// STARTUP COMPARISON
FTX vs Lemon Cash
FTX failed in 2022 due to Fraud. Lemon Cash failed in 2023 due to Regulation. Different causes, different sectors, different eras — but the same simulation outcome.
| METRIC | 🔥 FTX | 🔥 Lemon Cash |
|---|---|---|
| Sector | Web3 | Web3 |
| Country | USA | Argentina |
| Founded | 2019 | 2019 |
| Died | 2022 | 2023 |
| Raised | $1.8B | $16M |
| Peak | $32B valuation | 1.5M users |
| Primary Cause | Fraud | Regulation |
// WHY EACH FAILED
🔥 FTX
Fraud
FTX collapsed in November 2022 when CoinDesk revealed that Alameda Research held most assets in FTT token. A bank run followed. $8B in customer funds were missing. Sam Bankman-Fried was convicted in November 2023 and sentenced to 25 years in prison.
// LESSON
Customer funds are not operating capital. This is accounting 101, not a crypto insight. The collapse was a fraud problem, not a crypto problem.
Customer funds are not operating capital. This is accounting 101, not a crypto insight. The collapse was a fraud problem, not a crypto problem.
🔥 Lemon Cash
Regulation
Lemon Cash became Argentina's most popular crypto card, allowing users to spend crypto and earn yield on holdings. It reached 1.5M users before Argentina's Comisión Nacional de Valores (CNV) ruled that its yield products constituted unregistered securities offerings. Lemon was forced to shut down its yield product in 2023, losing its core value proposition and most of its user engagement.
// LESSON
Crypto yield products are securities products until a regulator says otherwise. Build on the assumption that existing securities law applies. The companies that built compliance first kept their users.
Crypto yield products are securities products until a regulator says otherwise. Build on the assumption that existing securities law applies. The companies that built compliance first kept their users.
// EXPLORE FURTHER