131–140 of 790 posts
It's a pyramid all the way down. So surely when there's only 1 exchange left standing, who is going to catch it when it falls?
Build new exchanges faster than they fall. It's the only way to keep the ponzi going.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Remember that blockchain transactions are slow and FTX has over 1m users. Even in the most positive of scenarios, I would not be surprised if it took days to clear the backlog of withdrawal requests.
Indeed, all Bitcoin blocks today are full. There is no physical possibility to withdraw all those funds. That's why Binance must implement Lightning deposits/withdrawals, like Kraken did.
Remember this is a NON-BINDING letter of intent. I wouldn't be surprised at all if this doesn't actually happen and just a bunch of ballyhoo. Unlike Twitter, FTX won't be able to drag CZ down to Delaware’s Chancery Court to force him to acquire it.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Giving them the benefit of doubt, this is not a contradiction. The statement means that they have enough illiquid assets to cover the withdrawal that they are working on converting into liquidity.
But they're meant to store the customer assets in a cold wallet. They're not meant to invest them in illiquid assets that would need to be liquidated to give people their money. If it's not a contradiction, it's an intentionally misleading statement to avoid admitting they let Alameda Research invest the money when the entities are supposed to be completely separated.
1. They have all the funds
2. Many are in cold storage or otherwise inaccessible in short term
3. Their cold storage restore process is so slow they need emergency help to provide liquidity in the meantime
Seems more like that they've either embezzled client funds or been hacked/lost some cold storage keys
[1] https://cryptoslate.com/bitcoin-balance-on-ftx-exchange-goes...
Remember this is a NON-BINDING letter of intent. I wouldn't be surprised at all if this doesn't actually happen and just a bunch of ballyhoo. Unlike Twitter, FTX won't be able to drag CZ down to Delaware’s Chancery Court to force him to acquire it.
What is CZ?
You know what this makes me kind of wonder... back earlier in the year SBF made a big show of coming in and investing in a bunch of the companies that were collapsing due to the LUNA/3AC/Celsius problems. He stepped in and to some extent halted the unwinding of some of these issues. It turns out now that it's likely FTX is underwater, and Binance is basically doing the same thing - coming in, picking them up cheap an…
SBF yesterday: "FTX is fine. Assets are fine." Can't trust a word out of this guy's mouth.
"Every banker knows that if he has to prove he is worthy of credit, in fact his credit is gone." - Bagehot
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nowhere does it say that FTX invested in Alameda. Alameda invested in FTT which is minted by FTX which is not the same thing.
> Alameda invested in FTT which is minted by FTX FTX issued FTT to Alameda. We have no idea what Alameda gave them as collateral, but it's clear it wasn't cash. Lending is a form of investing. (I don't get what unlocked versus collateral FTX on Alameda's balance sheet means.)
Also, FTX minted FTT out of nothing - effective cost zero - so no matter what they received in exchange, even if they had received nothing that is not an investment unless they received Alameda equity. I agree that lending is a form of investment but nothing says that they received a loan in exchange.
You could still be right, but it's all speculation :)
I am extremely bullish on crypto, and have been for the last decade. That said: the sooner we can get rid of these weird centralized exchanges and weird messiah figures the better. The next thing I thing will explode is Cardano, which appears to function approximately like a cult, with no actual product (as far as I can tell). Ethereum, LINK, and Bitcoin. Everything else is a distraction.
Crypto would be perfect. If only humans were robots.
Humans are messy, so the solution we’ve arrived at is a database enforced by a complicated legal system + state power/violence (and arguably private power/violence via the mob). This works pretty well and powers trillions of dollars around the world.
Crypto is a fundamental misunderstanding of what makes modern finance hard. It’s not about trust, it’s about enforcement. I don’t need to trust my bank, but I need to trust that somebody will make things right if my bank takes my money. That allows me to trust my bank with my life savings, even though I’ve never met my banker or even know a single employee at the bank.
Crypto is missing this point and it’s why, despite following it since the beginning, I’ve never thought it has a future. It’s fundamentally solving the wrong problem.