Barstool's Dave Portnoy Is Bad at Trading Cryptocurrency

Dave Portnoy, the online sports celebrity founder of Barstool Sports, might be quitting cryptocurrency trading after buying bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies little more than a week ago, according to a tweet published Friday afternoon.

• Portnoy led his army of day traders into the cryptocurrency world after Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, founders of the Gemini cryptocurrency exchange, explained bitcoin to him on Aug. 13.
• Besides leading to a sizable bitcoin purchase, Portnoy’s meeting with the Winklevoss brothers also resulted in a $50,000 purchase of chainlink (LINK).
• As of Friday, and after losing $25,000, however, Portnoy told his Twitter followers, “I currently own zero bitcoins.”
• The bellwether cryptocurrency actually gained more than 7% in the days following Portnoy’s broadcasted purchase. At last check, BTC is still up 1% from the daily open on the day of Portnoy’s meeting.
• LINK, however, dumped 30% since Portnoy signaled his bullishness for the coin, tweeting, “LINK to the moon.”
• Another alternative cryptocurrency, orchid (OXT), also dropped 28% since Portnoy tweeted about his position.
• Trading cryptocurrency just isn’t easy, explained Anil Lulla, former analyst at Bloomberg and co-founder of cryptocurrency research firm Delphi Digital. “The market is a bit more sophisticated than it was in 2017. You've seen a shift where capital has been flowing to projects with some fundamentals instead of just good marketing and buzzwords.”
• Dismissing his losses, Portnoy responded to a fake Tyler Winklevoss account that expressed disappointment in the celebrity trader’s decision to sell LINK by saying, “I make six figures a day like clockwork in the real stock market. No need to sit around losing money waiting for Elon [Musk] to mine gold from outer space.”
• The possibility of mining gold on asteroids was a value proposition for investing in BTC pitched to Portnoy by the Winklevoss twins.
• "Having a long-term fundamental view helps deal with the short-term volatility," said Ryan Watkins, bitcoin analyst at Messari and former investment banking analyst at Moelis & Co., referring to trading cryptocurrencies in a private message with CoinDesk.
• Because everyone looks like a genius in a bull market, though, Lulla said he wouldn’t be surprised to see Portnoy eventually “have some fun and post some headline-grabbing gains.”