Crypto Contagion: Who Has It?
TL/DR: Crypto is going nuts. I am trying to track who's turning off the lights in a spreadsheet. I welcome any updates.
There's a lot going on in crypto these days. Most of it seems to be about how this one had their hands in that one's pocket and visa versa. It is all a classic lesson in how lending creates "money" out of thin air; and when anyone questions if maybe this is all just make believe, gravity takes over.
In "trad fi" this is where the lender of last resort, the government, steps in and stabilizes the market by backing up the value of the currency with, well, government. By design, crypto doesn't have a government.
Binance is talking about an industry recovery fund (making them the default government). We'll see how this all plays out, but it seems overly optomistic to me given the scale and nature of the marketplace. Crypto is anarchic as a feature, and that could be a problem for any attempt to keep everyone afloat.
But who is everyone? I find that the first I often learn about many of these companies is when they are halting transactions or going out of business. So I started my own spreadsheet of crypto companies to try to keep track.
I am thinking others might find this useful also. I know I was surprised at the sheer number of firms. Every web search I did on one seem to sprout a half dozen others I had never heard of.
The first draft of the spreadsheet is here. I welcome any feedback or updates.