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FTX collapse, Tether operations have links to online-poker cheating scandals

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Re: FTX collapse, Tether operations have links to online-poker cheating scandals

#61

Post by ethagknight »

HebericNewt wrote: post #34
mberning wrote: post #4

It’s amazing to me that enough people still believe in the crypto scam to keep pumping BTC above $15k. I guess they are still managing to mint fools at a fast enough pace to keep the price up.

If someone offered you 1BTC for $10k right now you would bite their hand off. At $14k it would be still some of the easiest money you've made in your life. Even if you have the most cynical opinion of cryptocurrency, you must admit it's alive and well. It is as long as there are enough people who believe that it is - and your honest answer to the above would reveal that you know that to still be very true.

And it's the same argument as Santa Claus in the movie The Elf. So long as enough people stand in Central Park singing the same song, all is well, just be sure to leave before the party is over, the Clausometer goes to 0, and the police horses trample you.

Re: FTX collapse, Tether operations have links to online-poker cheating scandals

#62

Post by mattbrewsbytes »

threeseed wrote: post #43
louwrentius wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Crypto has attracted almost every type of criminal under the sun, to the detriment of 'regular' people who got conned into this stuff and is now left holding the bags. That German saying is on point and really sad.

> Crypto has attracted almost every type of criminal under the sun This is actually quite a profound statement. Is there actually anything in human history that can come close to rivalling this ? We have everyone from teens promoting shitcoins on TikTok, to household celebrities like Matt Damon, to white collar criminals, to arguably VCs, all the way to nation states like Iran and North Korea.

I would give a pass to any celebrity that was paid to be in advertisements. They are paid to make an appearance and say lines convincingly.

We don't have written accounts of the tulip craze but I would imagine there were a lot of nefarious activities underway then. This is more global and the movement of money is transparent but anonymous in some ways. I think a hard part for a criminal enterprise like a drug cartel is the cash to crypto laundering that needs to happen in the amounts that it needs to. My guess is it was easier for shady banks and other crypto products to do shady things since its all just bits and bytes.

Re: FTX collapse, Tether operations have links to online-poker cheating scandals

#63

Post by once_inc »

d3nj4l wrote: post #46
candiddevmike wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tether keeps BTC above 15k IMO. They keep printing more anytime it starts to dive. Will tether survive the bank runs?

I've seen a lot of people say this (and I'm sure you're all correct!) but I never understod the link between BTC and Tether. Multiple attempts to explain it have gone over my head. Am I just stupid?

Consider it such: there is a company that wants bitcoin to stay above 15k. Every time the order books show a significant decline below 15k, that company issues new tokens that are treated as dollars by exchanges in order to buy bitcoin.

This stays very much viable. Right up to the point that it isn't. Then, people will wonder what is backing those tokens, and if they want to risk the event that they aren't worth their advertised value. Then, a liquidation crunch happens and the company collapses in onto itself.

Re: FTX collapse, Tether operations have links to online-poker cheating scandals

#64

Post by settrans »

zozbot234 wrote: post #52
themgt wrote: post #48

It's incredible that SBF was being touted by Sequoia, WEF, Fortune, chumming it up with Clinton and Blair in the Bahamas, getting meetings and kid glove treatment with the SEC, relatively glowing profile as a "do-gooder" by the NYT. All while FTX had a Chief Regulatory Officer who was basically a career white-collar criminal. It beggars belief that anyone who dug half an inch into this story wouldn't have seen 90,000…

Wait, wasn't the NYT supposed to take a very critical look at everything in "tech", as a matter of editorial policy? Why were they giving such a glowing (no pun intended!) endorsement of crypto, of all things? Something doesn't add up here.

In case you're not being facetious, Sam was the single second largest donor to the Democratic Party.

Re: FTX collapse, Tether operations have links to online-poker cheating scandals

#65

Post by herendin »

mberning wrote: post #41
HebericNewt wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If someone offered you 1BTC for $10k right now you would bite their hand off. At $14k it would be still some of the easiest money you've made in your life. Even if you have the most cynical opinion of cryptocurrency, you must admit it's alive and well. It is as long as there are enough people who believe that it is - and your honest answer to the above would reveal that you know that to still be very true.

