VLOG: Crypto Trading / Market Manipulation / OTC markets

So it's Black Friday today and whilst the crypto markets aren't going well, I'm gonna check out this amazing day today and we're gonna check out what's happening in Hong Kong. So we're gonna go to the OTC desk ask them what's going up and happening. We're gonna check out Genesis Block. So Genesis Block is one of the OTC desks here and they're right in the middle of Wan Chai. So if you ever visit this place, huge tip for you guys, right across there's a Rolls Goose place and that place has amazing Rolls Goose. If you're hungry, that's a great place to get fat. Apparently this is to keep the well inside and that's why there's a huge freaking ledge over here. Hey! I'm stuck outside. I'm stuck inside. All right, security. Security is tight nowadays. Oh yeah. True. So how's everything down at Genesis Block? Yeah, it's really great. I mean, I think the past few days I've seen quite a lot of people coming. Right, right. Probably because of the price. And you have the best view of the ATMs, right? So are people coming in and outside to buy crypto right now, buying the dip? I think so. Yeah. Buy and sell more actively right now. Buy the dip, whatever. Buy BTC. Got 0.01 for HK$500. That was easy. All right, so we grabbed Charles just now. And Charles is the head trader here at Genesis Block. Is that correct? That is correct. Thanks, Michael. You know, Michael, he's based in Hong Kong, so he's been here a few times. Always good to chat. Nice. So, okay, so we've been through a brutal crash right now, yet again. When did you guys first see this? Was it like, you know, did you guys see a stack up of sell or buy orders or is that confidential? Yeah, I mean, we can give some, you know, some of the things that we've been doing. So, we've been doing a lot of things that we've been doing. So, we've been doing a lot of things that we've been doing. So, we've been doing a lot of things that we've been doing. Yeah, I mean, we can give some, you know, we can share a little bit of information on what our flows are. It's been really quiet since September. Bitcoin was a sideways market. There was, you know, a good buildup for the whole Bitcoin Cash Fork. And there was plenty of coverage on, you know, Craig Wright being a maniac that he is. But it really escalated, you know, just in the beginning of November when they really decided there was no compromise and this is going to be war. So, you know, just looking at the timing of the crash, you can only point at, you know, the BCH war to be the main reason of the market crash. Yeah. So, do you think that they're kind of exploiting this situation for their gain as well? I mean, a lot of attentions will be drawn to them if they do manage to change the market in any way. So, I mean, do you think they use that as a publicity feature? Yeah, I think they probably haven't thought about it to that extent. If you've met people that are, you know, really passionate about Bitcoin Cash, they're actually really hard to talk to. They're so, you know, close-minded that, you know, they don't like BTC, they only care about BCH. And their vision is their vision. So, are you big here? Because I can't ignore the elephant in the room. Because this says Bitcoin Cash accepted here. This is like the stance that you're taking right now. Right. So, are you a Bitcoin Cash Maximus yourself? Yeah. So, I mean, our founders have been mining Bitcoin Cash for quite some time. We get our name Genesis Block because one of our farms mined maybe the third block of Bitcoin Cash. So, you know, like there's no, for me personally, there's no, you know, right and wrong. I just consider them different coins. But it's very disturbing when, you know, the comments that they make to each other get so out of hand, a lot of harsh words said. And it's really, you know, quite frustrating that it has to affect the rest of the markets. Yeah. Okay. So that's a very neutral take on it. Are you angry yourself? You know, like, do you hold a stake in Bitcoin Cash or Bitcoin? You know, like, what do you hold? Yeah. So I've never bought Bitcoin Cash in my life. Obviously, if you're in crypto, everyone has some Bitcoin. It's pretty much, you know, if you think of it like traditional equity, when big owners sell a certain stock, you'll see it dump. Very similar. You know, the markets aren't that liquid. If you're selling a thousand Bitcoins, a few thousand Bitcoins, prices are going to move. So from, you know, all these, you know, all the retail investors that we are trading with, it's really an opportunity. If you missed out last year, now's a great time to pick up some BTC. But right now we have an issue as well because