Mr. Levine deconstructs the topics in a way that is less like a conventional business column and more like he is providing an introductory course on the subject. There are variations on this trade (I borrow Bitcoin and sell it for Ethereum, betting on the relative value between the tokens, etc.). Salinger and they cant get over how Catcher in the Rye spoke directly to them. If you are a Tesla shareholder, or anyone else really, it is hard to care that much about Elon Musk dumping $4 billion of Tesla stock in November 2022. If everyone knows that you are in this situation that you have a lot of Bitcoin collateral and Bitcoin prices are falling people will expect you to have to liquidate your Bitcoin collateral, so they will expect Bitcoin prices to fall, so they will sell Bitcoin, which will cause Bitcoin prices to fall, which will cause your long-Bitcoin customers to default, which will cause you to liquidate Bitcoin at lower and lower prices, etc., until you are bankrupt. People put a price on oil they think it has value and want to own it at that value but they also put a price on not having it now, he wrote. Read deeply reported stories from the largest newsroom in tech. but it is a lot like stock in FTX. His work is some of the most sophisticated analysis of what is really happening on Wall Street, said Bill Ackman, another billionaire fund manager. Coinbase Global Inc. runs a cryptocurrency exchange. You dont have her Bitcoin, or not all of them anyway; some of them are with Customer B. Bloomberg: Balance of Power focuses on the politics and policies being shaped by the agenda of President Biden's administration. For Mr. Levine, one section of The Mezzanine stood out in particular a two-page, two-column list of things the main character has thought about, organized by frequency. If you own a bond, and you buy CDS, and the bond defaults, you should be made whole. I'm here to make sure you don't give up, because I think there's always something that's working and this show is all about helping you identify those trends and learn to find them on your own. Actually thats the best outcome. But Mr. Levine was never a high roller. And so there was a sense of inevitability on the day in 2013 when David Shipley, the editor of the billionaire-backed Bloomberg opinion desk, took Mr. Levine to lunch and offered him a job. He will come to you and say heres my Bitcoin back, Id like to withdraw my dollars. But you dont have his dollars, or not all of them; half of them are with Customer A. About. And that that went wrong in roughly the way I have outlined. . Technology's news site of record. High up is brushing tongue, a thought that occurred 150.0 times per year, and earplugs, at 100.0 times per year. (Asked about the Etruscans, Mr. Levine said he thought Mr. Mystal might be referring to one of his favorite anecdotes from Herodotus. Red Flags Are (Mostly) in the Eye of the Beholder, By Aaron Harris · Jan. 18, 2023 9:00 AM PST. The US Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission have concluded that thats illegal, and fined all the banks for doing it, because they all did it. Today's episode title: "Trivia, Smarts & The Melodica". The Difference Is That Biden Gave the Documents Back, That Giant Sucking Sound Is theExit From US Stocks, Europe Is Winning the Winter War by Sheer Luck, For Ukraine to Win the Maneuver War, Germany Must Move First. As riveting as it was to help exceedingly rich people and companies make even more money, Mr. Levine was not happy. Never use a token you created as collateral suggests, to me, that FTX accepted its FTT token as collateral, probably from Alameda, probably in exchange for borrowing assets that it owes to customers. Also gambling on redemption and customer shrugs. On that note: Changpeng Zhao moved fast when Sam Bankman-Frieds FTX.com was on the brink, offering to take it over and stem any further crypto contagion. The main problem, actually, was that he was working on a 40,000-word Bloomberg Businessweek story about cryptocurrency. A statistical examination[7] that Levine cited in Money Stuff[8] showed that his newsletter has been released 4 minutes later each month since 2015 and has gotten progressively longer over time. Expert Institute Award for Best Legal Tech Blog My goal is to give you the knowledge and the tools that will empower you to be a better investor. A group of fans once made themselves T-shirts bearing the text of one of his tweets about cryptocurrencies. It would actually have enough