Investors should learn from FTX and stop speculating
The FTX collapse marks more than just the failure of another crypto exchange. It signals the time has come for the industry to grow up and embrace value. The value schism is here.
FTX was the world’s second-largest crypto exchange. Now, it is a meme for the death rattle of absurd amounts of money being poured into refurbished centralized business models whitewashed in faux decentralization.
As legendary investor Warren Buffet famously said, “Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked.” It seems there were more than a few nude bathers in this last cycle. But we’ve seen this before, right? Actually, not quite.
Bitcoin (BTC) emerged at the start of the longest financial market bull run in history. The industry it spawned proliferated, literally, in the best of times. But all good things must end. Crypto is now facing the unhappy confluence of worsening macroeconomic conditions and regulators hungry for control.
Related: FTX fiasco means coming consequences for crypto in Washington DC
Traditional markets, meanwhile, are seeing the return of cautious, value-based investment. The reason is simple: When rates were at rock bottom, money was free. Now it’s not. The dizzying ascents of the Ubers, Airbnbs and DoorDashes were possible because when cash was free, businesses generating it weren’t valued. But promises no longer cut it. Investors will demand evidence of value before fronting up their increasingly expensive capital.
With the demise of FTX, crypto markets too will, for the first time, be subject to value-driven investment. Tokenomics was never real — see FTX Token (FTT). And however much we ignore its lessons in boom times, economics decidedly is. There is supply, and there is demand. When in
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