
Binance to acquire CoinMarketCap for $400M - timcc50
https://decrypt.co/24031/binance-to-acquire-coinmarketcap-in-400-million-deal
======
Melting_Harps
Congrats to the CMC team, but I fail to see how barring some special IP this
makes sense at that valuation; they're an index that, while useful to an
exchange, can't really be worth $400 Million in a current (albeit resilient)
crypto Bear Market.

Binanace must be wanting to get rid of some Yuan as the CCP is just dumping
Billions of it into the Market via bailouts, while people in Wuhan are
supposedly coming [1] back online and wanting to 'Revenge shop.'

As for the idea of monopolizing such information, sites like Coingecko have
been around for nearly as long as CMC, so it makes no sense. The other notable
purchases Binance as made have been other exchanges, and a news site in China,
which make actual sense to strengthen their position or get a foot-hold in
other Markets in their core business as an exchange.

1: [https://oklahoman.com/article/5659041/time-to-revenge-
shop-c...](https://oklahoman.com/article/5659041/time-to-revenge-shop-chinas-
virus-hot-spot-reopens)

~~~
twox2
I think it's because they have a massive audience, and along with that comes
influence and marketing/advertising opportunity.

------
Avalaxy
400 Million?! Maybe I'm missing something, but last time I checked,
CoinMarketCap was just a stock ticker website for cryptocurrencies. Where is
the value...?

~~~
gentaro
You're underestimating the influence CMC has over the space.

They determine what exchange volume is legit and what isn't, also what coins
are worthy of being listed. At the least, this gives Binance additional
stability, at the most, they can really consolidate trading volume at their
exchange and for Binance approved coins.

~~~
Melting_Harps
>They determine what exchange volume is legit and what isn't, also what coins
are worthy of being listed.

Heh, well this aged well:

[https://bitcoinist.com/coinmarketcap-new-listing-
vote/](https://bitcoinist.com/coinmarketcap-new-listing-vote/)

[https://bitcoinist.com/binance-listing-2-6-million-
fee/](https://bitcoinist.com/binance-listing-2-6-million-fee/)

------
csomar
To the suspicious, CMC is more than a crypto prices list:
[https://coinmarketcap.com/api/pricing/](https://coinmarketcap.com/api/pricing/)

They also have several openings:
[https://jobs.coinmarketcap.com/employers/293118-coinmarketca...](https://jobs.coinmarketcap.com/employers/293118-coinmarketcap?utm_source=coinmarketcap&utm_content=footer)

~~~
maxencecornet
I'm one of the paying client for the API, people in the comments fail to
understand that CMC API has many paying customers

~~~
Melting_Harps
> I'm one of the paying client for the API, people in the comments fail to
> understand that CMC API has many paying customers

Ok, I'll bite as I think I have somewhat of an idea what their underlying
value is from this service, even though I admit I don't trade; do you honestly
believe that without that rating system offered to the Institutional
Investment crowd I mentioned earlier they'd be at even a fraction of their
valuation/purchase price?

I ask because gaining a paying client list, which is probably a rounding error
in comparison to Binance's current accrued trading fees, cannot really be the
main selling point for this deal. Especially when investing in various
cryptocurrencies itself is likely to have a higher risk-reward ratio than this
API being the best thing since Bitcoin's Layer 2.

It's at best a (minor) value added service, in comparison to the potential of
targeting and capturing the (predicted?) incoming waves capital flight risk,
now that all this hot money is entering the Economy from China, US, EU,
Australia, UK etc...

~~~
maxencecornet
>do you honestly believe that without that rating system offered to the
Institutional Investment crowd I mentioned earlier they'd be at even a
fraction of their valuation/purchase price?

Standard license is $299/ mo, even with only 3000 paying customers, and there
are likely way more than 3000 paying customers, that would be $10M a year in
revenue

CMC is a good asset and a valuation/purchase price of $400M is a fair price
for the API product only, let alone the ranking /rating aspect

------
seibelj
$400 million for a consumer-facing analytics company with some SaaS data
streams. HN can hate on crypto all it wants, but that's a real startup
success! Great work CMC

------
londons_explore
Perhaps this isn't $400M in cash, but instead is $400M in binance-coins, which
are virtually worthless, but make crypto startups appear much more valuable.

~~~
Melting_Harps
You mean this:

[https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/binance-
coin/](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/binance-coin/)

Which would effectively give them close to 1/4 of the entire token supply,
which they could dump at any time and disrupt Binances financials? That's
worse than giving them cheaply printed fiat from all of these
bailouts/stimulus.

~~~
cryptica
Agreed. The bailout money will go straight into crypto.

