A Small Fintech Stock Surged 2,600 Percent in a Week After Announcing It's a Crypto Company (bloomberg.com)

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A Small Fintech Stock Surged 2,600 Percent in a Week After Announcing It's a Crypto Company (bloomberg.com)

Posted by msmash on Tuesday December 19, 2017 @04:00AM from the not-the-onion dept.

An anonymous reader shares a report: Fintech plus cryptocurrency equals about $7 billion. That's how much the value of LongFin surged to after the microcap's stock rocketed by as much as 2,600 percent since debuting Wednesday. Most of the gains came since Friday, when the company issued a press release saying it bought Ziddu.com, "a blockchain-empowered global micro-lending solutions provider" that transacts only in cryptocurrencies. LongFin joins a growing list of little-known companies that have seen their values soar after simply announcing plans to join the digital currency craze that's pushed the value of bitcoin past $300 billion. The microcap rallies are reminiscent of the height of the dot.com bubble, when virtually any company that put tech in its name found favor on the public markets.

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True Cryptography? by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-19 04:01 · Score: 0

And not that ponzi money scheme? AMIRIGHT?
1. Re:True Cryptography? by gweihir · 2017-12-19 05:52 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  They do not mean "cryptography" by "crypto". Another stupid mainstream creation along the lines of "cyber". About as useful too: You can tell that whoever uses these terms has no clue.
  
  --
  Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
DIY Cryptocurrency Mining... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-19 04:15 · Score: -1

If you want mine your own cryptocurrency, you need a motherboard with 19 PCIe 1X slots to plug in 19 GPUs and a couple of 1200W PSUs.
1. Re:DIY Cryptocurrency Mining... by Opportunist · 2017-12-19 04:27 · Score: 2
  
  We now have mainboards that ain't good for nothing but mining cryptocurrency.
  That's even weird by my standards.
  
  --
  We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
2. Re:DIY Cryptocurrency Mining... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-19 04:37 · Score: 1
  
  Nah its just some dickhead trying to make affiliate money.
3. Re:DIY Cryptocurrency Mining... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-19 07:40 · Score: 0
  
  We now have mainboards that ain't good for nothing but mining cryptocurrency.
  That's even weird by my standards.
  They're just regular gaming motherboards for the most part, no matter what the marketer says.
Cryptocurrency has taken over Slashdot by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-19 04:17 · Score: 1

Yes. But it's not a proven bubble until we see on the cover of TIME magazine, or if that guy Mr. Allen starts pitching a book called "Multiple Streams of Cryptocurrency Income with No Money Down."
Important Question by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-19 04:24 · Score: -1

Hi,
Does anyone use slashdot for sexual encounters?
1. Re:Important Question by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-19 04:40 · Score: 0
  
  a/s/l?
2. Re:Important Question by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-19 04:46 · Score: 0
  
  I'm diddling myself reading this, does that count?
3. Re:Important Question by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-19 06:46 · Score: 0
  
  Yep it’s a hotbed of pedophilia.
It's dot.com all over again by Opportunist · 2017-12-19 04:24 · Score: 4, Insightful

Same shit as back then. A lot of people with more money than brains find something where they think for some odd reason that will generate money. How? They don't know. They don't understand it. But somehow that's gonna make money.
Everyone who DOES know also knows that this can't work. At least not in the long run. But there's idiots with money throwing it at me, should I really tell them?
I may be honest. But I'm not stupid.

--
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
1. Re:It's dot.com all over again by ArchieBunker · 2017-12-19 04:38 · Score: 2
  
  You keep saying that and I keep making money... Litecoin is going to break $500 by the end of the week.
  
  --
  Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
2. Re:It's dot.com all over again by Oswald+McWeany · 2017-12-19 04:38 · Score: 1
  
  Same shit as back then. A lot of people with more money than brains find something where they think for some odd reason that will generate money. How? They don't know. They don't understand it. But somehow that's gonna make money.
  Everyone who DOES know also knows that this can't work. At least not in the long run. But there's idiots with money throwing it at me, should I really tell them?
  I may be honest. But I'm not stupid.
  It doesn't have to make money in the long run if you are psychic enough, or lucky enough to predict when it starts to lose money and get out before then. Short term money gains are good enough if you're lucky enough or know something no one else does.
  
