Sell tickets to them and perhaps get their money back! There’s that little word at the end of a new promotion on the new website Crypto.com that seems to be popular with ticket brokers and others eager to make some kind of money on tickets.
But how profitable is it? Well, according to a blog post, it’s “non-existent” right now, and won’t be for a while, even if Ticketmaster is involved. “Demand is high, as transactions have already peaked. If any product has a zero marginal cost, then this is it,” says CEO Tyler Winklevoss, who co-founded Gemini with James Tobin. The site is supported by sponsors like the Washington Capitals and Staples Center — co-owned by the Wachovia Corp. and Caesars Entertainment — who pay cryptocurrency for a mention on the site’s homepage and frequently. “We make money if they follow us to buy or sell,” Winklevoss says.
The site, with its bright blue background, sleek design and offering of what is likely the slickest inventory of available tickets in the world, is the latest offering from Bitcoin heir Peter Thiel and the Winklevoss twins, Cameron and Tyler. It’s also the latest offering to be undermined by Russia in recent days.
Besides the three-quarters of a million dollars in deposits that Russian venture capital firm TLV Partners made on behalf of LDV Group earlier this week, tech billionaire Viktor Vekselberg has been banned from traveling to the U.S. by the Trump administration after a lobbying push by Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.). And on Monday, Reuters reported that the Trump administration was planning to take action against Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, citing current and former US officials. (It is unclear whether the Trump administration had the same effect that the Democrats did during the last recess — both Deripaska and his companies dropped their registration as foreign agents last December.)
As if that weren’t enough, CoinDesk reports that Crypto.com’s website was taken down on Thursday morning by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which said the site violated federal law.