bitcoins

[Potenza]

+ https://www.standaard.be/cnt/dmf20210223_92420958

[Jack The Ripper]

Originally Posted by Belgatom

Kan iemand een beginneling even vertellen wat er momenteel aan het gebeuren is? Alles serieus aan het zakken met 15-20%.

Het zijn solden vandaag. Buy the dip!

[CSM]

http://youtu.be/u9VMfdG873E

Geen nood, de exchanges zullen straks wel terug withdrawals uitschakelen, en Tether zal nog een paar miljarden drukken.

[CSM]

Ruh roh

[CSM]

Tether uit New York geband.

[CSM]

However, an investigation by the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) found that iFinex — the operator of Bitfinex — and Tether made false statements about the backing of the “tether” stablecoin, and about the movement of hundreds of millions of dollars between the two companies to cover up the truth about massive losses by Bitfinex. An agreement with iFinex, Tether, and their related entities will require them to cease any further trading activity with New Yorkers, as well as force the companies to pay $18.5 million in penalties, in addition to requiring a number of steps to increase transparency.

“Bitfinex and Tether recklessly and unlawfully covered-up massive financial losses to keep their scheme going and protect their bottom lines,” said Attorney General James. “Tether’s claims that its virtual currency was fully backed by U.S. dollars at all times was a lie. These companies obscured the true risk investors faced and were operated by unlicensed and unregulated individuals and entities dealing in the darkest corners of the financial system. This resolution makes clear that those trading virtual currencies in New York state who think they can avoid our laws cannot and will not. Last week, we sued to shut down Coinseed for its fraudulent conduct. This week, we’re taking action to end Bitfinex and Tether’s illegal activities in New York. These legal actions send a clear message that we will stand up to corporate greed whether it comes out of a traditional bank, a virtual currency trading platform, or any other type of financial institution.”

A Stablecoin Without Stability – Tethers Weren’t Fully Backed At All Times

The OAG’s investigation found that, starting no later than mid-2017, Tether had no access to banking, anywhere in the world, and so for periods of time held no reserves to back tethers in circulation at the rate of one dollar for every tether, contrary to its representations. In the face of persistent questions about whether the company actually held sufficient funds, Tether published a self-proclaimed ‘verification’ of its cash reserves, in 2017, that it characterized as “a good faith effort on our behalf to provide an interim analysis of our cash position.” In reality, however, the cash ostensibly backing tethers had only been placed in Tether’s account as of the very morning of the company’s ‘verification.’

On November 1, 2018, Tether publicized another self-proclaimed ‘verification’ of its cash reserve; this time at Deltec Bank & Trust Ltd. of the Bahamas. The announcement linked to a letter dated November 1, 2018, which stated that tethers were fully backed by cash, at one dollar for every one tether. However, the very next day, on November 2, 2018, Tether began to transfer funds out of its account, ultimately moving hundreds of millions of dollars from Tether’s bank accounts to Bitfinex’s accounts. And so, as of November 2, 2018 — one day after their latest ‘verification’ — tethers were again no longer backed one-to-one by U.S. dollars in a Tether bank account.

As of today, Tether represents that over 34 billion tethers have been issued and are outstanding and traded in the market.

When No Bank Backs You, Turn to Shady Entities — Bitfinex Hid Massive Losses

In 2017 and 2018, Bitfinex began to increasingly rely on third-party “payment processors” to handle customer deposits and withdrawals from the Bitfinex trading platform. In 2018, while attempting to “move money [more] efficiently,” Bitfinex suffered a massive and undisclosed loss of funds because of its relationship with a purportedly Panama-based entity known as “Crypto Capital Corp.” Bitfinex responded to pervasive public reports of liquidity problems by misleading the market and its own clients. On October 7, 2018, Bitfinex claimed to “not entirely understand the arguments that purport to show us insolvent,” when, for months, its executives had been pleading with Crypto Capital to return almost a billion dollars in assets.

