Re:Did I just lose half a million dollars?
by giaour on Sunday January 30, 2022 @12:25PM
(#30139038)
> Some sort of analogy could be margin calls/puts.
That is not a comparable situation. The ETH/WETH trader misused a negotiable instrument, and 500K disappeared forever. Someone who loses 500K gambling on margin was gambling and lost. If they somehow mistakenly placed an order on margin, there's probably a process to reverse the transaction and get your funds returned within a specific time window (that's just a guess on my part, though, and it probably depends on the brokerage used).
> It's very hard to draw parallels from cryptocurrencies to other things as it's not like other things we have today.
I don't think this is true; cryptocurrency in this situation is very similar to cash. You can get mugged while holding 500K in a briefcase, and the funds are unrecoverable absent legal restitution. But that's why banks make you sign a waiver of liability when you withdraw large sums in cash.
That is not a comparable situation. The ETH/WETH trader misused a negotiable instrument, and 500K disappeared forever. Someone who loses 500K gambling on margin was gambling and lost. If they somehow mistakenly placed an order on margin, there's probably a process to reverse the transaction and get your funds returned within a specific time window (that's just a guess on my part, though, and it probably depends on the brokerage used).
> It's very hard to draw parallels from cryptocurrencies to other things as it's not like other things we have today.
I don't think this is true; cryptocurrency in this situation is very similar to cash. You can get mugged while holding 500K in a briefcase, and the funds are unrecoverable absent legal restitution. But that's why banks make you sign a waiver of liability when you withdraw large sums in cash.