Slashdot Mirror
SEC Warns 'Extreme Caution' Over Cryptocurrency Investments As Many People Take Out Mortgages To Buy Bitcoin (qz.com)
The head of the US Securities and Exchange Commission has warned bitcoin and other cryptocurrency investors to beware of scams and criminal activity in the sector. In the financial regulator's strongest statement yet, SEC chair Jay Clayton said: "If a promoter guarantees returns, if an opportunity sounds too good to be true, or if you are pressured to act quickly, please exercise extreme caution and be aware of the risk that your investment may be lost." The warning comes at a time when many people have begun to take out mortgages to buy bitcoin. From a report: Clayton's statement was also issued the same day the SEC took regulatory action to halt an initial coin offering (ICO). "Recognize that these markets span national borders and that significant trading may occur on systems and platforms outside the United States. Your invested funds may quickly travel overseas without your knowledge," he wrote, in a sentence that was in bold. Clayton's statement referenced some of the crucial debates that have swirled around the rise and regulation of crypto-assets like bitcoins. Are these currencies? Commodities? Or securities? The statement notes in a footnote that bitcoin in the US has been designated a commodity. But the broader answer seems to be that while it depends from case to case, initial coin offerings, at least, are more likely to be scrutinized and held to the same bar as securities offerings.
Now is when you cash out, if you were wondering...
Next month, "Help me, other tax payers who aren't idiots! My mortgage is now bigger than the market value of my house. Make a law that makes the bank put my mortgage back the way it was! It's not fair!"
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
Isn't one of the key defining features of a bubble when a large number of relatively uniformed people decide to participate based on credit and margin? Tulips, the Great Crash, Great Recession, Internet Stocks, Great Recession...
Physics is nothing like religion. If it was, we'd have an easier time trying to raise money!
I am very uneasy. There seem to several bubbles going which in aggregate or perhaps 1 to 3 happening at the same time spells disaster:
1) Cryptocurrencies. Yes, plural.
2) AI
3) Financial markets
4) Housing
5) Student loans
5) Health care
6) Tech in general, a run up in price of things such as FB and Tesla.
7) Foreign and domestic real estate
And probably more I can't think of right now. A collapse in the NYSE exchange would have a large impact on the global economy but 2 or 3 smaller ones together might have a ripple effect causing a larger collapse. I think we live in fragile times. If you look at history there were bubbles about every 10 to 20 years after the lessons of the last collapse fades from memory. We're about due.
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
No, tell him to hang onto it, it's always fun to see the repo truck pick up a supercar!
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel