Tether price manipulation • Hacker News Board

Re: Tether price manipulation

#101

Post by tim333 » Fri, Jan 08, 2021, 1:38 PM UTC

Tepix wrote: post #43

sneak wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1 BTC will still be 1 BTC after the Tether scam and scammers are all history.

Perhaps we can go back to buying a pizza for 1 BTC when this is all over.

Not going to happen. It's a mindshare thing. If there are 10 million people who think I may as well have a bit of my portfolio in bitcoin that gives it value and that's probably not going away in a hurry.

If anything it'll get worse as it goes from 1 million to 10 million to 100 million. Back when 1 bitcoin = 1 pizza there were perhaps 1000 people into it?

Re: Tether price manipulation

#102

Post by dmichulke » Fri, Jan 08, 2021, 1:38 PM UTC

lukebuehler wrote: post #95

qeternity wrote: post #15

The problem is that in the early days of @Bitfinex'ed this was all a bit of a sideshow because there was genuinely large interest from retail and the outcome of crypto was far less certain. However three years on, crypto still does not have a "killer app" and is 99.99% used for speculation. Bitcoin's narrative has had to morph from "digital currency" to "digital gold". But in the depths of the March panic, Tether jum…

I’ve been wondering if Tether is really a scam for a long time. In all these analyses, one key point is missing: arbitrage traders have to make up for the sell pressure on USDT when Tethers are being printed and sold for BTC. Can anyone show me how there is a plausible mechanism/scheme/conspiracy that keeps the USD/USDT exchange rate stable while a crazy amount of illegitimate Tethers are being printed? Edit: typo an…

Exactly, I don't say OP is wrong but I need to see how I can

1. buy X for USD

2. buy BTC for X

Shouldn't the price for X then stay the same? (Bought X once, sold X once)

Assuming X drops to 0, wouldn't people that have BTC just use another coin X' to get back to USD?

Assuming company Y creates X out of thin air and buys BTC with it, why doesn't X drop in value? Because arbitrageurs buy it? So arbitrageurs have lots of X? Should I care if they go broke in the process?

Re: Tether price manipulation

#103

Post by qeternity » Fri, Jan 08, 2021, 1:39 PM UTC

lukebuehler wrote: post #95

qeternity wrote: post #15

The problem is that in the early days of @Bitfinex'ed this was all a bit of a sideshow because there was genuinely large interest from retail and the outcome of crypto was far less certain. However three years on, crypto still does not have a "killer app" and is 99.99% used for speculation. Bitcoin's narrative has had to morph from "digital currency" to "digital gold". But in the depths of the March panic, Tether jum…

I’ve been wondering if Tether is really a scam for a long time. In all these analyses, one key point is missing: arbitrage traders have to make up for the sell pressure on USDT when Tethers are being printed and sold for BTC. Can anyone show me how there is a plausible mechanism/scheme/conspiracy that keeps the USD/USDT exchange rate stable while a crazy amount of illegitimate Tethers are being printed? Edit: typo an…

I'm not sure what arbitrage you're referring to. But more importantly, nobody is selling these freshly printed USDT for USD...that's the whole point. They are selling USDT for BTC.

99% of the USD/USDT trading is fake/wash trading to give the illusion of volume.

Re: Tether price manipulation

#104

Post by Triv888 » Fri, Jan 08, 2021, 1:40 PM UTC

Tepix wrote: post #50

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #40

I'm kinda glad BTC is up, this means I can do an exit with break even or a little profit. I just sold half my crypto assets on the two exchanges I have an account on, I just hope I can have the money transferred out before they become insolvent when the next great crash happens.

Good for you, parts of mine are stuck on CoinBase and the support isn't answering for days. Seems i'm not alone with that issue.

I was finally able to login into Coinbase and do what I wanted to do.

Re: Tether price manipulation

#105

Post by c-fe » Fri, Jan 08, 2021, 1:40 PM UTC

shuntress wrote: post #96

40four wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not individuals buying Tether from Bitfinex and then buying Bitcoin that causes this. It is Bitfinex as an organization ‘printing’ free money and using it to pump the market.

