Are Greedy Business Pundits Making A Killing By Fleecing Cryptocurrency Buyers?

A great deal has been made about CNBC’s “promotion” of a number of cryptocurrencies, and the dubious connections between the network and the currencies in question.  Most notable is their promotion of Bitcoin Cash (BCC), which they did not only via their own network, but via their Twitter account:

Amusingly, CNBC has not deleted this tweet, in spite of the fact that Bitcoin Cash is down about 70% from the erroneous level it traded during its Coinbase rollout.  And though Coinbase added Bitcoin Cash to its network on December 19th…

…the BCC-BTC pair saw a breakout above 0.1 BTC just before the rollout, indicating someone that was “tipped off” of Coinbase’s impending announcement and buying BCC to get ahead of the “rush” of Coinbase buyers.

Though CNBC did mention the report of insider trading, they made sure to omit their own interests in Bitcoin Cash.  Twitter user “WhalePanda” exposed CNBC’s questionable connections to Bitcoin Cash soon after they began reporting on the Coinbase rollout:

To my knowledge, no member of CNBC’s staff has disclosed whether (or not) they are invested in any cryptocurrencies, and if so, which ones they happen to own.  While this behavior might technically be legal due to the unregulated nature of cryptocurrency markets, the ethically reprehensible nature of CNBC’s conduct cannot be understated, and is even worse if they are in fact selling the same assets they are simultaneously hyping up on cable television.

CNBC’s response when called out on its conduct?

Clearly, CNBC has no regard for whoever is “run over” taking their cryptocurrency trading advice.

This is something to bear in mind when CNBC goes out of their way to promote Ripple (XRP) on their network:

While it was trading at around $0.20 a few months ago, it’s now worth more than $2.25 per coin. Ripple is a little different than many other popular cryptocurrencies because it was created by a private, for-profit company that is still the biggest individual owner of the currency.

But ripple isn’t as easy to buy as bitcoin or other popular cryptocurrencies, since it isn’t available in popular apps such as Coinbase.

That means you need to jump through a few hoops to buy it. I tried several methods and think I’ve come up with the easiest:

Again, CNBC fails to disclose whether or not its employees are trading the assets they are “teaching” its viewers about.  Their content is even more questionable when you compare the dates of their release and live-buying of $20,000 worth of XRP on live TV to the XRP chart:

CNBC explained to its viewers “how to buy” XRP on January 5th, near the product’s price peak.  Anyone who took CNBC’s advice certainly feels like a sucker, as XRP is down over 30% from its highs.  However, those same viewers would likely be furious if they found out CNBC employees were selling XRP at the same moment as they were sharing their “how-to” on buying XRP.

Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised at the ethical (and moral) dishonesty of cable TV “shilling” cryptocurrencies that their executives have stakes in.  And while it may be legal, it is not wrong to ask for a higher moral standard from those who offer financial advice, especially on major cable networks.

As such, this author will be offering the disclosure that CNBC has not:

Disclosure: I own a number of cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and Ethereum.  I do not own Bitcoin Cash or Ripple, though I own a percentage of a fund that does own Ripple.  While I once wrote about a potential project I was interested in, I have no financial interest whatsoever in said project at this time.

While I challenge CNBC to offer the same disclosure, I imagine that request would likely fall on deaf ears.  After all, how many people would take their network seriously, if they were doing the exact opposite of the “advice” they were disclosing?

Exercise caution when taking any advice mainstream media gives out on cryptocurrency trading – you could be buying what they are selling.  Literally.