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Tether price manipulation

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Re: Tether price manipulation

#321

Post by michaelchisari »

ahelwer wrote: post #198
michaelchisari wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It's not about the $850m per se, it's about the deep suspicion that Tether does not have anywhere near the $23 billion in reserves they claim to.

Re: Tether price manipulation

#322

Post by vorpalhex »

Acrobatic_Road wrote: post #318
fuzzylightbulb wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

>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. That's more than enough reason why we should try something else. It doesn't inspire a lot of confidence. By that reasoning, the USD has the same sort of backing as the Venezuelan Bo…

One has more guns(planes, tanks, etc) than the other.

Re: Tether price manipulation

#323

Post by Proven »

doggosphere wrote: post #308
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…

However three years on, crypto still does not have a "killer app" and is 99.99% used for speculation. The killer app is decentralized, permissionless, open source, and censorship resistant network. Bitcoin's narrative has had to morph from "digital currency" to "digital gold". Gold morphed from worthless rocks in the the ground, to coins traded by traveling merchants, to stores of value that were eventually centraliz…

I don't think that's how gold became money.

It may have been less hoarded and used only for ornaments because there was less trade and people were busy enough to find, hunt or cultivate enough to survive. As trade took off, gold became more useful because it already was universally valued everywhere.

> to coins traded by traveling merchants, to stores of value

Why would I accept gold coin in exchange for anything if I don't already consider it store of value? It must had been considered as store of value before merchants started using it as money.

Re: Tether price manipulation

#324

Post by doggosphere »

vorpalhex wrote: post #320
doggosphere wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

However three years on, crypto still does not have a "killer app" and is 99.99% used for speculation. The killer app is decentralized, permissionless, open source, and censorship resistant network. Bitcoin's narrative has had to morph from "digital currency" to "digital gold". Gold morphed from worthless rocks in the the ground, to coins traded by traveling merchants, to stores of value that were eventually centraliz…

> The killer app is decentralized, permissionless, open source, and censorship resistant network. Yes, but what can I do with that other than toot/tweet/twit at other people and buy LSD tabs?

With Bitcoin you own property that can never be confiscated or debased by any government.

With IPFS you can host and access files that can't be censored. (same level of censorship resistance as torrents)

With Monero you can transact free from surveillance.

The biggest applications on Ethereum right now is decentralized finance, with billions of dollars locked in.

Re: Tether price manipulation

#325

Post by PragmaticPulp »

wskinner wrote: post #290

When the Bitfinex’d posts came out in 2017, I found them fairly convincing. It seems likely there is something not quite right at Bitfinex and Tether. But I have yet to see any evidence that the scale of “not right” is so large as is frequently claimed. These critiques never seem to address the most parsimonious explanation for periods of increased Tether issuance, which is that they are driven by genuine demand for…

> These critiques never seem to address the most parsimonious explanation for periods of increased Tether issuance, which is that they are driven by genuine demand for bitcoin, and much of that demand is routed via Tether

The bigger question is: Why are so many institutions using Tether to purchase 7-8 figures of bitcoin at a time instead of simply engaging with any of the well-known institutions who will facilitate the purchase directly? What do all of these buyers possibly gain by using an intermediary currency and funneling all of their money through the Tether company first?

The only explanation I can come up with is that Tether is being used to skirt financial regulations or launder money, which doesn't bode well for Tether either.

Re: Tether price manipulation

#326

Post by mmastrac »

raesene9 wrote: post #21
shuntress wrote: post #14

Can someone please explain to me how Tether is "injected" into Bitcoin? The entire argument seems to hinge on this but it is not (as far as I can see) explained. Are people accepting Tether in trade for BTC under the assumption that Tether will always be exchanged 1:1 for USD when this is not actually the case? EDIT: The answer seems to be yes Tether is 1-to-1 with "I O U $1" and enough people are accepting these IOU…

Yep, AFAIK Tether is used by several exchanges that have problems getting direct banking relationships, as a on-ramp for funds. Tether originally promised that they were 1-2-1 backed with actual currency reserves, but had to abandon that statement when it became apparent they'd lost a load of money to Crypto Capital. Tether still claim to be 1-2-1 backed with "investments" but there has never been a completed 3rd par…

Minor point, but seeing "1-2-1" in your comment is strange to me. I've only ever seen it as "1:1" or "1-to-1".

Re: Tether price manipulation

#327

Post by mmastrac »

Bernie Madoff ran the same alleged scam for years, including giving interest to people in the fund. It would be even easier to run with a non-interest-bearing fund and you'd never even notice the money was missing unless there was a bank run.

Re: Tether price manipulation

#328

Post by Mc_Big_G »

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…

>Bitcoin's narrative has had to morph from "digital currency" to "digital gold

"Gold's narrative has had to morph from currency to store of wealth" Circa 1971

Re: Tether price manipulation

#329

Post by corrys »

doggosphere wrote: post #324
vorpalhex wrote: post #320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The killer app is decentralized, permissionless, open source, and censorship resistant network. Yes, but what can I do with that other than toot/tweet/twit at other people and buy LSD tabs?

With Bitcoin you own property that can never be confiscated or debased by any government. With IPFS you can host and access files that can't be censored. (same level of censorship resistance as torrents) With Monero you can transact free from surveillance. The biggest applications on Ethereum right now is decentralized finance, with billions of dollars locked in.

Bitcoins have been confiscated by many governments. A quick Google search reveals many instances of that.
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