On April 26, 2019 — after the OAG revealed in court documents that approximately $850 million had gone missing and that Bitfinex and Tether had been misleading their clients — the company issued a false statement that “we have been informed that these Crypto Capital amounts are not lost but have been, in fact, seized and safeguarded.” The reality, however, was that Bitfinex did not, in fact, know the whereabouts of all of the customer funds held by Crypto Capital, and so had no such assurance to make.

The OAG Investigation Shines a Light on Unlawful Trading in New York State

From the beginning of its interaction with the OAG, iFinex and Tether falsely claimed that they did not allow trading activity by New Yorkers. The OAG investigation determined that to be untrue and that the companies have operated for years as unlicensed and unregulated entities, illegally trading virtual currencies in the state of New York.

In April 2019, the OAG sought and obtained an injunction against further transfers of assets between and among Bitfinex and Tether, which are owned and controlled by the same small group of individuals. That action — under Section 354 of New York’s Martin Act — ultimately led to a July 2020 decision by the New York State Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, First Department, holding that:

Bitfinex and Tether — and other virtual currency trading platforms and cryptocurrencies operating from various locations around the world — are still subject to OAG jurisdiction if doing business in New York;
The stablecoin “tether” and other virtual currencies were “commodities” under section 352 of the Martin Act, and noted that virtual currencies may also constitute securities under the act; and
The OAG had established the factual predicate necessary to uphold the injunction and require production of documents and information relevant to its investigation in advance of the filing of a formal suit.
Bitfinex and Tether Banned from Continuing Illegal Activities in New York

Today’s agreement requires Bitfinex and Tether to discontinue any trading activity with New Yorkers. In addition, these companies must submit regular reports to the OAG to ensure compliance with this prohibition.

Further, the companies must submit to mandatory reporting on core business functions. Specifically, both Bitfinex and Tether will need to report, on a quarterly basis, that they are properly segregating corporate and client accounts, including segregation of government-issued and virtual currency trading accounts by company executives, as well as submit to mandatory reporting regarding transfers of assets between and among Bitfinex and Tether entities. Additionally, Tether must offer public disclosures, by category, of the assets backing tethers, including disclosure of any loans or receivables to or from affiliated entities. The companies will also provide greater transparency and mandatory reporting regarding the use of non-bank “payment processors” or other entities used to transmit client funds.

Finally, Bitfinex and Tether will be required to pay $18.5 million in penalties to the state of New York.

https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2021...finexs-illegal

[Cipherr]

Ondanks dat ik gemakkelijk mijn geld in crypto x5 kunnen zien gaan heb in de laatste 6 (?) maanden, toch blij dat ik destijds mijn geld eruit gehaald heb en het ook gewoon in saaie indexfondsen gestoken heb in de plaats.

Was een heel gedoe om mijn geld bij Binance weg te krijgen. Triple MFA + wouden ook ineens out of the blue een selfie om mijn identiteit aan te tonen.

Voor mij was die ervaring ambetant genoeg dat ik er ook in de toekomst met mijn fikken van weg blijf. Good luck om uw geld er uit te krijgen als de boel uiteindelijk ineenstuikt.

Gemoedsrust is goud waard.

[acku]

Maar je kan toch van binance bitcoin of ether storten naar een ander adres, bij bvb Coinbase die dat wel makkelijker toelaat om te zetten naar euro?
Allez lijkt toch een plan voor mij

[Cipherr]

Het was bij het storten naar mijn Coinbase adres dat ik zoveel miserie had. Daar is toch wel even over gegaan om o.a. die foto verified te krijgen.

Enige reden dat alles bij mij op Binance stond is omdat Coinbase enkele jaren terug nogal gelimiteerd was in wat je kon aankopen (qua alt coins).

Als je asap wilt kunnen omzetten naar euro en uitcashen ben je idd best dat dat allemaal al bij Coinbase staat.

En hopen dat zij genoeg liquiditeit hebben of geen Robinhood stoten uithalen mocht de boel ontploffen (in welke richting dan ook).

