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U.S. Regulators to Subpoena Crypto Exchange Bitfinex, Tether

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211–220 of 421 posts

Re: U.S. Regulators to Subpoena Crypto Exchange Bitfinex, Tether

#211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would someone ever take the other end of that bet?

We're talking crypto investors here. The ones that preach diversification, and then sell every single one of their alt coins when the bitcoin bubble is deflating.

also the selling is often shockingly synchronised. just compare bitcoin and ether charts

Re: U.S. Regulators to Subpoena Crypto Exchange Bitfinex, Tether

#212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You can exchange USDT for fiat, on demand, for exactly 1 USD/USDT, but only at Bitfinex My understanding is this isn't the case. My understanding is Bitfinex will take your USD and convert to USDT which you can then use to buy crypto. But it won't take your USDT and turn it back into dollars. In fact, my understanding is the only way to turn USDT back into USD is either directly through Kraken or indirectly through…

As a US citizen, I can no longer access Bitfinex. My personal experience, when I could, is that you are never exposed to USDT on the site at all except as an option to transfer your deposited USD to another exchange via tether. They may have changed that, but I don’t know. As for withdrawing, you can’t withdraw to the US any more, but you can still make international USD wires to banks in other jurisdictions, specifi…

> My personal experience, when I could, is that you are never exposed to USDT on the site at all except as an option to transfer your deposited USD to another exchange via tether.

One exciting "feature" of all this is that most tickers that price out crypto currency values treat USD and USDT as one and the same. I've yet to see Bitfinex, for example, show up on a ticker as "BTC / USDT" (which is what, in fact, the pairing is).

It worries me because people use these things to inform their "investment" decisions and my hunch is most of the data they use is not quite on the up & up.

Re: U.S. Regulators to Subpoena Crypto Exchange Bitfinex, Tether

#213
post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but you know that in reality, you can go do it right now, right?

Can you? Any actual, verified customer of Tether here willing to provide a demo?

I know that they offer it. And I know that I don't hear anyone complaining about them not honoring it, so I assume it works. I suppose it's theoretically possible they just offer it and nobody has even tried to take advantage of it, but that seems somewhat implausible to me.

Re: U.S. Regulators to Subpoena Crypto Exchange Bitfinex, Tether

#214

If this is a grand jury subpoena, things could get ugly fast in the crypto space. Despite all talk of decentralization, the major exchanges pose a systemic risk.

I agree. I have a comment somewhere in my history saying the same thing. No matter how decentralized we like to imagine crypto to be, the fiat on and off ramps are highly centralized and can bring the whole thing crashing down in a hurry.

Re: U.S. Regulators to Subpoena Crypto Exchange Bitfinex, Tether

#215

How trustworthy is Kraken? Tether looks like a good short since if it is a fraud it will go way down and if it isn't a fraud it will stay right where it is. I'm in the US and would like to short Tether. But I want to get paid if I'm right.

I have considered this in the past. The issue is that the kraken order books are rather shallow. Someone could intentionally cause a flash spike and force liquidation of any shorts rather easily, so its far from risk free.

Re: U.S. Regulators to Subpoena Crypto Exchange Bitfinex, Tether

#216
post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but you know that in reality, you can go do it right now, right?

And you know that, in reality, it's not guaranteed, right?

Yes. But that is likely a way of trying to skirt money laundering laws by saying technically it's not equivalent to USD. The fact of the matter is that they do redeem it 1:1, and have this whole time.

Re: U.S. Regulators to Subpoena Crypto Exchange Bitfinex, Tether

#217
post #73

The SEC took much stronger action with AriseBank.[1] Emergency asset freeze. Receiver appointed. ICO shut down. The SEC alleges AriseBank "falsely stated that it purchased [a Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation]-insured bank which enabled it to offer customers FDIC-insured accounts." Clearly, the SEC has had it with people running these huge scams. [1] https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2018-8

AriseBank wasn't only acted on by SEC.

For example, "Texas Banking Commissioner Charles Cooper finalized a cease-and-desist order on Friday that said the company, which is registered to a Texas address, is not authorized to engage in the business of banking in the state. The order also noted that Texas law prevents use of the word “bank” in a way that implies to the public that the person is engaged in the business of banking in this state."

That was on Friday ... and, in an astonishing display of ignorance and arrogance, they published an open letter stating that they refuse to comply. As the department said, they have had a bunch of cases where people have used the term “bank” in a name, but they had never ever seen a firm refuse to back down. So they sent in the sherifs to ensure that they actually do cease and desist.

Re: U.S. Regulators to Subpoena Crypto Exchange Bitfinex, Tether

#218
post #99

I'm not saying that there's nothing worth investigating in the Crypto space, but I wish the SEC spent half the time it spends chasing down shady ICOs looking into fraud at Goldman Sachs and other Wall St. banks. You know, the institutions that whose scale dwarfs crypto and actually has enormous economic repercussions?

I just watched Netflix's Dirty Money episode on HSBC. If you want to throw up in your mouth a little check it out and see how the Obama admin bent over backward to make sure they got a slap on the wrist for knowingly and purposefully laundering terror and drug cartel money for about a decade. Too big to jail is apparently very real.

Re: U.S. Regulators to Subpoena Crypto Exchange Bitfinex, Tether

#219
post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who is "you"? From the terms of service: "Absent a reasonable legal justification not to redeem Tether Tokens, and provided that you are a fully verified customer of Tether, your Tether Tokens are freely redeemable... Furthermore, residents of certain U.S. states are not permitted to be customers of Tether; are not permitted to cause Tethers to be issued or redeemed; and, are not permitted to hold Tether Tokens. Begi…

You is anyone. You can go open an account right now and do it.

Not if you're an "U.S. Person".

Re: U.S. Regulators to Subpoena Crypto Exchange Bitfinex, Tether

#220
post #201
post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is not having to deal with fiat currency an advantage for traders ? They still need to do cost-basis accounting for taxes, and this just shifts their risk of to . I understand how this benefits exchanges (Because they can claim they don't need to follow KYC), but how does it benefit their users ? They'll also eventually need to convert USDT into USD - which they can withdraw. If you have an exchange that you can…

Token transfers are much faster than wires/ACH and have less regulatory overhead. It benefits you to sell your bitcoins for USDT on one exchange and send the tether to another one. This is much faster and cheaper than selling for real USD and wiring the money to the second exchange. Or hypothetically you could pay for stuff that's priced in dollars without the friction and fees of the traditional banking system. I do…

> Token transfers are much faster than wires/ACH and have less regulatory overhead. It benefits you to sell your bitcoins for USDT on one exchange and send the tether to another one. This is much faster and cheaper than selling for real USD and wiring the money to the second exchange.

Why wire money from one exchange to another? Is it to trade instruments that are available on one but not the other? Is it because your exchange does not have fiat withdrawals? Is it to take advantage of pricing arbitrage, because one of the two exchanges does not allow fiat withdrawals (How will you cash out, then, without paying a premium, that will eat your arbitrage?)

If so, why not just wire the bitcoins? Or Eth, or litecoin, or whatever? Why introduce conversion to USD or USDT as an intermediate step?

Tether seems to be solving a non-problem - or at least, it's not solving it in a way where its alleged USD peg provides any value. Use litecoin, or bch, or dogecoin, or whatever.

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