Is anyone else starting to become a bit worried? mod note in first post

sexmag

I for one will say I never defended USDT, Johnnyflash continued to call them out, most here I believe felt the same but it's still sad to see crypto being used this way

makeorbrake

sexmag wrote: »

I for one will say I never defended USDT, Johnnyflash continued to call them out, most here I believe felt the same but it's still sad to see crypto being used this way

The crypto space has moved in a way that Tether/Bitfinex - although significant - won't be a 'Mt.Gox' moment for the sector.

Whelo79

But aren't they only holding 74% as they lost a huge amount of money in a currency transfer by bitfinex? Which suggests up until that Tether was 100% backed up so all the conspiracy theorist were wrong?

seannash

Whelo79 wrote: »

But aren't they only holding 74% as they lost a huge amount of money in a currency transfer by bitfinex? Which suggests up until that Tether was 100% backed up so all the conspiracy theorist were wrong?

To add, I know they have always maintained they are 100% backed by cash but I'd wager most banks dont have the cash on their books physically at their locations either.
In no way saying Tether isn't shady but it appears not as horrific as most people thought.

q85dw7osi4lebg

seannash wrote: »

To add, I know they have always maintained they are 100% backed by cash but I'd wager most banks dont have the cash on their books physically at their locations either.
In no way saying Tether isn't shady but it appears not as horrific as most people thought.

Wager? Franctional banking means banks have way less than 10% actually in accounts.

The problem is crypto is supposed to be the opposite of banking, and tether is exactly like normal banking. It goes against everything crypto is about.

Dohnjoe

Gerald Obedient Manicurist wrote: »

Wager? Franctional banking means banks have way less than 10% actually in accounts.

The problem is crypto is supposed to be the opposite of banking, and tether is exactly like normal banking. It goes against everything crypto is about.

I wouldn't put them so much in the same boat, FRB has been around for centuries and underpins modern economies

Crypto doesn't seek to replace that, if it does, no one has ever explained how. Technically Tether is running on 74%, we all know that, and there hasn't been a run - ironically the fact there hasn't been a run is an indirect endorsement by the whole community. If the company provided solid financials and audit info I bet they could drop that percentage even lower

seannash

Gerald Obedient Manicurist wrote: »

It goes against everything crypto is about.

wanting it to be backed by cash and be against cash as a form of trans actionable currency at the same time?

grindle

seannash wrote: »

wanting it to be backed by cash and be against cash as a form of trans actionable currency at the same time?

Bitcoin was a reaction to fractional reserve banking, Tethers being minted are supposed to be backed 1:1 with actual cash so that in a bank-run situation you actually have cash to retrieve. Unlike fractional reserve banking, where bank-runs end up with Greek-style clusterfúcks where your government decides how much of your money you can handle.

JohnnyFlash

Jesus, that story about Tether and Bitfinex is even worse than I imagined. This Crypto Capital group were acting like a central bank for crypto - even Kraken at one stage. The FBI are involved so it’s a proper criminal investigation. You’d have to wonder who was backing the Tethers, and if it’s systemic importance to crypto will cause a price collapse when it comes crashing down. Binance are hugely exposed when it comes to Tether.

Bob24

JohnnyFlash wrote: »

Jesus, that story about Tether and Bitfinex is even worse than I imagined. This Crypto Capital group were acting like a central bank for crypto - even Kraken at one stage. The FBI are involved so it’s a proper criminal investigation. You’d have to wonder who was backing the Tethers, and if it’s systemic importance to crypto will cause a price collapse when it comes crashing down. Binance are hugely exposed when it comes to Tether.

Of course not everything is dodgy, but clearly a lot of dodgy things around crypto as it’s been some kind of financial Wild West and needs to mature.

I might be overconfident in EU regulations, but usually when people ask which exchange to use to buy bitcoins I’d tell them to go for Bitstamp as it is located and regulated in the EU - which I rightly or wrongly think is a better guarantee that things are legit enough.

q85dw7osi4lebg

As dodgy as it is, if investors were to bail out of tether, they would buy BTC as they can't all get FIAT out..

So worst case scenario BTC could actually rise.

Imo.

grindle

Gerald Obedient Manicurist wrote: »

As dodgy as it is, if investors were to bail out of tether, they would buy BTC as they can't all get FIAT out..