[Lacroix]

Hier had ik alleszins ook moeite op mijn rekeningnr bij coinbase verified te krijgen, omdat de naam van de (bank)rekeninghouder de achternaam van mezelf en mijn vrouw is, terwijl mijn coinbase account gewoon mijn naam bevat. Namen kwamen niet overeen dus rekening niet verified.
2 jaar terug dan een persoonlijke rabobank rekening gebruikt om te storten, maar die heb ik ondertussen niet meer. Dus nu weer miserie om toch die andere rekening goedgekeurd te krijgen. Maand geleden support ticket aangemaakt maar geen reactie daarop.

En mijn land is volgens coinbase ook nog altijd Oostenrijk.... volgens mij omdat ik ooit een deel van de registratie op mijn werk gedaan heb, wat toen via een company proxy ging die in Oostenrijk stond.

Ik moet er mij nog eens mee bezig houden...

edit: kunt nu precies gewoon PayPal linken voor geld af te halen.

[CSM]

Bitfinex and Tether have settled with the office of the New York attorney general in an investigation that began two years ago.

The sister companies will pay $18.5 million in penalties to the state for violations of the Martin Act, according to a statement issued by the NY attorney general. Per the terms of the settlement agreement, Bitfinex and Tether are banned from trading in the state and must submit quarterly reports to ensure they are complying with the prohibition.

Tether claimed that tethers were backed by real dollars, when they were not backed by real dollars, the NY attorney general alleges.

“Bitfinex and Tether recklessly and unlawfully covered-up massive financial losses to keep their scheme going and protect their bottom lines,” NY Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement. “Tether’s claims that its virtual currency was fully backed by U.S. dollars at all times was a lie. These companies obscured the true risk investors faced and were operated by unlicensed and unregulated individuals and entities dealing in the darkest corners of the financial system.”

The investigation was made public in April 2019, when the NY attorney general revealed that Bitfinex, an unregulated crypto exchange, dipped into Tether’s cash reserves to cover up the fact that it had lost access to $850 million held by its Panamanian payment processor Crypto Capital. Having lost access to those funds, Bitfinex struggled to meet customer withdrawal requests.

Tether and Bitfinex neither admit or deny the findings in the settlement. And their attitude is one of “We have put this matter behind us now.” Here is their official statement, which emphasizes that they have repaid their loan to Tether—an estimated $750 million—though they still won’t say how much they “borrowed” exactly.

Per the terms of the settlement, the office of the NY attorney general cannot bring any claims or lawsuits against Tether or Bitfinex for matters relating to findings in the petition. However, it still has the right to enforce the settlement, if the companies fall short.

And falling short is something that could well happen.

If you read closely, these provisions are a big ask from two companies that have been highly secretive about their financial dealings from the get-go. To continue on, they will need to submit to an impossible level of transparency.

For the next two years, Tether and Bitfinex will have to show proof that they segregate client, reserve, and operational accounts. The NY attorney general claims the firms have commingled funds in the past—and at one point, $61.5 million of Tether’s reserves were kept in a personal account held by its general counsel at the Bank of Montreal.

On a quarterly basis, the two firms have to publish the categories of assets backing tethers—e.g., cash, loans, securities, etc. They will also need to specify the percentages of each category, and spell out whether a category constitutes a loan or receivable.

This is something Tether has never done before. It has never been clear about what is backing tethers, whether those are third-party loans, cryptocurrencies—such as bitcoin—shares in a Bahamian bank, or whatever.

Tether and Bitfinex also need to provide the office of the NY attorney general a list of their payment processors, along with location and contact information for those entities, and information regarding what due diligence procedures they are putting in place to ensure the payment processors don’t leave them high and dry as before. They will also need to provide that same information to their customers upon request when associated with a deposit or withdrawal.

Crypto payment processors run shadowy operations, and this stipulation is going to make Tether and Bitfinex a difficult client. Recall, the firms had no formal agreement with Crypto Capital when they handed over $1 billion for safekeeping.

Crypto media outlets and bitcoiners are painting the Tether and Bitfinex settlement like it is a big win and $18.5 million is pennies for a company that has so far issued $34 billion worth of tethers—but I could not disagree more.