  --
  "That's the way to do it" - Punch
3. Re:It's dot.com all over again by Opportunist · 2017-12-19 04:40 · Score: 2
  
  Go for it, find some MBA patsy and con him!
  
  --
  We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
4. Re:It's dot.com all over again by Timothy2.0 · 2017-12-19 04:44 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  You keep making money? You must be selling before you hit the peak of the bubble and missing out on even better returns. But, like all bubbles, most will try to eek out a few more percent and eat it when this pump-and-dump finally bursts.
5. Re:It's dot.com all over again by Nidi62 · 2017-12-19 04:48 · Score: 1
  
  You keep saying that and I keep making money... Litecoin is going to break $500 by the end of the week.
  So...how much have you actually cashed out, and how much of your "wealth" is stuck propping up the value like in Bitcoin?
  
  --
  The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
6. Re:It's dot.com all over again by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-19 04:52 · Score: 0
  
  People were saying exactly the same thing about their tech stock evaluation back in the '90. And many made a tons of money. It was still a bubble.
7. Re:It's dot.com all over again by slazzy · 2017-12-19 04:53 · Score: 2
  
  This is how things get flushed out. Right now there's thousands of crypto currencies, money flowing like crazy. In the end it will sort itself out, and the internet will have a nice simple, stable way to make micro payments finally. Ripple might either become adopted by more banks or force them to lower wire transfer fees. Steem might become a good alternative for publishers with dropping advertising revenue. Humanity will win in the end, in the mean time fortunes will be made and lost during this crazy time.
  
  --
  Website Just Down For Me? Find out
8. Re:It's dot.com all over again by mysidia · 2017-12-19 04:55 · Score: 1
  
  This is people who are clueless about cryptocurrency and don't even know how to buy BTC most likely but they WANT to invest in it through their broker,
  AND they don't have the $$$$ or the ability to trade in futures ---- thus there's likely a huge demand for Cryptocoin-related stocks, but scant choices on the market to get the exposure.
9. Re: It's dot.com all over again by orlanz · 2017-12-19 05:01 · Score: 2
  
  As long as pensions, 401ks, corporate insurance budgets, hedge funds, and similar regulated money piles do not get direct or indirect exposure to this, I do not care.
  Let the monies reallocate to the lucky and smart ones. They clearly will do much better investing with it than the losers.
  In my short time on earth, I have seen a few bubbles and what I learned is that people NEVER learn. They have too much âoeIt will not be me.â Or âoeIt is different this time.â.
  Honestly it is a cheap lesson for the masses to learn that there is no such thing as a quick buck that is beneficial to society.
10. Re:It's dot.com all over again by ranton · 2017-12-19 05:03 · Score: 2
  
  Same shit as back then. A lot of people with more money than brains find something where they think for some odd reason that will generate money. How? They don't know. They don't understand it. But somehow that's gonna make money.
  That is part of it, but mostly it is because they cannot find anything more worthwhile to invest in. Profits are way up but consumer income is not, so there isn't enough demand for investment in traditional sectors. So significant money gets thrown at anything which could be the next big thing, such as AI or crypto-currency. The only other substantive options are to buy back a greater percentage of ownership through stock buy backs or real estate investment.
  
  --
  -- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
11. Re:It's dot.com all over again by eepok · 2017-12-19 05:16 · Score: 2
  
  When you accept that they're not investors, but speculators, it all make sense. They're complicit in the pump-and-dump plan of this particular bubble.
12. Re:It's dot.com all over again by Cro+Magnon · 2017-12-19 05:22 · Score: 1
  
  If I buy at $100, it goes up to $900 and then plummets, I might sell it at $400-500. Not at the peak, but I'd still make plenty of $$$.
  