So worst case scenario BTC could actually rise.

Imo.

A temporary peak while they wait to exchange for real cash before a great crash. Would be hilarious if it sparked a FOMO bullrun - $2b pouring into BTC would push it near $10k again. This is one of the few times I've wanted to grab BTC just to speculate and set a wall for an easy 20%.

Johnny - link to Kraken being involved beyond using Tether? I'd hoped they weren't involved beyond stumping up cash to have liquid "fiat" pairs for countries where they didn't have fiat on-ramping.

JohnnyFlash

https://decryptmedia.com/6824/crypto-capital-follow-up-article

Kraken ended the relationship in early 2017 so can’t see there being fallout from that.

q85dw7osi4lebg

BTC market cap over $100 billion again. Nothing to worry about.

JohnnyFlash

Gerald Obedient Manicurist wrote: »

BTC market cap over $100 billion again. Nothing to worry about.

The $470 premium between Bitfinex and Coinbase is something to keep an eye on. As is the trading volume of Tether - almost 17 billion on a market cap of 2.8 billion.

KilOit

Pump before dump? Looks like people getting out of tether and causing a spike in BTC.

JohnnyFlash

KilOit wrote: »

Pump before dump? Looks like people getting out of tether and causing a spike in BTC.

It looks like exit buying. To get out of an exchange, one must buy "hard currency" - BTC - when fiat withdrawal methods start failing. The BTC price is therefore higher at dying exchanges. Happened with MtGox, at that Italian exchange, QuadringaX etc. I don’t think Bitfinex is as important as it was, but Tether is systemic to the health and price of Bitcoin (and by association, all the other coins and shîtcoins).

Bob24

KilOit wrote: »

Pump before dump? Looks like people getting out of tether and causing a spike in BTC.

Looking at the charts, tether volumes seem pretty much business as usual to me. Am I missing something?

cnocbui

KilOit wrote: »

Pump before dump? Looks like people getting out of tether and causing a spike in BTC.

USDT up 0.38% today - BTC up 6.6%.

You are looking at figures in a very odd way that I can't comprehend, or entirely different ones.

Bob24

Apparently BTC is now $400 more expensive on Bitfinex than on other exchanges ... that’s some serious premium!

https://bitcoinist.com/bitcoin-price-premium-continues-bitfinex-6k-trades/

JohnnyFlash

cnocbui wrote: »

USDT up 0.38% today - BTC up 6.6%.

You are looking at figures in a very odd way that I can't comprehend, or entirely different ones.

It’s not the price of it, it’s the extraordinary trading volume - every Tether is being traded almost 6 times every 24 hours for the past few days.

cnocbui

I don't see what that has to do with anything. It certainly has nothing to do with people getting out of Tether in favour of Bitcoin.

Hego Damask

So BTC is a good investment again ?

grindle

Hego Damask wrote: »

So BTC is a good investment again ?

Impossible to answer. If you like the idea of potentially losing money or potentially gaining money, it's good at both of those.

JJJJNR

Cashed out everything.volume is far too low imo and think the 100 milĺ spike on bitcoin a few weeks ago will cause a massive reversal.. going to sit this one out for a few weeks. Been a very good few months.

unkel

What was your "everything"?

Just BTC or alts as well?

Kickstart1.3

I noticed that the Alts are getting pasted with every move lower Bitcoin makes.
Bitcoin drops 1% the Alts drop an average of 3%.
Money has moved from tether and the Alts to Bitcoin more as a safehaven move. Still too many if the "when lambo" guys about. We could be looking at another drop in Bitcoin now soon.
.

cnocbui

Ouch.

Hackers steal over $40 million worth of bitcoin from one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges
Published Tue, May 7 2019
Hackers stole 7,000 bitcoin from major cryptocurrency exchange Binance, the platform said.
They used a variety of methods to carry out the “large scale security breach, ” according to the exchange.
Binance said it would cover the incident “in full” and no user funds will be affected.

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/08/binance-bitcoin-hack-over-40-million-of-cryptocurrency-stolen.html

q85dw7osi4lebg

Anyone think the binance hack was an inside job ?

Dohnjoe

Every hack is an inside job or scam according to the internet speculation machine, wait for the facts