The NY attorney general is effectively saying, pay the fine and go right ahead with your legitimate business. The problem is, Tether and Bitfinex may have no legitimate business—and fulfilling these obligations may turn out to be impossible.

https://amycastor.com/2021/02/23/tet...mpression=true

Tether: Endgame

Ze moeten per kwartaal rapporteren. Dus: deadline, april? Als de bubbel niet al popt daarvoor en/of de DOJ/Interpol de boel oprollen.

[acku]

Originally Posted by Lacroix

edit: kunt nu precies gewoon PayPal linken voor geld af te halen.

echt? zou handig zijn ja

[Vrieskou]

Originally Posted by CSM

Tether: Endgame

Ze moeten per kwartaal rapporteren. Dus: deadline, april? Als de bubbel niet al popt daarvoor en/of de DOJ/Interpol de boel oprollen.

L M F A O

ofte: slap on the wrist voor Bitfinex, die walgelijke hoeveelheden real-life dollars genereert aan margin funding/fees alleen al, en een de facto onstrafbaar stellen van tether.

Lord knows dat ik geene fan ben noch van tether, Bitfinex, en alles wat er rond hangt - maar er de conclusie aan geven die gij doet is straight up delusional

[Vrieskou]

Voor de rest, beware the false prophets. Peep heeft werkelijk geen idee waar hij over babbelt, en veel van degene aan de overkant hebben dat evenmin.

Ik lees hier zaken over ADA etc die mij doen denken aan de irrational exuberance die ik zelf mocht ervaren in 2017. Trap niet in die val; of heb het verstand dat het gokken is, en neem winst wanneer er mooie winst is.

Volg het grote geld, volg de lobby en wetgeving, and place your bets accordingly.

[CSM]

Originally Posted by Vrieskou

L M F A O

ofte: slap on the wrist voor Bitfinex, die walgelijke hoeveelheden real-life dollars genereert aan margin funding/fees alleen al, en een de facto onstrafbaar stellen van tether.

Lord knows dat ik geene fan ben noch van tether, Bitfinex, en alles wat er rond hangt - maar er de conclusie aan geven die gij doet is straight up delusional

De NYAG bevestigt in de eerste plaats dat Tether/Bitfinex losjes jarenlang hebben gelogen over hun financiën, en dat Tether al die tijd niet gedekt was.

Die miljoenenboete is inderdaad weinig meer dan symbolisch, maar het probleem voor Tether zit hem (naast het verbod op handel in New York), dat men nu hun cijfers twee jaar lang moet rapporteren aan de NYAG.

• Tether and Bitfinex will pay an $18.5 million fine.
• They will need to show they are taking steps to prevent NY traders.
• Each quarter Tether will need to show the NYAG their reserves.
• Tether and Bitfinex cannot share bank accounts, and client and corporate funds need to be appropriately segregated (they have continually struggled with this)
• Bitfinex and Tether must provide a list of all payment processors they have used to the NYAG
• Bitfinex and Tether must notify users when their deposits or withdrawals will be handled by a payment processor

Voor effectieve fraudeurs is zoiets allemaal minder vanzelfsprekend. Maar hey als nu alles gedekt en boekhoudkundig in orde is, geen probleem!

Buiten dat men er waarschijnlijk niet gaat in lukken om aan de voorwaarden te voldoen, en dat men altijd nog vervolgt kan worden door de NYAG wanneer dat dan effectief gebeurd (of als blijkt dat men over iets gelogen heeft), zijn er ook nog de class-action lawsuit en het DOJ/CFTC onderzoek tegen Tether voor markt manipulatie. En dat zijn de zaken waar we van weten. Dus het is nog altijd maar een kwestie van tijd eer men tegen de lamp loopt. Dat je teleurgesteld bent dat dat zo traag gaat, tja zo is dat nu eenmaal.

[CSM]

Originally Posted by Vrieskou

Voor de rest, beware the false prophets. Peep heeft werkelijk geen idee waar hij over babbelt, en veel van degene aan de overkant hebben dat evenmin.

Nochtans was ik wel de eerste en enige die effectief hier mensen siganleerde over Bitfinex/Tether:

Originally Posted by CSM

Dat is die scam van Bitfinex waar Muis het over heeft.

