Former SEC Attorney John Reed Stark Bashes NFTs, Calls Crypto ‘Affinity Fraud’

Former Chief of U.S. SEC Office of Internet Enforcement John Reed Stark compared all of the digital collectibles to the weirdest 1970s mania and indicated a number of promises that cryptocurrency has failed to deliver on.

Six failures of cryptocurrency and NFTs, indicated by John Reed Stark

Non-fungible tokens will be remembered as “pet rocks on steroids,” and the rest of fungible and non-fungible digital assets are on the fast track to the same status, or so says Bitcoin (BTC) skeptic John Reed Stark. He has published yet another anti-crypto tirade on X today, Sept. 21, 2023.

Ninety-five percent of digital collectibles became worthless in this bear market as their aggregated capitalization metrics dropped to zero values. The average price of NFTs outside of top-tier collections is about $5-$10, Stark says.

To some extent, the cryptocurrency segment has a whole has a lot in common with NFTs. Cryptocurrency failed as an investment because of regulatory uncertainty and plenty of opportunities for manipulation.

Also, the “store of value” and “currency” narratives are ruined: risks, volatility and taxes remain too high for people interested in using crypto for daily payments and cross-border money transfers.

In the same way, crypto failed to become the panacea for the unbanked, the former official admits.

“Grift, chicanery and fraud” in crypto’s DNA

Last but not least, cryptocurrency cannot be used as a hedge asset against market instability in a time of price collapses. It is still too far from achieving “blockchain revolution,” Stark concludes.

As such, affinity fraud is the only sphere in which the cryptocurrency ecosystem has succeeded, in Stark’s words:

This is one of the most important proclaimed benefits of crypto i.e. that crypto is a revolutionary equalizer for the unbanked and will cure historical issues of financial inclusion. And it also happens to be categorically false (…) Grift, chicanery and fraud are not just common and routine in the crypto-ecosystem — they are modus operandi and inherent criminal characteristics deeply rooted in crypto-ecosystem DNA in perpetuity.

As covered by U.Today previously, a seasoned finance expert recommended that all cryptocurrency users get rid off their assets and leave exchange platforms, in June 2023.