I predict that people are going to start taking out bank loans at 0% interest
to buy crypto. Crypto assets have a very unusual attribute that they cannot
always be recovered in case of bankrupcy because only the owner knows the
private key to their wallet and they can claim to have 'lost their keys'.
Cryptocurrencies therefore offer a decentralized mechanism to allow people to
convert their ever inflating debt-money (which is not even their own money)
into money that is their own and in limited supply.

Is it unethical? Yes, but we all know what happens when everyone start doing
the wrong thing; it becomes OK. That's how fiat money came about; it's also
highly unethical (compared to gold-backed currency), but when all the banks
started loaning money backed by gold which they didn't actually have, it
became OK too.

Our financial system's incentives which reward reckless behavior are going to
be its own demise.

~~~
Nursie
I also predict some utter idiots will indeed take out low interest loans and
stake them in the heavily manipulated, volatile casino that is the
cryptocurrency market.

Then they will find themselves with a pile of debt and no way to pay it off,
just as many have before when 'investing' in hokey schemes and outright scams.

~~~
Melting_Harps
> Then they will find themselves with a pile of debt and no way to pay it off,
> just as many have before when 'investing' in hokey schemes and outright
> scams.

Oh, you mean like the rest of the entire banking and financial markets that
led to all of the bailouts in the first place? And enriched and further
consolidated the power of the 'too big to fail' institutions that continue to
be rewarded for their corruption.

I'm not going to engage with the same tired arguments we had last time, and I
don't doubt the scenario above happening either now that the Federal Reserve
essentially got Carte Blanche to buy up so many loans should they go bad from
the Banks, but given the current situation you have to at least see the
BLATANT irony in your statement.

The SEC shuts down the mainly algo-trained, bot-trading driven stock market
because they're taking on too many loses and you're decrying Crypto as the
hotbed of malfeasance and manipulation?

If you can't see regulatory capture when it stares at you in the face this
way, maybe you should really be looking at another more pertinent axe to
grind.

~~~
gridlockd
Whataboutism does not strengthen your own position.

Cryptocurrencies still suck as currencies and they are always just one
regulatory action away from becoming practically useless for non-criminals.

~~~
Melting_Harps
> Whataboutism does not strengthen your own position.

Granted, but what you may fail to see is that Cryptocurrency is reactionary to
the blatant corruption that has been normalized, the very same beahviour that
the poster decries is plaguing Cryptocurrenices without providing much of an
argument.

When in reality, currencies like Bitcoin continue to follow the Network's
protocol that it derives its value from and has not detracted from it, despite
the continuous polemics and external threats and attacks.

Sucks in what way exactly?

Because this is always a point of contention for most of its detractors. They
aggregate all Cryptocurrencies into a single group, which is absurd.

Telling me how easy it is to lose a private key, thus your ability to move
your funds, may be a valid point to your argument as functional (read:
entirely fool-proof) key storage is still why I think its not ready for global
mainstream use, in my opinion; but telling me about how a celebrity influencer
Marketed alt/ICO didn't 1000x overnight as projected and instead crashed and
burned as the creators absconded with the money that you read a blurb on
techcrunch's twitter account is not.

Because from where I'm standing: I continue to have access to a low cost,
friction-less token on an immutable ledger operating on the World's most
secure Network on my phone, that I can use anywhere with wifi, and I can pay
anyone who currently accepts Bitcoin and it operates 24/7 without anyone's
permission.

And I can program it to do various things on top of that should I need it to,
with built in trustless systems; and is also one that I can use to divide my
unit of currency to 8 decimal points and still be able to operate on said
network(s).

All of which incentivizes not only fair commerce and a real usecase for triple
bottom line accounting, as it spurs on renewable energy as its main source as
it continues to grow but also allows for previously marginalized/undocumented
people into an economic system to be on boarded; unlike the exclusionary, war
and fossil fueled driven fiat based system that is used to props up the
Institutions I think we all know have outlived their purpose.

~~~
gridlockd
> Sucks in what way exactly?

You can't really use them as currencies. They're too unstable. Cryptocurrency
transactions are taxable events in the US. That alone is too much of hassle to
make them worthwhile.

They're usually backed by nothing, which makes them a purely speculative risk
asset. The most stable coins are backed, ironically, by fiat. Sometimes with
fractional reserve. I've looked into crypto backed by precious metals, but
liquidity is awful.

So they're useless as currencies, they're useless as a hedge, the only use for
cryptocurrency is to speculate on cryptocurrency.

> Because from where I'm standing: I continue to have access to a low cost,
> friction-less token on an immutable ledger operating on the World's most
> secure Network on my phone, that I can use anywhere with wifi, and I can pay
> anyone who currently accepts Bitcoin and it operates 24/7 without anyone's
> permission.

Yes, that's the gimmick. I get it.

> And I can program it to do various things on top of that should I need it
> to, with built in trustless systems

All your "trustless" system can do is shift around entries on digital ledgers.
That's not that useful. Most systems require some degree of real world trust
and accountability.

For example, how does cryptocurrency deal with fraud and theft? Quite poorly,
if you ask me.

> All of which incentivizes not only fair commerce and a real usecase for
> triple bottom line accounting, as it spurs on renewable energy as its main
> source as it continues to grow but also allows for previously
> marginalized/undocumented people into an economic system to be on boarded

I don't see any evidence that it actually does that. Sounds more like wishful
thinking.