Dat is die scam van Bitfinex waar Muis het over heeft.

Ben ik nu de valse profeet omdat dit drie jaar later los allemaal woord voor woord blijkt te kloppen?

Ik ga niet zeggen dat ik hier altijd 100% gelijk heb (of had), maar in de hoofdconclusie (crypto is weinig meer dan een zwaar gemanipuleerd casino zonder effectief economische/maatschappelijke waarde) denk ik niet dat ik ondertussen al ongelijk heb gekregen, niet waar?

[CSM]

Meer leesmateriaal over Tether/Bitfinex:

Until February 2019, Tether represented that “Every tether is always backed 1-to-1, by traditional currency held in our reserves. So 1 USDT is always equivalent to 1 USD.”

This is a clear and unambiguous claim. But it wasn’t true.

Bitfinex/Tether lost their US dollar banking in April 2017, when Wells Fargo refused to process their wire transfers any longer. At this time, there were 50 million USDT in circulation. By May 2017, there were 108 million USDT.

In June 2017, Bitfinex opened an account at Noble Bank in Puerto Rico — co-founded by Tether’s original creator, Brock Pierce.

But Tether didn’t. In fact, Tether didn’t have an account at all! What did they do instead? Tether stored $61.5 million in the Bank of Montreal, in the name of Stuart Hoegner, iFinex’s general counsel.

This didn’t stop them from printing more tethers. As of September 2017, there were 442 million USDT, with still only $61 million at the Bank of Montreal. Bitfinex had another $382 million in an account — which commingled customer funds and corporate funds. Tether accounted for this as a “receivable” from Bitfinex.

Commingling is one of those sure tells of both fraudulence and incompetence — a complete lack of internal controls. Particularly when it’s two companies’ money mixed with customer funds. It means you’re not very good at this — and you probably don’t care that you’re not very good at this.

Tether contracted Friedman LLP to conduct an audit. This was never completed, but they did complete an attestation. To this end, Tether opened an account at Noble Bank on 15 September 2017, Bitfinex transferred $382 million into it from their account, and then showed Friedman the account balances, at 8pm that day. Per NYAG:

This is why attestations don’t count as audits.

The iFinex companies lost their banking repeatedly around this time — as soon as the bank found out who its real customer was.

Without proper banking, Bitfinex and Tether relied on any payment processor they could get. This led them to a “purportedly Panama-based entity” called Crypto Capital Corp, and its principal, Oz Yosef.

By mid-2018, CCC were holding over $1 billion of Bitfinex customer funds. This money was being put into whatever bank CCC could find that would accept it. By July, over 80% of Bitfinex customer funds were with CCC.

CCC were not the most trustworthy of shadow banks. Per the settlement:

Bitfinex continued to direct customers to deposit via CCC through 2018 — they seemed to have absolutely no other banking options.

But being unable to access nearly $500 million in customer funds — which are still frozen in 2021, by the way — led to a “liquidity crisis” at Bitfinex. In August and September 2018, $400 million was moved from Tether to Bitfinex.

But that’s OK! Bitfinex told Oz Yosef to transfer $400 million from the Bitfinex account at CCC to the Tether account at CCC. Both of which were frozen funds — but hey, it’s all just numbers.

Bitfinex represented itself to the public as solvent, with no liquidity problems. They also claimed they weren’t banking at Noble, even though they had been for a year by then.

In October 2018, Bitfinex and Tether left Noble Bank. In November, they signed up with Deltec Bank in the Bahamas. Bitfinex and Tether then shuffled money between accounts at Deltec, and between accounts at CCC.

Bitfinex opened a line of credit with Tether at this time, so it could send money to its customers at all.

This left Tethers unbacked by dollars on deposit.

Bitfinex continued to beg CCC for its money, to no avail — but told the world everything was fine.

https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain...-strong-leash/

Per the terms of the settlement, the office of the NY attorney general cannot bring any claims or lawsuits against Tether or Bitfinex for matters relating to findings in the petition. However, it still has the right to enforce the settlement, if the companies fall short.

