
A Small Fintech Stock Surged 2,400% After Announcing It’s a Crypto Company - uptown
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-12-18/fintech-mircocap-stock-jumps-2-400-after-touting-crypto-link
======
cik2e
The most mind-boggling thing about the crypto market is the valuations for
abandoned projects. There have been plenty of teams that have stopped putting
out any updates shortly after the ICO, yet their tokens are still trading at
decent multipliers over the buy-in price. I can understand the bubbliness of
the coins that show promise, but the fact that the exit scams aren't being
decimated in the market is really troubling me.

~~~
yks
or even abandoned "forks" like Ethereum Classic for that matter

------
mv4
I remember the days when adding the word "e-commerce" to your penny stock had
the same effect.

Good times.

~~~
pavlov
Back in the dot-com days there was a fish processing company called Zapata
that decided to become an Internet portal. As their stock soared, Zapata tried
to buy Excite.com for $1.6 billion in stock but didn't succeed.

Zapata finally pulled the plug in January 2001:

 _" The news of Zap's demise marks the end of an era. The Internet business
was so heady back in 1998, when the portal-wanna-be first came on the scene,
that people scoffed only slightly at the news that an animal by-products
company was taking on Yahoo! in the battle for those formerly coveted
viewers."_

[https://www.forbes.com/2001/01/09/0109zapata.html#70a49b773a...](https://www.forbes.com/2001/01/09/0109zapata.html#70a49b773a8b)

We're probably nearing the point where the Zapatas of this crypto-token boom
start using their inflated valuations to try to acquire more traditional tech
companies.

~~~
mv4
I am starting to see the same patterns.

------
vfulco
Saw the same countless times during Internet 1.0. In one case, a small
uninspiring Florida bank said they were starting a website. Stock went from 8
to 92 in a day. It's called a bubble folks. Study history lest you get
permanently burned when it explodes.

~~~
zghst
Yeah but after the bubble there’s always big players that emerge. Just have to
outlast the wave

~~~
jgalt212
what big players emerged after the tulip bubble?

~~~
tonyjstark
according to [0], the tulip bubble was not as big as most people would think

[0][https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/there-never-was-
real-...](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/there-never-was-real-tulip-
fever-180964915/)

------
philfrasty
Another FORMER biotech NOW crypto stock RIOT
[https://medium.com/@jillcarlson/the-riot-
act-f29a2557498f](https://medium.com/@jillcarlson/the-riot-act-f29a2557498f)

~~~
AznHisoka
Yep. Be careful with shorting stocks like these. RIOT just went up another 35%
today. Markets can stay irrational for quite awhile...

~~~
tehlike
I wish they had a year in puts. Or two. Hell of a gain there.

------
LeeHwang
Well I see bitcoin talks by instagram models saying they are bitcoin gurus now
too.

I'm inclined to think bitcoin is a bubble, but cryptotech is the future.

~~~
vintageseltzer
Can you share some links please? I'm morbidly curious.

~~~
j4ship
leave please

~~~
dang
We've banned this account for repeatedly violating the site guidelines. If you
don't want to be banned on HN, you're welcome to email hn@ycombinator.com and
give us reason to believe that you'll follow the rules in the future.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

------
turc1656
As it so happens, I just created a brand new company. We have no idea what
we're going to do, or how we're going to monetize it. But we're definitely
going to use blockchain technology. If you are having any doubts, we are
willing to provide a brand new coin linked to our company in lieu of stock to
assuage any concerns you may have about securing your investment. Who's ready
to throw money at us? /sarcasm

~~~
pimmen
I'm still a bit sceptical, I only invest in companies that use "machine
learning" at least twice in their marketing material.

------
anticipation
\- Shady - Check

\- AI- Check

\- Small Float -Check

\- Blockchain - Cherry on the cake

Here's some background of the promoter. Venkat Meenavalli is the CEO of the
Longfin. Here's the brief background for you to understand.

\- Promoted another listed company North Gate Technology in India, name
changed to Green Fire Agri Commodities touched a price of Rs.1587 in 2007 and
now it trades at Rs.0.59

\- Promoter of Ziddu.com owned by Meridian (Singapore based company owned 95%
by Venkat) was a file sharing website (see internet archives) and was paying
people to host content. Most of it was just pirated content like megaupload
and rapidshare

\- Promoted Stampede Capital which is part of the transaction in LongFin in
India listed at Rs. 33 currently trades at Rs.7.5 and Usha Meenavalli
(promoter group) has been selling 100k+ of shares every month since January
2016, supposedly to fund the listing of the company in Singapore.

As a reminder, there are no financials of this company LONGFIN, no regulatory
details on shares outstanding, and no direct evidence of a business model that
makes any money. Currently under investigation for insider trading.

