Cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, etc.)

[Humble Beast 258]

No it’s because he stole money Larry Fink. Everyone covering for this scammer. 
 

 

[MeerkatBong 115]

"Miami nightclubs, which have been rocked by the absence of big-spending crypto whales amid the market’s deep freeze.

Nightclubs in the city became a home away from home for crypto entrepreneurs, who—when times were good—would rent out venues for half a million dollars and order top-shelf Champagne to shower themselves with. That clientele (“95 percent men…with a kind of nerdy style,” according to one operator) has disappeared due to the crypto market collapse, according to a report by the Financial Times.

E11even, a club that accepted payment in cryptocurrency, processed $6+ million worth of transactions last year. In the last three months, it’s taken in less than $10,000.

Is Miami okay? Magic City went pretty much all in on crypto back when celebrities were scooping up million-dollar ape drawings, but things have changed. Crypto-promoting Mayor Francis Suarez removed laser eyes from his Twitter profile; Miami-Dade County asked a federal judge to end the Miami Heat arena’s naming rights deal with bankrupt FTX; and the city’s personal token, MiamiCoin, has dropped 99% from its peak value."

[Parliament 14598]

[TonyTexas 10770]

3 hours ago, MeerkatBong said:

"Miami nightclubs, which have been rocked by the absence of big-spending crypto whales amid the market’s deep freeze.

The Miami nightclubs should have stuck to catering to the cocaine cowboys. Both groups are criminal but one never will go out of business. 

[tbone_ 14447]

FTX guy being interviewed live on CNBC right now.

I expect lots of lies.

[Parliament 14598]

He's done some other interviews as well. He keeps blaming "hyper correlation," whatever that means.  I presume his lawyer is telling him to stfu and lay low.  Seems this guy is a sociopath.  Doesn't think he did anything wrong.

 

[tbone_ 14447]

0.0 accountability. Complete diarrhea of the mouth. I couldn’t listen to it. I had to just turn it off.

[Humble Beast 258]

6 minutes ago, Parliament said:

He's done some other interviews as well. He keeps blaming "hyper correlation," whatever that means.  I presume his lawyer is telling him to stfu and lay low.  Seems this guy is a sociopath.  Doesn't think he did anything wrong.

 

I believe he’s fired multiple lawyers. Maybe he thinks he’s untouchable? How is he not arrested yet?

Let’s look at the list of entities that have written puff pieces or downplayed his outright fraud. 
 

WSJ

NYT 

Economist

Larry Fink

I think the FT as well

i mean wtf?

 

[DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt 12301]

49 minutes ago, Parliament said:

He's done some other interviews as well. He keeps blaming "hyper correlation," whatever that means.  I presume his lawyer is telling him to stfu and lay low.  Seems this guy is a sociopath.  Doesn't think he did anything wrong.

 

Do I hear waves lapping up on the beach in the background?

[TonyTexas 10770]

1 hour ago, tbone_ said:

FTX guy being interviewed live on CNBC right now.

I expect lots of lies.

 

[Parliament 14598]

To be fair, he HAS had a bad month.

[Captainant 28539]

"I didn't mean to do a Ponzi scheme" is certainly a novel defense lol

[Dahobbs 18324]

59 minutes ago, Captainant said:

"I didn't mean to do a Ponzi scheme" is certainly a novel defense lol

Not really. That is how almost all of them start. 

[Humble Beast 258]

 

[Hefeweizen 5444]

Why is this guy being treated with kid gloves?  It is straight up theft.  I am puzzled by our treatment of white collar crime.  Giving the guy a platform to spin his bullshit is unbelievable.

[Parliament 14598]

1) Crypto was so new and so awesome that nobody asked questions.  Didn't wanna sound like an "old boomer yelling at clouds."

2) He did lotsa charity stuff, including with some media outlets.  May have impacted their impartiality.

3) Without going all CR, he gave money to both political parties.

 

[PilotsError 2337]

If you know who his mom is, and her beliefs and the articles she’s published, it’s not even remotely confusing as to why he takes zero accountability.  

[Dahobbs 18324]

18 minutes ago, PilotsError said:

If you know who his mom is, and her beliefs and the articles she’s published, it’s not even remotely confusing as to why he takes zero accountability.  