  --
  Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
13. Re:It's dot.com all over again by gweihir · 2017-12-19 05:59 · Score: 0
  
  It is close to organized religion in the benefits the participants actually get (read: next to nothing), but organized religion usually takes a long-term, strategic approach. As religion is still doing fine in this supposed age of enlightenment, is it any surprise that other scams also find plenty of victims? Humans are, as a general rule, stupid. About 10-15% are an exception to the rule, but the rest just cannot help it. They do understand _nothing_, but they are unaware of that.
  
  --
  Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
14. Re:It's dot.com all over again by gweihir · 2017-12-19 06:02 · Score: 1
  
  It is called "Greater fool Theory": The fools buying now hope that there are even greater fools around that will later buy from them. And it works for a while, because there are a lot of fools in the human race.
  
  --
  Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
15. Re:It's dot.com all over again by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-19 06:45 · Score: 1
  
  If I buy at $100, it goes up to $900 and then plummets, I might sell it at $400-500. Not at the peak, but I'd still make plenty of $$$.
  Sell it to who? The problem with a sudden crash is that the majority of people also trying to sell off in a panic. At the rate it takes transactions to clear now it will be even worse in such a rush so by the time it sells it might be down to $80.
16. Re:It's dot.com all over again by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-19 07:26 · Score: 0
  
  So you're going to sell while it's in freefall? To who? Yourself? You haven't thought this through which means you're exactly the type of person these pump and dump schemes are aimed at.
17. Re:It's dot.com all over again by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-19 07:31 · Score: 0
  
  Also the large number of fools who totally underestimate where on the chain of fools they actually are.
18. Re:It's dot.com all over again by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-19 10:05 · Score: 0
  
  You also have to be an asshole as trading based on the assumption that you know something important about the future value that the other party does not is unethical (also insider trading if the information is something you actually know rather than suspect and not publicly available).
19. Re:It's dot.com all over again by Opportunist · 2017-12-19 22:27 · Score: 1
  
  With the time it takes to clear, this is definitely unsuitable for micropayments where I want to be able to easily and quickly transfer very small amounts of money. Given the fees and the clearing literally taking longer and costing more than international money orders, this isn't what you're looking for.
  
  --
  We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
20. Re:It's dot.com all over again by ArchieBunker · 2017-12-20 02:35 · Score: 1
  
  It sells pretty much immediately. Hell you could have bought in when it was $80 a few weeks ago and cashed out today while its holding at around $320. Pretty nice return there for no work.
  
  --
  Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
21. Re: It's dot.com all over again by slazzy · 2017-12-22 13:55 · Score: 1
  
  While that is true of bitcoin, you can use ripple and other coins to make almost instant payments.
  
  --
  Website Just Down For Me? Find out
Man...I hope this works.... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-19 04:24 · Score: 0

ANNOUNCING:
*My weiner is a cryptocurrency"...
Now...we wait for the 2600% increase!!!!
1. Re:Man...I hope this works.... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-19 05:08 · Score: 0
  
  I would like to download your weenchain.
Party like it's 1999 by sjbe · 2017-12-19 04:26 · Score: 4, Insightful

Fintech plus cryptocurrency equals about $7 billion. That's how much the value of LongFin surged to after the microcap's stock rocketed by as much as 2,600 percent since debuting Wednesday.
Wow, it feels like the dotcom boom all over again. Companies with shitty business models getting astronomical valuations because they put .com after the name of the company. Too many greedy people chasing too few real businesses. If you need evidence that there is a bubble, here you have it. Only question is when will it pop.
1. Re:Party like it's 1999 by mysidia · 2017-12-19 04:59 · Score: 1
  
  Wow, it feels like the dotcom boom all over again.
  Early dotCom, like 1993-ish. The first applications of cryptocoins have been emerging..... we still don't have our equivalent to Windows '95 yet that brought internet into the operating system as a default feature and launched a million ecommerce companies, many destined to fail.
  Although it could start to get a bit wild: if Coinbase starts adds some of these altcoins.
2. Re:Party like it's 1999 by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-19 05:17 · Score: 0
  