------
jgalt212
> On November 25, 1998, during the dot com bubble, the stock price soared from
> $3 per share to $38.94 on November 27, 1998 and an intra-day high of $47.00
> on November 30, 1998 after the company announced an updated website. Two
> weeks later, the share price was back down to $10. By 2000, the share price
> had returned to $3.[7][8] Those days included suspenseful times for day
> traders, such as when the stock moved up 6 points in 13 minutes.[7] During
> this time, insiders sold hundreds of thousands of shares.[7]

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Books-A-
Million](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Books-A-Million)

------
ithinkinstereo
_“Longfin corp, a leading global FinTech company, announces the acquisition of
Ziddu.com, a Blockchain-empowered solutions provider that offers Microfinance
Lending against Collateralized Warehouse Receipts in the form of Ziddu Coins
"_

~~~
tehlike
That is deep. Trying to wrap my head around what it means.

------
lspears
Bubble?

~~~
quickben
Continuous QE spilled in everything else, assets, stocks, latest is crypto.

At some point, math kicks in and it will have to reset.

Coincidentally, why else do you think Trump is trying to bring everything back
home?

Note: I am not from the USA and am not trying to start a political argument
here. It's merely a macroeconomy observation.

~~~
winslow
Could you expand on your thoughts for Trump trying to bring everything back
home? Genuinely curious what your thoughts are and not from a political stand
point :) Thanks.

~~~
craftyguy
It gets him votes, part of the "make 'merica great again" propaganda. In other
news, he and his relatives will continue to outsource where ever they can.

~~~
winslow
I realize you aren't OP but I do understand the "making America great again"
getting him votes by saying he's bringing back jobs. However, that's a
political response that deflects from the real issues at hand.

What I am curious about is the quantitative easing we witnessed due to the
2008 Financial & Housing crisis and how that is being handled both in the
economy and the governments around the world. The Fed interest rate is still
at a historic low having just recently bumped to 1.5% [1]. For instance one of
the view points I've heard is that Trump is trying to deregulate as much as
possible in order to avoid the economy crashing. Maybe that a makes a
correction from QE worse in the future. Maybe Trump is indeed just trying to
siphon as much money/tax breaks as possible but I'm curious about the macro
economics currently in play from different world viewpoints.

[1] - [https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/interest-
rate](https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/interest-rate)

~~~
quickben
The developed world mostly started following USA with QE+bailout based
currency supply policy.

Now that USA is playing a different game the rest will probably follow that
too.

It's just that the USA is ahead of the game again.

------
nikolay
So, sprinkle some crypto crap on a company and create "value" out of thin
air...

~~~
rsynnott
See also, “AI”, “social”.

------
mentalgainz
It's not about the crypto for me.It's about the technology behind them that
excites me. Blockchain is definitely worth the hype in my opinion. Reading
this article got me even more excited on the applications of blockchain:

[https://passivetalks.com/the-top-venture-funded-
blockchain-t...](https://passivetalks.com/the-top-venture-funded-blockchain-
technology-companies/)

~~~
wybiral
Crypto is the tech behind the blockchain. And the blockchain is the tech
behind these cryptocurrencies.

How did "crypto" start to mean "cryptocurrency" to people?

When this cryptocurrency stuff crashes I hope there isn't some media backlash
against crypto, in general.

~~~
pimmen
I actually kind of do hope there is. In a climate of sceptics only the
strongest businesses survives. When there's a bear market, I look around at
what companies are still doing good and snatch some shares.

Intelligent VCs that really understand and value the tech are going to make a
killing and good, sound business plans become the norm rather than the
exception for crypto companies then.

Sure, the engineer in me weeps that all the cool technical progress might slow
down when investor money dries up after a burst bubble, but hopefully academic
institutions will pick up the slack.

~~~
thisacctforreal
OP meant "backlash against crypto in general" as in backlash against
cryptography in general. OP was using "crypto" as short for cryptography.

I remember telling one of my relatives that I was looking into schooling for
cryptography, and they had it confused for cartography.

Crypto might end up being colloquially short for cryptocurrency in mainstream
circles.

~~~
pimmen
Yeah, I understand, and there's lots of problems left for engineers to work on
when it comes to cryptography in general, such as in embedded systems now that
self driving cars and IOT devices become prime targets.

I think it's good if investors raise their eye brow sceptically and say "a
cryptography company you say?" thinking about a cryptocurrency bubble, because
then us engineers really have to step up our game and show rather than tell
what we can do. As it is now, you just have to speak about the future rather
than actually implement something at a reasonable cost today before investors
go nuts, as evidenced by the subject of the OP's article.