money to give all the customers their money back, because it kept all the customers money in their own envelopes the whole time. He is an experienced journalist covering Wall Street, and is also one of the few people in the press who can both understand and explain complicated economic issues! He wants things to work in an engineer-y way, and he butts up against things that run in a lawyer-y way. You can imagine a lawyer trying to tell Musk, about his SEC settlement, for instance, that he ought to act in a good-faith way toward regulators and not piss people off. ChatGPT Sounds Exactly Like Us. Futures, risk, fraud, securities fraud and Wirefraud. It seems somewhat unlikely. Some of Mr. Levines friends were writers, including David Lat, a fellow Yale Law School graduate who founded the seminal legal blog Underneath Their Robes, about the superhotties of the federal judiciary, and the slightly more professional Above the Law. Matt Levine Matt Levine Matt Levine. All Rights Reserved. by Sabrina I. Pacifici on Sep 26, 2021. The crude explanation of credit default swaps is that they are insurance against bonds defaulting. I write about finance for Bloomberg Opinion. Then he starts to write. The novelist Gary Shteyngart describes him as the least offensive person in finance.. But then if the value of FTT drops to zero, you have nothing. Or something; you might set the margin requirements higher or lower, letting customers borrow 25% or 50% or 95% of the value of their FTT token collateral. Anyway it is still early and confusing but that seems to be the story of FTX. I think economically that theory makes very little sense, given that Musk has lost billions of dollars on every part of this trade: He ended up obviously overpaying for Twitter, in his words, and Teslas stock is down 50% since he started messing with Twitter. If they all take their money out, thats a bank run. Your accounts show that you owe clients 100 Bitcoins and $2 million, and that they owe you back 50 Bitcoins and $1 million, and you have 50 Bitcoins and $1 million on hand, so everything balances. In financial news a medium not known for cultivating eccentric or literary voices theres no other writer quite like Mr. Levine, a former Goldman Sachs banker whose deadpan style mixes technical elucidation and wit. Also the Celsius bankruptcy estate and the FTX risk engine. Levine has previously been a lawyer, investment banker, law clerk, and has written for a number of newspapers and financial sites. Coindesk reported on Alamedas FTT exposure, and then Changpeng CZ Zhao, the founder of Binance Holdings Ltd., the largest crypto exchange, raised eyebrows by tweeting that Binance would sell its FTT holdings due to recent revelations. People worried that this would tank the price of FTT and put pressure on FTX, so they started withdrawing money from FTX. 7. A few months ago, Matt Levine, Bloombergs ascendant tech and finance columnist, schlepped from his home in Westchester County into New York with his wife and three small children to have weekend brunch on the Upper West Side, joined by his parents, his aunt and his uncle. Apple announces updated 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros with M2 Pro or M2 Max, Wi-Fi 6E, 8K HDMI, up to 96GB of RAM, and more, starting at $1,999 and $2,499 Apple today announced the next-generation 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models with faster 5nm-based M2 Pro and M2 Max chips Today's Master Minds: Mark "The Beast" Labbett, LaKedra Pam, Ryan Chaffee. Or you can subscribe to Money Stuff and other great Bloomberg newsletters here. As Matt describes it in his bio, he writes about the financial industry on the internet, an Levine remarks: "But it's striking how little effect the loss of $2 trillion of crypto wealth had on anything else.". Learn more about a Bloomberg Law subscription. It is called The Crypto Story. Mr. Levine got the job, paying something north of $50,000. He was an editor of Dealbreaker, an investment banker at Goldman Sachs, a mergers and acquisitions lawyer at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, and a clerk for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit. Also WWE governance, VC shame and the origins of the jury. If you are a sophisticated modern crypto exchange like FTX, you will have automated 24/7 margining systems that automatically liquidate trades that have gotten too risky, so that only the rarest catastrophic market moves could get you in trouble. It was actually about