And falling short is something that could well happen.

If you read closely, these provisions are a big ask from two companies that have been highly secretive about their financial dealings from the get-go. To continue on, they will need to submit to an impossible level of transparency.

For the next two years, Tether and Bitfinex will have to show proof that they segregate client, reserve, and operational accounts. The NY attorney general claims the firms have commingled funds in the past—and at one point, $61.5 million of Tether’s reserves were kept in a trust account held by its general counsel at the Bank of Montreal.

On a quarterly basis, the two firms have to publish the categories of assets backing tethers—e.g., cash, loans, securities, etc. They will also need to specify the percentages of each category, and spell out whether a category constitutes a loan or receivable.

This is something Tether has never done before. It has never been clear about what is backing tethers, whether those are third-party loans, cryptocurrencies—such as bitcoin—shares in a Bahamian bank, or whatever.

Tether and Bitfinex also need to provide the office of the NY attorney general a list of their payment processors, along with location and contact information for those entities, and information regarding what due diligence procedures they are putting in place to ensure the payment processors don’t leave them high and dry as before. They will also need to provide that same information to their customers upon request when associated with a deposit or withdrawal.

Crypto payment processors run shadowy operations, and this stipulation is going to make Tether and Bitfinex a difficult client. Recall, the firms had no formal agreement with Crypto Capital when they handed over $1 billion for safekeeping.

Crypto media outlets and bitcoiners are painting the Tether and Bitfinex settlement like it is a big win and $18.5 million is pennies for a company that has so far issued $34 billion worth of tethers—but I could not disagree more.

The NY attorney general is effectively saying, pay the fine and go right ahead with your legitimate business. The problem is, Tether and Bitfinex may have no legitimate business—and fulfilling these obligations may turn out to be impossible.

https://amycastor.com/2021/02/23/tet...g-in-new-york/

https://bennettftomlin.com/2021/02/2...ag-settlement/

[eXeTeR]

Originally Posted by CSM

Nochtans was ik wel de eerste en enige die effectief hier mensen siganleerde over Bitfinex/Tether:

Ben ik nu de valse profeet omdat dit drie jaar later los allemaal woord voor woord blijkt te kloppen?

Ik ga niet zeggen dat ik hier altijd 100% gelijk heb (of had), maar in de hoofdconclusie (crypto is weinig meer dan een zwaar gemanipuleerd casino zonder effectief economische/maatschappelijke waarde) denk ik niet dat ik ondertussen al ongelijk heb gekregen, niet waar?

je gaat pas gelijk hebben op het moment de crypto bubble is gebarsten, en iedereen nog 0€ heeft. Dan ben je koning!

Tot op dit moment, heb je nog altijd ongelijk, het is een winstgevend casino voor elke HODL'er
#nocoiner

[CSM]

Tesla's meteoric tear is unraveling this month as experts start to worry that the stock's performance could start to mimic bitcoin's extreme volatility after the firm disclosed a $1.5 billion investment in the world's largest cryptocurrency earlier this month.

Shares of Tesla at one point plunged more than 10% Tuesday morning, pushing their losses since February 8–when the firm first disclosed its $1.5 billion bitcoin investment–to more than 25%.

That crippling blow to Tesla stock has erased about $215 billion in the firm's market capitalization, which stands at about $620 billion, since the investment, at which time the firm's market cap was near a high of $844 billion.

The recent plunge comes as bitcoin prices tank about 7% after Tesla's billionaire chief, Elon Musk, said over the weekend that the cryptocurrency's prices looked "a little high," Oanda Senior Market Analyst Craig Erlam said Tuesday morning.

In a note to clients Tuesday, Wedbush Analyst Dan Ives said that "for both good and bad," Tesla shares are now "heavily tied" to bitcoin prices–a development that's driving a sell-off among cautious investors.

Weer die Musk magic.

[onbewust]

Ik snap ook niet goed wat een autobouwer te zoeken heeft in bitcoin? Alé, hoe komt die erbij om dat met dat bedrijf aan te kopen? De bakkerij hier op de hoek gaat toch ook niet investeren in vastgoed?