Babbitt Column Deng Jianpeng: Lessons from the FCoin Thunderstorm on the Exchange

Since the beginning of 2009, the person (or institution) under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto launched Bitcoin, and the decentralized virtual currency has become the first "killer" application of the blockchain. Nowadays, around the virtual currency represented by Bitcoin, a long industrial chain has been formed from upstream "mining" to downstream transactions, custody, pledged loans, storage and so on. In this chain, the most central position, but with a centralized virtual currency exchange, is the best.

However, after September 2017, under the one-size-fits-all ban on domestic regulatory policies, theoretically no virtual currency exchange exists in China. Currently, exchanges that provide virtual currency transactions to residents in China are either in the form of private commercial institutions registered overseas, or they are actually "underground" exchanges. The former has problems with compliance, while the latter is typically "illegal business."

All exchanges are outside the control of China's financial regulators. The exchange brings together a surprising amount of virtual assets of the public without any effective supervision. I believe that the exchange risk is the greatest and should be effectively prevented in advance (Deng Jianpeng's "Nine Lectures on Blockchain Investment Risk Prevention", see https: //study.163. com / course / introduction / 1209739879.htm ). In February 2020, the former "star" exchange FCoin suddenly declared a "thunderstorm", causing investors to lose funds of up to 90 million USDT, which confirmed this huge risk! FCoin's self-published huge loss information and the collapse of the website platform have caused panic among a large number of investors. Most of the investors in FCoin are Chinese, and there are even many "predators" with rich investment experience. The owner of the exchange, Zhang, reportedly has already left the country, and some angry investors blocked Zhang's family in Hangzhou to report to the police station. However, from the current situation, policies and regulations, it is not easy for investors to rely on the regulators and law enforcement agencies to recover losses.

(The picture below shows the FCoin incident reported by Babbitt)

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The exchanges thundered and even ran away, what problems did it illustrate, and what are the lessons and inspirations for investors?

The author believes that, first, there are tens of thousands of exchanges in the world. Except for a few countries such as the United States and Japan, the exchanges in most countries or regions have not been effectively regulated. In 2017, China's regulatory policy banned the establishment of domestic exchanges, making it clear that investors should participate in virtual currency investment at their own risk. At the same time, China's financial regulatory agencies do not have overseas regulatory authority. Law enforcement agencies' overseas enforcement of exchanges suspected of infringing on the rights of Chinese investors involves huge costs and even difficulties in diplomatic coordination. As a result, when buying and selling virtual currencies on the exchange, investors can only "seek more for themselves", which is absolutely weak!

Second, there are a large number of exchanges open to Chinese residents, without supervision, and doing whatever they want. It publishes various suspected fraudulent or inductive advertisements on its official website, Weibo and industry information websites, especially to entice investors with no risk-bearing ability and no risk identification ability to participate in high-risk leveraged contracts, futures trading, etc. . Every time a "roller coaster" market of virtual currency leads to a large number of investors "ransom", heavy losses, but no complaints.

(An unknown exchange was forced to admit that it has nothing to do with another head exchange, see https://newbitsupport.zendesk.com/hc/zh-cn/articles/360039829991-%E7%BA%BD%E5%B8% 81% E5% 85% B3% E4% BA% 8E% E7% 8B% AC% E7% AB% 8B% E8% BF% 90% E8% 90% A5% E5% A3% B0% E6% 98% 8E )

Third, among the many exchanges, a large number of little-known exchanges have launched a bottomless competition strategy in order to "upgrade" in the market in a timely manner, attracting investors who have lost their minds in the pursuit of profit. For example, in an exchange that has been thundered, its actual controller previously claimed that "XX (its issued platform currency) is 100 (up 100 times), and the villa is near the sea." It is regrettable that such a clear commitment to high yields is suspected of fraud, but it does not even wake up senior investors. Individual head exchanges have even hired hot female customer service in recent years to “seducer” potential investors online. Bottom-line strategies, like infectious diseases, are spreading around the industry, exacerbating risks.

Fourth, the actual controllers of some Chinese-backed exchanges have already left the country, stayed abroad for a long time, and even invested in a large amount of overseas luxury real estate. It deliberately stays away from the jurisdiction of Chinese law enforcement agencies, and is essentially ready to run in the future or deal with the thunderstorm of the exchange. Once the thunderstorm, what can investors do? However, investors rarely have a clear understanding of such exchanges in advance. Some investors even dump all their homes on a certain exchange, which is equivalent to baking themselves on a volcano.

Fifth, the actual controller of a large number of exchanges is unknown, and the registered address and office address are unknown. For example, the investigation report released by the New York State Attorney General (OAG) as early as September 2018 clearly stated that the exchange "Gate.io … has no public source about the location of its operators. However, this The company stated in written submissions to OAG that its platform operations are mainly conducted in China. "(See the OAG report at https://ag.ny.gov/sites/default/files/vmii_report.pdf?mod=article_inline ) This is similar Investors put assets in the pockets of strangers. These "strangers" may completely misappropriate the assets of others, sell counterfeit currency, or directly take away investors' assets in a "fraudulent way". The high risk is self-evident.

(The currency speculation of the CEO of an exchange was a huge loss of US $ 12 million in February 2020. As shown in the picture circle below, it has triggered a fierce controversy in the industry about whether the CEO misappropriated customers' virtual currencies!)

Sixth, the virtual currency is continuously traded around the world 24 hours a day, and there is no limit or limit plate. Under the premise of no supervision, various financial derivatives are raging. A large number of Chinese investors have repeatedly thundered, ran out, stolen money or traded money because of exchanges Losses are huge and the risk is at least ten times higher than that of the stock market. Investors have no knowledge of the risks of the exchange, which fully shows that the blockchain investment is tens of millions, and the first is risk risk control! Effective risk awareness and risk prevention is the way for investors to settle down! (See Deng Jianpeng's "Nine Lectures on Prevention of Blockchain Investment Risks", https://study.163.com/course/introduction/1209739879.htm )

Finally, I believe that China's financial regulatory policies need to be reshaped urgently, focusing on cleaning up and rectification, adjusting to the protection of consumer rights and interests, and using iron-handed means to severely crack down on suspected fraud and other serious criminal offenders.

(Part of the information in this article, thanks to Mr. Bright)

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