The below is a direct excerpt of Marty’s Bent Issue #1212: “Save a friend, tell them to get out of the Coinbase casino.“Sign up for the newsletter here.
You’ll often hear “Bitcoin maximalists” derided for being anti-free market when cautioning newcomers to stay away from altcoins and the exchanges that push them. Those snake oil salesmen who hiss at Bitcoiners often say that they are simply afraid of competition and don’t want to admit that “Bitcoin has stagnated” and “the devs have gone elsewhere.” In reality, many Bitcoiners warn newcomers to stay away from shitcoins and the casinos that list them for trading because they have seen hoards of people led to slaughter by the siren calls of opportunists who care not about human freedom, sound money or decentralization, but being able to make as much money as possible. No matter how unethically it is acquired.
I highly recommend you freaks — especially any of you who have fallen prey to the siren calls of “a better Bitcoin” — to read through this thread from Sam Callahan, which dives into the overtly predatory tactics of Coinbase and their penchant for listing pre-mined altcoins that are utter trash and get auto-dumped on an unsuspecting retail market. Not only that, but Coinbase tends to hide bitcoin deep in the app so their customers overlook it or simply never find it. They are much more incentivized to siphon off fees from shitcoin trading than actually educating individuals about bitcoin and helping them acquire as much as possible.
I would call it a shame, but it’s really worse than that. It’s quite disgusting actually and Coinbase and its backers should be utterly ashamed of themselves for engaging in this type of bucket shop activity. A once somewhat respectable brand has completely turned itself into a contemptible bad actor that should be avoided at all costs.
Save yourself, your family and friends. Get your bitcoin off Coinbase and advise your network to do the same.