Rather than be cryptic, I thought it would be helpful to post an article on this topic: https://www.businessinsider.com/sam-bankman-frieds-mom-wrote-essay-questioning-blame-problems-2022-11

Quote

 

A series of essays written by Sam Bankman-Fried's mother have come to light following the collapse of FTX, the crypto exchange he cofounded.

FTX filed for bankruptcy last week and Bankman-Fried says he's scrambling to raise $8 billion to repay customers and FTX's many creditors.

His mother is Barbara Fried, a former lawyer who's taught at Stanford Law School since 1987.

She has written pieces for the Boston Review, a quarterly political and literary magazine, arguing that attributing "personal blame" in times of crisis had "ruined criminal justice and economic policy," suggesting it was "time to move past blame."

"The fact that we have gotten so little in return for our blame mongering at least opens up the possibility that people would be receptive to a new approach," she wrote in 2013.

"The next time something goes terribly wrong, suppose that instead of immediately asking who is to blame, we were to ask: How can we fix this problem?"

Fried declined to comment when contacted by Insider for this article.

 

There is more in the link. The general idea of getting away from the blame game is a good one. But, doing so in a way that completely ignores culpable conduct is actually a failure to appropriately address how to "fix this problem" since it ignores root cause analysis necessary to prevent the problem in the future. 

[Parliament 14598]

"The next time something goes terribly wrong, suppose that instead of immediately asking who is to blame, we were to ask: How can we fix this problem?"

We fix the problem by making an example out of the shitbag kid you raised.

[Humble Beast 258]

1 hour ago, Dahobbs said:

There is more in the link. The general idea of getting away from the blame game is a good one. But, doing so in a way that completely ignores culpable conduct is actually a failure to appropriately address how to "fix this problem" since it ignores root cause analysis necessary to prevent the problem in the future. 

Here’s another passage. 
 

“Fried's writing ties into her family's belief in "effective altruism", a movement that uses calculations to understand how people can use their time, money, and resources to best help others, with a focus on the ends of an individual's actions justifying the means of getting there.”

 

2 hours ago, Parliament said:

1) Crypto was so new and so awesome that nobody asked questions.  Didn't wanna sound like an "old boomer yelling at clouds."

2) He did lotsa charity stuff, including with some media outlets.  May have impacted their impartiality.

3) Without going all CR, he gave money to both political parties.

 

 

2 hours ago, Hefeweizen said:

Why is this guy being treated with kid gloves?  It is straight up theft.  I am puzzled by our treatment of white collar crime.  Giving the guy a platform to spin his bullshit is unbelievable.

He gave a lot of money to people and entities. I’m not a lawyer. Is there a difference in clawing back money in bankruptcy if loss was due to catastrophic levels of incompetence vs fraud? If so maybe that’s why it’s being pushed that it “just went bad”. 
 

Now let me pull out my tinfoil hat from under my desk…

I think given the offshore, unregulated nature of his exchange, it’s a given that they were utilized for large scale money laundering, shuffling funds around the world.  The most common domicile of their account holders was the Cayman Islands. It’s quite possible that whoever was doing that, doesn’t want it more fully exposed by a criminal investigation. Could it be criminals, governments, both? I’m a little surprised he hasn’t been Epstein’d. 

[Humble Beast 258]

sure sure 

[Humble Beast 258]

Investor psychology personified. 
 

 

[Parliament 14598]

18 minutes ago, Humble Beast said:

 

That's not how this works.  That's not how ANY of this works.  Working in ag, I am slightly familiar with the Chicago Board of Trade.  They trade commodities, mostly ag, and I presume a functional crypto exchange would follow a similar model.  At the CBOT, everyone who is allowed to trade has cash/and or commodity assets to back up their upside down positions.  And when a trader is getting dangerously close to going negative, they're called to put more cash in.  That or they get their account liquidated.  That all happens in a regimented fashion.

I'm sure there has been an occasional "liquidity crisis" for a CBOT trader.  Their position on OJ futures or whatever fell so fast they couldn't get out until they went net negative.  Or perhaps there were some shenanigans going on.  But that was VERY rare, and shit went down when just one person did it.  They have "governance" for that.  FTX didn't have governance of any kind.  If the CFTC chair isn't calling it a liquidity crisis and not "Bankman-Fried was using his customers' money," that tells me he's complicit.  God Dammit, Man.

