One year ago today, all hell broke lose. 

"Cryptocurrencies Melt Down in a ‘Perfect Storm’ of Fear and Panic" wrote the NYTimes,

"$1 Trillion Crypto Meltdown—Huge Crash Wipes Out The Price Of Bitcoin, Ethereum, BNB, XRP, Cardano, Solana, Terra’s Luna And Avalanche" was the headline at Forbes.

Bitcoin would lose a total of 12% of its value on this day, and that looked good compare to Ethereum, XRP, BNB, Cardano, Solana, all which lost between 20%-30% in the same time period. 

For us, people with a sizeable portion of their net worth inside the crashing market, the popular 'swap to a stablecoin until it's over' move was followed by praying the stable coin you chose actually was stable. 

Even if you managed to minimize your own losses, it was impossible to be part of any of the main online crypto communities, from the Bitcointalk message boards, to Crypto-Twitter, and several popular crypto subreddits were filled with despair.

3 Months Later FTX's Collapse Would Overshadow This Period Forever.  But on This Date, No One in Crypto Was Receiving More Praise than Sam Bankman-Fried...

Sam was about to save the entire industry. 

Over the days ahead companies that were heavily invested in Luna and UST were struggling, or flat out collapsing. This is where Sam would step in offering hundreds of millions to companies from his pile of spare spendable cash (which today appears to have been his user's cash, that he was spending without permission).

In one interview he talks about meeting inside FTX where they determined he could spend up to $1 billion basically bailing out crypto companies if they had long term potential, and of course he would now own piece of them all. 

If You Want a Truly Surreal Experience - Read This Article from NYTimes, Published This Week One Year Ago...

There's so many parts of this article that cringe-inducing to read today that it was hard to choose a couple examples, but I think these will give you an idea of just how far Sam took his fantasy of being a high-profile successful genius, and how good he was at convincing others to believe it as well.

A little over a week before this, Sam and FTX held their first of what was supposed to be an annual conference in the Bahamas, the reporter writes "Everywhere he went, crypto entrepreneurs offered handshakes and fist bumps, patting him on the back as they pitched projects or presented him with branded swag".

I did warn you this would be cringe-inducing. 

Another interesting part is where Sam's seemingly reveals that even his... unique style and sometimes awkward behavior was a calculated move, according to the article "Before one of his first TV appearances, Andy Croghan, a colleague at Alameda and FTX, urged him to clean up his look. “I was like, ‘Sam, you’ve got to cut your hair, dude — it looks ridiculous,’” Mr. Croghan said. “And he said, ‘I honestly think it’s negative for me to cut my hair. I think it’s important for people to think I look crazy."

But the gem of the article (well, if you're looking for the strangest parts) has to be this next story which begins in the FTX offices "A few colleagues were cracking crypto-themed sex jokes in the office" I'm not kidding, that was printed by the NYTimes, I really wish they included an example.  Anyway, these naughty jokesters got Sam's attention and threw his genius mind into overdrive  - then it came to him - FTX needs their own condoms. 

Now that may sound crazy at first but there's a good reason - marketing. The article says that "Sam whirled around in his chair. He wondered, was there expected value (EV) in distributing condoms with jokes on them at an upcoming conference?" Sam decided - obviously yes. 

So what would Sam print on them? Ironically, a statement that FTX would survive the exact situation that ended up destroying it.

The condom wrapper reads “Never breaks” in large letters and underneath  “even during large liquidations.” 

Today you find people selling them on EBay as collectors items.

Good times.

------- 
Author: Justin Derbek
New York News Desk
Breaking Crypto News

What we're seeing is... odd.

In reality, there was some extremely good news this week.  The US House Of Representatives did something they rarely do - pass bills with the support of both parties. 

Among them, some huge changes for cryptocurrency as real action began to stop the US from falling behind. Including plans for classifying cryptocurrencies as an 'asset' like gold, rather than a security - finally freeing crypto from regulations written in the 1940's.

That story barely had a chance to be seen before the markets suddenly plummeted.

Now imagine you're one of the billionaires (or at least have a few hundred million)  who came from Wall Street to the crypto markets this year...

We know on Wall Street there's some investors who just have some fantastic "luck".

Somehow always pulling out right before the market crashes on the average person. Then, they even know when to put their money back in too - shortly before a stock skyrockets.

When it comes to crypto, there's still a bunch of these guys on the sidelines - watching the market has them feeling left out - excluded, embarrassed, angry that they had 'missed the boat'.

...Or had they?

Imagine how stupid they feel having no understanding of cryptocurrency, yet average people's investments are outperforming theirs by hundred percent's.

But when you're above the average peasant, you look out for your fellow elite.

We may be looking at the last chance being given for big money to get in at a lower price...

A door opened by their friends who did get in on time.  All it takes is a few people controlling large sums to dump their holdings, lowering the price, they re-buy, and so do their friends who had previously been left out.

The scare...

Thrown out as something being 'considered' so the story could be forgotten overnight, the media spent a day scaring everyday investors that Biden wants to tax profits at 43%  - more than double the current rate. 

Why would the Biden administration willingly float a rumor like this? Well, the financial services industry didn't give him $250 million (more than double Trump) for nothing. They certainly didn't give all that money to someone who would double the tax on their profits either.

But the initial panic caused both crypto and stock markets to take a sharp dive.

Today the stock market is recovering just as fast as it fell, because reality set in.  Biden wouldn't have the votes to pass this even if he wanted to.  Obama, with his party in the majority of both Congress and Senate, still wasn't able to pass more than a 5% raise from 15% to 20%. 

So this appears to be nothing more than a perfect rumor to trigger a medium sized, short term drop in the market. 

It could all be coincidence...

Everyone hates to think millions of us have just been jerked by a couple dozen egomaniacs sitting in their mansions within their gated community.  Perhaps they're just as confused as us.

But isn't this strange - that regulatory uncertainty was their main reason for not investing.

Then on the SAME DAY it becomes apparent that the US Gov is working to resolve these issues in a way that is favorable to crypto investors - those investments suddenly go on sale at the biggest discount all year? 

Today people were given a chance to buy Bitcoin as if they had bought in February.  Not a bad deal.

Is all this just a victimless crime? Well, if your life savings was in the form of 0.5BTC, you may have sold in a panic.  The market will bounce back twice as fast as it dropped, and someone unable to check the charts while at a day job, or even asleep could find themselves in a position of losing thousands just to buy back their original holdings. 

But like I said, probably all just a coincidence.

---------------
Author: Oliver Redding
Seattle Newsdesk  / Breaking Crypto News