Archive: Early Investing

The Silver Lining of the FTX Collapse

By Yasmin Sharbaf on November 18, 2022

Crypto Market Musings The impact of the FTX scandal continues to shake the crypto world. The exchange filed for bankruptcy last Friday after its rival Binance stepped back from saving it. And news of FTX’s corruption and bad investments just seems to keep coming. As of this writing, bitcoin is trading below $17,000 and ethereum is trading below $1,200. For the past week, bitcoin, ethereum and other coins have suffered following the FTX…

Crypto Markets Spiral on FTX’s Bankruptcy News

By Vin Narayanan on November 16, 2022

Someday, there will be a Netflix documentary about Sam Bankman-Fried. SBF — as he’s known in crypto circles — was worth more than $14 billion about 10 days ago. Today, the founder and former CEO of popular crypto exchange FTX is bankrupt. SBF’s stunning fall from grace is…
Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO of the FTX crypto exchange and a very popular figure in the crypto community, has lost nearly 94% of his total wealth. FTX was having liquidity problems, so Binance stepped in to acquire the struggling exchange. The Bloomberg Billionaires Index assumes that existing FTX investors…

Bitcoin Challenges Traditional Economic Theory

By Olivia Strobl on November 4, 2022

Crypto Market Musings In case you missed it, Elon Musk is officially “Chief Twit.” The business magnate became the sole director of Twitter after his deal to buy the company (finally) went through on October 27. Musk went on to use the platform to spread…

Twitter and the Fight Against Fake News

By Allison Brickell on November 2, 2022

Well, it finally happened. After several legal snags and a full-blown trial, Elon Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion.  One of Musk’s first priorities as the owner of the social media giant is to change Twitter Blue. Twitter Blue is an optional $4.99-per-month subscription that Twitter…

A Sweet Way to Identify Your Investment Style

By Allison Brickell on October 28, 2022

Halloween is nearly upon us. And investors have experienced their share of spooks this month. I shared a scary investment story. Inflation grew and sent the markets tumbling. And Mark Zuckerberg continued to use his…
Startup investors and collectibles investors have a lot in common. They both need to evaluate potential investments with little to no track records — whether it’s a very early stage startup or a baseball card featuring a rookie player — and they both take on a lot of…

Bitcoin Gives Investors a Break During the Bear Market

By Vin Narayanan on October 21, 2022

Crypto Market Musings Bitcoin (BTC) is traditionally an extremely volatile asset. But not right now. Bitcoin volatility (.BVOL) is at a 100-day low. Since September 1, bitcoin has largely been trading in a narrow range between $18,400 and $20,000. And BTC…

The Trick to De-Risk Startup and Collectibles Investments

By Vin Narayanan on October 19, 2022

The baseball card universe has changed quite a bit since I was growing up. People don’t just buy cards for the bubble gum or trade doubles to complete their sets like I did. Instead, they seek out unique or scarce cards that can grow in value. They keep…
Crypto Market Musings The Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the month of September is finally here, and it’s not what economists and the Fed wanted. The CPI increased 8.2% from last September and increased 0.4% month to month. The financial markets tumbled right after yesterday morning’s news. Ethereum…

The Early Investing Podcast: The Perfect Crypto Regulations

By Early Investing on October 12, 2022

Crypto is in a weird regulatory position. It doesn’t fit neatly into any one legal category — not securities, commodities, protocols or anything else. The SEC doesn’t quite know how to handle it.  Meanwhile, the crypto community is worried that the government will enact stifling regulations…
Crypto Market Musings As of this writing, bitcoin is up about 3% over the last seven days and trading around $20,000. Ethereum is up about 2% over the last seven days and trading around $1,358. There’s no Fed meeting this month, so we won’t…

A Truly Terrifying Tale of a Terrible Investment

By Allison Brickell on October 5, 2022

My friend Jason told me it was a great idea.  “He’s already got tons of regulars,” he said. “They love his drinks. And we would get shares at a discount because he knows my brother! He just needs some money to get this new place started.”…

Commercial Real Estate’s Unused Office Problem

By Carolyn Price on September 30, 2022

As the popularity of hybrid work increases, office vacancies are becoming a major concern for building owners, cities and workers.  While some companies are encouraging employees to return to the office full time, they tend to seek more modern spaces in popular locations to lure their…

The Early Investing Podcast: Adobe’s Pricey Figma Acquisition

By Early Investing on September 28, 2022

It’s a tale as old as time. A startup creates a great product, generating lots of sales and happy customers. A corporate behemoth tries to compete with the startup by launching its own version of the product. The corporate behemoth fails miserably and decides to buy the startup…

Regulators Try to Tighten Their Grip on Crypto

By Yasmin Sharbaf on September 23, 2022

Crypto Market Musings On Wednesday, the Fed raised interest rates for the third time this year by 75 basis points. Both the stock and crypto markets responded quickly to the aggressive rate hike. As of this writing, bitcoin is down 2.6% and trading below $19,000. Ethereum fell by…