Edited December 1, 2022 by Parliament

[Dahobbs 18324]

6 minutes ago, Humble Beast said:

He gave a lot of money to people and entities. I’m not a lawyer. Is there a difference in clawing back money in bankruptcy if loss was due to catastrophic levels of incompetence vs fraud? If so maybe that’s why it’s being pushed that it “just went bad”. 

Yes, there is a difference. Fraudulent transfer law can vary a bit by jurisdiction, but generally you're looking for either actual (done to hide assets or avoid payment to creditors) or constructive fraud (inadequate consideration and debtor being insolvent at time of transfer).  There is also the preference window, which allows the debtor/trustee to recoup payments made 90 days to 1 year prior to the filing of bankruptcy. However, I don't believe that mechanism can be used to reach political donations as it generally has to be payment for some sort of debt. Rather, clawback of donations would have to be done via fraudulent transfer law. And I wouldn't be surprised if there are additional protections provided to political donations.  

[Humble Beast 258]

A couple more highlights from his media blitz. 
 

 

admitting they “sold” bitcoin they didn’t even have. 
 

 

[Humble Beast 258]

 

[bullzak 428]

On 11/21/2022 at 8:08 AM, midtown said:

Anyone involved in standard markets is aware of this.   Crypto bros are not just pro crypto they are anti all other assets accept NFTs, Lambos and Rolex.

And yet such a staid community like Miami is a hub for crypto. Weird. 

[Chewbacca 7830]

On 12/1/2022 at 7:23 AM, Dahobbs said:

Rather than be cryptic, I thought it would be helpful to post an article on this topic: https://www.businessinsider.com/sam-bankman-frieds-mom-wrote-essay-questioning-blame-problems-2022-11

There is more in the link. The general idea of getting away from the blame game is a good one. But, doing so in a way that completely ignores culpable conduct is actually a failure to appropriately address how to "fix this problem" since it ignores root cause analysis necessary to prevent the problem in the future. 

I agree that blame in the middle of a crisis has no place.  But after the crisis has passed?  Yep, it's accountability time.  And I'd argue in the case of FTX that the crisis has passed.  The company is dead.  Now it's time to put that little shit behind bars.

[TonyTexas 10770]

29 minutes ago, Humble Beast said:

 

Jeebus. How much money did the crypto crooks funnel into Waters’ campaign coffers?

[MAUFRAIS 6740]

It feels like the compliments to Ralph Fiennes at the end of Quiz Show.

[bernorange 8385]

Am I the only one that read Waters' tweet and thought immediately of Admiral Ackbar? 

[52-80 19377]

The absolute honeytrap

 

[Brisketexan 106899]

He dinner on E 7th last night. Sitting at the light at 35 waiting to turn. Next to that dumpy-ass sketchy Shell station…which has a sign on the window that says “buy Bitcoin here.”
1 - that’s how you know something has peaked: when you can buy it at a shitty gas station. I remember when gas stations and truck stops started selling Beanie Babies at the peak of that craze….telling us it was over.
2 - the only things you should be able to buy at gas stations are a) slim Jims, b) chips, c) sodas and beer, and d) various unhealthy fried items if you’re lucky enough to hit a station with a deep fryer. Not fucking Bitcoin.
3 - if a gas station is advertising it for sale, it’s not money. It’s a scam.

Keep on keeping on, crypto bros.

Oh, and you can still find Beanie Babies for sale at all the finest truck stops and gas stations. They’re just not sold as an investment vehicle. Crypto will be the same, sooner or later.

[Humble Beast 258]

28 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

He dinner on E 7th last night. Sitting at the light at 35 waiting to turn. Next to that dumpy-ass sketchy Shell station…which has a sign on the window that says “buy Bitcoin here.”
1 - that’s how you know something has peaked: when you can buy it at a shitty gas station. I remember when gas stations and truck stops started selling Beanie Babies at the peak of that craze….telling us it was over.
2 - the only things you should be able to buy at gas stations are a) slim Jims, b) chips, c) sodas and beer, and d) various unhealthy fried items if you’re lucky enough to hit a station with a deep fryer. Not fucking Bitcoin.
3 - if a gas station is advertising it for sale, it’s not money. It’s a scam.

