Here's where it gets awful: There's nothing preventing you from 1) Buying a bunch of Ripple 2) Posting on Reddit that you heard a rumor from a friend who has a friend who went to the Coinbase Christmas party who said he overheard they were thinking of adding Ripple to Coinbase 3) Wait 12 hours 4) Sell a shit-ton of Ripple at a hilarious profit Or worse 1) Be coinbase 2) Buy a shitload of Ripple 3) Leak that you're thinking of adding Ripple 4) Sell a shitload of Ripple Or worse 1) Be Ripple 2) Tweet that a picture of Coinbase's logo 3) profit The average stock market investor is unsophisticated. However, he's investing in something protected by securities exchange commissions, however paper-thin those protections are in actuality. Crypto speculators? that shit is all hanging out.