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Re:Bitcoin Price Hits All-Time High of $19,786, Topping 2017... by arcticbull on Monday November 30, 2020 @12:51PM (#25256618)
Bitcoin is a Bitfinex and Tether phenomenon. Since the Tether article was posted a few weeks ago another $2B fake dollars have been generated and used to buy Bitcoin. This absolutely and completely dwarfs the pennies Square and PayPal threw into the wishing well.
Re:Bitcoin Price Hits All-Time High of $19,786, Topping 2017... by seibelj on Monday November 30, 2020 @12:55PM (#25256683)
Tether is a cornerstone of the crypto industry. You can post some random blog posts here but Tether is actually used by trading firms, and can be minted and redeemed through their portal here https://app.tether.to/app/login

The Tether FUD is so dumb, but it's the last straw being grasped by perma-bears.

Re:Bitcoin Price Hits All-Time High of $19,786, Topping 2017... by headmelted on Monday November 30, 2020 @01:01PM (#25256754)
Nonsense. Tether has never been redeemed, and even if it could be redeemed, there is no possible way that they could cover the balance of issued tethers.

It’s the mother of all Ponzi schemes, clearly, and is definitely going to implode in the next big pullback.

Re:Bitcoin Price Hits All-Time High of $19,786, Topping 2017... by gruez on Monday November 30, 2020 @02:08PM (#25257556)
>Tether has never been redeemed

Why is this relevant when you can withdraw tethers for USD at any participating exchange? Or are you saying that None of the exchanges that support tether (eg. bitfinex) has never fulfilled a withdraw?

>It’s the mother of all Ponzi schemes, clearly, and is definitely going to implode in the next big pullback.

Sounds like a great way to make a lot of money. Tether is currently trading 1:1 with USD (yes, even at exchanges that offer real USD). It should be easy to short-sell a bunch of tether, and buy it back when in collapses. And unlike short-selling stocks, your downside should be relatively low as tethers can't realistically go above their current price.

Re:Bitcoin Price Hits All-Time High of $19,786, Topping 2017... by arcticbull on Monday November 30, 2020 @02:39PM (#25257976)
Why is it relevant? Really? It’s relevant because as soon as it’s clear the emperor has no clothes you wont be able to redeem it at any exchanges because it’s garbage.

> Sounds like a great way to make a lot of money. Tether is currently trading 1:1 with USD (yes, even at exchanges that offer real USD). It should be easy to short-sell a bunch of tether, and buy it back when in collapses. And unlike short-selling stocks, your downside should be relatively low as tethers can't realistically go above their current price.

All crypto exchanges are rigged casinos. The only way to win is not to play.

Tether absolutely swings up and down depending on how many people are fleeing into or out of cryptos at any given moment. We’ve seen like +5-7% and -20%. That’s enough to blow away any leveraged position.

Finally, of course, you neglect counterparty risk. I have to put up collateral on this short which any of these exchanges could simply run for the hills with, as they do, regularly. Seriously, who lets you short Tether except for Bitfinex - and what will they pay you out in, more Tether? They don’t have a bank account. That’s why they invented Tether.

Re:Bitcoin Price Hits All-Time High of $19,786, Topping 2017... by gruez on Monday November 30, 2020 @04:08PM (#25259007)
> Why is it relevant? Really? It’s relevant because as soon as it’s clear the emperor has no clothes you wont be able to redeem it at any exchanges because it’s garbage.

Because if you're worried that they don't have enough real us dollars to back the USDTs that they've printed, being able to directly redeem USDT for USD isn't really going to make a difference.

>All crypto exchanges are rigged casinos. The only way to win is not to play.

That seems like an overly broad statement to make, especially there are a few exchanges that try to be as by-the-books as possible.

>Tether absolutely swings up and down depending on how many people are fleeing into or out of cryptos at any given moment. We’ve seen like +5-7% and -20%. That’s enough to blow away any leveraged position.

Or just don't leverage to the max? Short-selling $1000 worth of USDT with $1000 of USD in reserve and 3x leverage should allow you to withstand most shocks without being forced to liquidate.

>Seriously, who lets you short Tether except for Bitfinex

Kraken, for one.

>and what will they pay you out in, more Tether? They don’t have a bank account. That’s why they invented Tether.

Again, this goes back to my first comment. Are you claiming that bitfinex isn't processing fiat withdraws (eg. wire/ACH transfer to a real bank)?

Re:Bitcoin Price Hits All-Time High of $19,786, Topping 2017... by jcfrei on Monday November 30, 2020 @02:23PM (#25257742)
These accusations against Tether are very outdated. Read Matt Levine's take from 2019 on an ongoing lawsuit: https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-04-26/things...

The quintessential part is this: The New York attorney general’s filing refutes the extreme version of those doubts — Tether mostly had the dollars — but it is nonetheless a wild ride that alleges that Tether’s backing might not be as good as it claims.

Re:Bitcoin Price Hits All-Time High of $19,786, Topping 2017... by arcticbull on Monday November 30, 2020 @02:44PM (#25258033)
That article was written $16 billion imaginary dollars ago. Things move fast in the BVI.
Re:Bitcoin Price Hits All-Time High of $19,786, Topping 2017... by headmelted on Tuesday December 01, 2020 @05:55AM (#25264163)
This. I’d like to see evidence that Tether have an additional $16B USD in guaranteed cash to cover their commitments.
Re:Bitcoin Price Hits All-Time High of $19,786, Topping 2017... by seibelj on Monday November 30, 2020 @01:05PM (#25256820)
You have no idea what you are talking about and are just spreading more FUD.

https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/48857/former-head-of-cir...

I worked with Dan, I worked at Circle, we redeemed / minted billions and billions with Tether.

Re:Bitcoin Price Hits All-Time High of $19,786, Topping 2017... by arcticbull on Monday November 30, 2020 @01:15PM (#25256955)
Oh I didn’t realize Dan was an auditor. Which of the big ones does he work at? KPMG? Deloitte? PwC?

This is a classic strategy employed by scammers to legitimize a scam. You pick a prominent individual and you make the fraud work for them, so they can tell other people it’s legit.

Their last auditor quit, half way through the audit. No audit, no legitimacy, period.

Re:Bitcoin Price Hits All-Time High of $19,786, Topping 2017... by headmelted on Tuesday December 01, 2020 @05:59AM (#25264180)
Respectfully this is a difficult claim to believe.

If your claim is that you redeemed billions of dollars in tethers for fiat USD then that’s newsworthy.

Even if that were the case though, it does nothing to prove that Tether is able to cover its commitments. Especially not with the additional $16B USD on the books.

Re:Bitcoin Price Hits All-Time High of $19,786, Topping 2017... by arcticbull on Monday November 30, 2020 @12:56PM (#25256700)
lol go on redeem some. If you actually read their terms of service it specifically says tethers do not grant you any claim on their reserves. I’ve no doubt they’re used by exchanges that don’t want to comply with the law and follow AML/KYC. That’s the point.

Don’t carry water for these scammers they literally don’t have a bank account and admitted in court [1] much of their reserves are IOUs and crypto. Audit or gtfo (to tether inc not you).

[1] https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.theblockcrypto.com/amp/dail...