Live data from Hacker News

Binance to acquire FTX

bloomberg.com

261–270 of 790 posts

Re: Binance to acquire FTX

#261

All of these folks need to be in prison along with Andreeson Horowitz. All bloody crooks the lot of them. The largest ponzi scheme in the history of humanity and they wonder why the world is not getting better.

Did AH take money from retail investors? I suppose you can claim they pumped these products. I'm not convinced it's any different than what happens with an IPO that started with VC money. I'm not saying it's good, just that it's as bad as anything that's regulated.

Re: Binance to acquire FTX

#262
post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And people who knew what they were actually talking about were pointing out that it's unlikely anyone would have voluntarily left Jane Street as early as he did. But they were largely ignored.

I read he was there for over 4 years, is that abnormally short? Seems like a pretty normal period of time to me.

Seems like a weird critique to me. Some people join out of college and realize that, for a variety of reasons, that sector isn't for them (yes, even at Jane Street). Maybe they get overly enamored by an internship; maybe they don't want to live in NYC. My impression is they are pretty 'open door' about rehiring if you leave on good terms or decline an offer anyway.

Re: Binance to acquire FTX

#263
post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems likely that the Kimchi arbitrage (arbitraging between exchanges in Korea an the rest of the world) was indeed massively profitable. He took a wrong turn later.

When I saw that he was using that as the claimed origin of his wealth I wrote him off as an almost certain fraud.

Why? He must have had some money of his own and some rich friends to set it up. So he had the means. Also, the difference was there and it was persistent so he had the opportunity as well.

Re: Binance to acquire FTX

#265

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.

Indeed. Didn't stop the market from melting down though and it looks like FTT is going to zero. Wonder what happens if they decide not to buy it after all.

Re: Binance to acquire FTX

#266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They claim to be an exchange, not a bank, not investing user assets. https://twitter.com/SBF_FTX/status/1589598285798707202 The Bagehot quote is not SUPPOSED to apply.

> They claim to be an exchange, not a bank They're liars. They are literally banks with all of the drawbacks and none of the benefits. They do fractional reserve banking with user deposits.

I'm not sure why you are ruling out a Ponzi scheme so quickly.

Re: Binance to acquire FTX

#267

Binance was threatening to dump a huge amount of FTT tokens on the market. FTX has a big+vulnerable position in FTT. FTX asked Binance to sell them the tokens for a fixed price, so as not to crash the FTT token price. Binance declined - this was yesterday/today. Of course the price of FTT crashed today. And now Binance buys FTX to help them out... smells like Binance played 4D chess all along. https://decrypt.co/1136…

[deleted]

Re: Binance to acquire FTX

#268
post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Binance has serious legal issues (governmental investigations) and isn't based out of any jurisdiction. A Binance failure would have consequences that are very hard to predict

Binance reminds me of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_of_Credit_and_Commerce_In... but I don't think they're stealing customer money. It is amazing that they have evaded American regulators so long. I think one day they are going to disable trading in dollars.

Honestly, I think FTX is biting off way more than they can chew. They’re really well-connected for the crypto industry, knifing them will definitely get the attention of regulators and that could blow up the entire thing. Their only real asset is being perceived as too big to fail but they’re not exactly acting in ways that endears them to the federal government

Re: Binance to acquire FTX

#270
post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Binance has serious legal issues (governmental investigations) and isn't based out of any jurisdiction. A Binance failure would have consequences that are very hard to predict

Unless Mr CZ is on the moon, he very much is based out of some jurisdiction. It just might not be extraditable to the US.

He keeps moving around. I think he’s based out of Dubai now, but there’s been seven countries or so over the past 5 years
Post reply on HN