  No, like 1998-ish.
  "Companies with shitty business models getting astronomical valuations because they put .com after the name of the company. Too many greedy people chasing too few real businesses."
3. Re:Party like it's 1999 by mysidia · 2017-12-19 09:03 · Score: 1
  
  "Companies with shitty business models getting astronomical valuations because they put .com after the name of the company."
  That was happening throughout the '90s. 1998 was pretty close to the maximum height of the .com bubble.... about $1.75 Trillion this one little company getting a ridiculous $8 Billion valuation is an unremarkable little pixel..... it's just a sign of things to come if the federal reserve doesn't stop playing this free money game and start raising interest rates to reign-in on asset value inflation, like they should.
  Anyways, despite all the ridiculous .COMs.... it's all a $3 Trillion industry today; the bubble burst was just a temporary setback.
  Look at the growth of Amazon stock from June 1997 to 2017... $1.54 a share to December 2017 $1187.02.
  US $5000 in 1997 = 3225 shares. 3225 shares in 2017 = US $ 3.828 Million.
  That would be a much higher profit rate than most Bitcoin buyers would have to date.
ob by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-19 04:26 · Score: -1

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Press Release by Hal_Porter · 2017-12-19 04:34 · Score: 3, Funny

Porter Industries will henceforth be known as Porter Blockchain Bitcoin Cryptocurrency Litecoin Dogecoin Much Crypto Hype Very Wow Industries.

--
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
1. Re:Press Release by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-19 04:43 · Score: 0
  
  How does blockchain help clean toilets?
  I'd post a link, but honestly all I can find is yelp and such, they don't seem to have an actual website, but porter industries is a janitorial company in the town I grew up in, famous for treating their employees like garbage.
2. Re:Press Release by Hal_Porter · 2017-12-19 05:04 · Score: 1
  
  In the same way that Hal Porter is a nom de souris for me, Porter Industries is one for my company.
  
  --
  echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
Serious Question. by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-19 04:35 · Score: 0

How is PayCoin doing?
Comment removed by account_deleted · 2017-12-19 04:38 · Score: 1

Comment removed based on user account deletion
People are stupid by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-19 04:41 · Score: 0

film at 11
Pump and Dump by sjbe · 2017-12-19 04:42 · Score: 3, Interesting

This is probably nothing more than a pump and dump scheme in action. They happen all the time and they tend to happen a lot during bubbles. The dotcom bubble was positively loaded with them.
1. Re:Pump and Dump by eepok · 2017-12-19 05:32 · Score: 1
  
  Absolutely. I'm glad someone else sees it. If it's not an explicit pump-and-dump strat with this one particular company, then it's, at the very least, part of the greater pump-and-dump speculators plan for the entirety of crypto/blockchain. They're willing to partake because they know they have the massive amounts of small money investors in now and when some of the bigger money panics and pulls out, the rest of the big money will be able to sell quicker than the small investors who will be left with severely devalued cryptocurrency.
  
  The bitcoin pump-and-dump is income redistribution from armchair speculators who don't understand the limits of their low-tier transaction speeds.
2. Re:Pump and Dump by gweihir · 2017-12-19 05:53 · Score: 1
  
  As long as the supply of idiots with some way to get cash does not dry up, "Pump and Dump" will continue to work.
  
  --
  Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
A fool and their money by sjbe · 2017-12-19 04:45 · Score: 1

You keep saying that and I keep making money..
Sure you do. We'll all pretend we believe you are getting rich.

Litecoin is going to break $500 by the end of the week.
You sound like all the fanbois on yahoo finance message boards shouting "to the moon!" trying to pump up their investment.
"Crypto" means "Crypotgraphy" by gweihir · 2017-12-19 05:56 · Score: 2

And that is it. Unless you are stupid and desperately tying to sound "hip". Using the already well defined short form "crypto" for "cryptographic currency" is an utter fail.

