Live data from Hacker News

Tether price manipulation

twitter.com

191–200 of 490 posts

Re: Tether price manipulation

#191

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…

The killer app for Bitcoin is escaping government fiat money that is backed by literally nothing at all and is being printed at increasingly alarming rates. 40% of all USD ever created were “made” in 2020. That will have repercussions for decades and isn’t a currency I want to stay in. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/M1 Ironically (or not) Bitcoin was created in 2009 right when that graph gets really crazy.

> backed by literally nothing

It is the only thing the government accepts for tax payments. Given that you can be arrested for not paying your taxes it is "backed" by the barrel of a gun, a threat to your very being. In one sense this is the only real thing there is.

Re: Tether price manipulation

#192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Backed by nothing...as opposed to bitcoin? People who repeat this don't understand that fiat money is based on trust...and that is not a bad thing. This is why blockchain is fundamentally stunted: the global society is based on trust and cooperation. Trustless systems will never be able to compete in these arenas.

yawn speaking of jumping the shark, have you seen what governments have been up to lately ? interest rates at a 5,000 year low, moral hazard abound & global fiat collapse imminent in the best case and in the worst case we have banks/elites/governments who are going to be looking to further enslave those in debt and forced out of business/work with some dystopian debt forgiveness scheme involving a 'vaccine' schedule…

And yet people still buy T-bills.

Re: Tether price manipulation

#193

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…

The killer app for Bitcoin is escaping government fiat money that is backed by literally nothing at all and is being printed at increasingly alarming rates. 40% of all USD ever created were “made” in 2020. That will have repercussions for decades and isn’t a currency I want to stay in. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/M1 Ironically (or not) Bitcoin was created in 2009 right when that graph gets really crazy.

[deleted]

Re: Tether price manipulation

#194
post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that the above still remains true 3 years later is pretty damning.

It also suggests things will go on and we'll be in much the same situation in years going forward.

As Keynes famously said, "Past performance is a guarantee of future results"

Re: Tether price manipulation

#195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since they can print X and they peg it to USD, it won't change in price itself, but nothing can assure the driving force of BTC price is actual demand.

When central banks peg their currencies to others, that means they buy the foreign currency if their own currency is overvalued in comparison, or sell foreign currency to buy local curerncy in the case of undervaluation. You say that a peg breaks if the Central Bank doesn't have the exchange reserves anymore to uphold a peg. Where does Bitfinex take the money from to buy tether to prevent it from devaluing? Alternati…

You're missing the entire premise: where can I go sell my USDT directly for USD? Show me where.

Unlike your example where this an existing market that a peg has to be supported, there simply isn't a fungible USDT/USD market.

Re: Tether price manipulation

#196
post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The killer app for Bitcoin is escaping government fiat money that is backed by literally nothing at all and is being printed at increasingly alarming rates. 40% of all USD ever created were “made” in 2020. That will have repercussions for decades and isn’t a currency I want to stay in. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/M1 Ironically (or not) Bitcoin was created in 2009 right when that graph gets really crazy.

I have a question, isn't the problem with the gold standard that the amount of dollars is fixed and in order to have enough currency to drive a rapidly growing economy you would in essence be buying a gallon of milk for .25 cents? It seems to me that either you the amount of currency in circulation needs to increase or the value of the existing currency needs to increase. Taking into account the gold standard was use…

My rule of thumb for money supply:

adjustable, with a benign regulator > fixed > adjustable, with a corrupt regulator

So, the aim shouldn't be a return to the gold standard or a switch to BTC, but to make sure that central banks can do their job without interference from politicians.

Re: Tether price manipulation

#197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That only works when people take payment in BTC without translating the value provided back to a Fiat currency. Until that time, expansion of the USD (or other Fiat) supply impacts the "value" that BTC has.

During the gold standard, did people take payment in gold? I don't think so... They used paper that symbolized "withdrawal rights to gold". USD (or any other piece of paper that people agree has a value) is a perfect currency for exchange, it's just not a great store of value.

> did people take payment in gold?

No, but prices were denominated in gold, effectively, as the price of gold was fixed. That was the whole point.

Re: Tether price manipulation

#198
post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait what’s the January 15th date?

Bitfinex and Tether have till the 15th of January to submit documents to the New York state attorney general about their financial relationship. The shortfall of $850m was allegedly printed by Tether and given to Bitfinex to cover up the losses Crypto Capital created. It is speculated Bitfinex and Tether can't submit any documents without revealing their cover-up. This will result in the conclusion that Tether isn't…

The thing is $850m isn't actually that much money. The big exchanges made on the order of several billion dollars profit during the last bubble; presumably they are also making that much in this one.

Re: Tether price manipulation

#200
post #64

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…

>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's a huge business

Some people make lots of money of it, no doubt.

I'd say to qualify something as a business, there should be value creation somewhere along the line. With BTC, I see mainly redistribution of value, along with destruction of resources.

Post reply on HN