Was it really possible for Bitfinex to amass $65m from their issued tokens?

[Wind_FURY]

Bitfinex says everything is fine and that they have enough funds to pay off all their customers. Is it because they have already made back the lost $65m that was hacked from their exchange?

How did they make it back so quickly and where did the money that large come from?

[teslacoilr90]

..... They make millions in transaction fees each month........

[pooya87]

I'm sure they spend millions as well. It would take several years of 0.2% transaction fees to save up $65 million.

very interesting. i checked via https://data.bitcoinity.org/markets/volume/6m?c=c&exchange=bitfinex&t=b
and their total volume was $3,179,103.85 in the past 6 months and with 0.2% trading fee they can make $12,716.41 (an exchange take fee twice from the one making the order and the one filling it although fees may be different).

to make millions they had to have other ways of making money! margin trading fees, if that is a thing (i have never looked at it!), lending (if they have it), trading themselves on their own platform or other places, also they have altcoins too so we should consider those volumes too.

[Kakmakr]

I'm sure they spend millions as well. It would take several years of 0.2% transaction fees to save up $65 million.

very interesting. i checked via https://data.bitcoinity.org/markets/volume/6m?c=c&exchange=bitfinex&t=b
and their total volume was $3,179,103.85 in the past 6 months and with 0.2% trading fee they can make $12,716.41 (an exchange take fee twice from the one making the order and the one filling it although fees may be different).

to make millions they had to have other ways of making money! margin trading fees, if that is a thing (i have never looked at it!), lending (if they have it), trading themselves on their own platform or other places, also they have altcoins too so we should consider those volumes too.

I think the margin trading could have yielded a lot of profit, but the probability could be that they found the lost coins, < some employee within the company came forward > and that they slowly but surely worked the returned coins back into the system. < trading those stolen coins and taking the fees back into the system >

This is just a conspiracy theory, and something the banks are doing. They force people to keep quite, when they get hacked and it was a inside job. < friend of mine got his stolen money back, but he had to make a deal with their lawyers to keep quite about it > 

[Pettuh4]

I'm sure they spend millions as well. It would take several years of 0.2% transaction fees to save up $65 million.

Wel it's also possible they borrowed in order to settle up those debts as it's almost a year now and something needs to be done to salvage their image.

[franky1]

bitfinex did not get $65m from exchange fee profits.

they grabbed funding from https://bnktothefuture.com


£42.66m=$54.5m

and now using that to pay out to users in debt

but taking from peter to pay paul is also known as a ponzi. so dont think that bitfinex's finances/drama is over anytime soon

[foodstamps]

I'm sure they spend millions as well. It would take several years of 0.2% transaction fees to save up $65 million.

very interesting. i checked via https://data.bitcoinity.org/markets/volume/6m?c=c&exchange=bitfinex&t=b
and their total volume was $3,179,103.85 in the past 6 months and with 0.2% trading fee they can make $12,716.41 (an exchange take fee twice from the one making the order and the one filling it although fees may be different).

to make millions they had to have other ways of making money! margin trading fees, if that is a thing (i have never looked at it!), lending (if they have it), trading themselves on their own platform or other places, also they have altcoins too so we should consider those volumes too.

Your numbers are wrong. The data is in bitcoin, not fiat. 3,180,000 BTC volume in 6 months. This is a huge difference.

[gentlemand]

I assume lots of people took a payout before the tokens gained their full value so it won't be anywhere near that full figure.

[Iranus]

I assume lots of people took a payout before the tokens gained their full value so it won't be anywhere near that full figure.

I'm sure that was Bitfinex's tactic for avoiding paying the full amount.  They would never have actually been able to pay it out so they just release a token which no one expects them to repay anyway.

These are not the actions of a reputable service.

[~Bitcoin~]

Yes it is true that they have got good funding from few investors after they got hacked but i am not quite confident on this claims. They may get hacked again and i don't gonna risk even a penny there. I also suggest others to not hold anything there, their Taiwanese bank have already pulled them out of bitfinex.

[megynacuna]

I think that Bitfinex didn't really get hacked and they were holding the coins till the price went up to the lower $1,000 level and they started to exchange the coins for fiat then exchanged the coins back when the price went lower.
It wouldn't require that much coins and  that much of a crash if they know how to do it right and since they own an Exchange I am pretty sure that those people know how to trade without being noticed.

I'm tempted to agree with you pal, it's a likely possibility they were trying to hold on to it for value purpose so that they can sell now and pay less fiat for what was lost then in fiat equivalent, but until any concrete evidence we should just treat it as a likely possibility.

[BiTZeD]

They are really powerful and wealthy. I think they made way more than 65 millions of dollars in their whole existence. This may not be pocket money to them, but not really far.

