But what gives $APE any value to begin with? It’s not directly, legally tied to the profits of Yuga Labs, the parent company of BAYC — that would make it a totally illegal security. In a literal sense, owning the token only allows you to vote in matters of concern to the decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) that formed around the currency.... See more

OpenSea, the world’s largest NFT marketplace, is eerily similar to any other exchange platform: In return for making transactions easier and (modestly) safer, the company takes a 2.5% cut of every transaction. The largest crypto company, Coinbase, operates the same way — it has industry-high fees (based on an opaque fee structure) and a CEO who’s... See more

The first part isn’t entirely unfair; scams and ponzi schemes are everywhere, and it seems clear that we are in the middle of an ever-inflating bubble. It’s also the case that an entire set of legitimate use cases are in reality regulatory arbitrage; crypto advocates are far too quick to ascribe all of the issues with the current monetary system to... See more