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Anyone Seen Tether’s Billions?

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Re: Anyone Seen Tether’s Billions?

#341

Post by arcticbull »

SilasX wrote: post #131
qeternity wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OP is obviously talking about CEX since it’s not possible for a DEX to have a USD market (like the above mentioned USDT/USD). As for DEXs being manipulated, absolutely not sure why you believe that’s the case? This has nothing to do with DEXs and everything to do with margin (which is coming to DEXs). DEXs and AMMs make it much more expensive to provide liquidity in terms of capital efficiency versus CEXs, and thus m…

>OP is obviously talking about CEX Certainly -- I agree OP (arcticbull) was replying to a comment about DeFI by explaining the dangers of a centralized exchange! That makes it a confused, unhelpful response, not one that "obviously" meant something coherent if you squint hard enough and practice sufficiently strained exegesis. >As for DEXs being manipulated, absolutely not sure why you believe that’s the case? This h…

Btw, re: DEXs I was thinking specifically of flash loan manips that exploited a number of platforms a few months ago. These involved briefly breaking the peg of stable coins on DEXs via short-term loans. [1] I think it's brilliant.

> One of the most notorious flash loan attacks to have ever hit the space is the exploit on DeFi protocol bZx, where the attackers borrowed funds from the platform and quickly swapped them with stablecoins (sUSD). Since the stablecoin is governed by a smart contract, the attacker had manipulated its price by placing a large buy order on sUSD, which pushed the price of the stablecoin to $2, doubling its pegged value. Then, the attacker took a larger loan from the higher-priced sUSD, repaid his loans, and took the profit with him.

It's relevant here because stable coin prices can be manipulated at DEXs too, or at least have been in the past. I'm not sure there's a long enough track record to guarantee it won't happen again before things go pear shaped if you're trying to take your short structured this way via DEX. There's smart contract bug risk, counter-party risk in the stable coin collateral and peg risk. Also regulatory risk.

[1] https://www.cybavo.com/glossary/flash-loan-attack/

Re: Anyone Seen Tether’s Billions?

#342

Post by hef19898 »

wpietri wrote: post #207
FireBeyond wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, Bitfinex uses Deltec as their bank. A bank that claimed at the start of this year that they were "55 years old and whose customers were predominantly asset managers and high net worth individuals", until they did a website redesign (more on that below) and overnight were "70 years old". A bank that had a 33 year old "Deputy CEO" who gave interviews from his gaming rig. Who claimed to have graduated from HEC Lau…

> I keep waiting for Yakety Sax to start playing, but to the true believers, it never does, and apparently all us nay-sayers are just neanderthal and don't see "the vision". It reminds me of the initial dot-com bubble, where anybody who asked questions was also painted as not getting it. Ditto the mortgage bubble, come to think of it. Then when the inevitable crash comes, nobody apologizes. It's either "who could hav…

Not that nobody apologizes, more often than not those early warning voices are singled out. Because obviously, having seen it coming, they could have done something to avoid the crash. So of course they are to blame.

Re: Anyone Seen Tether’s Billions?

#343

Post by fleddr »

loeg wrote: post #268
fleddr wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As much as I enjoy pissing on boomers, older home owners did nothing for their houses to appreciate. It's just something that happens due to monetary policy, low interest rates, local scarcity of supply and a growing population. A lesser known reason is that since the 2008 crisis, hardly any new homes got built. Whilst the underlying demand was still in place, and growing. "You can’t sell anyone a home for $485k if t…

Boomers absolutely constrained supply to raise prices.

That's not a boomer thing at all, it's a human thing.

As soon as younger generations secure a home, and when they resell later, they aren't going to give discounts to the next generation. Surely you can't belief they will?

Everybody that owns a home, regardless of generation, wants their home value to at least persist and ideally grow. Likewise, people want to protect their neighborhood, as it directly affects the quality of living.

It's natural and normal behavior, and not an issue in itself. The real issue is the infinite growth mindset in a finite world.

Re: Anyone Seen Tether’s Billions?

#344

Post by smoyer »

FireBeyond wrote: post #160
Ice_cream_suit wrote: post #120

LOL ! "The chief financial officer is Giancarlo Devasini, a former plastic surgeon from Italy who was once described on Tether’s website as the founder of a successful electronics business. The only reference to him that turned up in a search of Italian newspapers showed he was once fined for selling counterfeit Microsoft software. Elsewhere on the website, there’s a letter from an accounting firm stating that Tether…

Well, Bitfinex uses Deltec as their bank. A bank that claimed at the start of this year that they were "55 years old and whose customers were predominantly asset managers and high net worth individuals", until they did a website redesign (more on that below) and overnight were "70 years old". A bank that had a 33 year old "Deputy CEO" who gave interviews from his gaming rig. Who claimed to have graduated from HEC Lau…

Wow ... I'm realizing what a completely unremarkable education and career I have. I've been a CTO twice but perhaps this shows what it would take to be a deputy CEO.

Re: Anyone Seen Tether’s Billions?

#345

Post by qeternity »

anonymoushn wrote: post #317
qeternity wrote: post #312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’ve just cited it. I never said they squeezed in all places. They squeezed it where there was sufficient short interest: Kraken.

I haven't just cited it! I said I saw a screenshot. I don't have a date or whatever, but if someone has a date then I can download the ticks from that day and check it out. Without a date I can't compare the short interest at Kraken to e.g. the $100,000,000 OI in USD-settled USDT futures at FTX today.

