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Coinbase warns that bankruptcy could wipe out user funds

fortune.com

291–300 of 473 posts

Re: Coinbase warns that bankruptcy could wipe out user funds

#291
Those of us who were around in 2008 remember when Lehman went bankrupt.

In that case they were the custodian for hedge funds assets. Lehman held those assets, in some cases because the British government force them to.

This really caused 2008 to spiral as now hedge funds that were perfectly fine got locked up and had to pull assets from the market due to Lehman holding their assets which caused even more selling and the feed back loop continued as funds sold their best assets first(think the Microsofts of stock world).

A coin bankruptcy would be the same thing, retail probably doesn't matter too much but if COIN held institutional funds, those guys do need to have liquidity for redemptions. This would mean alto of sell pressure on other exchanges and would lead to the best and highest quality crypto assets getting hammered down as funds fled to cash/stable coins.

Solana would probably crash and then shut down the network, even though they still try to claim they are a decentralized network:)

ETH and BTC would see very sharp drops in the first few days and then bounce back as people need to put money somewhere.

DEFI would feel this sell pressure and have alot of failings due to liquidity pools bein drained in this rush to quality. At best they'd get shutdown, at worst they'd just fail and go away.

You'd also expect the algo based stable coins to break the peg, even the well collateralized DAI would probably break.

Tether would probably continue on just fine as that's probably what most institutional funds would go to and I've given up on trying to predict its demise,

Re: Coinbase warns that bankruptcy could wipe out user funds

#292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

deleted erroneous comment about shorting on Coinbase.

How do you short a coin on Coinbase? I have never seen the option nor heard reference to it. It sounds like you’re just assuming this is how it works to me but I’d prefer to be wrong and learn something.

Whoops, it turns out it's tokenized, not an actual short. I'll delete the comment (really edit, since delete is now removed.)

https://www.coinbase.com/how-to-buy/1x-short-bitcoin-token

Re: Coinbase warns that bankruptcy could wipe out user funds

#293
post #286
post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I usually don't bother to login to comment, but I felt compelled in this case. The other replies include a lot of bad advice. You sound like you don't have much of experience actually using bitcoin (or cryptocurrencies). So the best (most secure and easiest) solution is to buy a hardware wallet and use the wallet app which they provide. I suggest either Trezor [1] or Ledger [2]. Do not buy a hardware wallet from seco…

What happens if ledger goes out of business? I recall users being able to access their funds when Ledger had a systems outage some time in the past few years.

With both Trezor and Ledger it is possible to use Electrum as the GUI (interface) app. So if they go out of business and/or stop supporting the specific hardware wallet model that you own, you can continue using it with Electrum. Alternatively, you can import the seed backup (12 or 24 words) into a new hardware wallet.

Re: Coinbase warns that bankruptcy could wipe out user funds

#294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Okay, but that isn't a liability in an accounting sense, it is a cash flow. Edit: looking at the 10K, other than customer assets (where they have a net holding), they have like $6 billion in cash and equivalents against less than $5 billion of debts and other obligations). So if they shut it all down, there would be funds left over.

> they have like $6 billion in cash and equivalents against less than $5 billion of debts and other obligations...if they shut it all down, there would be funds left over Every company that ever went bankrupt had more assets than obligations before they went bankrupt. Coinbase's quick ratio [1] adjusted for custodial assets, as of 31 March 2022, was 6.6 [2][a]. That's good. Don't adjust for custodial funds, and it's…

Could you explain how you got 0.15? (6,116,388, cash and cash equivalents + 346,048, accounts receivable + 1,333,333, crypto assets held) / (10,921,823, current liabilities) = 0.71

Re: Coinbase warns that bankruptcy could wipe out user funds

#295
post #199

Can anyone tell me how to set up a wallet on my Mac in order to get my coins off coinbase. Is there any clear guide on how to do that. Every link on Google seems to be spam or downloading potentially malicious software. It's very fustrating because so many people seem to know how to set up a wallet on their computer/Mac however I cannot for the life of me find a clear wallet to download and move my funds to or a guid…

Why can't you download this in the UK? My question is sincere, I'm surprised to read that.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-org-blocks-access-to-...

Craig Wright (obviously falsely) claims to be Satoshi Nakamoto and thereby copyright on the (MIT licensed but whatever apparently) Bitcoin whitepaper. A UK court ruled in his favor and bitcoin.org are therefore not allowed to distribute it in the UK. They responded with restricting access to both the whitepaper and the software for UK IPs.

Re: Coinbase warns that bankruptcy could wipe out user funds

#296
post #2

Since coinbase isn’t FDIC insured, it makes sense that if coinbase goes bankrupt, the customer currencies will go away as well. And they aren’t SPIC insured in the situations where crypto is a security. It’s funny to see people shocked (SHOCKED!) when crypto doesn’t have the protections of regular banking and investments. That’s why you don’t invest with stuff that isn’t insured. Those aren’t real rates, they are ris…

I do wonder why he's allowed to say on Twitter there is no risk of bankruptcy [0]. While the risk could be minimal and maybe negligible saying "no risk" means zero chance. That can't be true of any company. For a public company ceo to say that, isn't that securities fraud? I guess even if it is fraud and they do get prosecuted by the SEC they'd just get fined for it. And maybe the fine here would be much less than th…

Does anything have a zero chance of happening?

Re: Coinbase warns that bankruptcy could wipe out user funds

#297

This boils down to the "not your keys not your coin" mantra that's often repeated in the cryptocurrency community. It is possible to move your coins to your own wallet and manage them on your own. This comes with risks (eg. lost keys). Keeping them on exchange comes with different risks. Anyone holding significant amount of cryptocurrencies should consider the risks of each choice, make an informed decision, and live…

Mt. Gox take N! I wish I could withdraw my ETH but it’s staking and Coinbase doesn’t have an option to stop staking or move it in any way

Re: Coinbase warns that bankruptcy could wipe out user funds

#298
post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I get that's true in some situations, but is it true in all cases? Say I rent a safe deposit box, put valuable personal property in it, and the bank goes bankrupt. Does the bankruptcy court sell the box-holders' personal property until the bondholders are made whole? It seems like depositors should be one of the first in line, certainly before bondholders.

The property in the box was never the bank’s property. They’re just renting a space for you to keep your stuff. In a bankruptcy, that contract could be sold to a third party who takes over the management of the boxes, but the contents are yours. When you send money to Coinbase, it’s not like that. This latest disclosure makes it clear assets held at Coinbase (or other exchanges) aren’t yours in any sense.

When you get right down to it, as a purely virtual asset the crypto isn't anyone's property. Coinbase holds some keys which give it the ability to sign transactions on the blockchain, a service which has value. They owe their depositors the service of signing such a transaction on request transferring some quantity of deposited crypto to a suitable withdrawal address; the value of this service to the customer is the market value of the crypto. However, it does not seem likely to me that this service Coinbase owes to its depositors would be prioritized over their other debts, especially if that meant selling off other property to buy crypto so they could complete the transfers.

Re: Coinbase warns that bankruptcy could wipe out user funds

#300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> No, but the users would be last in liquidation preference, so would end up screwed anyways. Cite please, because if true that would be mind-boggling.

Welcome to capitalism! The billionaires always eat first. And don't you forget it.

The billionaires always eat first

And possibly second and even third, depending on liquidation preference terms.

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