BITCOIN-LIGHTCOIN-ETHEREUM AND ALL THAT CRAP

Back in 99, internet stocks were humming. I remember it well. Companies would come public and be up 5-fold the first day. Companies would add .com to their name and see their stock soar. Companies would change their name to make them internet-based and watched their stocks soar. Mutual funds changed their names to show they were involved in the internet. $10 stocks would go to $200 in months. I had a taxi driver that had a quotron on his speedometer. People would come into my office telling me if I could not guarantee them 30%/year, I should take a hike. The elderly were selling their GE to buy pets.com.  I have always wondered what we be the next central bank-induced crazy, insane bubble would be produced. We have all seen (depending on which abacus you use) central banks print $15-20 trillion and keep rates negative or near 0% to raise asset prices. Well…it looks like we finally found it…and best guess, it may just be getting started.

Recently, a money losing, no sales biotech company named Bioptix Diagnostics changed their name to Riot Blockchain.(RIOT) The stock has been trading since 2003 and still no sales. Upon the change, the company announced: Riot Blockchain intends to gain exposure to the blockchain ecosystem through targeted investments in the sector, with a primary focus on the bitcoin and Ethereum blockchains. The rollout of this strategy has commenced with strategic investments in Coinsquare.io,  Tesspay.io, and Verady.com. Riot Blockchain has also launched its own Bitcoin mining operation. THE STOCK HAD AVERAGE DAILY VOLUME OF ABOUT 20,000 SHARES TRADING DEAD AT THE $3.50 AREA. SINCE THE ANNOUNCEMENT, IT HAS GONE AS HIGH AS $33, NOW TRADING AT $28.50. AVERAGE DAILY VOLUME IS NOW 4.6 MILLION SHARES WITH A FLOAT JUST ABOVE 5 MILLION SHARES.

Longfin Corp (LFIN) just came public last week at $5. Nobody cared. And then the company announced: it would be buying Ziddu.com, which is a blockchain-empowered solutions provider that offers a variety of sources, including Microfinance Lending against Collateralized Warehouse Receipts in the shape of Ziddu coins. The stock was up $16.62 on friday to $22.01.

You must have heard of Rich Cigar Inc (RCGR). You haven’t? We don’t blame you. The stock was and still is trading on the bulletin board. Before Wednesday, it hardly traded at about 1-2 cents. That’s 1-2 cents. The company was established to manufacture and distribute high-quality, hand rolled, premium cigars under the Rich Cigars brand name. On Thursday, the company announced they were turning into Intercontinental Technology, Inc. to Reflect New Direction including Multi-national Patent Ownership and Aggressive Cryptocurrency Mining. The stock went to $1 the same day before backing off to close friday at 41 cents. Yes, you could have been up bigly but also down bigly depending on your timing.

In past weeks, in spite of worry about a gigantic bubble, futures are now being traded for these crypto-currencies. We always said that if your dog’s turd was bid up in price, Wall Street would get involved.

And:

Just in the past 2 weeks, we have personally received dozens of emails from supposed crypto-currency geniuses wanting to either invest with them or buy their newsletter.

Since we have a national radio show, we have received more than a dozen inquiries from pr firms to get their guests on the show to tell you how to trade these “currencies.”

Last night, we were at a party where about a dozen college students, ages 18-21 were there. They were not talking football. They were not talking women. They were not talking about their studies. They were all talking about their bitcoin, their lightcoin, their ethereum that they bought and how they were up a zillion percent. Not kidding.

As a handsome and buffed radio host and Fox News business dude, I get approached often. People no longer approach me to ask about the stock market. They do not even ask me about Trump. They all ask me about, you guessed it, bitcoins, blockchains and all that stuff.

History repeats itself. Fear repeats, Greed repeats, Bubbles repeat. Just the names, arenas, people and products change. Geniuses are created. The early birds are believed to be the new Buffetts. The noise gets louder and louder and your Nanny, Grandpa and Grandma want to trade in their utility stocks because “hey, it’s still going up!”

We are not here to throw any cold water on this. We are hear to provide you with history and perspective. We are not up 17 fold in the past year. Others are. They are the geniuses. We are the doofusses. And the fact is out of the tech/internet carnage came many a big winner in the long run. We are not so sure what a coin does for anyone but we are studying the block chain.We just have one bit of advice. Just in case. Seriously, just in case this is another in a long line of easy money, central bank-induced bubbles. DO NOT BE THE LAST ONE IN. The other bit of advice: “EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS AND THE MADNESS OF CROWDS.” A great book that will explain it all. We suspect there is more time, more price, more greed, more craziness, more chicanery and more money to make and lose to come.