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Anyone Seen Tether’s Billions?

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Re: Anyone Seen Tether’s Billions?

#181
post #176
post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>They can decide to sell 10 copies, and dictate that if they are resold, the photographer gets a 20% royalty. Suppose that I want to sell my copy, but do not want to pay the 20% royalty. What stops me from selling it for 1 cent on-chain, but buyer paying me real price off-chain? How can a creator realistically expect to receive their royalty cut?

It's an interesting loop hole. That can actually be solved with a smart contract that wouldn't allow you to sell below the purchase price, or at least not that far below it. Anything can be programmed in a smart contract, and they're transparent, so if the royalty rules are not acceptable to you, don't buy it.

The flip side of such a contract is that you would be locked out of selling the item if its value dropped too far (thereby depriving the creator of royalties), and if the value increased, the royalties would only be ensured on the original price.

I think this is more than just a loophole - it's a fundamental weakness of the smart contract system. The smart contract can audit things which are on the blockchain, but cannot govern external actions. This is fine when the only objects the contract cares about are digital tokens, but once you integrate things like real-world art and associated rights, it becomes very easy to circumvent.

Re: Anyone Seen Tether’s Billions?

#182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've held a short position on USDT through AAVE for a couple months now. USDT would have to go to ~2 to liquidate me.

If USDT goes, so does AAVE and everything else. And as has been mentioned, the iFinex crew have squeezed USDT to $1,000 before.

Mentioned, yes. Cited (as happening on a decentralized exchange), no.

Re: Anyone Seen Tether’s Billions?

#183

I don't understand how Tether has survived this long. Bitfinex and Tether sure look transparently like a fraud, all the way back to the "no really we have $1 in the bank for every Tether but you can't audit us" days. And yet it continues to occupy its role as the underpinning of most cryptocurrency markets. Why hasn't it blown up yet? My best guess is that it's useful to everyone taking in money from new retail inves…

Keep in mind that the original Ponzi scheme ran for quite a while and even had the media defending it as a great investment.

Tether (and most crypto) seems like someone copied Ponzi's original scheme 1:1. Put in some money, transfer it to another format (Tether to other crypto, with Ponzi it was stamps), then eventually pull out loads of cash. Some people will undeniably get rich off it. But it's not sustainable.

Re: Anyone Seen Tether’s Billions?

#184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like I said, USDC is not dollars. If you're betting on Tether collapsing you sure as hell aren't going to take payment on that bet in USDC.

…okay, so if I deposit USDC at Coinbase, I can instantly convert the entire balance into USD, and then withdraw that USD to my bank account. The statement that “USDC is not USD” means nothing to anyone who has access to instant and reliable conversion between the two.

Are you serious? When there's a run on something, like Tether, by definition everybody is going to be trying to dump their crypto simultaneously and cash it out for dollars. And the entire problem here is that the system does not have $69B cold hard cash floating around, meaning that the vast majority of people will be left with nothing if (when) the crash happens.

Re: Anyone Seen Tether’s Billions?

#185

If this goes on for a few more years, with broader investment from traditional investors (ETF), when Tether collapse I half-suspect that the cryptocurrency markets will bring the NYSE down with it in the fall as people sell to cover losses

That's always the game plan though. I wrote about it a few days ago: https://liuliu.me/eyes/the-endgame-for-cryptocurrency/

Once you have big enough following, having enough systematic risk, you, average scammers can enter "too big to fail" category, especially in democratic countries.

If USDT successfully turned half of the U.S. families holding 25% of cryptocurrency-related assets, they can work out any scamming issues they have in hand.

Re: Anyone Seen Tether’s Billions?

#187
post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's super cool that their 5K turns into 6K in 10 years time Ok, I get it. You’ve not actually looked at what other investments are like. 20% return over 10 years? The S&P 500 is on track to do that this year, after one of the biggest rallies in history last year. $5k invested just before the covid collapse would still be worth far more than $6k, and that’s 18 months through a global pandemic. That said, your answe…

As much as I enjoy pissing on boomers, older home owners did nothing for their houses to appreciate. It's just something that happens due to monetary policy, low interest rates, local scarcity of supply and a growing population. A lesser known reason is that since the 2008 crisis, hardly any new homes got built. Whilst the underlying demand was still in place, and growing. "You can’t sell anyone a home for $485k if t…

> As much as I enjoy pissing on boomers, older home owners did nothing for their houses to appreciate. It's just something that happens due to monetary policy, low interest rates, local scarcity of supply and a growing population.

All the things you mention, boomers did that. Monetary policy was drafted by boomers, for boomers, to protect and enrich boomers (low interest rates being one outcome). We printed trillions last year to protect boomers at the expense of young people. Scarcity is a function of zoning laws, again drafted by boomers to protect the value of their nest egg. It’s 100% their fault.

Re: Anyone Seen Tether’s Billions?

#188
post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What? Who told you this? Market makers, especially in crypto, do not have long holding periods. The big moves in crypto are because of coordinated manipulation to trigger stops and liquidations (forced, price insensitive buying and selling). I don’t know if this is /r/wsb leaking but markets do not tank because market makers pull back…that’s just not the business they are in.

Yeah they delta hedge anyways so no need to pull back

On options, yes. But in delta 1 products is not always so easy. They are often legitimately just market making.

Re: Anyone Seen Tether’s Billions?

#189
post #118
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll bite. What can I use Solana for?

AS someone who has seen his friends for years toute crypto, but never bitten.. i did this year. (those friends have passive incomes in the 10k's per month now in crypto that can be readily exchanged for dollars) Parallel economies exist. In the mainstream economy, your mainstream interests have every aspect of the market cornered. You only get in once they have taken all the worthwhile positions. In the crypto econom…

> In the crypto economy, and yes, its a fully fledged economy and social network in 1, u can get in on the ground level and ride that hype up.

So the utility of Solana is that you can, and I quote, "ride that hype up"? I think you've kind of proven the OP's point here.

Re: Anyone Seen Tether’s Billions?

#190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If tether crashed I guarantee every MM would pull their bid, nobody wants to be left holding the bag. I don’t care if they’re obligated by contract to provide a bid/ask at all times—if USDT went bust, BTC/USDT liquidity would evaporate very quickly. The contract would be irrelevant since the exchange would die. Either that, or their bid will be 0, like on 0DTE options that are far out of the money.

Yes, I agree. But if all MMs withdrew but you had lots of other stickier liquidity, spreads might widen but it would cause a crash. Of course if Tether implodes, all the long term buyers will evaporate, which is my point: medium/long term price is dictate by swing and positional traders, not market makers. > Either that, or their bid will be 0, like on 0DTE options that are far out of the money. What? This doesn’t ma…

> What? This doesn’t make any sense. 0dte options are often some of the most actively traded. But I’m not really sure you get this stuff.

Did you miss the “far out of the money” part of my comment?

What’s the bid/ask on the Oct 8 SPX 4550C going to be at open tomorrow, assuming SPX opens around 4400? Bid 0.00, Ask 0.05

I also understand there is resting (and possibly hidden, depending on the order types allowed by the exchange) liquidity on the order book that would be there if USDT collapsed and MMs pulled out, but how long do you think it would take for orders to evaporate for an asset that is rapidly approaching a 0 dollar valuation?

I’m just a dumb amateur, but I have a basic grasp of the mechanics.

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