Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Crypto Is Pointless. Not Even the White House Can Fix That
New York Times ^ | February 26, 2026 | Ryan Cummings and Jared Bernstein

Posted on 02/26/2026 8:30:06 AM PST by Miami Rebel

Since its peak last fall, Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency, has lost almost half its value. Nearly $2 trillion of wealth has evaporated from the global crypto market since October.

We have one question. What took so long? Outside of crimes and scams, the technology is useless, and its economics are even worse.

....At a time when investors have grown skittish about riskier assets, the value of Bitcoin has fallen nearly 50 percent since October, dropping to below $70,000, proving it was only a matter of time before crypto faced the critical lens it always needed but never truly received.

....One of the industry’s main facilitators, Senator Cynthia Lummis, a Wyoming Republican nicknamed the Crypto Queen, received over $50,000 in campaign contributions from the crypto industry and investors just weeks before sponsoring a pro-crypto bill.

....If this technology is that revolutionary, why weren’t any of the giant tech firms using it? Were they too shortsighted to see the technological revolution unfolding before them? Or was the technology — which we learned was essentially a painfully slow and expensive database — just not that special?

Crypto is at best a form of private money, which has a long history of ending up in financial ruin. At worst, it is a speculative and highly volatile asset with almost no practical use, whose backers were (and still are) constantly trying to embed it into the financial system, both to increase its adoption and, should the market nosedive, stick taxpayers with the bill.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Humor; Weird Stuff
KEYWORDS: bitcoin; btc; cluelessnyt; crypto; cryptocurrency; delta7; fakenews; jaredbernstein; newyorkslimes; newyorktimes; ryancummings; tds
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-77 last
To: ComputerGuy

It’s a Gentleman’s Agreement.


61 posted on 02/26/2026 10:40:23 AM PST by ConservativeMind (Trump: Befuddling Democrats, Republicans, and the Media for the benefit of the US and all mankind.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Miami Rebel

Crypto Is Pointless. Not Even the White House Can Fix That

Back in the 20th Century when I was resetting crypto gear, crypto meant something else than a type of digital currency.   The New York Times editors are idiots.

62 posted on 02/26/2026 11:16:20 AM PST by higgmeister (In the Shadow of The Big Chicken! )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: TnTnTn

The most valuable metals have to be protected by the least valuable metals. It’s what I call the currency of last resort. The church and the crown take all the gold and when there is no more gold to take they turn to silver and then to copper. When the copper is gone they get lead. The lead is given voluntarily.


63 posted on 02/26/2026 11:25:25 AM PST by webheart (Notice how I said all of that without any hyphens, and only complete words?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 58 | View Replies]

Crypto [Gr.kryptos: see crypt]

1. sercet or hidden [cryptogram]
2. being such secretly and not by public avowal [a crpto-Fascist]
Also, before a vowel, crypt-

64 posted on 02/26/2026 11:30:36 AM PST by higgmeister (In the Shadow of The Big Chicken! )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 62 | View Replies]

To: Miami Rebel
This is the usual demented nonsense.

1. With crypto I can make a payment without fear that the merchant (or anyone else touching or simply seeing my credit or debit card) will put additional charges on my account.

2. With crypto I can send money around the world at minimal or zero (with Nano) cost, virtually instantly (<1 seconds in some cases). No censorship, no delays, no extra fees, no reliance on 3rd parties or their hours of operation or phone calls from their compliance departments, etc., etc., etc.

3. With crypto I can have pseudonymous or anonymous transactions as needed for protection against anything from nosy neighbors to totalitarian governments.

4. With crypto I can use multisig to make it impossible to lose my money from a single point of failure or theft at a single location as with bank accounts or any physical asset like gold.

5. Bitcoin, ethereum, etc. is scarce with defined money supply, unlike government money. That alone gives it a vast and relentless advantage against the melting ice cubes of government currency valuation.

I could go on, but being this stupid in 2026 is without excuse. Bitcoin obituaries like this are good humor and tend to appear at bottoms so consider it a buy signal.

65 posted on 02/26/2026 11:40:41 AM PST by EnderWiggin1970
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: DesertRhino

One has to spectacularly naive to think that legacy media has to the power to sway the popular consumption of inebriants.


66 posted on 02/26/2026 11:51:24 AM PST by Miami Rebel
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 57 | View Replies]

To: Skwor

My company’s computer system got hacked a few years back by the Russians.

We had to pay in Bitcoin.


67 posted on 02/26/2026 11:52:48 AM PST by woodbutcher1963
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: Miami Rebel

Cryptocurrency is great. Bitcoin is a scam.


68 posted on 02/26/2026 12:16:03 PM PST by CathyWhite (Texans for Trump.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Republican Wildcat

Also known as the bigger fool theory


69 posted on 02/26/2026 12:32:53 PM PST by Bobbyvotes (Work is worship says Bhagavad Geeta. Instead of praying do work and get richer.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: Miami Rebel

The New York Times endorsed Obama for president


70 posted on 02/26/2026 1:47:49 PM PST by NoLibZone (Trump needs to require all democrats in office to re take their oath to the US Constitution.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Miami Rebel

I may finally but BTC and ETH with all this negativity. It’s way overdone and usually marks an inflection point. “The market climbs a wall of worry,” my father taught me. And it has always worked as a strategy
.


71 posted on 02/26/2026 2:38:43 PM PST by montag813
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: I want the USA back
Maybe because it’s not currency. Only governments have the right to issue currency.

I don't think that's true, especially since the federal reserve is a private bank, not government. No reason other banks couldn't (and have in history) issue their own currency, as long as it is backed by something, real gold in the vault, for example.
72 posted on 02/26/2026 2:50:24 PM PST by fr_freak (So foul a sky clears not without a storm.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: I want the USA back
It did not lose any value. It had no value.

Bitcoin allows one person to transfer money to another person in the world without a third party skimming off a percentage, given the two people have an internet connection. There is value in that.

I didn't know so many people here worshipped banks.

73 posted on 02/26/2026 4:09:39 PM PST by Right_Wing_Madman
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]

To: AZJeep
Apparently, the biggest crypto investors are all kind of drug cartels and Russian oligarchs.

I would not be surprised if types like Putin, Xi, Maduro or Khamenei were major crypto investors.

It seems to me like pyramid scheme backed by these shady characters.

I know a Trump voter who bragged that he made six figure profits on crypto.

I haven't spoken to him recently, so I don't know how this recent crash affected him.

74 posted on 02/27/2026 1:13:26 AM PST by Angelino97
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: Angelino97

Oh, i know some people making killing in crypto.
The same way as there were people who made killings in Netherland on tulip bulbs long time ago
But they went crushing down!
At least tulip bulbs we real.


75 posted on 02/27/2026 1:54:40 AM PST by AZJeep (sane )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 74 | View Replies]

To: Miami Rebel

Crypto has no assets, no product, no employees, no auditor, no employees, no owner, no liability, no tax source, no recourse, no dividend or income, nothing but blue sky backing it. This is the same kind of idiocy that led to the Great Depression.

While bitcoin has a high price tag and the casters are consolidating into it, there are over 20,000 versions of crypto that failed, at near worthless.

I’ve heard some say the the cia is the creator. Who knows but I’ll be glad when this tiresome crap is gone.


76 posted on 02/27/2026 4:09:10 AM PST by Professional ( )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: AZJeep

For everyone “making a killing” with crypto there is at least someone, usually many, killed by crypto.


77 posted on 02/27/2026 5:06:16 AM PST by 9YearLurker
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 75 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-77 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson