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Binance outflows hit $6B as Mazars halts ‘proof of reserves’ work

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211–220 of 506 posts

Re: Binance outflows hit $6B as Mazars halts ‘proof of reserves’ work

#211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there a central bank that can print or sell Bitcoin to stabilize its price? Is there a central bank that can set rates for BTC credits and deposits? If not, in what way is BTC a fiat currency?

"Fiat" means it didn't exist until somebody said "this is money". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_money

Doesn’t a network that allows money transfer world-wide constitute ‘use value’?

Re: Binance outflows hit $6B as Mazars halts ‘proof of reserves’ work

#212

In the next 6 months binance will go bankrupt. Run as fast as you could

They might - but this doesn't imply any wrongdoing. Maybe everybody will be able to cash out and get all their money back - but then at that point there's no business left for Binance and they go bankrupt. Or, of course, the usual and everybody get hosed.

Re: Binance outflows hit $6B as Mazars halts ‘proof of reserves’ work

#213
post #126
post #3

Mazars is likely wondering if they are going to be the next Arthur Andersen before this is all over. Good luck finding another firm when one of the top firms in the world drops you like a hot potato.

They haven't done anything wrong AFAIK; they didn't sign off on an audit, and withdrew, which is the reality of many smaller accounting practices taking on unfamiliar clients. Arthur Anderson knowingly fudged the numbers at Enron, and provided both accounting and consulting services, which was a big conflict of interest. The consulting arm came up with new type of revenue opportunities (energy contracts), and the acc…

It’s actually so nuts. People rarely get into the details of how crazy accounting was in Enron. They made an agreement to build a power plant, then booked 50 years of profit from operating it before they broke ground.

Re: Binance outflows hit $6B as Mazars halts ‘proof of reserves’ work

#214
post #6

> “We are financially OK,” said Zhao Where have we heard this before? Oh yeah: FTX is fine. Assets are fine.

The person you’re quoting is the one who started FTXs decline by calling them out and very publicly selling all their FTX coins…

Re: Binance outflows hit $6B as Mazars halts ‘proof of reserves’ work

#215
post #201
post #72

"Binance has said it holds more than $60bn in assets, enough to honour withdrawals. The company’s disclosures do not include its liabilities, which makes it difficult to ascertain its financial health." Possibilities: 1) They're insolvent. Liabilities exceed assets. (Like FTX.) 2) Their accounting is so screwed up they can't produce a balance sheet. (Like FTX). 3) They have a large number of interconnected corporate…

It’s “GAAP.” Generally Accepted Accounting Principles.

Generally Accepted Ponzi Principles

Re: Binance outflows hit $6B as Mazars halts ‘proof of reserves’ work

#216

Even an audited exchange like Coinbase that is trying to do everything right is still self reporting loses like $430M in quarter 1 of 2022 just by operating their business correctly. Not your keys, not your crypto. Anyone storing their crypto on any exchange has this risk.

How do you make that big of a loss just running a matching engine and a bit of regulatory overhead...

Re: Binance outflows hit $6B as Mazars halts ‘proof of reserves’ work

#217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Essentially that they are most likely dipping in to support either their operations or other projects from the customer funds. That's not proof, but I would not at all be surprised if there isn't a single one of them that is clean.

There is also the possibility that they have too many assets due to participating in money laundering or tax evasion. There really aren't a lot of good possibilities here, how did these exchanges get so large before anyone thought of audits?

> how did these exchanges get so large before anyone thought of audits?

Who said no one thought of this? There was simply no one to enforce this.

Look at Coinbase. They made a point of being “regulated in the US”. They’re audited. They’re legit (most likely. I’m not the auditor). They’re complying with disclosure laws as a publicly traded company.

Look at Patio11, he’s been publicly making claims about tether and the crypto ecosystem for years. If it all blows up and his speculation /research was right, then who is to blame? We’ll have years of boy crying wolf and we thought it was a sheep.

Re: Binance outflows hit $6B as Mazars halts ‘proof of reserves’ work

#218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there a central bank that can print or sell Bitcoin to stabilize its price? Is there a central bank that can set rates for BTC credits and deposits? If not, in what way is BTC a fiat currency?

"Fiat" means it didn't exist until somebody said "this is money". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_money

Hah ... nice. Interesting. So Bitcoin was a fiat currency all along.

Re: Binance outflows hit $6B as Mazars halts ‘proof of reserves’ work

#219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One clarification: 1. For a bank run on an actual bank, it is known that a bank doesn't keep all your assets on hand - they are loaned out, which is (largely) what allows you to earn interest. So it is known that if everyone tries to withdraw at the same time that there won't be enough money. 2. For an exchange/brokerage, your money/assets are explicitly NOT supposed to be lent out without your permission. So, in the…

Re 2: this is not true if you're doing margin or futures trading, which was FTX's main business (and may be Binance's). This type of business is what characterizes an "exchange" (as opposed to a non-margin brokerage or a custodial bank).

Perpetual futures don't require any margin. All it requires is matching buy side and sell side market participants and transferring money between their accounts as the underlying changes in value. The exchanges don't actually hold any underlying with perps, so there's no need to borrow money.

Re: Binance outflows hit $6B as Mazars halts ‘proof of reserves’ work

#220

Even an audited exchange like Coinbase that is trying to do everything right is still self reporting loses like $430M in quarter 1 of 2022 just by operating their business correctly. Not your keys, not your crypto. Anyone storing their crypto on any exchange has this risk.

How do you lose so much money when your business it to charge fees? You'd have to do something really stupid to not make money.

Volume has been sucked out of the markets throughout 2022. Prop trading firms are suffering in the stock market for the same reason
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