Sure, I’m not stupid. I would turn around and sell it to some other fool. And thats the problem. There is honestly no price I could buy it at where I would be willing to hold.

>There is honestly no price I could buy it at where I would be willing to hold.

Really no price? Even given the opportunity to buy at $10, you still wouldn't hold?

Re: FTX collapse, Tether operations have links to online-poker cheating scandals

#66

Post by once_inc »

bedhead wrote: post #31

As if crypto wasn’t useless enough, it’s always at the center of endless scams. What’s it gonna take for people to walk away from this poison?

"Crypto" is useless. Bitcoin isn't. Maximalists have been warning against this stuff happening for nearly a year now. Ever since Luna collapsed, those voices grew louder, but the yield-farming degenerates chose not to listen.

Re: FTX collapse, Tether operations have links to online-poker cheating scandals

#67

Post by candiodari »

mberning wrote: post #4

It’s amazing to me that enough people still believe in the crypto scam to keep pumping BTC above $15k. I guess they are still managing to mint fools at a fast enough pace to keep the price up.

Because there are too many people that are in the situation that state actors steal from them more than these scams do.

Anyone doing international money transfers. Hell, that included intra-EU money transfers not 5 years ago.

Anyone in a bunch of countries. Lebanon being the most recent addition. Venezuela, Columbia, Turkey, Russia, Greece (sort-of-not-quite-anymore) ...

Anyone in legal but unfairly treated business/professions. Situations vary from country to country. From sex work, even website admins, to "the unbanked", who can expect the authorities to impound their money at the drop of a hat.

Anyone who wants to do large cash transactions safely without using a bank. And that DOES NOT mean drugs. Reality: you do this because you're afraid bank transactions can be reversed, which is possible in a bunch of places. Large, in the EU, has now become smaller than the cost of a used car.

Recently, if your transaction involves anyone on social security, your or their bank transactions may be monitored very closely by non-judicial institutions. If this is unwanted (and I guarantee it'll be unwanted) that will means you either use cash or crypto, depending on the amount. Although a lot of people in this segment haven't really discovered crypto yet.

Re: FTX collapse, Tether operations have links to online-poker cheating scandals

#68

Post by svara »

> Friedberg, who served as FTX’s general counsel before taking on the company’s regulatory role, was recently described by Coingeek’s Steven Stradbrooke as being “almost comically inappropriate” for the job. The description appears apt, given Friedberg’s long history of not complying with various jurisdictions’ regulations, but rather, evading them.

Can't make this up. Reads to me like, on the contrary, they couldn't have found anyone more qualified.

Re: FTX collapse, Tether operations have links to online-poker cheating scandals

#69

Post by andybp85 »

bamboozled wrote: post #49
flanked-evergl wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.ft.com/content/428c7800-c72d-4c59-9940-4376fea6e... > Sam Bankman-Fried stormed on to the US political scene with multimillion-dollar donations that led lawmakers, particularly Democrats, to believe he was ushering in the next generation of donors. But in a matter of days, his business empire collapsed into bankruptcy and the prospect of millions more in donations evaporated. https://fortune.com/2022/11/1…

Sorry, why is this comment relevant to the parent? Because he donated money to Democrats it makes people still want to invest in cryptos, is that the message?

it's that money talks, especially to people who don't understand technology enough to spot obvious bullshit. which of course isn't a justification for anything other than why the price of bitcoin is relatively impervious to logical analysis.

Re: FTX collapse, Tether operations have links to online-poker cheating scandals

#70

Post by Kudos »

HebericNewt wrote: post #34
mberning wrote: post #4

It’s amazing to me that enough people still believe in the crypto scam to keep pumping BTC above $15k. I guess they are still managing to mint fools at a fast enough pace to keep the price up.

If someone offered you 1BTC for $10k right now you would bite their hand off. At $14k it would be still some of the easiest money you've made in your life. Even if you have the most cynical opinion of cryptocurrency, you must admit it's alive and well. It is as long as there are enough people who believe that it is - and your honest answer to the above would reveal that you know that to still be very true.

If someone offered me 1BTC for $10k right now, I would assume I'm being targeted or scammed somehow, since crypto is rife with grifters and fraud.
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