Live data from Hacker News

BitConnect Closes Exchange as States Warn of Unregulated Sales

bloomberg.com

21–30 of 254 posts

Re: BitConnect Closes Exchange as States Warn of Unregulated Sales

#21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Famous Youtubers and other individuals with influence convinced hundreds of people to put their money into BitConnect in order to profit off of referrals If you lost money in this scheme and are in the United States or Canada, contact your state securities regulator [1]. Mention any such referral sources. Those individuals may be liable for securities fraud under state and federal law. If you're in the United State…

Doesn’t fraud require deception? Wasn’t this pretty upfront about being a Ponzi scheme?

To have that line of defense, the youtubers would have had to phrase their claims very carefully. I am willing to bet a fistfull of dogecoin that this was not the case of all of them.

Make them discover these actions have consequences, I can only see good sides to this.

Re: BitConnect Closes Exchange as States Warn of Unregulated Sales

#22
post #5

For those unaware, Bitconnect was a Bitcoin-based ponzi-scheme that had operated 'successfully' for quite some time. I don't say 'ponzi' as an insult in the way some do for cryptocurrencies, it was quite literally just a bare-bones ponzi scheme, where you deposit your money (Bitcoin) on their website, buy their token, 'lock' your funds for some amount of time, and you are promised very high interest rates while encou…

[deleted]

Re: BitConnect Closes Exchange as States Warn of Unregulated Sales

#23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Famous Youtubers and other individuals with influence convinced hundreds of people to put their money into BitConnect in order to profit off of referrals If you lost money in this scheme and are in the United States or Canada, contact your state securities regulator [1]. Mention any such referral sources. Those individuals may be liable for securities fraud under state and federal law. If you're in the United State…

Doesn’t fraud require deception? Wasn’t this pretty upfront about being a Ponzi scheme?

> Doesn’t fraud require deception?

Ponzi schemes are illegal [1]. Receiving transaction-based compensation to promote a Ponzi scheme is the likely securities fraud.

[1] http://www.acfe.com/ponzi-schemes.aspx

Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer. This is not legal advice.

Re: BitConnect Closes Exchange as States Warn of Unregulated Sales

#24
post #5

For those unaware, Bitconnect was a Bitcoin-based ponzi-scheme that had operated 'successfully' for quite some time. I don't say 'ponzi' as an insult in the way some do for cryptocurrencies, it was quite literally just a bare-bones ponzi scheme, where you deposit your money (Bitcoin) on their website, buy their token, 'lock' your funds for some amount of time, and you are promised very high interest rates while encou…

The only question remaining is - how on earth is it still worth anything? Who is buying?

Re: BitConnect Closes Exchange as States Warn of Unregulated Sales

#25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm aware that tether's reserves are a little doubtful, but could you elaborate on why Bitfinex is sketchy?

For starters, they don't deal in USD at all. They deal in "USDT", which isn't at all USD but a token called a tether that is somehow magically supposed to be pegged so 1 USDT == 1USD that you can... well... I dunno what you can do with a tether but one thing you can't do is turn it into actual fiat money on Bitfinex. You might be able to convert it to cold hard fiat on some other exchange though, but odds are good sa…

The dotcom bubble wiped out $5T of value. I think the cryptocurrency bubble is still smaller than $1T.

I think that many are not falling for the scams but rather are "momentum investing" and hoping their timing is good.

Re: BitConnect Closes Exchange as States Warn of Unregulated Sales

#26
post #5

For those unaware, Bitconnect was a Bitcoin-based ponzi-scheme that had operated 'successfully' for quite some time. I don't say 'ponzi' as an insult in the way some do for cryptocurrencies, it was quite literally just a bare-bones ponzi scheme, where you deposit your money (Bitcoin) on their website, buy their token, 'lock' your funds for some amount of time, and you are promised very high interest rates while encou…

The only question remaining is - how on earth is it still worth anything? Who is buying?

SEC seizing remaining assets (if any) and re-distributing then?

Re: BitConnect Closes Exchange as States Warn of Unregulated Sales

#27
post #14
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tether has remained at about $1/coin for a long time. Isn't it liquid if you trade it for BTC then to fiat?

If you trade it for bitcoin someone is selling you that bitcoin for tether. That person will go ahead and trade that tether for some other coin.... rinse repeat, but in the end someone is holding that Tether, if exchanges stop accepting tether eventually your only option is to cash out to USD. USDT is basically being used as a trade coin, to avoid cashing out (maybe to avoid taxation) or to speculate on USD with the…

If $200M was printed today, then it likely doesn't exist. Hilarious that this is going on.

At some point the music has to stop.

Re: BitConnect Closes Exchange as States Warn of Unregulated Sales

#28
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=BitConnect+refe... Jesus, this is pretty blatant.

Several of the "get referrals!" videos literally use pyramids in their thumbnails to illustrate the program. Holy crap.

The pyramid was literally on the Bitconnect FAQ page: https://youtu.be/wK0ztRcXvNQ?t=135

Re: BitConnect Closes Exchange as States Warn of Unregulated Sales

#29
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only question remaining is - how on earth is it still worth anything? Who is buying?

SEC seizing remaining assets (if any) and re-distributing then?

> SEC seizing remaining assets (if any) and re-distributing then?

That is unlikely to pay out to someone who bought after BitConnect was shut down.

Generally speaking, when a regulator resoles a Ponzi scheme they take the promoter's assets and help put it into trust. That trust has two jobs. One, to sue those who sold their BCC before the scheme unraveled [1]. And two, to distribute cash to those who lost money.

[1] http://www.newsweek.com/it-fair-sue-madoff-victims-who-made-...

Post reply on HN