Idk what's going on, but I warned you guys Swan was trash, and hiring 90% marketers (some 2020 shitcoiners like Terrence and Breedlove) to circle jerk about how amazing bitcoin is does not actually add any value to anything.
Swan did some emergency maneuver to attempt to pull customer funds out of Prime Trust on a weekend with zero notice. We'll see if they managed to get out before it was too late.
I wrote an article about their massive fuck-up in November when they cost customers as much as 10% of their entire transaction volume over several days (and then refused to make any of their customers whole, Strike also fucked their customers, and some Canadian exchanges too). https://bitcoinmagazine.com/markets/ftx-collapse-cause-huge-bitcoin-price-spike
And the "bitcoin angels" and "investors" are very basic hype-seekers that love these companies. Bitcoiners are trash, ineffective people it seems. Bearish on bitcoiners. Bullish on Bitcoin. May take a few decades or 1+ centuries for all these idiots to lose their wealth to those who are actually smart and productive. https://heaviside.substack.com/p/210-years-of-darkness-on-bitcoin
Thanks for this. Damnit, it seems that every time I think I've found a reputable and 'safe' exchange to use this happens. le sigh
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There is no such thing as "safe" for custodying, there is just safe enough that you can temporarily have funds moved in as you pull bitcoin out. For very large amounts, I would send in a series of chunks to limit exposure.
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Right, I self-custody but still need on/off ramps. CryptoCom appears to be next on the SEC's chopping block, so they're out; thus why I'm in the market for a replacement. I've never used Coinbase nor Binance luckily (nor Voyager, Celsius).
Furthermore, Strike was my second choice after Swan until reading this article. Double-fuckt... might have to finally pull the trigger on Bisq. Been unsure about it and never went through with a transaction.
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Bisq can be intimidating at first, but it works. Always try to make an offer around spot price instead of taking an order from the book, if you can wait, someone will usually take your offer within a day (and that's in a CAD market, with low liquidity compared to USD or EUR) Good luck!
I have stopped using bisq since we have a no-kyc offer now in Canada. You can load your account through the post office in cash and then buy bitcoin.
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I didn't know it was possible to get spot prices, thanks for the info.
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Strike pulled out of prime trust a few months ago and does custody itself now
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P2P is great and I think Nostr will lead to some even better options.
For KYC, I have been using SFox, but they aren't that big so who knows if they'll make it. Just got a sketchy email from them. https://twitter.com/DiracDel/status/1666593929049915392
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Webull removed Bitcoin purchasing too. Robinhood could be next.
Especially since this Wells Fargo limit is probably some type of financial stress test.
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the only good bitcoin-only exchange has always been river, they built their entire stack in a sovereign way so they can't be fucked with, everyone else uses shitcoining 3rd parties and will be rekt.
The only alternative is no-kyc using things like bisq
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They still have high fees, encourage dollar holding via DCA, and are ultimately still RFQ.
There aren't any bitcoin only brokerages that are competitive with the exchanges such as Coinbase, Gemini, BitFinnex, Kraken, or SFox (last one being the one I prefer -- lowest fees and great customer service).
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you can try to save 0.1% of on fees or you can use an exchange that is not going to rug pull and has features you want
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You can pay 1-2% more on fees, sometimes 10% more, have a lousy experience, and possibly a greater probability of a rugpull since there is a shitcoin backend for the purpose of LARPing, or you can use an exchange that has basic features such as wires, mine are free, bidirectionally.
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worrying about "fees" when the dollar price is this low is ridiculous and part of a fiat mindset
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Not worrying about the cost of things when there are perfect alternatives is fiat mindset.
Low standard people like you do not appreciate bitcoin and it is your tolerance for shit, why everything is shit. Fuck off.
But since you are so generous, lmk, and I will provide an address where you are welcome to send 1% of your entire stack.
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Using shitcoiner exchanges because you are saving $10 in FIAT means you are supporting and enabling the shitcoin exchanges to take advantage of the no-coiners who are introduced to “crypto” when they are looking for Bitcoin.
$10 fee is worth supporting the Bitcoin-only companies who actually charge FAIR FEES because they aren’t making millions off scamming their other customers.
You are trash
I was trying to warn people months ago but nobody in the industry wanted to talk about it ..... It shows just how compromised sponsored people are. https://noagendatube.com/w/qfgNJkcJUfVdJwzY9G5USt
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Prime Trust is a trust company, so if they fail to hold Swan's clients' BTC in customer name (which would allow customers to withdraw to their wallets/move to new custodian) then they're all going jail (and PT is going into receivership).
