Recently, motivational speaker Ankur Warikoo authored a post on LinkedIn about his 11-year-old making his first-ever investments from his piggy bank savings. Warikoo claimed that his son invested INR 6,000 in Bitcoin, INR 5,000 in Ethereum and INR 20,000 in Nifty50 Mutual Fund. Commenters landed on the post—most of them offering the sage advice that young children had no business learning about stocks or NFTs. However, aside from stating the obvious, Warikoo’s post was a case of bad timing.
The Vauld crash
On July 4, seven days prior to Warikoo’s post, Singapore-based crypto exchange and lending startup, ‘Vauld’ suspended all operations on its platform. The three-year old startup had raised USD 25 million in its ‘Series A’ funding in 2021, led by Peter Thiel-backed ‘Valar Ventures’, which assured influencers of the company’s potential. Several financial influencers, including Warikoo who has 2…


