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389 points JumpCrisscross | 6 comments | | HN request time: 1.04s | source | bottom
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sitepodmatt ◴[] No.16164805[source]
One scam down at least, next the Tether printer and BitFinex boys. Clean up in aisle HKG please.
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BayesStreet ◴[] No.16164948[source]
I'm aware that tether's reserves are a little doubtful, but could you elaborate on why Bitfinex is sketchy?
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spookthesunset ◴[] No.16165035[source]
For starters, they don't deal in USD at all. They deal in "USDT", which isn't at all USD but a token called a tether that is somehow magically supposed to be pegged so 1 USDT == 1USD that you can... well... I dunno what you can do with a tether but one thing you can't do is turn it into actual fiat money on Bitfinex. You might be able to convert it to cold hard fiat on some other exchange though, but odds are good said exchange will be even more sketchy than Bitfinex.

Better still, the "market cap" for tether is over 1.6 billion USD with 5.5 billion in volume today. What happens when people actually want to turn that 1.6 billion of outstanding tether into dirty fiat? Who is gonna buy all those sells into USD? The exchanges? You think those guys are holding 1.6 billion in actual fiat money?

So if you like the idea that the most active "USD" exchange (bitfinex, according to coinmarketcap) isn't actually trading in "USD" but some kind of funny money that is supposed to always be pegged to the dollar but backed by absolutely nothing at all.... Consider what will happen when the crypto bubble collapse really starts to pick up and all those tether holders want back into filthy dirty American dollars. Good fucking luck.

It's just another facet of what makes the crypto "space" so fascinating. It is just layer upon layer of scams. Scammers scamming scammers. And yet people, even some supposedly smart people here on HN, continue to fall for the crypto scam every day.

PS: for a good time read the tether TOS: https://tether.to/legal/

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1. glenneroo ◴[] No.16167068[source]
Poloniex and Binance let you convert to/from Tether (USDT). Do you consider Poloniex or Binance to be sketchy?
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2. Yizahi ◴[] No.16167465[source]
You forgot Bittrex.
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3. banderman ◴[] No.16167994[source]
Absolutely. Is there any information available on the ownership of Poloniex? Do they provide any proof of reserves?
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4. oil7abibi ◴[] No.16168423[source]
My friend has met some of Poloniex’s engineers. I think they’re based out of SF.
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5. jandrese ◴[] No.16169816{3}[source]
Nothing can be more legit about a half remembered third hand account from an anonymous Internet source.

My default assumption when I see a cryptocurrency exchange is that it is either fraudulent or incompetently run, because that has been the case overwhelmingly in the past. It takes extraordinary evidence to make me trust one.

6. mancerayder ◴[] No.16180586[source]
How bad is Bittrex compared to the others?