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...

Not sure if you can make it out, but that’s an armored truck with Coinbase branding.

On the back, it says, “It’s time to update the system.”

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 company’s website, the campaign is called “Crypto: Moving America Forward.”

Red Flags

Coinbase is touting it as a “national campaign aimed at highlighting the importance of cryptocurrency as a technology that will modernize the global financial system.”

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 — all culminating in a June 22 “State of Crypto Summit” in New York and a July 19 “Stand for Crypto” gathering in Washington, D.C.

Global fintech website Pymnts reported, “The 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.”

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 you’ll 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, “The naive view of crypto is that this is some speculative asset that people are trading and they’re going to lose their shirts. That’s missing the forest through the trees. It's early days. Yes, some people are trading it as an asset class, but they’re also starting to use it in many novel ways… This feels like the early days when I first started using the internet.”

The problem with this statement is that Armstrong runs a company that literally lets people trade crypto as an asset class. He’s 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 — according to the BBC, founder Sam Bankman Chicken-Fried is accused of creating “one of the biggest financial frauds in U.S. history,” 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.

Armstrong continues, “Fundamentally, crypto is not a financial product; it’s 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.”

Again, this is the same empty jargon we’ve been hearing about crypto since its inception — 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 — they all already let you do this. So, sorry, but people aren’t 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, “Cryptocurrency, regardless of what you think about it, it’s not going anywhere. It can’t be uninvented... Now it’s 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.”

Again, this sounds like a scam. Crypto will save our country and financial system, he says. It’s a matter of national security! I’m calling BS. He’s just trying to breathe life back into a flailing company.

This Is the End

And look, maybe I’m wrong here. Maybe this guy is smarter than all of us and we’re just not seeing the forest for the trees, but I’m not holding my breath.

Am I still holding crypto? Of course, just in case irrational investor behavior shoots it to the moon. But I’m not betting the farm on it. And I’m 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 — 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.

Stay frosty,

Alexander Boulden
Editor, Outsider Club

After Alexander’s 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.