Keep on keeping on, crypto bros.

Oh, and you can still find Beanie Babies for sale at all the finest truck stops and gas stations. They’re just not sold as an investment vehicle. Crypto will be the same, sooner or later.

You make some great points, except there’s been widespread bitcoin ATMs since at least 2017. 

[Parliament 14598]

3 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

He dinner on E 7th last night. Sitting at the light at 35 waiting to turn. Next to that dumpy-ass sketchy Shell station…which has a sign on the window that says “buy Bitcoin here.”
1 - that’s how you know something has peaked: when you can buy it at a shitty gas station. I remember when gas stations and truck stops started selling Beanie Babies at the peak of that craze….telling us it was over.
2 - the only things you should be able to buy at gas stations are a) slim Jims, b) chips, c) sodas and beer, and d) various unhealthy fried items if you’re lucky enough to hit a station with a deep fryer. Not fucking Bitcoin.
3 - if a gas station is advertising it for sale, it’s not money. It’s a scam.

Keep on keeping on, crypto bros.

Oh, and you can still find Beanie Babies for sale at all the finest truck stops and gas stations. They’re just not sold as an investment vehicle. Crypto will be the same, sooner or later.

And rubbers in the men's room.

[Parliament 14598]

WSJ finally going hard on SBF.  Reporter asks specific questions, all the way down to literal arithmetic. As you would guess, he mansplains his way out of it.  And blames Alameda for a lot of it. 

 

 

Edited December 4, 2022 by Parliament

[tbone_ 14447]

Pathological liar

[Neonmoon 38130]

I hate these types of interviews because per usual the interviewer is soft as baby shit. If he keeps saying I don’t know that off the top of my head, I don’t know the specifics, the interviewer should ask, aren’t you the CEO? You don’t know what’s in your TOS? You don’t know if you were sweeping accounts into margin trading? 5 Billion dollars is lost, you haven’t looked into that?

[FartingMonk 3619]

54 minutes ago, Neonmoon said:

I hate these types of interviews because per usual the interviewer is soft as baby shit. If he keeps saying I don’t know that off the top of my head, I don’t know the specifics, the interviewer should ask, aren’t you the CEO? You don’t know what’s in your TOS? You don’t know if you were sweeping accounts into margin trading? 5 Billion dollars is lost, you haven’t looked into that?

Genius wunderkind who saw advantages to derpa derpa derpa

[UTGrad98 2338]

1 hour ago, Neonmoon said:

I hate these types of interviews because per usual the interviewer is soft as baby shit. If he keeps saying I don’t know that off the top of my head, I don’t know the specifics, the interviewer should ask, aren’t you the CEO? You don’t know what’s in your TOS? You don’t know if you were sweeping accounts into margin trading? 5 Billion dollars is lost, you haven’t looked into that?

He wouldnt have agreed to the interview if they had follow up questions or questions to make him look like an idiot/criminal. These interviews are for clicks and revenue, not investigative journalism. Sign out front should have told you.

[Neonmoon 38130]

10 minutes ago, UTGrad98 said:

He wouldnt have agreed to the interview if they had follow up questions or questions to make him look like an idiot/criminal. These interviews are for clicks and revenue, not investigative journalism. Sign out front should have told you.

Point taken. 

[Dr. Teeth 5868]

We are probably going to find out he did some of this shit to show off for Michael Lewis. 

[Parliament 14598]

10 hours ago, Neonmoon said:

I hate these types of interviews because per usual the interviewer is soft as baby shit. If he keeps saying I don’t know that off the top of my head, I don’t know the specifics, the interviewer should ask, aren’t you the CEO? You don’t know what’s in your TOS? You don’t know if you were sweeping accounts into margin trading? 5 Billion dollars is lost, you haven’t looked into that?

Well feast your eyes on this:

Interviewer is a bit of a douche, and SFB dodges all his questions.  Still its fun to watch him squirm.

[Dahobbs 18324]

On 12/3/2022 at 10:01 AM, Humble Beast said:

You make some great points, except there’s been widespread bitcoin ATMs since at least 2017. 

