Live data from Hacker News

SEC asks for emergency order to freeze Binance US assets anywhere in the world

cnbc.com

211–220 of 294 posts

Re: SEC asks for emergency order to freeze Binance US assets anywhere in the world

#211
post #118
post #91

Under SEC logic, this action is meant to protect the users of Binance US who. According to SEC logic, those users the victims of malfeasance by Binance US and it's decuitful, fraudulent actions. I would ask: is there even a single Binance US user that wants the SEC to take custody of their assets? instead of sticking with Binance US?

I’m sure many long-term customers of Bernie Madoff secretly hoped his scam could have kept going because they had been enjoying those nice pyramid returns for years, and it stung that the money flow stopped. The SEC enforces the law. It’s not some kind of poll where you ask the victims whether they’ve been mostly enjoying the law-breaking activities and would like to see them continue.

Exactly.

Re: SEC asks for emergency order to freeze Binance US assets anywhere in the world

#212

The quality of discourse at this stage of the thread (2 hours, 20 comments) is incredibly disappointing. Hn usually has high quality discussions. What is it about crypto that causes us to lose our minds?

I think it’s because many people are quite deeply invested in crypto, and the result is that they can be extremely emotional and irrational. Efforts to regulate crypto and make it “not a scam” essentially means they will have wasted tens/hundreds of thousands of dollars and that is embarrassing and shameful.

They’re locked into irrationally promoting crypto because it’s the only way to protect their “investments” and their dignity.

Re: SEC asks for emergency order to freeze Binance US assets anywhere in the world

#213

The quality of discourse at this stage of the thread (2 hours, 20 comments) is incredibly disappointing. Hn usually has high quality discussions. What is it about crypto that causes us to lose our minds?

Crypto is just crypto.

But it was hyped up to be the future, cure cancer, end poverty etc.

And now none of that has materialised it is just being hyped "down".

People are understandably disappointed or disillusioned. But unbridled pessimism is no more realism that unbridled optimism.

You see the same basic "roller coaster" with other "phenomenon". Elon Musk was a god, now he is the devil. Obama had the same Hope->Disappointment thing. Self driving cars, fusion (and fission) power, various climate accords, there are many examples. AI is the current biggest bubble.

To speculate wildly: I think it is caused by a mix of the same bubble-forming forces you see in financial markets AND a sort of In-Group psychology of humans where they value "being on the right side" (where popular=right) very highly.

Crypto is a strong example but not unique I think.

It's concerning that people on HN are not introspective enough to see what their own psychology is doing to them, but the same applies to me some times. Minds are slippery...

Re: SEC asks for emergency order to freeze Binance US assets anywhere in the world

#214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's really not any different than traditional cash. "Not your cash, not your money" also holds true. Storing lots of cash at home is even more difficult and risky. Keep your money at the bank? The govern can simply turn off your money for any reason. You're literally posting in a thread about the US government seeking to freeze Binance's accounts.

> The govern can simply turn off your money for any reason. This obviously happens so often /s

Happens all the time.

Re: SEC asks for emergency order to freeze Binance US assets anywhere in the world

#215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Happened in the 90s where I live. Hyperinflation set in and government just froze everybody's accounts in a desperate attempt to stop it. It's 2023 and people are still afraid it might happen again, especially with a literal communist in power. Cryptocurrency is absolutely valuable as a defense against government idiocy. That fact cannot be denied.

And an easy way to lose everything because you sent tokens to the wrong address, forgot your passphrase, lost your hardware ledger, fell prey to some scam or another, house burned down, etc.

This is all solvable and in fact solved, just not integrated in the wallets.

Re: SEC asks for emergency order to freeze Binance US assets anywhere in the world

#216
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Crypto is also good as a form of market speculation and to make gaming GPUs too expensive for gamers. Don’t sell it short!

Crypto is no longer mined on gpus. The gpu apocalypse is over.

Just in time for AI to slurp up all supply?

Re: SEC asks for emergency order to freeze Binance US assets anywhere in the world

#217
post #5

Once again the use-case for crypto turns out to be... large scale criminality and fraud. Shocker.

or the US government is just afraid of not being able to easily track all monetary transactions legal and illegal. Big brother needs to see all in order to control all.

i feel like the move towards cashless, all transactions are tracked, society is real and if you don't see maybe you are not looking around. This is happening agnostic to crypto anything.

Re: SEC asks for emergency order to freeze Binance US assets anywhere in the world

#218
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

I think this may be sarcasm, but I also think it's literally true. Part of what I find interesting about the whole debacle is how many people really "told you so" well before the wheels started to come off (if that's indeed what's happening over the last year or so, will be easier to tell after the fact).

There are people who claim they “told you so” all along, who had heard about bitcoin in 2011[1]… and it’s still up 100x since then.

”But you could say the same of a legit Ponzi scheme or fraud!” No, not really. Those crash after the details emerge and everyone knows the truth. Here, the full “details” have been out for a very very long time.

[1] the year the infamous /r/buttcoin sub was formed, btw

Re: SEC asks for emergency order to freeze Binance US assets anywhere in the world

#220

The quality of discourse at this stage of the thread (2 hours, 20 comments) is incredibly disappointing. Hn usually has high quality discussions. What is it about crypto that causes us to lose our minds?

[flagged]
Post reply on HN