{"id":73583,"date":"2025-06-18T10:33:55","date_gmt":"2025-06-18T17:33:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=73583"},"modified":"2025-06-18T10:33:55","modified_gmt":"2025-06-18T17:33:55","slug":"unpacking-the-hopes-and-hazards-of-cryptocurrency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=73583","title":{"rendered":"Unpacking the Hopes and Hazards of Cryptocurrency"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By<\/span>Selen Ozturk<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Cryptocurrency has been hailed as a decentralized way to build wealth, and denounced for volatility and politician endorsements.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Since Bitcoin\u2019s launch in 2009, cryptocurrency has been hailed as a decentralized way to build wealth, and denounced for pump-and-dump volatility and politician endorsements.<\/p>\n

The largest-ever\u00a0study<\/a>\u00a0of U.S. cryptocurrency holders, conducted in 2025, finds that one in five U.S. adults, or 55 million, are using cryptocurrency; 76% of respondents said it had a positive impact on their lives, 21% were neutral and only 3% said the impact was negative.<\/p>\n

Of the 10,000 respondents, 52% said they were most interested in using cryptocurrency to invest in their future and 39% said they use it to pay for goods and services.<\/p>\n

Decrypting cryptocurrency<\/h2>\n

\u201cThis is what crypto does: If I\u2019m walking down the street and hand someone one dollar \u2026 I can do that any time, any day, and they\u2019re still able to use that value,\u201d said Tyrone Ross, CEO and co-founder of\u00a0Turnqey Labs<\/a>\u00a0and principal at 401 Financial. \u201cThey don\u2019t need to know my name. I don\u2019t need to know theirs. It\u2019s the ability to send value anywhere in the world at any time to anyone without the approval or lack thereof of a third party, like a bank.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2021, the World Bank reported 1.4 billion people unbanked worldwide; the FDIC reported that this includes 5.6 million U.S. households, or 1 in 25.<\/p>\n

As of 2023, an estimated 12.3 million Americans live in\u00a0banking deserts<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a great inequity when it comes to financial markets, not to mention how expensive it is to be poor in this country \u2026 for instance, with checking account fees,\u201d said Ross. \u201cWhat crypto ultimately does is act like a flashlight on the inequities that exist in the current financial markets and infrastructure, not only in the United States but the world \u2026 and it ushers in new ways for folks to have control over when and how you move your funds.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAccessing funds in real time matters, because if I need to pay my rent on a Friday and get paid then, and my money doesn\u2019t clear my bank account until Monday \u2014 and God forbid it\u2019s a holiday, and I get that money on Tuesday \u2014 that means I\u2019m getting evicted today, and my things are on the road on Saturday,\u201d he continued. \u201cBeyond the U.S., real-time transfers can matter even more in getting around fees.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2023, an\u00a0estimated<\/a>\u00a0$857 billion in remittances was sent from the U.S., with a global average of 6.4% in fees for every $200 sent.<\/p>\n

As of 2023, annual U.S. remittance fees totalled $13.1 billion \u2014 an 8% rise since 2022.<\/p>\n

This number would rise even more under the 3.5% remittance tax included in President Trump\u2019s \u201cOne Big Beautiful Bill<\/a>,\u201d which passed the U.S. House of Representatives on May 22 and now faces a Senate vote expected in late June, with a final budget deadline of July 4.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are bad actors, scammers, just like in every other sector,\u201d added Ross. \u201cThat\u2019s always been there. But it\u2019s one thing to keep people out by telling them it\u2019s scammy, and another to educate them and give them a way to transact and save their money. How could you advocate for underserved people and be against that?\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n

A 2021 Pew\u00a0survey<\/a>\u00a0found that 24% of Asian American and 21% of Black or Hispanic adults said they held or used cryptocurrency, compared to 14% of White adults.<\/p>\n

In 2022, the median White U.S. household had approximately half the wealth of the median Asian American household, five times the median Hispanic household and six times the median Black household, according to a\u00a0Federal Reserve survey<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The risks<\/h2>\n