there's a lot of funds that have shaky hands. I'm probably seeing a few of these capital funds or firms or even projects that have weak hands. Do you think that's going to be a factor right now or can you see evidence of that as a factor? Yeah. Crypto funds, you know, it's nothing new. Markets have been down pretty much all year. We saw a huge sell off in ETH and, you know, relevant altcoins in September. And there's still some left. It feels like there's more left. Especially this week, we've seen some ICOs sell. A lot of crypto funds that probably should close down have not. There was an interesting piece, I believe, out of BitMEX commenting that these fund managers, obviously they get nothing for this year. But the problem is next year, even if they double their NAV, like if they double their portfolio value, technically they're not up. So they're actually incentivized to just close and start over. So I think that means there's going to be continuous sell pressure. Right, right, right. And where do you see this stopping? Like where do you see China becoming a big factor as well? Do you deal with Chinese investors here? Yeah, you know, one of our key strengths is having a good channel for a mainland flow. You know, surprisingly, a lot of very high net worth individuals there that, you know, obviously have bank accounts in Hong Kong or overseas. So we trade with them a lot. You know, like the whole crackdown is very shallow. You know, no social media, no events. Sure. But in reality, one of the most, you know, liquid markets is China OTC. Right. And the government knows exactly where to find it, but they've never taken action to shut it down. Right, right. So they kind of know what's happening, but then they're just like, you know what? Okay, just don't talk about it. Yeah. So that's what we're getting is like media blackouts. So we have less and less people who are willing to take a stance to talk about China. It's kind of like taboo now. All the funds are like, okay. Right. And then, so the west and the east and the west divide is actually getting bigger. Right. And the west kind of believes that China's out of the picture. But, yeah. I mean, you know, the numbers you see in the media probably won't be accurate. OTC flows are very hard to gauge. So definitely China is a huge market, at least for us. And I think it will continue to be the case. Yeah. About you're Korean as well, right? So what about Korea? So where do you see that standing? So I was fortunate enough to spend some time in Korea a couple of weeks ago just to catch up on with the exchanges and the crypto funds. Obviously there's a very good group of accelerators such as Hash and Foundation X, so on. You know, it's been very quiet with the new investments. Exchanges feel, you know, a bit overwhelmed by the competition. And surprisingly, they don't have a good roadmap for next year on how they can kind of innovate and give a better experience to the users. So, you know, it's pretty bearish overall. Right. I would say the only good thing that I've seen recently is the Kimchi Premium is back. Really? It's back? I think it's averaged at maybe 4% this week. Okay. So, you know, hopefully that means more Koreans will be interested in trading with, you know, firms like us that are outside of Korea. Right. One of the things that I was in, because I did actually visit, shoutouts to the Seoul Bitcoin Center over there. So I did pay a visit to them. And they said last time there was a lot of kind of people treating this like a Starcraft game. You know, they'll be like scalping and having like five, six, six, 600 PM. Right. Right. Right. Yeah. Something crazy like that. Do you see that still happening? Yeah. So, you know, if you're talking about the automated trading, is that what you're referring to? No, just like people in land shops just trading. Because like apparently like Bitcoin trading, crypto trading became up to the top. Okay. You're talking about day trading manually. Yeah, day trading manually. Like just manually scalping. People who play Starcraft just quitting Starcraft and say, fuck that shit. That doesn't make me money. I'm going to trade and use my like crazy skills to just like. I don't know. I mean, I would say good luck with that. But, you know, it's been proven that if you're a retail investor, day trading is normally not profitable. This is outside of crypto as well, right? Like the fees will get to you and you can't win on every trade. Market manipulation can be a real thing, especially in crypto. And retail investors don't have the protection, right? Right. I mean, I don't know if you want to talk about OKEX, but you know. Okay, let's talk about OKEX. You're