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Prime Trust has been on a decline for a while now. They no longer operate in South Dakota (North?). The ripple effect is companies like Strike can no longer operate there.
Prime Trust is used by so many platforms. They offer a lot of services related to market making, KYC, ant-fraud and also data custody.
I expect things to continue to be problematic. Prime Trust works with companies that dabble in crypto and I believe also offers crypto based custody services directly.
Coinbase even uses Prime Trust for some of its services. Would not be surprised if Binance does too.
Considering all current news related to Bitcoin and crypto as well as all current economic conditions with interests rates going up, it is not out of the realm to think that VC capital is evaporating. That plus the potential for the SEC to kill crypto I believe will be very disruptive short term, but in the long term all companies will refocus their efforts back into Bitcoin, or collapse entirely.
The problem is that you don't need nearly as big of a company or complex of a product offering if you plan to scale down. So my hope here is that these companies who offer crypto and Bitcoin products will spin down the right products.
The lessons for these exchange platforms and especially the ones that chest beat about being "Bitcoiners" so loudly should be that if you don't want to take on the responsibility outsourced to companies like Prime Trust, you should distribute the responsibility among multiple companies.
Maybe Prime Trust is the only company that does what they do.
In any case the Lightning Network is hungry for some new human capital to join and start building. We should welcome in any refugees from the minefields they are currently in with open arms and a strong cup of coffee.
I love River Financial. They also do you the favor of being tax focused so their dashboard is built to show you all that information. I don't think River uses Prime Trust.
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Correct, River does not use Prime Trust.
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Swan is a "media" company first, which I'm pretty leery about. Doesn't help that I find their content to be really basic, either. Funny how nowadays Microstrategy is doing more for the space than Swan, which only seems to be drumming up hype to prop influencers. I don't mind Cory too much, though. At the end of the day I tell people to use Bisq and Robosats instead, far less risky
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There's no need to keep your Bitcoin in any exchange.
Bitcoin doesn't need any company.
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Fiat at least needs some assisted death planning companies though
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Kill your heroes!
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Oh, also, don't forgot the repeated customer data leaks they had because they were so focused on marketing they just "had to" be using a bunch of 3rd party services to do email funnels. They were part of two or three big ones.
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River strike cashapp for me
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Why river first?
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No order. Cashapp is easiest to start. All KYC of course. Which is not the end of the world.
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Oh, I just remembered this morning... I recall hearing a year or two ago about Swan being Prime Trust's biggest customer by a long shot, like >50% (don't quote me on it though, could be wrong), and even though Prime lists big customers, they offer broad services so Binance US etc likely just getting something a la carte. Swan realizing they need to move and then pulling the plug in this environment makes it seem likely they won't survive.
A tweet I saw showed Fortress CEO is original Prime CEO so that doesn't seem promising.
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Binance is Prime's biggest customer if you're talking dollar volumes. Also, when Scott Purcell left Prime 2 years ago, he says the company was profitable and properly diversified.
He made the statement on his LinkedIn about Fortress Trust, of which Albert Forkner (former Wyoming State banking commissioner) is the CEO:
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Just got setup with River Financial and so far I'm liking it. Recurring buy is free, and auto-withdraw to your wallet of choice is less than 3% (depending on network). Their custody is in-house; at least better than Swan in that regard.
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It's still astonishing that there's no multisig Bitcoin exchange.
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Bitcoiners are trash, ineffective people it seems. Bearish on bitcoiners. Bullish on Bitcoin.
There are a lot of people who call themselves Bitcoiners who are nothing more than affinity scammers. Please don't conflate them with the rest of us who genuinely want sound money.
But to your broader point, most Bitcoin companies are just as doomed as all shitcoin companies. They are houses built on sand -- ever-shifting state policies. Congress could pass a law banning cryptocurrencies tomorrow, and there's nothing any cryptocurrency company could do. Bitcoin would do fine, while Bitcoin companies crash and burn.
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According to https://help.swanbitcoin.com/hc/en-us/articles/360045938594 manual withdrawals are currently working.
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I was in a Clubhouse room where someone mentioned they could not withdraw and to contact client services. Could have been an anomaly?
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My manual withdrawal happened overnight
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Bitcoin on exchanges should be just enough to do some betting if you're into that. Besides that, there is no reason not to self custody it IMO.
Assume that you're going to lose whatever sats you have on services that have the private key for your UTXO.
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If you’re in Europe, use something like https://relai.app/
Kraken has also been very good for a long time.
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I may start using Relai when they implement LN and lower the fees.
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