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Binance is trying to calm investors, but its finances remain a mystery

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Re: Binance is trying to calm investors, but its finances remain a mystery

#51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They have the ability to easily create tens of millions of dollars as needed based on their BNB reserves Sounds like a huge red flag.

Woohoo magic mystery money! How did that work out for FTX with FTT?

I was told crypto was the answer to central banks printing money. Ironically a tech friend predicted all this way way back at the start, I mentioned one of the advantages of bitcoin was the fixed amount and he replied "What stops your exchange from showing $1000 on the webpage but not actually holding that amount?"

Exactly the problem unfolding years later.

Re: Binance is trying to calm investors, but its finances remain a mystery

#52

Only Coinbase will survive at the end. It's the only one of the big exchanges that doesn't do any form of debt/lending/margin etc just straight up offering trading for a fee.

It's unlikely even Coinbase will survive: they lost $1.1 billion with a B in Q2 and $545M in Q3. Their trading fees are well known to be far higher than the competition (because they can't juice their numbers by gambling), so they rely on unsophisticated mass investors who don't know any better, but those investors are wisely staying the hell away from crypto right now.

Calling anything crypto "investing" is really funny.

Re: Binance is trying to calm investors, but its finances remain a mystery

#53

Only Coinbase will survive at the end. It's the only one of the big exchanges that doesn't do any form of debt/lending/margin etc just straight up offering trading for a fee.

Their API isn't nearly as good as Binance's. The rate limits alone are way too low. Hopefully they improve this.

Re: Binance is trying to calm investors, but its finances remain a mystery

#54

Only Coinbase will survive at the end. It's the only one of the big exchanges that doesn't do any form of debt/lending/margin etc just straight up offering trading for a fee.

It's unlikely even Coinbase will survive: they lost $1.1 billion with a B in Q2 and $545M in Q3. Their trading fees are well known to be far higher than the competition (because they can't juice their numbers by gambling), so they rely on unsophisticated mass investors who don't know any better, but those investors are wisely staying the hell away from crypto right now.

For the masses, the only reason to use Coinbase at this point is to trade shitcoins. For BTC and ETH they can just use a normal broker like Interactive Brokers or Fidelity, that have been around for decades and know how to make money without losing their customers' money.

Re: Binance is trying to calm investors, but its finances remain a mystery

#55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean fourth possibility is that binance is solvent right? I’m not assigning probabilities to any of them but taking their insolvency as a foregone conclusion seems pretty incorrect?

Assuming rational actors I can't see any reason to evade audits for years, even after litigation, unless the result of the audit would be bad.

See Tether. Crypto is just a massive house of cards that will collapse and drag the economy with it.

Re: Binance is trying to calm investors, but its finances remain a mystery

#56
post #3

Binance is even more shady than FTX. They are most likely not solvent. Personally, I'd move all my funds off binance to off-exchange wallets for the time being.

Just makes one wonder why the binance guy even stirred the pot initially with FTX, like 3 possibilities exist: 1. He assumed the blowout would be minimal outside of FTX and/or assumed FTX was shady but not as bad as it turned out 2. He acknowledged the possibility that binance will also get scrutiny but realized FTX was just so bad that letting it fester further will only get him arrested faster too. 3. He’s just ano…

Or that they run a legitimate company and don't like scammers running competing exchanges and stealing customers money which makes the whole industry look bad

Re: Binance is trying to calm investors, but its finances remain a mystery

#57

Only Coinbase will survive at the end. It's the only one of the big exchanges that doesn't do any form of debt/lending/margin etc just straight up offering trading for a fee.

Coinbase will not survive, they already lost credibility due to their insider trading issue [1,2]

Coinbase also originates from wallstreet, hence why Binance is way more popular (Binance has 10x more daily volume!!! [3]), despite Coinbase having more PR presence

This FUD is another evidence that someone wants to take down Binance, they dodged the poison/trap with FTX, looks like they'll have to dodge another one real soon

[1] - https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/sep/12/coinbase-cry...

[2] - https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/three-charged-first-eve...

[3] - https://coinmarketcap.com/rankings/exchanges/

Re: Binance is trying to calm investors, but its finances remain a mystery

#58

Binance is the closest thing to a global, borderless bank that exists today. They exist everywhere and nowhere. Their legal entities shift based on what is needed at the moment. They have the ability to easily create tens of millions of dollars as needed based on their BNB reserves, tight relationship with Tether, their ability to launch new token projects (i.e. unregulated securities offerings), and their stablecoin…

Fantastic! How do I give them all my money?

Re: Binance is trying to calm investors, but its finances remain a mystery

#59
post #19

I’m waiting for Binance and Tether to collapse, and then we will know with certainty crypto’s best days are behind it, down to zero it goes. If you have assets on Binance I would not be complacent. Get them out.

I just can't see how crypto can recover tbh. What other technology spent ten years, produced basically nothing of value, is almost universally hated by the whole population and then came back to be something useful? It's not like quantum computing where we just don't know how to make it work. There are close to no technical problems, the core idea just doesn't work.

Imagine thinking an industry worth $800B, with 200M users, transferring billions of dollars a day, is "hated by the whole population". You really live in a bubble

Re: Binance is trying to calm investors, but its finances remain a mystery

#60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean fourth possibility is that binance is solvent right? I’m not assigning probabilities to any of them but taking their insolvency as a foregone conclusion seems pretty incorrect?

Assuming rational actors I can't see any reason to evade audits for years, even after litigation, unless the result of the audit would be bad.

Maybe an audit shows they are too solvent, only achievable with profits from a prior leverage of protected customer funds that they don't want to reveal.

Say with Tether instead, if they invested in junky stuff but none of it went bust and they made way more than investing in t-bills or whatever they promised, then they may not want an audit to reveal they have 3X more than enough to cover outstanding tether, something t-bills couldn't have achieved.

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