\u201cWhen you consider the U.S. racial wealth gap, financial losses \u2014 even in small amounts \u2014 can have a more profound impact on families that have already faced structural disadvantages in accessing and accumulating wealth,\u201d said Cantrell Dumas, director of derivatives policy at\u00a0Better Markets<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the most significant crypto risks is volatility,\u201d he continued. \u201cPrices have shown dramatic fluctuations, rising or falling by double digits in very short time frames for investors with little to no financial cushion.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnother area of concern is fraud and scams,\u201d he continued, \u201cincluding Ponzi schemes, fake investment platforms, phishing scams and impersonation tactics, all often delivered through mobile apps, social media channels \u2026 or Bitcoin ATM deposits directed by scammers impersonating government or tech support representatives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Estimated losses in cryptocurrency-related scams surged 66% from an estimated $5.6 billion in 2023 to $9.3 billion in 2024 with over 140,000 complaints filed, according to FBI data.<\/p>\n

In the first half of 2024 alone, over $65 million in losses owed to scams involving Bitcoin ATMs.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy and large, cryptocurrencies are not backed by any central authority, so there is no one watching for massive fluctuations or great losses,\u201d said Elizabeth Kwok, managing director of\u00a0FTI Consulting<\/a>\u00a0and former assistant director of the Federal Trade Commission.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany of the scams associated with cryptocurrencies are not new or unique. It\u2019s just that the new lure is the digital asset,\u201d she continued. \u201cScammers and fraudsters will trade on that sense of you having missed out on your chance to get rich quick.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cryptocurrency under Trump<\/h2>\n

\u201cWith certain members of the White House now having their own coins on the market, signs indicate a loosening of enforcement in the cryptocurrency space,\u201d added Kwok.<\/p>\n

The new head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau \u2014 the main U.S. agency tasked with overseeing fairness in financial products and services used by Americans \u2014 shuttered the agency\u2019s headquarters last February and laid off 90% of employees last April.<\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Trump, during his first term in office, was no fan of cryptocurrency. In one\u00a0interview<\/a>, he called bitcoin \u2018a scam against the dollar\u2019 \u2026 That obviously changed, and that was the result of a concerted lobbying effort,\u201d said Zeke Faux, investigative reporter and author of \u201cNumber Go Up: Inside Crypto\u2019s Wild Rise and Staggering Fall.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n

In the 2024 election cycle, the cryptocurrency industry exceeded $238 million in political spending, accounting for 48% of all corporate political contributions and surpassing the oil and gas industry and the pharmaceutical industry.<\/p>\n

As of June, not real estate but cryptocurrency constitutes the majority of Trump\u2019s wealth, with $3.3 billion of a total $5.5 billion tied up in the industry.<\/p>\n

After taking office, Trump appointed former cryptocurrency lobbyist Paul Atkins to head the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) \u201cand the administration dropped almost all of the lawsuits they\u2019d filed against crypto companies, so the government\u2019s position went from \u2018Most of this is probably illegal\u2019 to \u2018Everything is fine,\u2019\u201d said Faux. \u201cA few weeks later, he announced that he and his family were getting into the business themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

From his first venture alone, involving a stake in World Liberty Financial tokens in 2024, Trump pocketed over $57 million. The largest buyer, billionaire Justin Sun, bought $75 million in the coins while facing an SEC lawsuit; after his purchase, the lawsuit was dropped into settlement talks.<\/p>\n

$TRUMP, a meme coin released earlier this year, earned Trump an estimated $320 million.<\/p>\n

In late May, the president\u2019s social media company Trump Media and Technology Group announced it would raise roughly $2.5 billion to invest in bitcoin. This month, the company made two cryptocurrency ETF\u00a0filings<\/a>\u00a0with the SEC seeking approval to launch a bitcoin and ethereum exchange-traded fund.<\/p>\n

\u201cCertainly if someone wants special favors, there\u2019s now a really good way to give the president\u2019s family money,\u201d said Faux. \u201cThe Trump administration is setting the rules for cryptocurrency, and these rules will affect all of our business.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BySelen Ozturk Jun 17, 2025 Cryptocurrency...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=73583"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73583\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73584,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73583\/revisions\/73584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=73583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=73583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=73583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}