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Proposed SEC order to freeze, repatriate Binance.US assets

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Re: Proposed SEC order to freeze, repatriate Binance.US assets

#81

Post by ceroxylon »

pabloarteel wrote: post #24
Alupis wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For the casual bystander with crypto parked in Coinbase vaults, and maybe some eth staked - what's the consensus among those more knowledgeable? Move assets now or just stay the course? It doesn't look like anyone is going to outright lose assets - but perhaps not the able to withdraw for some period of time?

One of the few benefits of crypto is to "be your own bank" and not needing 3rd party permission to move your assets. Withdraw to cold storage, dump everything except bitcoin, and of course, do your own research.

...and send a test transaction before you send it all.

Re: Proposed SEC order to freeze, repatriate Binance.US assets

#82

Post by crtified »

elkos wrote: post #41

I'm honestly curious, at first glance this looks that could potentially affect cryptocurrencies in a sizable way downwards. I checked CoinMarketCap and it seems that the trend is comparatively stable. Can someone explain this? Please do take into account that I'm not very well versed with cryptocurrencies and I usually need an explainer in several financial concepts.

Your assumption could come to pass. It's not a certainty. Keep in mind that these squabbles center around ownership, custody and handling - not seeking to destroy, or to cast the assets themselves as 'bad' per se.

Re: Proposed SEC order to freeze, repatriate Binance.US assets

#83

Post by this_user »

EscapeFromNY wrote: post #47
silisili wrote: post #17

I'm pretty anti-crypto, but tested the water with Voyager USDC because of the absurd APY. Took my money and ran when Celsius hinted at having issues, luckily. Funnily enough there was some amount, less than a dollar IIRC, left in Voyager when they folded. I received an email telling me it was being taken over by...Binance. Never bothered to login and even check it. Guess it really is scams all the way down.

The USP of cryptocurrency is the ability to self-custody. If you sent your money to a company like Voyager, instead of controlling your keys yourself, you missed the point.

And then you are still losing your money, because your supposedly secure hardware wallet had a backdoor all along. Or you are downloading a wallet app that is compromised. Or you are making any one of a million possible mistakes that can lose your everything you have in crypto.

At the end of the day, you need to keep your keys on an a dedicated air-gapped system where you have epoxied the USB ports and have ideally written the OS and all of the firmware (and the compiler) yourself. But then what's the point of a supposed currency of the future that is barely usable without paranoid security measures?

Re: Proposed SEC order to freeze, repatriate Binance.US assets

#84

Post by Retric »

EscapeFromNY wrote: post #47
silisili wrote: post #17

I'm pretty anti-crypto, but tested the water with Voyager USDC because of the absurd APY. Took my money and ran when Celsius hinted at having issues, luckily. Funnily enough there was some amount, less than a dollar IIRC, left in Voyager when they folded. I received an email telling me it was being taken over by...Binance. Never bothered to login and even check it. Guess it really is scams all the way down.

The USP of cryptocurrency is the ability to self-custody. If you sent your money to a company like Voyager, instead of controlling your keys yourself, you missed the point.

Let’s be real, a large fraction of all interest in crypto is as a financial asset. The financial transaction / storage side is relatively uninteresting to people because the existing financial system generally works really well for them in terms of risks, fees, uptime etc.

Which isn’t to say the existing financial system works well for everybody all the time, but in practice crypto just isn’t showing real benefits to offset its many downsides.

Re: Proposed SEC order to freeze, repatriate Binance.US assets

#85

Post by unyttigfjelltol »

EscapeFromNY wrote: post #58
elkos wrote: post #41

I'm honestly curious, at first glance this looks that could potentially affect cryptocurrencies in a sizable way downwards. I checked CoinMarketCap and it seems that the trend is comparatively stable. Can someone explain this? Please do take into account that I'm not very well versed with cryptocurrencies and I usually need an explainer in several financial concepts.

Binance is an exchange, and exchanges are not needed for cryptocurrency to work. They just make it easier to enter/exit the ecosystem.

Without exchanges, you would be justified to use crypto to buy pizza again.

Re: Proposed SEC order to freeze, repatriate Binance.US assets

#86

Post by ProjectArcturis »

lvl102 wrote: post #36

Bitcoin solves this. Sorry I just had to. I think crypto as an investable asset class is finished. SEC is sending a very clear signal here. It’s entirely the community’s fault for failing to properly manage this space. They actually earned public’s trust (sometime during the pandemic). And then they threw it all away for a few bucks.

It's more the failure of the crypto community over the past 14 years to develop a use for crypto beyond speculation and crime.

Re: Proposed SEC order to freeze, repatriate Binance.US assets

#87

Post by I_am_tiberius »

Gary Gensler yesterday argued on live television that digital currency already exists and therefore there's no reason for crypto to exist. Moreover, in the House hearing some months back he said that it's not crypto that will change the world, but AI. I don't have any kind of facts for this but my believe is that the Biden admin feels that crypto currencies devalue the US Dollar and therefore considers them threatening. So they're going after them. If that true, this might be a big opportunity for other countries and regions in the world to get ahead of the US. Also, I feel the US has anyway too much influence in the world. So I see this as a positive for the world as a whole.

Re: Proposed SEC order to freeze, repatriate Binance.US assets

#88

Post by EscapeFromNY »

wmf wrote: post #64
EscapeFromNY wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The USP of cryptocurrency is the ability to self-custody. If you sent your money to a company like Voyager, instead of controlling your keys yourself, you missed the point.

It's really not though. The point was to get rich and if you can get rich quicker in a custodial pump-and-dump than in a self-custodied decentralized boiler room... you might as well.

There's nothing in the bitcoin whitepaper about getting rich quick. If that's your goal, go ahead and send your money to FTX, Luna, Voyager, or Binance. But that's not my goal. I'm here so I can have self-sovereignty of my money.

Re: Proposed SEC order to freeze, repatriate Binance.US assets

#89

Post by polygamous_bat »

wmf wrote: post #76
elkos wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would trading only Bitcoin and Ethereum which last time i checked aren't securities be a probable way out of this mess for Coinbase?

Yeah, but then they'd go out of business due to lack of revenue.

Thankfully, it's not SEC's job to ensure your business model of regulatory arbitrage is a viable one.

Re: Proposed SEC order to freeze, repatriate Binance.US assets

#90

Post by NikolaNovak »

coolestguy wrote: post #78
silisili wrote: post #17

I'm pretty anti-crypto, but tested the water with Voyager USDC because of the absurd APY. Took my money and ran when Celsius hinted at having issues, luckily. Funnily enough there was some amount, less than a dollar IIRC, left in Voyager when they folded. I received an email telling me it was being taken over by...Binance. Never bothered to login and even check it. Guess it really is scams all the way down.

You bought IOU's from a centralized entity, you didn't do anything with crypto.

Possibly unfair, but this is like trying to discuss religion with believers. " Oh no, THAT specific thing is silly. OUR things are completely different."

Similarly whatever you do or showcase or discuss, "Oh that is not REAL Crypto. Our Crypto is different!"

It's a massive whack a mole. Meanwhile there are what, ten thousand plus different tokens tracked on coin market cap?

Edit : 25k, apparently lol. It's been a few days since I last checked :-)

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