--
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
1. Re:"Crypto" means "Crypotgraphy" by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-19 06:09 · Score: 0
  
  Oh, well then, thank you for clearing that up once and for all.
2. Re:"Crypto" means "Crypotgraphy" by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-19 06:32 · Score: 0
  
  Thanks, from now on everybody will call you first to obtain permission to use your trademark. Wait, it's not actually yours? Then shut the fuck up and get on with the times, grandpa!
3. Re:"Crypto" means "Crypotgraphy" by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-19 06:51 · Score: 0
  
  Cool story you faggot ass bitch.
4. Re:"Crypto" means "Crypotgraphy" by Trailer+Trash · 2017-12-19 07:12 · Score: 1
  
  And that is it. Unless you are stupid and desperately tying to sound "hip". Using the already well defined short form "crypto" for "cryptographic currency" is an utter fail.
  Go argue with the $7B.
  
  --
  Do you have ESP?
5. Re:"Crypto" means "Crypotgraphy" by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-19 07:55 · Score: 0
  
  Hidden? Like my dick in your dad’s asshole?
6. Re:"Crypto" means "Crypotgraphy" by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-19 08:31 · Score: 0
  
  Faggot son, your dad is playing hide the salami at the gay bathhouse again!
It's time for a REAL currency backed by ACTUAL val by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-19 06:14 · Score: -1

like dead millennial faggots. The value of a "another dead millennial faggot" may seem questionable at first, or even infinitesimal. But the reality speaks for itself:
A dead, meek, POkamong toy-playing gadget-loving faggot is much more valuable dead, when it can no longer continue eroding humanity into a genderless, hypersensitive piece of shit, with stupid faggot phones and spastic chink cartoons. So even if the value of a millennial life is "effectively zero", and a dead one is "slightly more", it adds up quickly.
This is the path to not only a sustainable currency -- but a much brighter future and fewer diversity-infused jew faggot movies.
Comment removed by account_deleted · 2017-12-19 07:28 · Score: 1

Comment removed based on user account deletion
The last greater fool by jhecht · 2017-12-19 07:28 · Score: 1

Time to start looking for the last greater fool so you can cash out on all those tulips.
Magnitude by DarthVain · 2017-12-19 07:39 · Score: 1

Only the magnitude is much higher.
During the dotcom, it was the pump and dumps getting dozens of millions of dollars, or in a few semi-legit cases that eventually went bust, hundreds of millions of dollars. It wasn't all that long ago...
This company that no one heard of before today is suddenly work 7,000 million dollars (7 Billion)? Of what? How? Crazy. There are whole established industries that aren't worth that.
This whole thing is blowing my mind. I have a feeling it is going to get bigger, maybe even much bigger, and people are going to start really looking around nervously about what the end result will be, that will inevitably be what we all think it is going to be, but may have a lot of unanticipated economic fallout.
A simple question. Where is that 7 Billion dollars coming from? Only private investors? What happens if the Banks that are all poo pooing the whole idea are greedily gobbling up as much crypo coin as they can get their grubby little hands on? Sound familiar?
Comment removed by account_deleted · 2017-12-19 08:03 · Score: 1

Comment removed based on user account deletion
Patents by UrbanMonk · 2017-12-19 10:06 · Score: 1

It's possible that Fintech holds patents in the field of cryptocurrency. Just to name a few companies: Goldman Sachs, Mastercard, Bank of America, and Coinbase. I think it's time we all take this cryptocurrency seriously and stop comparing it to tulips and dot.com bust. Thousands of public companies are valued in the hundreds of billions. Fact is, people are fed up with rising costs and falling incomes. It doesn't help when the money that people depend on is own by a cartel of banks who honestly have no interest in the people or our government by the people. USDebtClock.Org You tell me what the alternatives are.
Comment removed by account_deleted · 2017-12-20 03:21 · Score: 1

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