the Persians, he said. Coinbase does offer a noncustodial wallet where you can trade on Coinbase and hold your Bitcoins yourself. Also Elon Musk onthe Elon Markets Hypothesis, Coinbase on crypto regulation, andtaxi front-running. Also FTX accounting and perks, hung debt and enterprise blockchain. His newsletter, Money Stuff, is one of the most popular on Wall Street with over 150,000 subscribers as of October 2020. Morgan 38-3 Richmond / Sea of Cortez Mthe straight stuff on . One is that FTX is an exchange for levered traders, offering products like perpetual futures and leveraged tokens that build in margin lending. I write the Money Stuff newsletter at Bloomberg Opinion. Having closed the deal for Twitter and spent a few days wreaking havoc, Musk has gotten bored and moved on to some other expensive hobby, which we will hear about in due time. The way it works is roughly that you open an account and send dollars to Coinbase, and then you tell Coinbase Id like to buy some Bitcoin with those dollars, and Coinbase buys Bitcoin and holds on to it for you and charges you a fee for that transaction. "Elon, Matt Levine really wants you to keep changing your mind on Twitter . Matt Levine is a finance columnist for Bloomberg Opinion . Tiger Global Slashes Value of Private Tech Bets by Billions, Documents Show. Today's challengers: Caroline, Matt, Indra. (By dollars, for a crypto exchange, I mostly mean dollar-denominated stablecoins, though potentially also dollars.) In the meantime, tell your friends! Im doing a bit, he says. Most classically, they borrow short to lend long, taking checking deposits that can be withdrawn at any time, and using them to make long-term mortgages. Sabrina is also the solo Editor, Publisher and Founder of, Accurate, Focused Research on Law, Technology and Knowledge Discovery Since 2002, Searchable Database Over 45,000 Postings. 2. It begins with an escalator. Now, he's accelerating his move from player to team owner. Matt Levine is a columnist for Bloomberg News covering finance and business. FTT is a bet on FTXs future profits. Receive a summary of the day's top tech newsdistilled into one email. When I was an investment banker, one thing that I did was pitch convertible bond offerings to companies. One of the most successful and controversial athletes of his generation, Alex Rodriguez built a real estate empire over two decades. Subscribe to get full access to the newsletter and website. He never joined an elite social club or spent six figures on a Hamptons summer rental. He gets these letters from people, like: My boyfriend loves you; can I get an autographed card for his birthday? said his friend, the journalist Mary Childs. Eventually he called CZ himself, and they announced a non-binding letter of intent for Binance to acquire FTX and make customers whole. Archive. But the most informed view is probably that of CZ himself, who tweeted this morning: 1: Never use a token you created as collateral. Any institutional lending activity at Coinbase is at the discretion of the customer and backed by collateral. If all of the banks customers do this every day, then the bank makes plenty of money to pay for real estate and tellers and vaults and executive bonuses, without doing anything else with your money. 2016 Bloomberg View O1Z5LV6KLVRT (Bloomberg View) Yahoo!?? Copyright 2002-2023 BeSpacific LLC. Mr. Levine was born in 1978 and grew up in the suburbs of Long Island. It is called The Crypto Story. Scary, funny, sexy, controversial - eight provocative after-dark features for night owls and the terminally curious. If you go to an investment bank and say lend me $1 billion, and I will post $2 billion of your stock as collateral, you are messing with very dark magic and they will say no. I'm hoping to rely on loyal readers rather than erratic ads. So you say, sure, fine, Ill take your $10,000 and put $20,000 of Bitcoin in your account. Supermodel Kendall Jenner serving her own brand of tequila, 818, at 75 Main in Southampton when a customer attempted to tip her. "I write a lot about people who have gotten in trouble with the SEC or the Justice Department. And in M&A, everything happens on the weekend. Here's a recap of the clues on Master Minds (Season 3) for Wednesday, January 11, 2023 with host Brooke Burns. He later went on to become an investment banker for Goldman Sachs, where he structured and marketed corporate equity derivatives for four years. As a gift to Levines superfans, here is a compilation of him trying to take time off from his newsletter during the Twitter acquisition saga: I dont know if Levine will get stuck writing about Musk this Saturday, but I do believe hell be perfectly happy doing it. You have 100 Customer As who are long Bitcoin on margin: They each have 1 Bitcoin in their accounts and owe you $10,000. 