John Reed Stark on a Bitcoin ETF: "Say it Ain’t So Gary..."

A Bitcoin Spot ETF: Say it Ain’t So Gary . . .

For crypto: There’s no inherent value. There’s no cash flow. There’s no yield. There’s no employees. There’s no management. There’s no balance sheet. There’s no product. There’s no service. There’s no history of operations. There’s no analytical valuations. There’s no earnings reports. There’s no proven track record of adoption or reliance. There’s no data of any kind except for analytics relating to crypto speculation, which are inherently suspect.

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There is only one actual proven utility for crypto: crime, such as terrorism, money laundering, sanctions evasion, ransomware attacks, drug dealing, child pornography peddling, human sex trafficking and espionage.

Along the same lines, crypto has two primary beneficiaries: Grifters, who shill crypto to lure in investors, especially if those investors are the downtrodden and Criminals, who exploit the pseudonymity of crypto to orchestrate globally a vast array of devastating crimes and terrorism.

Yet this coming week, amid a horrifically corrupt and criminal global crypto-marketplace and a crypto-ecosystem formulated into a toxic speculative cocktail of mathematical computational blather, affinity fraud and the “Greater Fool Theory,” the SEC will reportedly approve the offering and inception of a Bitcoin Spot-ETF. What a crock.

Bitcoin ETF Approval Odds Raised to Over 90% at Bloomberg, Drop on Polymarket

Odds of a spot bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF) being approved in the U.S. have risen to more than 90%, two influential analysts at Bloomberg said, while crypto market participants at betting platform Polymarket became more pessimistic, trimming the odds to 85%.

Referring to the likelihood of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rejecting proposals after Friday’s flurry of updated filings, Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas said in a Saturday post: “I probably go with 5% at this point. But you gotta leave a little window open for these things.” He previously tipped the odds at 90% in November, saying that updated forms at the time indicated providers were moving in the right direction.

Former Pharmaceutical Executive And Doctor Sentenced For Insider Trading Around Alexion Pharmaceuticals’ Acquisition Of Portola Pharmaceuticals

Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced today that JOSEPH DUPONT and SLAVA KAPLAN, a/k/a “Stanley Kaplan,” were sentenced to three years’ probation and five months in prison, respectively, for securities fraud in connection with their participation in an insider trading scheme surrounding the announcement of Alexion Pharmaceutical, Inc.’s acquisition of Portola Pharmaceuticals, Inc. DUPONT and KAPLAN were arrested June 2023 and pled guilty before U.S. District Judge Gregory H. Woods in September 2023.

Ponzi Schemes Hit 7-Year High In 2023

The number of Ponzi scheme discoveries hit a seven-year high in 2023, continuing the sharp increase seen in 2022 and suggesting that regulators will continue to stay busy as the world emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic. The 66 Ponzi schemes uncovered in 2023 are nearly double the amount of schemes uncovered just two years ago in 2021 and nearly 20% higher than the 58 schemes charged last year. The data compiled by Ponzitracker seems to confirm the end of any lingering delays from the COVID-19 pandemic and raises questions about whether the two-year average of over 60 annual Ponzi scheme discoveries is the start of a new trend. The schemes involved nearly $2 billion in potential investor losses. The number of individuals sentenced for their role in Ponzi schemes also remained near multi-year highs in 2023.