dying. You're like, okay, I want to talk about AK. I don't know if you want to talk about it, but I want to talk about it. Okay. So you've been chasing up OKEX a lot recently over the futures trading. So can you tell us what's happening? Yeah. So, you know, to be transparent, Genesis Block, we don't do any market making. We don't do any automated trading. However, we do have friends that, you know, are doing this at a very large scale. So I think most of you would have seen Amber AI put out, you know, they're just calling out OKEX. Oh, right here. Yeah. Yeah. Calling them out and basically saying, you know, the moves they've made, it's not the first time. So there's been cases where their matching engines failed and it caused something called a clawback, which means all the futures traders had to pay out of their own pocket to cover OKEX's loss. Right. Right. So they messed up. Sorry, just give me a second. Right. Just making sure we're going. Yeah. So they messed up and they kind of just said, OK, you know what? I don't want to foot the bill. Yeah. But let's get traders to do that. Yeah. So, I mean, they had an insurance fund for this kind of scenario. That was like 10 Bitcoins, right? Yeah. It was a joke. I mean, you know, they've expanded that a little bit now. But, you know, the recent issue was around the Bitcoin Cash futures trading. These are contracts that basically, you know, the contracts are derived from an index price. During trading, they decided to change that. And to make it worse, they decided to close all the contracts ahead of schedule. So, as you know. That's why you're breaking a contract, right? Yeah. Like your contract says, OK, it expires at this date and then like, oh. To be, you know, very specific, I'm sure in that very long document, they have a clause saying they can change it at any time. Well, force majeure, right? Right. Unseen for circumstances, but still. Yeah. So, you know, they can justify it all day. But at the end of the day, a lot of crypto funds were using this position to hedge, you know, whatever position they have on Bitcoin Cash. Maybe they were speculating, but it's a huge, you know, it causes a huge panic in the market. If suddenly, you know, one side of your position has disappeared, it means you have to liquidate the other side. So, people that cannot short and they have a long position, they all need to sell. So, it's just, you know, it's hectic. And OKEx knows this is going to happen. But, oh, I don't know. I don't know. You know. OK. All right. Read between the lines, guys. Read between the lines. Yeah. That's interesting. So, were you pretty upset about this personally? Yeah. I mean, you know, didn't have a position on Bitcoin Cash. So, you know. OK. But you're upset for general climate. Yeah. I mean, it's just not good for the space. You know, this kind of news was published by really large, you know, global publications. So, if we want crypto to become mainstream, we need to get rid of all of this junk. This is, you know, this is not ethical. People actually lose real money for this. Yeah. Yeah. So, when do you feel that we can get rid of this junk? You know, like, do you see this junk going away in the next month or years? You know, what time frame do you think that this stuff kind of like, you know. I don't know. I mean, you know, I have some friends who are lawyers in the crypto space. I can't really say I'm an expert and know exactly what's going on, but it's very slow, right? Like, these, unless they're registered in that specific jurisdiction, there's not a whole lot, you know, that a government can do. So, I think it's going to be a while. You know, hopefully there will be newer platforms coming out that are fully regulated, so investors actually feel they have some protection. And, you know, hopefully that becomes more mainstream and the less, you know, ethical kind of platforms will slowly die down. Yeah. Hope that happens, man. Yeah. Well, hopefully you guys do well and I'll see you next week or a little bit more. When Bitcoin drops to like 3K, we'll talk again. Yeah. Deal. Cool. Thanks, Michael. Cheers. So, one thing that Charles said that was pretty interesting is that a lot of fund managers, they might even want to opt to close down the funds, refund, liquidate, and then go back and create a new fund. Because this year, in terms of performance, they wouldn't do well. And next year, because it's an average, and well, if they can't do well, they can't make any money. On the other note as well, been checking out some cool sales here. Nothing, but there's a hell of a lot of people here in Chemtrail. Anyways, let's go back to crypto and get some Black Friday discounts. Hi, guys. Bye.