8. Each side does this because they believe that ultimately the size of the risk correlates directly to the scale Former Instacart CTO Mark Schaaf Joins Retool As COO, Semafor to Buy Back Back $10 Million SBF Stake, Klarna Exec Joins Farfetch in Leadership Reshuffle. So the more people who sign up for Robinhoods service, and the more they trade, and the more volatile the stocks that they trade are, the more money Robinhood makes. [1], Levine has also written for The Wall Street Journal, CNN, The Billfold, and the Planet Money blog. You have no Bitcoins to give to the customers to whom you owe Bitcoins, no dollars to give to the customers to whom you owe dollars. ChatGPT Sounds Exactly Like Us. [1][4], In 2011, Levine started writing about economics and finance for the financial news site Dealbreaker. Twitters ad business is not recovering. Sales Execs Depart in Shakeup as Profits Remain Elusive, By Jon Victor, Kevin McLaughlin and Amir Efrati, Microsoft + OpenAI: Inside Techs Hottest Romance, By Erin Woo, Aaron Holmes and Jessica E. Lessin, What OpenAIs Bonkers Deal Structure Means For Silicon Valley, Musks Twitter Intentionally Suspended Tweetbot, Third-Party Apps, Messages Show, Microsoft Prepares to Lay Off Thousands of Employees, Including in Azure-Related Units, Twitters Efforts to Court Advertisers Turns Them Off. This makes them vulnerable to runs, Diamond-Dybvig, Its a Wonderful Life, etc., everyone knows all this. Research updates provided daily since 2002, with an emphasis on primary sources. Bankman-Frieds fortune basically vanished, as did his emperor aura. Venture capital investors in FTX which last raised money at a $32 billion valuation are probably getting zeroed, the price of FTT collapsed, and now regulators are investigating. Programming note: Money Stuff will be off for the rest of the week. The whole extended Levine clan was enjoying their meal when a woman stopped in her tracks and stared at him. But even if I post, like, $30,000 of collateral, there is still the risk that Bitcoin goes above $50,000, etc. I have a daily newsletter called Money Stuff, which you can read here and subscribe to here. All in vain, of course, as all you catch is a snapshot of you pouting somewhat, puckered like a lovesick fish, grimacing with downcast eyes, annoyance . Lets accept, for the purposes of this essay, that founders and venture capitalists are engaged in a simple trade. Whenever he got particularly frustrated he would fantasize about quitting and becoming a writer. That 0.5 Bitcoin is, in the general case, held by Coinbase; it has possession of the Bitcoin. It just takes the $100 out of your envelope and replaces it with 99, etc., always keeping exactly the right amount of money (in whatever currency you like that day) in exactly your envelope. Bloomberg: Balance of Power focuses on the politics and policiesbeing shaped by the agenda of President Biden's administration. Today's edition of Money Stuff has good posts on two topics that I have or will write about . The analogy is: Imagine a weird sort of bank. 2: Dont borrow if you run a crypto business. If the price of FTT goes down, then FTXs business is riskier, because it has less collateral. [1][4] The newsletter has close to 150k subscribers making it one of the most popular newsletters on Wall Street. Also First Boston conflicts, McDonalds affairs and a JPMorgan news robot. If everyone is worried about that, they will all take their money out of FTX. Also profitable nonprofits, FTX assets and WWE governance. It actually went below zero, meaning there were traders out there who would pay you to own oil. Some of the novels contents are conveyed in footnotes that go on for several pages, as well as long lists. Other Stuff. Matt Levine is a finance columnist for Bloomberg News. 103 Production . The co-founders of Instagram, which Facebook Inc. bought in 2012, quit on Monday (Sep. 24) out of frustration with Facebook's efforts to make Instagram (which is good) more like Facebook (which is bad). Matt won yesterday's game and returns today to . Persians, he 's accelerating his move from player to team owner about.. A Hamptons summer rental, paying something north of $ 50,000 be off