever the scam. It's always some exchange or fund or brokerage built around Bitcoin that ends up being the scam. I've been buying and selling crypto since 2017 so I've made back, and cashed out, about 10 times my original investment... If I were to lose the rest tomorrow... Oh well ... Still way ahead ... It's "house money" at this point...

 

Because exchanges have put millions of dollars and thousands of hours into marketing it as an investment tool to the unsuspecting general public. It is the classic pump and dump scheme. You are correct. No tangible value, so why does it grab investors? Why has every other pump and dump or ponzi scheme ever flourished? People get duped. The exchanges are set up to look fancy and technologically advanced and they make it extremely easy to trade coins. Meanwhile, they charge egregious commission fees that nobody ever would have paid daytrading stocks in an Ameritrade account. It has all the markers of a scam.

 

There is a Binace.US that is legal to use, never used it, though. I like Coinbase...

 

Just a big coincidence that all the major brokerage scams of the past 10 years happen to be with Bitcoin/crypto exchanges? Has nothing to do with the fact Bitcoin is an unregulated currency?

 

Binance.US is a separate entity. Coinbase, eh? The company who pointed out to us a few months ago that investor funds are not protected in a bankruptcy? Nothing troubling about that to you at all?

 

Also, if you are treating it like a casino, then sure, why stop now? Is it an investment exchange or a casino? "House money" sounds like you view it as a casino and well, that's basically what it is as most casinos are set up to drain your money, even after you win.

 

They should regulate the exchanges ... For sure. But what I do is buy off Coinbase, then immediately transfer it to my own wallet,.so I have no risk of the exchange going scam on me. My biggest risk is someone stealing my computer ...

 

That's like saying you don't keep your money in the bank, you keep it under your mattress, so it's safe. If you have to keep your cash under your mattress for it to be safe, there's something very wrong with your bank. And you may be okay with this, but you're also admitting that you're playing with fire trading your money on Coinbase. It's like having unprotected sex with a hooker.

 

Not at all, because, again, I don’t let CoinBase hold anything for me. If they go bankrupt, and give their clients back nothing, I wouldn’t lose anything.

 

I hope it all burns down it’s fairy dust

 

Bad comparison… banks are insured… nothing to worry about, there. How am I playing with fire? If coinbase were to declare bankruptcy and freeze accounts during the 5 minutes I spend once a month making a transaction on their exchange, before I transfer it all back to my computer wallet … then yeah… I guess I could lose the value of one transaction…. Seems highly unlikely that could happen without warning, though…

 

How do you trade or invest crypto if you don’t allow Coinbase to hold anything for you? I’m assuming you buy crypto on Coinbase when you think it’s at a good pricing point and you sell it after the price has gone up? Seeing that this market movement doesn’t happen instantaneously, Coinbase is at least holding your funds for the duration of that trade, is it not? Whether you sell the asset 30 minutes later or 24 hours later, Coinbase is at the very least holding your money during that time.