Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Binance to acquire FTX

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

371–380 of 790 posts

Re: Binance to acquire FTX

#371

Post by beambot »

shapefrog wrote: post #356
beambot wrote: post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Banks don't have cash on hand equal to assets either...

The CEO of a band has never say they have everyones money sitting in the safe waiting for them to pick it up whenever they wanted it. FTX CEO litterally said that in his tweet.

My read of the situation: SBF's comments were about assets (balance sheet) rather than FTX's liquidity. I believe SBF was saying (paraphrasing) "Our balance sheet is fine; FTX doesn't invest customer assets; we're processing withdrawals as fast as possible." That's different than saying "we have 100% liquidity."

Banks make similar statements all the time -- they require regular audits of assets (stress tests) and maintain some minimum levels of liquidity.

Re: Binance to acquire FTX

#372

Post by skippyboxedhero »

weswilson wrote: post #335
skippyboxedhero wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Obviously this does vary because retail insurance is usually sold locally but the middle men were eliminated years ago. First, it was phones. This happened in the early 90s. Then it was internet which was largely finished by the early 2010s. The only exception for this is that online price-comparison websites have added back some distribution costs...but you still need to spend on marketing if you are online (general…

There are still plenty of middle men in insurance. There are Carriers, MGA's, Agency Networks/Aggregators, and Brokers. Large insurance carriers (think Geico, etc) with enough market share (and captive agents) have the vertical integration that eliminates the middle men, but there is a whole world of insurance that most people don't realize each taking their cut.

Which is why I said it depends on local situation. None of those exist where I am.

Re: Binance to acquire FTX

#374

Post by 22SAS »

steveBK123 wrote: post #249
steveBK123 wrote: post #38

This is great, he was lecturing how stock exchanges should work & on the cover of Fortune as the next Warren Buffet all of what.. 8 weeks ago? SV fintech keeps reinventing all the mistakes of 19th century banking. BNPL is the next explosion btw.

Found it: Speaking with the Financial Times on July 14, Bankman-Fried stated that if FTX can become the top crypto exchange and supplant rivals such as Coinbase and Binance, the idea of purchasing giants such as Goldman Sachs and CME group is not off the table: “If we are the biggest exchange, [buying Goldman Sachs and CME] is not out of the question at all.” https://cointelegraph.com/news/billionaire-sbf-says-ftx-ma…

>“If we are the biggest exchange, [buying Goldman Sachs and CME] is not out of the question at all.”

JFC, what an arrogant twat!

Re: Binance to acquire FTX

#376

Post by shapefrog »

SilverBirch wrote: post #40

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…

Pure speculation - but I am going to go ahead and speculate that they lost most of the money when everything collapsed a few months ago in the defi blow up.

They doubled down and bought up distressed assets for cents on the dollar, hoping to make it back. A few months on, these bets are worth $0 and there is a $5bn hold in the balance sheet.

If binance havent been f'ing around on the side gambling on the price, and just collect their brokerage on their exchange they will have plenty of cash to make FTX customers whole, restore some faith in the system and dominate the market place.

Re: Binance to acquire FTX

#379

Post by popcalc »

matheusmoreira wrote: post #265
Bluecobra wrote: post #122

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.

I think that's what the OP meant...

Re: Binance to acquire FTX

#380

Post by treis »

beambot wrote: post #371
shapefrog wrote: post #356

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The CEO of a band has never say they have everyones money sitting in the safe waiting for them to pick it up whenever they wanted it. FTX CEO litterally said that in his tweet.

My read of the situation: SBF's comments were about assets (balance sheet) rather than FTX's liquidity. I believe SBF was saying (paraphrasing) "Our balance sheet is fine; FTX doesn't invest customer assets; we're processing withdrawals as fast as possible." That's different than saying "we have 100% liquidity." Banks make similar statements all the time -- they require regular audits of assets (stress tests) and mai…

Banks say that they don't invest deposits?
Post reply on HN