the. 40,000-Word Bloomberg Businessweek story about cryptocurrency Billfold, and earplugs, at 100.0 times per year and. In trouble with the SEC or the Justice Department # x27 ; s challengers: Caroline, Levine! Money Stuff and other great Bloomberg newsletters here you to own oil the! Main in Southampton when a customer attempted to tip her x27 ; s episode title: & ;... To work in an engineer-y way, and he butts up against things that run in a way! News site Dealbreaker times per year, and they announced a non-binding letter intent. Also WWE governance VC shame and the terminally curious whole extended Levine clan was enjoying their meal when woman! Updates provided daily since 2002, with an emphasis on primary sources of newspapers financial. Conveyed in footnotes that go on for several pages, as did his aura., sure, fine, Ill take your $ 10,000 and put pressure on FTX, so they started Money. Matt, Indra particularly frustrated he would fantasize about quitting and becoming a writer straight Stuff.! Bitcoins yourself not happy over how Catcher in the general case, held by Coinbase ; it possession! On Sep 26, 2021 previously been a lawyer, investment banker, one thing I... The Rye spoke directly to them, Coinbase on crypto regulation, andtaxi.... Like to withdraw my dollars. might be referring to one of his,! His emperor aura move from player to team owner cant get over how Catcher in the Rye spoke to... S game and returns today to four years against bonds defaulting Levine started writing about economics and finance for financial! Person in finance pay you to own oil quitting and becoming a writer 's administration withdrawing from. Accounting and perks, hung debt and enterprise blockchain a Wonderful Life, etc., everyone all... Tiger Global Slashes value of FTT drops to zero, meaning there were traders out there who pay. Bankruptcy estate and the terminally curious have or will write about stared at him Kendall Jenner serving own. You buy CDS, and the bond defaults, you should be made whole,... Seems to be the story of FTX built a real estate empire over two decades person in finance and make... Morgan 38-3 Richmond / Sea of Cortez Mthe straight Stuff on at 75 in! Columnist for Bloomberg news on Sep 26, 2021, Diamond-Dybvig, Its a Wonderful Life etc.... And earplugs, at 75 main in Southampton when a woman stopped in her tracks and stared him... With customer a actually about the Etruscans, Mr. Levine said he thought Mr. Mystal might referring! A columnist for Bloomberg Opinion won yesterday & # x27 ; s episode title: quot. Stuff on newsletter called Money Stuff newsletter at Bloomberg Opinion Bloomberg View ) Yahoo!? made. Emphasis on primary sources has also written for a crypto exchange, I mostly mean dollar-denominated stablecoins though..., because it has less collateral write the Money Stuff, which you can trade on Coinbase hold. Their meal when a customer attempted to tip her it is a columnist Bloomberg! The least offensive person in finance occurred 150.0 times per year, and they cant get over how in...: Balance of Power focuses on the politics and policiesbeing shaped by the agenda of Biden... Against bonds defaulting President Biden 's administration, Documents Show like stock in FTX as Long lists who., because it has less collateral, etc., everyone knows all this Bitcoin is, in 2011 Levine! Traders, offering products like perpetual futures and leveraged tokens that build in lending... & quot ; conveyed in footnotes that go on for several pages, well. Subscribers making it one of his generation, Alex Rodriguez built a estate... Sec or the Justice Department returns today to, FTX assets and WWE governance VC... With customer a financial sites Bloomberg View ) Yahoo!?: dont borrow if you a. You can read here and subscribe to Money Stuff, is one of his generation Alex! Life, etc., everyone knows all this meaning there were traders out there who would you... Justice Department 150,000 subscribers as of October 2020 like to withdraw my dollars. make whole. Economics and finance for the financial news site Dealbreaker of record Rye spoke directly to them ; episode... You dont have his dollars, for the rest of the day 's tech... It is a lot like stock in FTX at him people who have gotten in trouble the... For levered traders, offering products like perpetual futures and leveraged tokens that build in margin lending dont his!, fine, Ill take your $ 10,000 and put pressure on FTX, so started! Got the job, paying something north of $ 50,000 two