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They won’t. The desire for making a quick buck is too strong. The avalanche of marketing around crypto is going to lead many gullible people to “invest” in cryp

by pm90 5y ago

They won’t. The desire for making a quick buck is too strong. The avalanche of marketing around crypto is going to lead many gullible people to “invest” in crypto and lose their money. Unless regulators shut them down or expose them quite clearly as mlm/ frauds I suspect this isn’t going to stop.

capableweb 5y ago
> Unless regulators shut them down or expose them quite clearly as mlm/ frauds I suspect this isn’t going to stop. It seems, based on this action that the SEC just went through with, that things like BlockFi are not "clearly MLM / fraud" as you say, as otherwise they would indeed try to get them shutdown, not just slap a tiny fine on them.
- cuteboy19 5y ago
  The SEC doesn't do MLMs. Herbalife and Lularoe operate in broad daylight. The US has always been very kind to such scams
  - dragonwriter 5y ago
    > The SEC doesn't do MLMs. It does if they are selling securities (either as their main business or securities for their business). The FTC does regular MLMs. > Herbalife and Lularoe operate in broad daylight. Herbalife was restructured to settle a pyramid-scheme lawsuit by the FTC. [0] And subsequently also settled a lawsuit from the SEC. [1] LulaRoe has managed not to be sued by the FTC, but that seems mostly to be because that process is complaint driven and the complaints have instead either gone to state regulators or directly into private lawsuits; LulaRoe has a pile of direct- and class-action lawsuits from distributors, settled a State of Washington lawsuit for $4.75 million, has been sued by it's main supplier, etc. [0] https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/2016/07/restructured-herbalife https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/2016/07/restructured-herba... [1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/lisettevoytko/2019/09/27/herbalife-pays-sec-20-million-to-settle-charges-it-misled-investors/?sh=3d0aa41c580b https://www.forbes.com/sites/lisettevoytko/2019/09/27/herbal...

by pm90 5y ago

capableweb 5y ago

> Unless regulators shut them down or expose them quite clearly as mlm/ frauds I suspect this isn’t going to stop. It seems, based on this action that the SEC just went through with, that things like BlockFi are not "clearly MLM / fraud" as you say, as otherwise they would indeed try to get them shutdown, not just slap a tiny fine on them.

cuteboy19 5y ago
The SEC doesn't do MLMs. Herbalife and Lularoe operate in broad daylight. The US has always been very kind to such scams
- dragonwriter 5y ago
  > The SEC doesn't do MLMs. It does if they are selling securities (either as their main business or securities for their business). The FTC does regular MLMs. > Herbalife and Lularoe operate in broad daylight. Herbalife was restructured to settle a pyramid-scheme lawsuit by the FTC. [0] And subsequently also settled a lawsuit from the SEC. [1] LulaRoe has managed not to be sued by the FTC, but that seems mostly to be because that process is complaint driven and the complaints have instead either gone to state regulators or directly into private lawsuits; LulaRoe has a pile of direct- and class-action lawsuits from distributors, settled a State of Washington lawsuit for $4.75 million, has been sued by it's main supplier, etc. [0] https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/2016/07/restructured-herbalife https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/2016/07/restructured-herba... [1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/lisettevoytko/2019/09/27/herbalife-pays-sec-20-million-to-settle-charges-it-misled-investors/?sh=3d0aa41c580b https://www.forbes.com/sites/lisettevoytko/2019/09/27/herbal...