May 11, 2019 - https://trade.kraken.com/charts/KRAKEN:USDT-USD

Took me all of 10 seconds to find this.

Re: Anyone Seen Tether’s Billions?

#346

Post by fleddr »

eBombzor wrote: post #218
fleddr wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like I said, that doesn't sound threatening or scary at all. Because it happens all the time. Crashes, rug pulls, hacks...all regular occurrences. That's the price to pay for the incredible upside potential. People that can't stomach this, should simply not be in the game. Alternatively, and the wiser strategy, is that you put a portion of your wealth in crypto, say 10-25%. The absolute worst thing that can happen is…

It is easy to make money right now because crypto just had one of the greatest bull runs of all time. How could you say that it would be the case in the future? 400% is easy? Easy to look at a chart and assume you can grab a chunk before it moons. How do you know there will be more 100%+ gains in the future? With the gaining popularity, bitcoin and eth will probably only fluctuate less and less over time.

Well, I don't know, obviously.

It's not just easy to make money right now, it's been like that for over a decade. Crypto in general is still growing exponentially (in usage and holders) at a rate faster than the rise of Facebook and the internet.

It's being mainstreamed, Wallstreet discovered it, the first nation has implemented it, VCs are massively investing, the first batch of musicians/artists are embracing it and Twitter is about to integrate both Bitcoin and NFTs.

There's plenty of very serious signs for further growth. It's still early in a way.

But I could be wrong, but that doesn't invalidate the point. Sizable downside risk, far larger upside potential. If you want something risk-free, just stay out.

Note that earning 400% is not only achieved by buying low and selling high. You can drastically speed up earnings using derivatives and leverage. Which is also the fastest way to lose it all, so don't. It's for the pros.

Re: Anyone Seen Tether’s Billions?

#347

Post by fleddr »

secondcoming wrote: post #322
fleddr wrote: post #46

"Solana, up 9,801% in 2021 for seemingly no reason at all" No reason at all, huh? Anybody with even a remote interest in crypto knows why Solana has exploded. It's L1 season and Solana is a direct competitor to ETH, which suffers from high usage fees. Every other L1 has exploded in value. As said, L1 season. These kind of statements make me suspect the author never used crypto in their life. The cultural gap between…

> These kind of statements make me suspect the author never used crypto in their life. Have you ever 'used' ETH or whatever? And by 'use' I mean perform a transaction, not just speculate on its price

Yes I have, mostly for staking.

But that's beyond the point. I'm not a fan of either Solano or Ether, I was pointing out that the author lacks the most basic insights into crypto.

Re: Anyone Seen Tether’s Billions?

#348

Post by fredgrott »

NelsonMinar wrote: post #28

I don't understand how Tether has survived this long. Bitfinex and Tether sure look transparently like a fraud, all the way back to the "no really we have $1 in the bank for every Tether but you can't audit us" days. And yet it continues to occupy its role as the underpinning of most cryptocurrency markets. Why hasn't it blown up yet? My best guess is that it's useful to everyone taking in money from new retail inves…

hmm, I know one real estate investor that has similar hedging ratios. Financial press still claims he is worth billions.

Some of you may have heard his name before as he is a former head of state, Trump.

Just to point out that it is not hard to fool financial press and others about a firm's true financial position in terms of losses and gains.

Re: Anyone Seen Tether’s Billions?

#349

Post by qeternity »

arcticbull wrote: post #319
qeternity wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You do understand my original comment chain was talking about a complete tether collapse where it has 0 value and not just a temporary dip in price. Ok, and? If USDT is worthless, you expect market makers to continue to be willing to hold it? You seem upset that an MM would wouldn’t bid > 0 for something with ev = 0. I’m not sure what you actually expect here. A Tether collapse is exactly the sort of moments that m…

Separately from all this, there are SPX options, they're cash-settled European index options (for those on the sidelines American options can be exercised any time up to expiry, European only on the day of expiry) with a $100/tick notional contract value. They're super useful if you want to trade indices (as compared to say SPY options) because you don't have to deal with dividend-triggered exercise risk and they off…

Yes, you've got the CBOE crap, you've got a gazillion other smaller venues, and you've got desks at every bank which will write you options on whatever you like.

OP is talking about trading ES and SPX, and it was more likely they had confused it with SPY given the other confusion around tick sizes and given the size of the big daddy SP contract (and the language suggested this person had just gone to the CME site and did a bit of copy paste...especially the language about on tick being $12.50, which any spoos trader will know by heart).

Anyway - going to leave this one, I think I've added all the value I can add.

Re: Anyone Seen Tether’s Billions?

#350

Post by hedberg10 »

smoyer wrote: post #344
FireBeyond wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, Bitfinex uses Deltec as their bank. A bank that claimed at the start of this year that they were "55 years old and whose customers were predominantly asset managers and high net worth individuals", until they did a website redesign (more on that below) and overnight were "70 years old". A bank that had a 33 year old "Deputy CEO" who gave interviews from his gaming rig. Who claimed to have graduated from HEC Lau…

Wow ... I'm realizing what a completely unremarkable education and career I have. I've been a CTO twice but perhaps this shows what it would take to be a deputy CEO.

Well, I'll have you know I graduated summa cum laude from Lemönade Ständ Universität, which is a very prestigious institution in Luxemburg, when I was 6.
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