Ripple doesn’t know what 'market cap' means

By Ben Munster

Welcome to The Daily Debrief. This edition is dedicated to the conscientious and courageous members of the XRP Army, wherever they are.

OUR STUFF

Arcade City and the Battle of Austin

Crypto-positive, employee-owned, almost-on-a-blockchain, Uber competitor Arcade City was the target of a sting this week in Austin, Texas! Which, quite coincidentally, is where our man Guillermo Jimenez happens to live. Talk about news falling into your lap. Thrill to Jimenez's antics as he rouses himself from his well-worn, leather recliner to see what all the fuss is about, right HERE.

Joining a Roomba Line

Neat freak and anal-retentive-enthusiast Ben Munster answered the question on all of our minds today—what’s that Roomba doing on the blockchain? Need we tempt you more? Check out the article here.

The slow decline of Tim’s mental faculty

Tim’s bizarre meltdown continues. Today, he follows up on yesterday’s “news” that KYC docs from crypto exchange Binance were hacked (with “evidence”)—itself a follow-up of a another, generally reviled article that the hack was “fake news” (“no evidence”)—with a BREAKING STORY that Binance actually, once again, wasn’t hacked. To make his spurious case, Tim relies largely on the same vaporous PR statements that made his original piece such a tragic flop. We wonder what tomorrow will bring. Amazingly, these so-called “stories” actually generate traffic. Follow the herd, here.

Deep Davos

Decrypt contributor Mark Turrell gives us the goods on Davos, where the World Economic Forum is currently in full swing. Turrell, a blockchain entrepreneur, recounts two-hour sleeps, debauched Shabbos dinners and...saving Zimbabwe? We’ll leave you to be the judge.

OTHER STUFF

Schloverstock

Online retailer Overstock is now selling securities-registered “tZERO” tokens to accredited investors. You can get them via broker-dealer Dinosaur Financial Group, LLC, if you must. So why is the shoe-seller pursuing this dubious business model? Money, and publicity is our wager.

ICO-a-No-No

A lawsuit filed by a disgruntled Chinese investor alleges that Israeli crypto-upstart Moshe Hogeg, the founder of “prediction market” Stox, skimped on promises made during his $34 million ICO. Stox’s whitepaper had supposedly offered assurances that all $34 million would be funneled into the project—as yet unfinished—making it successful and generating dividends for investors. But Hogeg is alleged to have invested only $5 million of the sum raised into his operations, choosing to blow the rest on....other ICOs. For which he was presumably (allegedly) defrauded as well. All’s well that ends well.

Ripple doesn’t know what ‘market cap’ means

Ripple responded to allegations made by Messari that it had overstated its $13 billion market cap by some $6.1 billion by insisting that the number was indeed higher, at $31 billion. To pull off this logical ju jitsu, Ripple deployed an, er, incorrect definition of what a “market cap” is.

“The term ‘market cap’ is always a very simple calculation: current price X total number of the asset = market capitalization,” the company told Coindesk. What? Says who? Typically, “market cap” is equal to the price multiplied by “outstanding shares.” This number is distinct from “X total number of the asset,” which Ripple equates it with. An “outstanding share” is specifically a share held by investors. Other shares—which do not factor into market cap—may include “treasury shares,” those held by the company. [Ed. Where are you getting this from, Munster?] [Ben. Skimmed half a paragraph on Wikipedia.] [Ed. Clever, lad!]

Of course, Ripple could class itself as an investor, given that the origin of its famously large Ripple stock—which Messari asserts is partially locked in escrow, so out of circulation—is the subject of a fierce debate/class-action lawsuit. But that would be to liberate the word “investor” of any meaning. Ripple’s own executives have described XRP’s rising price as a source of income, and it allegedly exercises close control over certain XRP “gateways”—exchanges able to freeze users’ assets. It has also directly admitted to having minted all 100 billion XRP from scratch. (Which it then contradicted.) Doesn’t sound much like an “investor” to us.

Written by Ben M, the world’s most lonely man. Send him encouraging thoughts and love beams at ben@decryptmedia.com.

Recommended News