Wearebamboo collapse: customers question how travel firm lost millions on crypto in bull market

Customers of failed “ethical” travel company Wearebamboo are struggling to understand how the company managed to lose millions of dollars to crypto-trading during a bull run.

Despite shifting to a bear market in mid-2022, the overall price of cryptocurrencies has not dropped below the levels it was at in October 2020, when Bamboo director Colin Salisbury began buying crypto with his customers’ money.

At the time the crypto market was regarded as in a ‘bull run’; slang for incredibly lucrative.

One crypto expert said anyone who bought and held over that time period should not have lost money – but a liquidator’s report reveals Salisbury made a whopping 59,000 transactions, equating to an estimated average of 120 per day.

The company has been under fire since the report came out late last month, revealing Salisbury had lost more than US$2 million to crypto-trading.

Bamboo had announced in October last year the company was folding, blaming Covid and a small group of customers who were unwilling to wait any longer for refunds for their pre-paid trips.

It told customers over email they would not be refunding their trips, citing the “force majeure” clause in their terms and conditions.

The Hutt Valley-based company previously offered “ethical” travel options, allowing their primarily international customers to go on overseas holidays and do volunteer work in the communities they visited.

Affected customer Erin Floyd, of Florida, told the Herald she had lightly traded in crypto herself, and was shocked Salisbury managed to lose so much.

CoinMarketCap shows the price of Bitcoin in USD was close to $11,000 per Bitcoin at the start of October 2020, peaked about $67,000 in November 2021, and hit a low of about $16,000 in November last year. Another popular cryptocurrency, Ethereum, cost about $354 in October 2020, peaked at $4700 in 2021, and dropped to $1060 last year.

Both Bitcoin and Ethereum, and cryptocurrencies in general, have not dropped below the levels they were at when Salisbury began buying, prompting customers to question how he lost everything.

“It’s been my experience that crypto was doing pretty well back then, it was a good time to invest. I actually know someone who invested well enough in crypto to retire, and has been travelling the world for the past couple of years after selling and investing,” said Floyd.

“I can’t imagine what they did to lose all of that money … obviously he wasn’t researching and vetting enough, if at all, to lose that much money.”

Floyd said it was almost unbelievable to see how much Salisbury had lost at a time when others were making huge profits.

“All I could do was laugh. I was incredulous. I am in awe at the audacity of them. In awe and incredulous.

“I would never have agreed to let someone gamble with my money. I paid for a trip, but I would never have expected such losses if they did.”

Salisbury has not responded to repeated requests for comment.

While it is not clear what month Salisbury stopped investing, assuming he finished in June 2022, his 59,000 transactions would have averaged more than 3600 per month, or nearly 120 per day. The Herald understands these transactions were not all manually made.

Easy Crypto chief executive Janine Grainger said on average her customers made about six transactions per month, and that Salisbury’s figure was “huge”.

Regular buying and selling was known as “day trading”, but Grainger said it was “very hard to make money” doing it, because it was “incredibly risky”.

If it were possible to read the signals and know when to buy and sell to make the best money, everybody would be doing it, she said.

“If you’re investing in major cryptocurrencies and just holding, you wouldn’t have lost money.”

Additionally, Salisbury lost US$800,000 to four fraudulent crypto-platforms, according to the liquidator.

Grainger said part of her business involved educating customers on the red flags to look for in possible scam platforms, as they can be easy to fall for.

Another customer, Deb Baldwin, said she day trades, and noted the price of crypto had not dropped below its 2020 levels.

“I do hope that a very detailed investigation into the crypto trades is conducted,” she said.

Financial adviser Darcy Ungaro said in his opinion, Salisbury’s actions were “gambling, pure and simple”.

“Most financial markets … seem to be designed to extract money from those most prone to thinking they have the magic formula for winning.”

Ungaro said the “trouble” began in 2020 once people realised their jobs would be okay during lockdowns, and interest rates had been slashed.

“People felt flush with easy money – wealth effect from witnessing their asset values, property and shares, gain in price – an unquenchable appetite developed for higher risk, and higher returns. At the time it was cryptocurrency, which then quickly morphed into NFTs.

“If you had access to the money, and you were vaguely aware of how it all worked, you could find a way to play the game.”

Ungaro said it was “too easy to throw easy money after bad ideas”, especially when others were doing it well.

“By the time the slower movers succumbed to FOMO (fear of missing out), the hysteria started to wane.”

The latecomers missed out the most, but those who “discovered the gems” maintained their wealth.

“After each wave of new tech in this space, there’s always a few gems left behind, and so long as it’s not fool’s gold you’re left holding, over the long term you’ll be fine.”

The Commerce Commission, Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment, and Serious Fraud Office have all launched investigations into Wearebamboo’s conduct, but have suspended their investigations pending the outcome of the liquidation.

Melissa Nightingale is a Wellington-based reporter who covers crime, justice, and news in the capital. She joined the Herald in 2016 and has worked as a journalist for 10 years.