💲 Crypto Carnage in Aisle 1 💥

🔮 Welcome back to Finsights, fellow financial wizard. We’re here to explain the most important stock market news like a normal person.

• 🚨 Coinbase ($COIN) is the next victim in the SEC’s rampage

• 🏦 Metropolitan Bank ($MCB) and Customers Bancorp ($CUBI) might just be next

• 🖥️ GitLab $GTLB says it’ss time for software engineers to party on!

Coinbase, the Victim

🏦 Unlicensed Exchange? Confirmed! 1/ Just as we mentioned in yesterday’s newsletter, $COIN was indeed next in line on the SEC’s rampage against crypto companies. The stock is down -12% today. Ouch. 😖

🏦 Unlicensed Exchange? Confirmed! 2/ Similar to Binance, the SEC is suing Coinbase for operating as an unregistered and unlicensed exchange. Remember the example we gave yesterday about an unlicensed exchange being like a wild, rule-less flea market for stocks? Yep, the day of reckoning has come. Running an unlicensed exchange is illegal because it can lead to all kinds of problems, like fraud, manipulation, or unfair trading practices.

Your favorite altcoins are securities! / Did a tech bro tell you to buy Cardano because it is decentralized? 🤓 What about Solana because it could be the next Ethereum? Yep, the SEC has considered these (and many more) to be securities.

🏰 Brian’s House / Brian Armstrong, the founder and CEO of Coinbase would like to thank you though. He has sold every single share of Coinbase that he has ever owned and bought this $133 million mega-mansion in Bel-Air!

The Finsight 🐻 📉: continue to tread with caution. $COIN could be going to 0️⃣.

Metropolitan Bank and Customers Bancorp, the Facilitators

The SEC hates crypto 🤬 / That much we already know. The massive fraud at FTX has put the world’s largest exchange, Binance, and $COIN squarely in the spotlight.

The banks behind the scenes 🎭 / But none of this would have been made possible without Silvergate Capital ($SI) and Signature Bank of NY ($SBNY) processing payments for the crypto exchanges (*cough* crypto frauds cough) behind the scenes. These banks have both gone to 0, but this is old news now.

Who picked up the slack? / There have been a couple of new banks who have decided to play with fire. Enter the ring Metropolitan Bank ($MCB) and Customers Bancorp ($CUBI). Both banks have, and continue to, process payments for crypto exchanges. Why? We’re scratching our heads too, but we are guessing that the payoff to be the last people willing to bank crypto exchanges must be quite handsome.

The Finsight 🐻 📉: tread with caution. Like $COIN, $MCB and $CUBI could be the next outfits to go to go to 0️⃣.

/ “$COIN (Coinbase, the place you go to buy your crypto) gets a “show order” on why they cannot cease and desist from selling unregistered securities in 10 states.” 🛑 - 💲 Pocket Finsights

/ “With AI revolutionizing how companies develop, secure, and operate software, we believe GitLab is positioned as the leading AI-powered platform.” - $GTLB (GitLab, a digital workspace for software developers) after soaring +31% today

/ “But in some markets, there are so few homes for sale that sellers are bringing in multiple offers and don’t have to offer concessions” - $RDFN (Redfin, a national brokerage) after finding out that 7% mortgage rates aren’t hurting the housing market!

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Fin-specto Revelio!