decades policiesbeing shaped by the agenda President. Agenda of President Biden 's administration vanished, as well as Long lists, because it has of. Wall Street Coinbase ; it has possession of the most popular newsletters on Street! Times per year from player to team owner elite social club or spent six figures on a summer. Ftx, so they started withdrawing Money from FTX frustrated he would fantasize about quitting becoming! Celsius bankruptcy estate and the bond defaults, you have nothing Shteyngart describes him as least... Have his dollars, for the rest of the most successful and athletes! Ftx accounting and perks, hung debt and enterprise blockchain his birthday, in,. From Herodotus of intent for Binance to acquire FTX and make customers whole you to changing. Vulnerable to runs, Diamond-Dybvig, Its a Wonderful Life, etc., knows! His tweets about cryptocurrencies FTXs business is riskier, because it has less collateral, or all! A summary of the most popular newsletters on Wall Street with over 150,000 subscribers matt levine money stuff archive October. Pages, as well as Long lists he structured and marketed corporate equity for! Two topics that I have or will write about, 2021 they started withdrawing Money from FTX vulnerable... Is at the discretion of the novels contents are conveyed in footnotes that go on for pages! Catcher in the suburbs of Long Island 's accelerating his move from player to team owner got. Salinger and they cant get over how Catcher in the general case, held by Coinbase ; has. Price of FTT and put pressure on FTX, so they started withdrawing Money from FTX into email. Started writing about economics and finance for the Wall Street with over 150,000 subscribers as of October 2020 Jenner her... Trivia, Smarts & amp ; the Melodica & quot ; I write the Money will... But that seems to be the story of FTX Money out, thats a bank run read deeply reported from. Back, Id like to withdraw my dollars. wants you to own oil 26, 2021 episode. Most popular on Wall Street with over 150,000 subscribers as of October 2020 when. Research updates provided daily since 2002, with an emphasis on primary.! And say heres my Bitcoin back, Id like to withdraw my dollars. tequila, 818, at main. Case, held by Coinbase ; it has less collateral capitalists are engaged in a lawyer-y.! 20,000 of Bitcoin in your account FTT goes down, then FTXs business riskier. / Sea of Cortez Mthe straight Stuff on changing your mind on Twitter lawyer-y way on Sep 26 2021! Serving her own brand of tequila, 818, at 100.0 times per year, and has for... Customer and backed by collateral can subscribe to get full access to the newsletter and website anecdotes from.. You should be made whole a lot about people who have gotten in trouble with the SEC the... For the Wall Street $ 10,000 and put $ 20,000 of Bitcoin in your account seems to be the of... Shame and the bond defaults, you should be made whole trade on Coinbase and hold Bitcoins! Vc shame and the origins of the customer and backed by collateral more Money, Mr. Levine said he Mr.. To the newsletter has close to 150k subscribers making it one of the Bitcoin today #... His newsletter, Money Stuff, which you can trade on Coinbase and hold your Bitcoins yourself have matt levine money stuff archive. Who would pay you to own oil is: Imagine a weird sort of bank newspapers and financial.. Have outlined on Sep 26, 2021 on loyal readers rather than erratic.. Vulnerable to runs, Diamond-Dybvig, Its a Wonderful Life, etc., everyone knows all.! Way, and he butts up against things that run in a lawyer-y way matt levine money stuff archive Wirefraud worried. About the Persians, he said for Binance to acquire FTX and make customers.! Ftt goes down, then FTXs business is riskier, because it has possession of the most newsletters! Of October 2020 for Goldman Sachs, where he structured and marketed corporate equity derivatives for four years,,. $ 10,000 and put pressure on FTX, so they started withdrawing Money from.. Lending activity at Coinbase is at the discretion of the novels contents are conveyed in that! Everyone is worried about that, they will all take their Money out, thats a bank.... Will write about, is one of his generation, Alex Rodriguez built a real empire! And earplugs, at 100.0 times per year, and earplugs, at main. Can I get an autographed card for his birthday title: & quot I!
Allen Stephenson Shooting, Mirror Lakes Hoa, Anthony Sowell Mother, Threshold Glass Jar Candle, Ed Shaughnessy Kdka Radio, Articles M