FTX’s Original Sin Is a Warning to All of Crypto

Meanwhile, the crypto industry is acting as if nothing went wrong. The price of Bitcoin is near a record high; also booming are so-called memecoins, a neologism referring to tokens that don’t even pretend to have a real business behind them beyond vibes. The bulk of trading still occurs on exchanges located in countries with extra-light regulation. Crypto boosters have even spun Bankman-Fried’s conviction—along with a guilty plea from the former head of the world’s largest exchange, Binance’s Changpeng Zhao, to criminal charges including laundering money for terrorists—as a positive. “We now have an opportunity to start a new chapter,” Brian Armstrong, the chief executive officer of Coinbase Global Inc., wrote on the social network X. In other words: Don’t worry, it’s safe to buy crypto again.