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Well Known Short Seller Claims SBF Is a Fraud Weeks Ago

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Re: Well Known Short Seller Claims SBF Is a Fraud Weeks Ago

#11
post #7

It always struck me as odd that this guy came out of nowhere to become one of the wealthiest people in crypto in a few years. I don’t know if his adherence to effective altruism had anything to do with this outcome, but taken to an extreme I could see someone rationalizing fraud to redistribute wealth in a way that maximizes benefit to others. Basically Robin Hood.

Tens of millions of dollars to political campaigns?

Re: Well Known Short Seller Claims SBF Is a Fraud Weeks Ago

#12
post #8

So is everyone assuming the remaining big players in crypto are straight, or crooked as question marks?

SBF had the reputation of being the most honest person in crypto.

so you're saying that still might be true?

Re: Well Known Short Seller Claims SBF Is a Fraud Weeks Ago

#13
post #8

So is everyone assuming the remaining big players in crypto are straight, or crooked as question marks?

SBF had the reputation of being the most honest person in crypto.

There's a legendary interview between SBF and Matt "Money Stuff" Levine, where he straight up admits to crypto being a Ponzi scheme.

So you've got this boxes and it’s kind of dumb, but like what's the end game, right? This box is worth zero obviously. And like that, you know, you can't like keep this smart cap or something. But on the other hand, if everyone kind of now thinks that this box token is worth about a billion dollar market cap, that's what people are pricing it at and sort of has that market cap. Everyone's gonna mark to market. In fact, you can even finance this, right? You put X token in a borrow lending protocol and borrow dollars with it. If you think it's worth like less than two thirds of that, you could even just like put some in there, take the dollars out. Never, you know, give the dollars back. You just get liquidated eventually.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-04-25/sam-bankm...

Re: Well Known Short Seller Claims SBF Is a Fraud Weeks Ago

#14
post #8

So is everyone assuming the remaining big players in crypto are straight, or crooked as question marks?

SBF had the reputation of being the most honest person in crypto.

SBF was marketed by his investors who helped him gain people's trust. That's hard to replicate.

It was pretty clear to me that SBF wasn't a good actor in this space because he didn't care about decentralization, just about making as much money as he could however he could in the name of effective altruism.

I wasn't the only one suggesting that people stay away from anything SBF had touched.

Re: Well Known Short Seller Claims SBF Is a Fraud Weeks Ago

#15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

all crypto is rife with red flags.

Crypto is nothing special in this respect.. These red flags you speak are not an issue with crypto, they are an issue with people. Humans have been looking for ways to screw each other over since the dawn of time. If you mint some brass coins and say they are gold, that just makes you a loar. It doesn't mean there's anything wrong with gold.

> If you mint some brass coins and say they are gold, that just makes you a loar. It doesn't mean there's anything wrong with gold.

If the fraud is rampant enough, then it is a problem with gold: it's too risky to invest in.

Re: Well Known Short Seller Claims SBF Is a Fraud Weeks Ago

#17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

all crypto is rife with red flags.

Crypto is nothing special in this respect.. These red flags you speak are not an issue with crypto, they are an issue with people. Humans have been looking for ways to screw each other over since the dawn of time. If you mint some brass coins and say they are gold, that just makes you a loar. It doesn't mean there's anything wrong with gold.

> Crypto is nothing special in this respect..

Crypto is nothing special in any respect except crime. Web 3.0 is basically blockchain re-discovering how finance works and why financial regulation is a thing.

Coins leveraging coins and pegged to other coins and hedged by yet another coin... None of it reflects a solid foundation and the fact that, for a time, enough people were fooled does not a revolution make.

Re: Well Known Short Seller Claims SBF Is a Fraud Weeks Ago

#18
post #8

So is everyone assuming the remaining big players in crypto are straight, or crooked as question marks?

SBF had the reputation of being the most honest person in crypto.

Absolutely ridiculous take. No he was not.

Re: Well Known Short Seller Claims SBF Is a Fraud Weeks Ago

#19

So is everyone assuming the remaining big players in crypto are straight, or crooked as question marks?

The safer bet given the history of exchanges, scam coins, and NFT is that they are crooked. This is why Coinbase sent out an email this morning pleading with people not to withdraw because they aren't crooked.

Re: Well Known Short Seller Claims SBF Is a Fraud Weeks Ago

#20
post #8

So is everyone assuming the remaining big players in crypto are straight, or crooked as question marks?

SBF had the reputation of being the most honest person in crypto.

Speaking as someone tangential to the space, I have to disagree. SBF always been kind of loathed by people in the know. I think the reason was because of his political involvement and how he pushed for regulation, while many in crypto are against the government getting involved. "Scam Bankman Fraud," they called him--the memes write themselves.
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