Live data from Hacker News

$1M bounty for details on Tether’s backing

hindenburgresearch.com

11–20 of 326 posts

Re: $1M bounty for details on Tether’s backing

#11
post #2

This is very interesting. Hindenburg is the real deal. One challenge may be that, like the Mafia, Tether keeps its inner circle and employs family members. They have ~15 employees for a 70 billion dollar operation. The CTO’s wife is a manager, and the CEO’s daughter works for an unnamed crypto family office, which may be related. Their counterparties in Chinese commercial paper may not know they are counterparties du…

not clear if it is the easiest target to short, given that many people who use tether are fairly skeptical about how/if the tokens are backed by assets but use it anyway (if the recent Bloomberg story is accurate).

Re: $1M bounty for details on Tether’s backing

#12
Federal Reserve was crafted in a secret meeting on Jekyll Island (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Reserve) between industry and government.

Still exists and functions today. Lot of people don’t like it, but it’s there regardless.

Even if the origin, operation of Tether is highly suspicious: if it functions, is widely adopted and does what is expected … may last longer than people think.

Best response is more open stable coin equivalents.

Re: $1M bounty for details on Tether’s backing

#13

But... does it ultimately matter? All the other sh*tcoins are backed against nothing and have huge market caps as well.

It’s different because Tether claims to hold 1 USD for each Tether. A claim that should be verifiable.

The value of sh*tcoins is just a function of their future resale value.

Re: $1M bounty for details on Tether’s backing

#15

But... does it ultimately matter? All the other sh*tcoins are backed against nothing and have huge market caps as well.

Yes because if they're saying they have tons of USD-equivalent and buying other coins with it then they've been artificially inflating the other coins with bogus funds

Re: $1M bounty for details on Tether’s backing

#16

Federal Reserve was crafted in a secret meeting on Jekyll Island ( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Reserve ) between industry and government. Still exists and functions today. Lot of people don’t like it, but it’s there regardless. Even if the origin, operation of Tether is highly suspicious: if it functions, is widely adopted and does what is expected … may last longer than people think. Best response is mor…

> Even if the origin, operation of Tether is highly suspicious: if it functions, is widely adopted and does what is expected … may last longer than people think.

I think you're right about this point, and I've been trying to imagine what might cause Tether to collapse - you really need a run on the bank situation triggered by something causing them to become insolvent.

Re: $1M bounty for details on Tether’s backing

#19
post #4

Disclosure: Hindenburg Research does not hold positions, either long or short, in Tether, bitcoin or any cryptocurrency at the time of this press release.

I wonder why this Reaserch firm is offering such a substantial bounty for information on Tether. What's in it for them? Where will this money come from?

From their site they provide an answer (and even a "track record") [1]:

> We look for (...) man-made disasters floating around in the market and aim to shed light on them before they lure in more unsuspecting victims.

Hence it seems they're doing it for the bennefit of the public. So much for the expression "there's no such thing as a free lunch".

[1] https://hindenburgresearch.com/about-us/

Re: $1M bounty for details on Tether’s backing

#20
As always, Matt Levine is shockingly informative:

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-10-07/matt-l...

Key quote:

1. You get a bunch of Bitcoins.

2. You slice them into junior and senior claims.

3. You sell the junior claims to people who want levered Bitcoin: people who want margin loans against their Bitcoins, etc., who want to gamble on Bitcoin without putting up too much cash.

4. You sell the senior claims as stablecoins: “Even if Bitcoin drops by 50%,” you say, “these coins will still be worth $1, because they are backed by $2 worth of Bitcoin.”

Post reply on HN