[alyssa85]

bitfinex did not get $65m from exchange fee profits.

they grabbed funding from https://bnktothefuture.com


£42.66m=$54.5m

and now using that to pay out to users in debt

but taking from peter to pay paul is also known as a ponzi. so dont think that bitfinex's finances/drama is over anytime soon

Good catch!

If this funding a loan that needs to be paid back with interest, or did they just sell shares in their business?

[Wind_FURY]

bitfinex did not get $65m from exchange fee profits.

they grabbed funding from https://bnktothefuture.com


£42.66m=$54.5m

and now using that to pay out to users in debt

but taking from peter to pay paul is also known as a ponzi. so dont think that bitfinex's finances/drama is over anytime soon

Good catch!

If this funding a loan that needs to be paid back with interest, or did they just sell shares in their business?

The terms are not clear because only the Bitfinex users are allowed to see the pitch. Are there Bitfinex users here who would like to explain and post more details about Bitfinex's pitch?

[pooya87]

I'm sure they spend millions as well. It would take several years of 0.2% transaction fees to save up $65 million.

very interesting. i checked via https://data.bitcoinity.org/markets/volume/6m?c=c&exchange=bitfinex&t=b
and their total volume was $3,179,103.85 in the past 6 months and with 0.2% trading fee they can make $12,716.41 (an exchange take fee twice from the one making the order and the one filling it although fees may be different).

to make millions they had to have other ways of making money! margin trading fees, if that is a thing (i have never looked at it!), lending (if they have it), trading themselves on their own platform or other places, also they have altcoins too so we should consider those volumes too.

Your numbers are wrong. The data is in bitcoin, not fiat. 3,180,000 BTC volume in 6 months. This is a huge difference.

click on the link that i gave here, then scroll down a bit, under the chart there is a link on the right side saying export, that gives you the raw data in CSV or XLSX format and inside that there are two columns called Time and USD. that is why my total number which was calculated with that data is in USD.

[Wind_FURY]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoxDg_dX4l8

That is a good video explaining things about Bitfinex's repayment plan. Thank you for posting. I will wait for others to comment on any weaknesses they see with their scheme.

Maybe the situation is not like MtGox but I am still skeptical. The lessons of MtGox is still as fresh as ever. Trust no one.

[Duzter]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoxDg_dX4l8

That is a good video explaining things about Bitfinex's repayment plan. Thank you for posting. I will wait for others to comment on any weaknesses they see with their scheme.

Maybe the situation is not like MtGox but I am still skeptical. The lessons of MtGox is still as fresh as ever. Trust no one.

Their repayment plan seems quite promising, but when it comes to reality how things could happen in the right way is simply hopeless. Though they get millions through transaction service regularly a hack of their server is something which shows their lacking of security, which is much required while providing service related to bitcoin and digital currency.

[monsanto]

Bitfinex says everything is fine and that they have enough funds to pay off all their customers. Is it because they have already made back the lost $65m that was hacked from their exchange?

How did they make it back so quickly and where did the money that large come from?

Total Supply
64,950,871 USDT

seen here a field of 65 million tethers growing in their natural environment:



that should take care of any pesky auditing issues  

I'm not gonna claim tethers were involved... but it fits.

[magneto]

Bitfinex says everything is fine and that they have enough funds to pay off all their customers. Is it because they have already made back the lost $65m that was hacked from their exchange?

How did they make it back so quickly and where did the money that large come from?

Well, if the token you were talking about is BFX, then they made that back from trading fees.

It was made easier for them because the bitcoin price was rising and the debt they issued was in USD and carried no interest if i recall correctly. Bitcoin went from like $600 when the hack happened or something like that to nearly $1300 now.

They generate quite a lot of profits through their fees.

If you are not comfortable with the situation, simply cash out your USD by exchanging it to BTC. Bitcoin withdrawals are still up and running. But prepare to pay a premium for that.

[iamTom123]

bitfinex did not get $65m from exchange fee profits.

they grabbed funding from https://bnktothefuture.com


£42.66m=$54.5m

and now using that to pay out to users in debt

but taking from peter to pay paul is also known as a ponzi. so dont think that bitfinex's finances/drama is over anytime soon

Good catch!

If this funding a loan that needs to be paid back with interest, or did they just sell shares in their business?

The terms are not clear because only the Bitfinex users are allowed to see the pitch. Are there Bitfinex users here who would like to explain and post more details about Bitfinex's pitch?

This can quite explain why Bitfinex was able to pay back all of its obligations to its members or customers when it was hacked last year. Many called it a very impressive feat and it may have boost the image of Bitfinex. But of course, we don't know the whole story behind such a move and this post above can be the right explanation. Well, it must also be a good move on the part of Bitfinex to raise money elsewhere where interest can be a good advantage. Let's see how Bitfinex can maintain its leadership in the cryptocurrency exchange business.