Newsletter Subscribers just wanna be Bitcoin Billionaires

The Wall Street Journal reports today, “Relatively few mainstream investors have bought large sums of bitcoin, scared off by concerns about cybersecurity and liquidity, as well as more mundane fears of investment losses,” in a story about Peter Thiel buying up lots of cybercoin for his funds including one called Founders.

Contrary to the WSJ’s reporting, Jim Grant spoke with investment newsletter maven Porter Stansberry on the “Grant’s of the air” podcast. Stansberry points out that his company spends $40 million a year marketing, which results in selling 250,000 to 500,000 subscriptions to financial periodicals each year.

Grant asked the pointed question of Porter, since selling financial periodicals is all about marketing, what do potential newsletter subscribers want or want to do?

In a word---Bitcoin, said Stansberry.  Everything Stansberry sold last year had to have a bitcoin hook or angle to it.  “We have to feed people the gruel they want,” he said.

Stansberry described many newsletter writers as “little more than con artists.”  His outfit is different, of course.  

Meanwhile, Mr. Thiel says, “While I’m skeptical of most of them, I do think people are a little bit underestimating bitcoin, specifically, because it is like a reserve form of money. If bitcoin ends up being the cyber equivalent of gold, it has great potential.”

“If” being the operative word. Rob Copeland writes, “Founders has also warned investors that bitcoin does share one potentially perilous similarity with more traditional venture capital investments: The digital currency could be worth nothing, or close to it, in the end.”

Bill Fleckenstein writes,

I would like to point out something that I think is very important. For those who haven't been paying close attention, for no reason at all in the early morning hours of Dec. 22 (and for the rest of the day), Bitcoin and other cryptos totally fell apart, as the former traded from around $18,000 down to $11,000. Since that time it has tried to mount a couple of comebacks but has been unable to. It's not possible to say that Bitcoin is finished just yet, but it could be.

The reason I bring that up is because of one important fact: there was absolutely no news, it just broke. Because that is what happens in manias, and chain letters, too, by the way: for no reason, they finally exhaust themselves

Fleck writes, “This video is hilarious. Save it to remember the Bitcoin hysteria.”