Coinbase just launched a national campaign last month promoting cryptocurrency and explaining how it will save our financial system, but Alex Boulden is calling BS. [Outsider Club Header]
Jun 05, 2023 By Alexander Boulden for the Outsider Club Sell Your Crypto Before July 27 Over the weekend, I was driving on the highway when I came across an odd vehicle on the back of a tow truck. I did a double take. And I had to snap a picture of it... [coinbase] Not sure if you can make it out, but thatâs an armored truck with Coinbase branding. On the back, it says, âItâs time to update the system.â An armored truck filled with crypto?! What the heck is going on? Well, as it turns out, Coinbase just launched a national campaign last month promoting cryptocurrency and its supposed benefits to the economy. According to a blog post on the companyâs website, the campaign is called âCrypto: Moving America Forward.â Tesla Is Dead... Elon Musk Is Ruined Thanks to a new discovery â known as âBlue Gasâ â electric car companies like Tesla are about to go down in flames. âBlue Gasâ is 100% emission-free, can propel vehicles hundreds of miles, and allows cars to fully charge in just minutes. And the tiny company behind it is primed to absolutely shatter any gains ever paid out by Tesla. [Click here before this stock explodes in the coming months.]( Red Flags Coinbase is touting it as a ânational campaign aimed at highlighting the importance of cryptocurrency as a technology that will modernize the global financial system.â The campaign comprises a TV ad series airing on popular Sunday shows, an educational program about the history of money, billboards, the aforementioned armored truck, and in-app engagement â all culminating in a June 22 âState of Crypto Summitâ in New York and a July 19 âStand for Cryptoâ gathering in Washington, D.C. Global fintech website Pymnts reported, âThe launch of this campaign comes at a time when the dynamics between Coinbase and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have curdled substantially, with the two duking it out in court over establishing regulatory clarity for the digital asset sector regarding what constitutes operational compliance.â What it all comes back to is the No. 1 problem plaguing crypto: No one actually knows what it is. Despite all the supposed experts, no one can agree on what crypto will ultimately be used for. That's why we need a grand explanation from someone who's made billions off it. Coinbase Co-Founder and CEO Brian Armstrong lays out the case for crypto in a two-minute elevator pitch in the first ad, and as youâll see, he makes it sound more like a pyramid scheme than ever. All the red flags are cropping up. I want to break this down section by section so you can see that 14 years after crypto was invented, the people who happened to make millions off it are still using the same old jargon. Nothing's changed. He opens by saying, âThe naive view of crypto is that this is some speculative asset that people are trading and theyâre going to lose their shirts. Thatâs missing the forest through the trees. It's early days. Yes, some people are trading it as an asset class, but theyâre also starting to use it in many novel ways⦠This feels like the early days when I first started using the internet.â The problem with this statement is that Armstrong runs a company that literally lets people trade crypto as an asset class. Heâs accumulated roughly $2.6 billion from his ownership stake in Coinbase, which makes money off transaction fees. LendingTree notes that 38% of crypto traders have lost money on their coins. Not to mention the FTX Ponzi scheme â according to the BBC, founder Sam Bankman Chicken-Fried is accused of creating âone of the biggest financial frauds in U.S. history,â with $8 billion in customer funds magically disappearing overnight. So, sorry, but people have in fact lost their shirts on crypto and Coinbase stock, which is down more than 80% since 2021. In the meantime, just this April, Armstrong cashed out $1.8 million worth of his own stock. QUIZ: Whatâs Hidden Beneath This Canadian Prairie? Which critical resource do YOU think is hiding beneath this beautiful landscape? - [Oil and gas]( - [Lithium]( - [Graphene]( - [Off-the-radar element (not hydrogen)]( Hint: Itâs essential to a broad range of technologies, from quantum computing to MRI scanners in hospitals. [Discover the answer here!]( Armstrong continues, âFundamentally, crypto is not a financial product; itâs a technology that can update all kinds of financial products. It can improve settlement times. It can make it cheaper to send money to your family overseas in another country. It can be a new way for artists to get paid and have a direct relationship with their fans.â Again, this is the same empty jargon weâve been hearing about crypto since its inception â that you can send money quickly, that you can underwrite a mortgage with it, etc. If that were the case, people would already be doing it. Crypto gained popularity in the black market on websites like Silk Road, where you could buy heroin and hire hit men. We already have companies that allow you to send money nearly instantly. PayPal, Venmo, Cash App, Apple Pay, Robinhood â they all already let you do this. So, sorry, but people arenât going to risk buying Bitcoin so they can supposedly send money to someone in the Bahamas. Armstrong clearly just wants you to buy crypto on his platform so he can make more money. This is the hallmark of a scam. When someone tells you they need something immediately, watch out. The Big Tech CEO concludes, âCryptocurrency, regardless of what you think about it, itâs not going anywhere. It canât be uninvented... Now itâs a matter of national security that we get it brought back onshore. If you want to help the average person in America, we need to make sure we have economic growth and everything that underpins that comes from science and technology. I think crypto is the most important technology to update the financial system and create more economic freedom in the world.â Again, this sounds like a scam. Crypto will save our country and financial system, he says. Itâs a matter of national security! Iâm calling BS. Heâs just trying to breath life back into a flailing company. This Is the End And look, maybe Iâm wrong here. Maybe this guy is smarter than all of us and weâre just not seeing the forest for the trees, but Iâm not holding my breath. Am I still holding crypto? Of course, just in case irrational investor behavior shoots it to the moon. But Iâm not betting the farm on it. And Iâm definitely not buying it through Coinbase. Not to mention, the Federal Reserve is launching its own payments system called FedNow in exactly one month that allows businesses to send money instantly â no blockchain or crypto required. This could be the end of crypto as we know it. Other experts are even saying it could cause more bank runs. Time to get ready. [But youâve only got a month left to prepare.]( Stay frosty, Alexander Boulden
Editor, Outsider Club After Alexanderâs passion for economics and investing drew him to one of the largest financial publishers in the world, where he rubbed elbows with former Chicago Board Options Exchange floor traders, Wall Street hedge fund managers, and International Monetary Fund analysts, he decided to take up the pen and guide others through this new age of investing. [Check out his editor's page here](. Want to hear more from Alexander? [Sign up to receive emails directly from him]( ranging from market commentaries to opportunities that he has his eye on. Follow the Outsiders [Twitter]( | [Facebook]( | [LinkedIn]( | [YouTube]( This email was sent to {EMAIL}. You can manage your subscription and get our privacy policy [here](. Outsider Club, Copyright © Outsider Club LLC, 3 E Read Street Baltimore, MD 21202. Please note: It is not our intention to send email to anyone who doesn't want it. If you're not sure why you're getting this e-letter, or no longer wish to receive it, get more info [here]( including our privacy policy and information on how to manage your subscription. If you are interested in our other publications, please call our customer service team at [1-855-496-0830](tel:/18554960830).