> Bitfinex as an organization ‘printing’ free money and using it to pump the market. How?

like I mentioned above, it is speculated that they are the ones who are printing the tether, then use that to buy bitcoin. They are then probably hoping that whoever receives tether for selling their bitcoin does not immediately want usd, but instead is happy with the tether as it is 'backed 1:1'. (Again, I have to stress that this is a theory i read somewhere on the internet, while lots of things add up, it may also be completely off.)

They 'pump the market' because buying bitcoin increases its scarcity, thus raising the price.

Re: Tether price manipulation

#106

Post by newsclues » Fri, Jan 08, 2021, 1:40 PM UTC

caeril wrote: post #94

tim333 wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>does not have a "killer app" and is 99.99% used for speculation You could argue speculation is the killer app. I'm not a fan but it's hard to deny it's a huge business and some people seem to like it. Kind of like Las Vegas in a way.

It definitely has a killer app. Probably not a big enough app to justify these prices, but one nonetheless. As Stripe, PayPal, Visa, Gofundme, Patreon, et. al. shut down avenues of payments for legal, but unpopular purchases, BTC is the obvious workaround. Vendors of firearms, pornography, legal funds for unpopular causes, dissident content creators, etc have become increasingly estranged from the "normal" payments m…

If BTCs killer app is criminal transactions, then regulation is guaranteed.

Re: Tether price manipulation

#107

Post by tromp » Fri, Jan 08, 2021, 1:41 PM UTC

jdhn wrote: post #77

qeternity wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is true. It's also the tremendous irony of bitcoin evangelists narrative that fiat is worthless yet constantly touting every ATH (which is priced in that supposedly worthless fiat). Who cares what BTCUSD is if USD worthless? And then you realize that this is pure speculation and the most ardent supporters are just praying for the greater fool theory to rain good fortune on them. You need look no further than Coi…

The vast, vast majority of "bitcoin evangelists" couldn't care less about the actual mechanics of Bitcoin. They don't care that it was created as a digital F-You to fiat currency, and they don't care that it enables you to be your own bank. Just look at /r/bitcoin. It's 99% price/hodl memes, and 1% posts about the protocol & enhancements to the protocol itself.

For bitcoin protocol discussion there is the Development & Technical Discussion [1] on bitcointalk.

Some general cryptocurrency technical discussion can be found on r/CryptoTechnology [2]

[1] https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=6.0

[2] https://www.reddit.com/r/CryptoTechnology

Re: Tether price manipulation

#108

Post by ElKrist » Fri, Jan 08, 2021, 1:42 PM UTC

hoschicz wrote: post #68

Would we not expect this same pattern if Tether was printed in response to money coming in? Meaning yes, they don't have USDT 100 % fully backed, but they aren't printing it out of thin air either. What surprises me are the incredible volumes in USDT -- why would anyone ever use USDT instead of USDC, DAI or BUSD? All of them are much more transparent and less risky.

Sometimes it's just a practical matter

The exchange I use only has instruments with USDT pairs (BTC/USDT, ETH/USDT), not with USDC.

Re: Tether price manipulation

#109

Post by dandanua » Fri, Jan 08, 2021, 1:42 PM UTC

chrisa wrote: post #4

I agree that a Tether reckoning is coming, but point #10 of that thread is the most important: it could be weeks, months or _years_ before it's fully corrected, so be super super super careful about using Tether as a reason to short Bitcoin... "The market can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent"

Tether has printed almost double of its amount just BEFORE Bitcoin price jump. It's the biggest pump and dump scheme ever, made by organized crypto-mafia. I doubt this will continue for long.

Re: Tether price manipulation

#110

Post by leppr » Fri, Jan 08, 2021, 1:43 PM UTC

griffoa wrote: post #92

leppr wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Nobody" is an exaggeration. There is a big community of enthusiasts who enjoy cryptocurrencies for what they are and enable, not for their USD value in the markets.

What do they enable? Is what they enable worth $40.000 to the enthusiasts?

> What do they enable?

I won't make the case for cryptocurrencies here, have a look at ethereum.org for instance.

> Is what they enable worth $40.000 to the enthusiasts?

I'm not denying that the current price hike and media attention has little to do with any other aspect than "decentralized ponzi"/dollar escape. Was just correcting a false statement.