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Federal investigators probe Tether

wsj.com

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Re: Federal investigators probe Tether

#71

Post by fellowniusmonk »

TheAlchemist wrote: post #30
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #4

Tether was launched in 2014 [1]. It has over $120bn in outstanding liabilities against unknown assets [2]. When it fails, it will rival the fourth-largest 'bank' failure in U.S. history [3]. This has been a complete failure of U.S. regulatory bodies. [1] https://www.investopedia.com/terms/t/tether-usdt.asp [2] https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/tether/ [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_bank_failures…

Exactly - a massive failure of regulatory bodies. I wonder why. It was similar with Madoff - there were people literally sending documents showing it's a fraud, and they did nothing for years. I don't follow crypto lately, but it seems that Tether is printing money in high interest rate period. But back before that, it was a complete joke - it was so apparent that they published only made up numbers that didn't reall…

Free money and failure to regulate means scammers have never been more flush and able to talk with money. It's not a great space to be in, glad this administration placed Lina Kahn and others, without competition free markets can't operate efficiently. Both regulatory capture and natural monopolies all jam up the works. People don't remember it but one of the best things that ever happened to tech was the anti-trust suit brought against M$, anti-competitive behavior is such a drag on tech innovation, that combined with the incremental win for right to repair is all great progress.

Re: Federal investigators probe Tether

#72

Post by cryptica »

If Tether is a fraud then the entire financial system is clearly a fraud as well. What kind of financial system allows a fraud of this size to continue for over a decade? Let me guess, nobody knew anything. Yet the government knows about every transaction over $600 on all our accounts. It's clown world.

Re: Federal investigators probe Tether

#73

Post by lolinder »

ironyman wrote: post #70

Tether's press release: https://tether.io/news/tether-slams-wsjs-irresponsible-repor...

Is it actually just those two paragraphs, or is something not rendering correctly?

If that's all there is, it's not a great defense. Maybe they felt like the WSJ article was just so unfair it didn't deserve a response, but then... just don't respond. This kind of righteous indignation with no actual rebuttal isn't persuasive.

Re: Federal investigators probe Tether

#74

Post by [deleted] »

jdenning wrote: post #63
cool_dude85 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you link one of these investigations that show that tether is backed more than 1:1 with the USD?

This is the most recent one linked on their site[1]: https://assets.ctfassets.net/vyse88cgwfbl/6h4YWqZOXbwtBaPtYg... Edit: to save people a click, the report shows 125 Billion in assets vs 113 Billion in liabilities. Approx 81 Bil in T-bills [1] https://tether.to/en/transparency/?tab=reports

[deleted]

Re: Federal investigators probe Tether

#75

Post by fallinditch »

satvikpendem wrote: post #5

Ah, finally, will Tether get its day in the litigious sun? It's well known in cryptocurrency circles that their coin is not backed 1:1 to USD, similar to FTX, only that FTX crashed and this was found out the easy way. Cracking Tether will be much harder as they resist audits.

Here's a fascinating piece of history that sheds light on the Bitfinex/FTX/Tether shenanigans. Originally a Medium post that was removed at some point, here's an archived copy. It details how Bitfinex/Tether manipulated BTC to make serious $$.

I think the article also points to the origins of the FTX fraud: was Sam Bankman Fried involved in these BTC manipulations? Or inspired by it to create his own exchange?

https://web.archive.org/web/20180620111632/https://medium.co...

Re: Federal investigators probe Tether

#77

Post by BLKNSLVR »

gosub100 wrote: post #56
BLKNSLVR wrote: post #42

Good timing, along with the election. Going by history there's the likelihood of a ~20% dip in the BTC price before it takes a couple of big steps up in the last few months of the bull run part of the 4-year cycle. If it happens, accumulate.

Don't buy a pizza with it, or help Aunt Mildred with an expense, or loan your brother $4k though, because it's useless for any practical purposes.

I'm aware of these things, but good points to know for the uninitiated.

Re: Federal investigators probe Tether

#78

Post by BLKNSLVR »

paulpauper wrote: post #64
BLKNSLVR wrote: post #42

Good timing, along with the election. Going by history there's the likelihood of a ~20% dip in the BTC price before it takes a couple of big steps up in the last few months of the bull run part of the 4-year cycle. If it happens, accumulate.

Why would I accumulate something which has so much risk and so much downside when I can just buy tech stocks like TSLA or NVDA which actually go up, with less risk and less volatility? Meta, Nvidia, QQQ have beaten bitcoin for years now. The time to have bought bitcoin was pre-2017 or so. those days over for good. Bitcoin is weak and bloated, never goes up anymore, too many old wallets and whales dumping. Too much re…

Depends on your timescale and when to buy and sell.

Depending on the reason, I'd also say it would be worth buying Meta, NVDA, TSLA, etc. on a 20% dip, especially if they were going into a season where, historically, they makes their largest gains.

Re: Federal investigators probe Tether

#79

Post by BLKNSLVR »

paulpauper wrote: post #65
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #4

Tether was launched in 2014 [1]. It has over $120bn in outstanding liabilities against unknown assets [2]. When it fails, it will rival the fourth-largest 'bank' failure in U.S. history [3]. This has been a complete failure of U.S. regulatory bodies. [1] https://www.investopedia.com/terms/t/tether-usdt.asp [2] https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/tether/ [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_bank_failures…

Just another reason why crypto is inferior. So much risk , no upside. like investing in mortgage/ bank stocks in 2007.

No upside?

Historically, or purely in the context of this article, assuming it's true?

Re: Federal investigators probe Tether

#80

Post by alchemist1e9 »

bombcar wrote: post #35
alchemist1e9 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I will try to find it. I would also point out they hold excess reserves in Bitcoin. My guess is nobody can get them on not being 1:1 but this idea of AML violations as the attack vector makes a lot of sense.

Isn't the whole argument against Tether that they print Tether out of nothing, buy Bitcoin with it, and now have Bitcoin (and increased the price of Bitcoin)?

Actually, the NYAG settlement doesn’t support that conspiracy theory. The investigation found no evidence that Tether printed USDT ‘out of nothing’ to manipulate Bitcoin. The issues raised were about transparency in Tether’s reserves during specific periods when funds were managed by third parties, not about unbacked issuance. Tether has since updated its policies, making clear the types of assets backing USDT.
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