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

FTX to file for U.S. bankruptcy, CEO resigns

reuters.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

801–810 of 1001 posts

Re: FTX to file for U.S. bankruptcy, CEO resigns

#801

Post by shorthistory »

eddsh1994 wrote: post #575
shorthistory wrote: post #423

Can anyone speculate what Bankman-Fried's exit plan was? Was this a fraud that got out of control, or premeditated? If it was premeditated, what was the exit plan? Did he expect to be able to gamble with customer funds indefinitely? Were the Effective Altruism intimations genuine? Why, if Alameda was a market maker, and they therefore presumably have some form of insight into the markets, did they then decide to take…

Re: EA, you can see the general consensus of what’s happened in a multitude of FTX posts here https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/ My particular views are: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/EKN9Nn89ixriwSXpP/...

EA is a load of cabbage.

Re: FTX to file for U.S. bankruptcy, CEO resigns

#802

Post by Animats »

olalonde wrote: post #767
Animats wrote: post #743

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So what happens to crypto now? A reasonably likely possibility is that the SEC starts sending letters to every issuer and exchange that sells to US persons. If you're an issuer, you have to register as a security or get a no-action letter that says yours is a utility token. If you're an exchange or a broker, you have to register as an exchange or a broker. Sign up for FINRA regulation and pay SIPC premiums. They did…

> It's not that filing an S-1 is that hard. Doesn't it cost 200K$+ in attorney fees?

The actual filing fee is $110.20 per $1,000,000 raised.

How much it costs to draft depends on how convoluted your financial structure is.

Re: FTX to file for U.S. bankruptcy, CEO resigns

#803

Post by SevenNation »

twblalock wrote: post #528

This has been a wonderful social experiment, enabling people who didn’t live in the 19th century to see what happens when banking and investing is treated like the wild west. Maybe something could have been different this time? In the end it wasn’t, and it proves the necessity of regulation and institutions. There aren’t very many other aspects of our society where we get to have that kind of experiment and find out…

This post conveniently ignores the long line of 20th and 21st century banking and finance disasters, which occurred under the watchful eye of Congressionally appointed regulators.

One could also argue that the presence of regulators and regulation creates the very problem it tries to solve through moral hazard.

As long as there are schmucks with dollar signs in their eyes and little patience to read history, these disasters will continue - with or without regulation.

Re: FTX to file for U.S. bankruptcy, CEO resigns

#804

Post by PebblesRox »

oezi wrote: post #578
shaburn wrote: post #504

Earlier quoted context omitted.

10 Billion dollar question: Who were the counter parties to these trades where customer funds were "lost".

The thing is that there was never any funds stored in these accounts. If you store a bitcoin then there isn't any value to it until you sell it. The money that you spent to pay for the bitcoins exit the system during the purchase. Most likely paying the Ferrari of the seller.

My understanding is that there were bitcoins (and other crypto tokens) stored in the accounts that are not getting returned, valuable or not.

Re: FTX to file for U.S. bankruptcy, CEO resigns

#805

Post by zeroclip »

mlinhares wrote: post #731
dist1ll wrote: post #700

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's what people don't get. FTX' spectacular failure is literally an advertisement for decentralization.

The "no true Scotsman" is such an old and failed defense for crypto. Not even the believers believe in it anymore.

What? FTX is a centralized custodian. It is in competition with DeFi protocols.

Re: FTX to file for U.S. bankruptcy, CEO resigns

#806

Post by pigtailgirl »

timmytokyo wrote: post #693
bmitc wrote: post #458

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My thoughts are that FTX was maybe a legitimate business, but then Alameda was his trading baby that just happened to be run by kids, including himself, that have no idea what they're doing and was losing money left and right. Then using FTX customer funds was viewed as just a "let's move these funds over to get our trading back on track and when we do, we'll move them back". That's my honest guess if I'm being gener…

Seeing these kids talk puts it even more into perspective. Just watch this video of Caroline Ellison, CEO of Alameda. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aW6SqLXw944

-- having watched a series of in depth interviews with Do Kwon - the interview with Sam Bankman-Fried on Odd Lots - and now this - I wonder if these children had any mentors? - where were the adults? --

Re: FTX to file for U.S. bankruptcy, CEO resigns

#808

Post by spaceman_2020 »

barkingcat wrote: post #583
twblalock wrote: post #528

This has been a wonderful social experiment, enabling people who didn’t live in the 19th century to see what happens when banking and investing is treated like the wild west. Maybe something could have been different this time? In the end it wasn’t, and it proves the necessity of regulation and institutions. There aren’t very many other aspects of our society where we get to have that kind of experiment and find out…

even the idea of "declaring bankruptcy" is a modern regulated construct. In medieval times, if you "declare bankruptcy" your family and dependents get sold into slavery and your wife is sold off to the highest bidder who will buy your debt. In many previous times, if you couldn't pay debts you'd just be killed.

They literally had debtor’s prisons when Charles Dickins was still writing!

Re: FTX to file for U.S. bankruptcy, CEO resigns

#809

Post by spuz »

mherdeg wrote: post #730

I don't know if this bothers anyone else, but it always makes me a little grumpy when the press reports on a legal case and doesn't include a docket number so I can look up the records myself in PACER. In this case it looks like the court is the District of Delaware Bankruptcy Court and there are 29 docket numbers, representing 29 different(?) chapter 11 bankruptcy filings by the same attorney on behalf of 29 differe…

I'd also like to know why the press don't cite their sources or provide references numbers for readers to do further research. It feels like some lesson that must be taught in journalism school so as to ensure some kind of "oracle" status of the press with respect to its readers.

Re: FTX to file for U.S. bankruptcy, CEO resigns

#810

Post by GrinningFool »

wustangdan wrote: post #732
JeremyNT wrote: post #638

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I can clearly see the revolutionary potential of blockchain. What do you feel is the "revolutionary potential" here? Bitcoin has been around for a while, and I surely haven't seen it. I see this stuff only used for scams, speculation, and illicit transactions. None of this is "revolutionary" - scams, speculation, and illicit transactions have been around as long as money.

The reason is because your government is reasonably well behaved. You can think of crypto as a hedge against bad government behavior. So in your case, you aren't a target customer. Try thinking about people in Turkey or Venezuala, where the yearly inflation is 100% - 5,000%. Bitcoin looks like a relatively stable safe heaven in comparison. https://www.coindesk.com/layer2/2022/10/25/turkey-cryptocurr... In the US it w…

You haven't answered the OP's question though.

From the article you posted, it seems like its primary value there has been as a proxy for other [more stable] currencies.

USD did that something like that for a while when it was gold-backed. How is it now revolutionary when crypto does the same thing backed by fiat currencies instead of gold?

Post reply on HN