~~~
viklove
> So they're useless as currencies

Maybe to you, just like the INR is useless to you as a currency (because you
don't live in India). Many people do use Bitcoin as currency, and transact
with it every day.

~~~
gridlockd
> Maybe to you, just like the INR is useless to you as a currency (because you
> don't live in India).

Apples and Oranges.

> Many people do use Bitcoin as currency, and transact with it every day.

Do they really? To buy _what_? Other cryptocurrencies?

Virtually nobody accepts Bitcoin as a currency. Some shops accept Bitcoin as
the vehicle for transactions in USD or EUR, or whatever. They use services
like Bitpay, who pay out in ordinary currencies. Prices are calculated based
on the Bitcoin market price in ordinary currencies - plus a markup for
volatility and transaction fees, which is generally more expensive than just
using the ordinary currencies themselves.

That's not Bitcoin being used like a currency, that's Bitcoin being used like
a payment provider, like PayPal. Millions of people transact with PayPal every
day, but PayPal is not a currency.

Of course, that one time some guy bought a Pizza or even a House with Bitcoin.
That's Bitcoin being used "like a currency". Exceptions to the rule.

~~~
viklove
> Virtually nobody accepts Bitcoin as a currency. Some shops accept Bitcoin as
> the vehicle for transactions in USD or EUR, or whatever. They use services
> like Bitpay, who pay out in ordinary currencies. Prices are calculated based
> on the Bitcoin market price in ordinary currencies - plus a markup for
> volatility and transaction fees, which is generally more expensive than just
> using the ordinary currencies themselves.

I mean if you just want to ignore the fact that all over Europe, you can pay
rent, buy groceries, and live your life solely by using bitcoin, then I guess
there's no arguing with you. You live in your own little bubble.

~~~
gridlockd
> I mean if you just want to ignore the fact that all over Europe, you can pay
> rent, buy groceries, and live your life solely by using bitcoin, then I
> guess there's no arguing with you.

That's a _massive_ exaggeration. I can guarantee you 99.99% of landlords will
not accept Bitcoin as payment. Most major stores will not accept Bitcoin.

Are there a couple of hipster places in major cities that may accept Bitcoin?
Sure, presumably you can waste your money exclusively dining and shopping
there, if that's your thing.

Pretty much nobody is going to do that in their daily life though, except to
write one of these "I lived only on Bitcoin for a month" blog posts. That's
because Bitcoin _sucks as a currency_. Right now, a single transaction to go
through in about _ten minutes_ will cost almost a dollar. It's just not
practical.

Of course you can also get one of these Bitcoin credit cards and pay almost
everywhere in the whole world. Again, that's not Bitcoin used a currency,
that's Bitcoin used as a gimmick payment platform.

> You live in your own little bubble.

I suspect the same of you.

~~~
andirk
Look into Bitpay and others. Square has it built in too. It's rare but it's
around. Look for the sticker next to Visa, MasterCard. Ever head of Diners
Club? Ever heard of buying a sandwich with stock shares? Me either.

~~~
gridlockd
> Look into Bitpay and others.

I already mentioned Bitpay and made the distinction there.

> Ever heard of buying a sandwich with stock shares?

Well no, stocks aren't currency. That's my point. Bitcoin sucks at being _a
currency_.

Unlike stocks, it also sucks _as an investment_ , because like gold, it
doesn't do any work, a Bitcoin stays a Bitcoin.

Unlike gold however, it also sucks _as a hedge_ , because there is no
intrinsic value to it.

So, what's the point of Bitcoin? Price speculation. You can speculate on the
price of anything, like Beanie Babies or Funco Pops or trading cards.

At least a Bitcoin doesn't take up space on a landfill, should it become
worthless. On the other hand, the electricity cost of producing is immense.

------
mrkramer
Holy moly $400m for website that aggregates crypto coins data. Congrats to
Coinmarketcap. I remember first using it in 2013, it was just another crypto
website but it became the most popular soon after.

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pretfood
Bye bye impartiality

------
ianhawes
Nomics[0] is a viable alternative for those that are now suspect of CMC.

[0] [https://nomics.com](https://nomics.com)

~~~
dylkil
prices are incorrect for me, says eth price is 101eur when its actually 120eur

------
laCorona
Well I guess it's time to find a different website to check Bitcoin prices.

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blatchcorn
Waste of money