Lol, "widespread." Sure. Whatever you say. 

[Harrison Stafford 3392]

I quant my money back.

[Blotto 24021]

https://news.bitcoin.com/document-claims-alameda-ceo-caroline-ellisons-ftx-margin-position-was-negative-1-3b-in-may-2022/

Quote

This week a document was sent to Bitcoin.com News that allegedly shows Caroline Ellison’s balance on FTX seven months ago in May 2022. According to the source familiar with the matter, Ellison shared this data among a number of FTX staff members when she was experiencing a technical glitch with her personal trading account.

Quote

The document shows Ellison ostensibly had a negative balance at that time of around $1.31 billion in May 2022. All FTX accounts show negative balances, if the user has a negative balance for specific reasons such as that a payment wasn’t settled or the user was in debt from margin positions. The documentation that is allegedly tied to Ellison, shows an enormous balance that no ordinary user would have, including a negative quantity of FTX equity.

The document our newsdesk viewed indicates the user’s negative balance owed or held in a margin position, points to a massive amount of FTT, megaserum (MSRM), locked megaserum (MSRM), locked serum (SRM), locked maps (MAPS), solana (SOL), ethereum (ETH), bitcoin (BTC), and millions of dollars worth of stablecoins. The user’s balance, allegedly tied to Alameda CEO Ellison, shows nearly every account is in the negative to the tune of roughly $1.31 billion.

Chaparro notes around the 9:30 mark in his interview that Ellison mentioned that FTX extended quite a bit of credit to Alameda Research. “[Ellison] said that you knew, that Gary knew,” Chaparro pressed during his question, and he said people within both firms knew about these lines of credit. “I think she’s likely correct, that Alameda Research was effectively extended a substantial amount of credit by FTX and in the end, that margin position became under severe stress and it blew out.”

If you're gonna blow billions chasing some pussy, lets raise our standards a bit.

 

[washparkhorn 9973]

Tulips

[MAUFRAIS 6740]

https://news.bitcoin.com/document-claims-alameda-ceo-caroline-ellisons-ftx-margin-position-was-negative-1-3b-in-may-2022/

This week a document was sent to Bitcoin.com News that allegedly shows Caroline Ellison’s balance on FTX seven months ago in May 2022. According to the source familiar with the matter, Ellison shared this data among a number of FTX staff members when she was experiencing a technical glitch with her personal trading account.

The document shows Ellison ostensibly had a negative balance at that time of around $1.31 billion in May 2022. All FTX accounts show negative balances, if the user has a negative balance for specific reasons such as that a payment wasn’t settled or the user was in debt from margin positions. The documentation that is allegedly tied to Ellison, shows an enormous balance that no ordinary user would have, including a negative quantity of FTX equity.
The document our newsdesk viewed indicates the user’s negative balance owed or held in a margin position, points to a massive amount of FTT, megaserum (MSRM), locked megaserum (MSRM), locked serum (SRM), locked maps (MAPS), solana (SOL), ethereum (ETH), bitcoin (BTC), and millions of dollars worth of stablecoins. The user’s balance, allegedly tied to Alameda CEO Ellison, shows nearly every account is in the negative to the tune of roughly $1.31 billion.
Chaparro notes around the 9:30 mark in his interview that Ellison mentioned that FTX extended quite a bit of credit to Alameda Research. “[Ellison] said that you knew, that Gary knew,” Chaparro pressed during his question, and he said people within both firms knew about these lines of credit. “I think she’s likely correct, that Alameda Research was effectively extended a substantial amount of credit by FTX and in the end, that margin position became under severe stress and it blew out.”

If you're gonna blow billions chasing some pussy, lets raise our standards a bit.

 

[TonyTexas 10770]

I hope someone like Adam McKay takes on the story of bitcoin in a HBO/Netflix series. Start at the origin and take it through the collapse. Would be fascinating. 

[UTGrad98 2338]

1 hour ago, TonyTexas said:

I hope someone like Adam McKay takes on the story of bitcoin in a HBO/Netflix series. Start at the origin and take it through the collapse. Would be fascinating. 

There will never be "the" collapse. There may be multiple collapses though.  Never underestimate human greed. Hell I may buy a coin or 2 if it gets below 10k this time around.