David Gerard

Este archivo solo abarca los artículos del autor incorporados a este sitio a partir del 1 de diciembre de 2006. Para fechas anteriores realice una búsqueda entrecomillando su nombre.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak speaks at the opening of London Tech Week in central London on June 12. Ian Vogier/Pool/AFP via Getty Images

The tech venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, or “a16z”, announced on June 11 that it would be opening an office in the United Kingdom. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak supplied a quote for the announcement, proclaiming a bright new blockchain-based future for Britain.

This might seem odd given the current state of the cryptocurrency market, which collapsed a year ago in a farrago of incompetence and fraud. Crypto enthusiasm was all the rage for politicians such as Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele and Miami Mayor Francis Suarez while the bubble was pumping. Getting into crypto now, however, is like buying Theranos stock after Elizabeth Holmes was exposed.…  Seguir leyendo »

Sam Bankman-Fried speaks onstage at a charity event on June 23 in New York City. Craig Barritt/Getty Images for CARE for Special Children

Cryptocurrency has a serious problem: The party’s over. Fresh dollars from naive retail buyers aren’t coming in anymore after the crashes in May and June, despite a round of advertising during the Super Bowl in February reaching every consumer in the United States. Without those fresh dollars, the holders can’t cash out.

Crypto trading firms hold large piles of assets whose “market cap”—their alleged mark-to-market value—supposedly adds up to a trillion dollars. But this number is unrealizable nonsense because the actual dollars just aren’t there. Everyone in the system knows it. What to do?

The regulated U.S.-based exchanges are just the cashier’s desk for the wider crypto casino.…  Seguir leyendo »

A cryptocurrency ATM setup in a convenience store in Miami on May 12. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Cryptocurrency started in 2009 with idealistic dreams of a new economy built on libertarian principles and freedom from the fiat currency system that had just crashed. But in 2022, cryptocurrency trading is all about the dollars. And the 2008 financial crisis has just repeated in absurd miniature.

In the lead-up to the 2008 financial crisis, the economy was running hot. Companies were making stupendous amounts of money and had to put it somewhere. There was such a huge demand for safe dollar-equivalent assets that supplies of Treasurys and other such superstable assets were running low. Financial engineers synthesized “safe” dollar-equivalent products to meet the demand—backed by assets such as real estate, or by securities backed by real estate, or by bets on securities backed by real estate.…  Seguir leyendo »