Oregon Tells Residents to Avoid Crypto Investments

The state of Oregon has put out a notice to all its residents warning them that investing in crypto could be a costly mistake.

Oregon to Investors: Avoid Crypto

The warning stems from the Oregon Division of Financial Regulation (DFR) and comes fresh off the heels of the FTX collapse, which arguably sent ripples throughout the space and caused many analysts, traders, and industry heads alike to be stunned with surprise. Nobody expected what has been labeled the industry’s golden player over the last three years to fall into a dismal array of crime and failure.

The warning tells Oregon investors to diversify their portfolios as much as they can and to steer clear of largely unregulated products which, unfortunately, include cryptocurrencies. In the statement, DFR administrator TK Keen explains:

It is important to know the risks involved with cryptocurrency or any investment opportunities. No investment opportunities are risk-free, and you should always do your homework on where you are sending your money. This is especially true when cryptocurrency is involved.

Further discussing what’s been happening with FTX, Keen commented:

Investing in cryptocurrency is extremely risky given what’s going on right now. It’s important to not invest more than you can afford to lose or put all of your assets in one bucket.

The DFR is also warning residents to keep their eyes and ears open for crypto scams, many of which show up on social media platforms like TikTok and Discord. The release mentioned:

These schemes make numerous misrepresentations about the investment and its rate of return through TikTok and Discord, making it difficult to later track down these misrepresentations and the individuals involved. The investment offerings are often targeted at people who have recently lost money on investments in cryptocurrency or stocks.

Once crypto funds are gone, they are extremely difficult to track down and retrieve, meaning most of the time, money that gets lost to a scam gets lost for good. Thus, the DFR is telling investors to be extremely cautious about what they choose to put their money in and to only invest funds they can afford to lose.

2022 Was a Bad Year for Crypto

2022 was arguably the darkest year for crypto, and while 2023 has indeed arrived, many in the space are still reeling from the problems that occurred over the previous 12 months. Aside from all the issues that arrived due to FTX and the collapse of so many other companies, the prices of the world’s leading digital currencies also took heavy hits, with bitcoin losing more than 70 percent of its value and dropping from its November 2021 all-time high of about $68,000 per unit into the $16K range.

It was a sad and ugly sight to see, and something that’s probably going to take a very long time to fix.

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