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Binance to acquire FTX

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Re: Binance to acquire FTX

#641

Post by matheusmoreira »

psychlops wrote: post #457
matheusmoreira wrote: post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That experiment already failed to be honest. Cryptocurrencies were prophesized to get rid of banks. Instead exchanges reinvented banks with all the drawbacks and none of the benefits. Cryptocurrencies were supposed to be in wide circulation just like USD, eliminating the need for fiat on/off ramps. Instead we got these centralized corporations and endless KYC/AML surveillance with none of the regulation and governmen…

The coins have failed because the exchanges failed and people use them incorrectly. Got it.

The coins failed because exchanges shouldn't even have been created in the first place. Bitcoin should have been as easy to use and ubiquitous as the US dollar. As we all know, cryptocurrency turned into stocks instead.

Re: Binance to acquire FTX

#642

Post by HashBasher »

jonas21 wrote: post #275
TravelTechGuy wrote: post #201

Some more background: the companies were engaged in fighting over regulations, and on a personal basis between the 2 CEOs. It went down to really childish levels at some point. But one thing is undeniable: SBF (FTX CEO) was trying to weaponize US regulation against his biggest rival CZ (Binance CEO). CZ retaliated by selling the FTT token, exposed the fact FTX was over-leveraged, and took over. This is, as the kids o…

For those not up to date on crypto people, SBF is Sam Bankman-Fried [1] and CZ is Changpeng Zhao [2]. I don't know why they insist on being called by their initials like they're some sort of ticker symbol. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Bankman-Fried [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Changpeng_Zhao

The acronyms are very twitter friendly.

Re: Binance to acquire FTX

#643

Post by sytelus »

swyx wrote: post #605
ww520 wrote: post #598

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are an exchange that allows future trading and margin trading which require borrowing money/assets/coins. The FTT tokens were probably put up as collateral for loans. The drop of the FTT value probably triggers calls on those loans. Thus the liquidity crisis.

that makes FTX a "shadow bank", not merely an exchange.

It's worse than "shadow bank". It's bank who is allowed to print money at its whims and create any arbitrary leverage it wants.

Re: Binance to acquire FTX

#644

Post by sasattack »

polygamous_bat wrote: post #130

On an unrelated note, I really hope to never see this clown's (SBF) face or name in any of the Effective Altruism docs/post/communications. Really irks me to see some new age robber baron to be the face of twenty-first century altruism, notwithstanding my other issues with EA.

it's perfect since it's a total sham to distract from the wedding wealth gap

Re: Binance to acquire FTX

#645

Post by spacehunt »

kranke155 wrote: post #579
acchow wrote: post #414

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This doesn’t sound like very complicated chess. Sounds like those Hong Kong TV shows I watched when I was 13

Please share these TV shows so we can all watch them and learn.

The seminal HK show about the stock market would be The Greed of Man (大時代) [1]. It's 30 years old, but classic scenes in it are still used in memes even today.

Edit: I totally forgot to mention the "Ting Hai Effect"! [2] Wikipedia has a great summary which I'll just quote here:

> The Ting Hai effect, also known as the Adam Cheng effect, is a stock market phenomenon in which there is a sudden and unexplained drop in the stock market whenever a film or a television series starring Hong Kong actor Adam Cheng is released. It still remains as a popular topic among stock brokers, years after the television drama The Greed of Man was broadcast in Hong Kong in late 1992. The effect is named after Ting Hai, the primary antagonist in the drama, who was portrayed by Cheng.

[1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0843185/

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ting_Hai_effect

Re: Binance to acquire FTX

#646

Post by xs83 »

shapefrog wrote: post #26
ucha wrote: post #16

SBF said "We don't invest client assets (even in treasuries)". [0] He then says the purpose of the transaction with Binance is to "clear out the liquidity crunches". [1] How could there be a liquidity crunch if assets are not invested? You can't do a bank run on an entity that doesn't function as a bank and doesn't invest clients assets... Something is shifty. [0] https://twitter.com/sbf_ftx/status/158959828579870720…

12:38 PM · Nov 7, 2022 2) FTX has enough to cover all client holdings. [0] 4:03 PM · Nov 8, 2022 2) Our teams are working on clearing out the withdrawal backlog as is. This will clear out liquidity crunches; all assets will be covered 1:1. This is one of the main reasons we’ve asked Binance to come in. [1] has enough to cover all client holdings ---> not enough to cover all client holding in 24 hours. Either they los…

>>Our teams are working on clearing out the withdrawal backlog as is

The "as is" worries me here

Re: Binance to acquire FTX

#647

Post by xur17 »

fdgsdfogijq wrote: post #500
shapefrog wrote: post #376

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 j…

Yup, I think this is what happened. And they claimed "it was for the good of the crypto ecosystem", which in part is true. But the reality if SBF aquired because he had to.

Taking that a step further, is Binance doing the same thing?

Re: Binance to acquire FTX

#648

Post by senttoschool »

eftychis wrote: post #211
TomSwirly wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it's going to happen, better sooner than later.

I mean we are wishing here for an economic catastrophe. What am I missing?

To protect people from getting scam and to put money in more efficient and productive industries.

Re: Binance to acquire FTX

#649

Post by Nomentatus »

rchaud wrote: post #272
ForHackernews wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> smells like Binance played 4D chess all along It's not really "4D chess" to screw over your competitor to corner the market. That's like, business 101.

Business 101 is buy low, sell high. Winning an evenly matched game of prisoner's dilemma with billions at stake is about as close to 4D chess there is.

Buy low esteem, sell high esteem - the concept comes from Hetty Green (long ago billionaire.)

Re: Binance to acquire FTX

#650

Post by rswail »

sneak wrote: post #282
jonas21 wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For those not up to date on crypto people, SBF is Sam Bankman-Fried [1] and CZ is Changpeng Zhao [2]. I don't know why they insist on being called by their initials like they're some sort of ticker symbol. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Bankman-Fried [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Changpeng_Zhao

It’s common in many internet circles to refer to prominent people by their initials. Hackerdom has a long tradition of this: rms gls esr jwz et al. It also tends to happen in US federal politics for some reason (jfk rfk gwb fdr et al) but not to everyone.

Who are "et" and "al"? /s
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