Live data from Hacker News

The Sam Bankman-Fried empire crumbled. What happened?

newsletter.mollywhite.net

31–40 of 211 posts

Re: The Sam Bankman-Fried empire crumbled. What happened?

#31
post #7
post #6

Michael Lewis, author of The Big Short, was in the process of writing a book about the success of FTX and SBF. He personally went to the Super Bowl with them and visited them in the Bahamas multiple times. Someone on Twitter said, "he just got his perfect ending." It's gonna be a fantastic book.

He should call it The Big Short 2: Get Shorted.

Maybe "Coming up Short".

Re: The Sam Bankman-Fried empire crumbled. What happened?

#34

I think this should be a warning to anyone still invested in other crypto companies or exchanges. Everything seems like it's going well, until the music stops and the exchange is insolvent. FTX is not unique. A lot of crypto exchanges are doing just as much shady stuff. When you put your money with these companies, you're betting that "no really, this one is above board!" That's an extremely risky game to play when t…

While I could say banks are equally guilty of doing shady stuff, the truth is banking is hundreds of years old and as such, has regulations and insurance behind it. Not regulating is how we get messes like the Housing Bubble in the 2000s in the US culminating in the crash in 2011. Crypto being a completely new space has no regulation and no checks and balances which leads to messes like this with companies playing ar…

I mean, banking was already hundreds of years old in the 2000s. So recent bubbles and crashes in traditional markets seem like evidence that regulation, at least the kind that ends up being implemented, isn't doing much to prevent very bad outcomes.

Re: The Sam Bankman-Fried empire crumbled. What happened?

#35

I think this should be a warning to anyone still invested in other crypto companies or exchanges. Everything seems like it's going well, until the music stops and the exchange is insolvent. FTX is not unique. A lot of crypto exchanges are doing just as much shady stuff. When you put your money with these companies, you're betting that "no really, this one is above board!" That's an extremely risky game to play when t…

While I could say banks are equally guilty of doing shady stuff, the truth is banking is hundreds of years old and as such, has regulations and insurance behind it. Not regulating is how we get messes like the Housing Bubble in the 2000s in the US culminating in the crash in 2011. Crypto being a completely new space has no regulation and no checks and balances which leads to messes like this with companies playing ar…

Centralized financial exchange markets are at least somewhat regulated and notably FTX.US is supposedly A-OK. Just because some stuff in crypto doesn't have regulations doesn't mean it is a free-for-all.

Re: The Sam Bankman-Fried empire crumbled. What happened?

#36
post #6

Michael Lewis, author of The Big Short, was in the process of writing a book about the success of FTX and SBF. He personally went to the Super Bowl with them and visited them in the Bahamas multiple times. Someone on Twitter said, "he just got his perfect ending." It's gonna be a fantastic book.

It is almost as if someone has a Twitter bot...

https://twitter.com/_mfrye/status/1590737441874288640

Re: The Sam Bankman-Fried empire crumbled. What happened?

#37
post #6

Michael Lewis, author of The Big Short, was in the process of writing a book about the success of FTX and SBF. He personally went to the Super Bowl with them and visited them in the Bahamas multiple times. Someone on Twitter said, "he just got his perfect ending." It's gonna be a fantastic book.

Wow ... so I'm assuming Lewis could smell this a mile away, given his history? (Liar's Poker, etc.)

It's funny that they seemingly weren't in on it -- "No it's not at all like the other things you wrote about".

Re: The Sam Bankman-Fried empire crumbled. What happened?

#39

I think this should be a warning to anyone still invested in other crypto companies or exchanges. Everything seems like it's going well, until the music stops and the exchange is insolvent. FTX is not unique. A lot of crypto exchanges are doing just as much shady stuff. When you put your money with these companies, you're betting that "no really, this one is above board!" That's an extremely risky game to play when t…

While I could say banks are equally guilty of doing shady stuff, the truth is banking is hundreds of years old and as such, has regulations and insurance behind it. Not regulating is how we get messes like the Housing Bubble in the 2000s in the US culminating in the crash in 2011. Crypto being a completely new space has no regulation and no checks and balances which leads to messes like this with companies playing ar…

a) They are similar products banks/certain financial institutions utilize right now, just with corporate debt -- oh what can go wrong in a recession, right?

b) Bank runs happened in 2008 (U.S.), 2010-12 etc. A lot of crypto companies buy insurance similar to what the government says, but lacking regulation and the government behind you makes it as you said problematic.

But: banks are years old and keep making the same mistakes and failures. Big banks (not your corner side community bank that acts as intermediate and its job is community welfare and good relations) haven't changed. I'd be surprised if we avoid another bank related incident, if we enter a recession.

Post reply on HN