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

[Xester]

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?

There are many issues on that matters and it is circulating on the web. Some said that bitfinex was the culprit behind the loss of bitcoins in their site and they all charged it to the hackers. But possibly it is their plan to make use of those bitcoins as a capital and use it in their business before they return it to the owners. Such a nice plan and executed with precision that many have believed that it was really hacking and that bitfinex was really serious about their business.

This is one of the issues being thrown at bitfinex, I dont know if its true and so I leave the masses to decide what is the fact behind the events at bitfinex.

[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?

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.

I do not think Bitfinex released and controls all the USDT in the market. But the amount of USDT in circulation and the hacked amount is remarkably weird. Maybe someone smart can connect the dots? Until someone has, it is just coincidence. 

[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.

I do not think Bitfinex released and controls all the USDT in the market. But the amount of USDT in circulation and the hacked amount is remarkably weird. Maybe someone smart can connect the dots? Until someone has, it is just coincidence. 

I've read conflicting reports as to whether or not there is a deeper affiliation between the USDT devs and Bitfinex management. I saw some posts claiming there was a parent company that owned both -- anyone know if this was definitively debunked?

I would tend to agree that the 65 million figure is a coincidence.  But then we also have the coincidental timing of the unexpected complete buy back of all outstanding BFX tokens weeks (days?) before the fiat cutoff.  I have also noticed that while Poloniex and others make clear you are trading in USDT,  Bitfinex just lists everyting in USD, even though apparently this is all USDT.

The best hope is that the tether devs evasive comments are designed to keep them out of liberty reserve type legal trouble rather than cover up a fractional reserve.

[franky1]

I've read conflicting reports as to whether or not there is a deeper affiliation between the USDT devs and Bitfinex management. I saw some posts claiming there was a parent company that owned both -- anyone know if this was definitively debunked?

https://tether.to/legal/

1.1.2 “Associates” means Tether Limited, Tether Holdings Limited, BFXNA Inc., iFinex Inc., and each and every one of their respective shareholders, subsidiaries, employees, contractors, agents, directors, officers, partners, affiliates, insurers, and attorneys;

https://www.linkedin.com/in/reevecollins

Always on the cutting edge of technology, Collins has been a pioneer in the Bitcoin/Blockchain space and was co-founder and CEO of Tether. His efforts revolutionized the way currency is transacted by creating the world’s first fiat currency platform on the Bitcoin blockchain. In just over one year from inception, Tether was acquired by Bitfinex the world's largest bitcoin exchange.

https://themerkle.com/wells-fargo-blocks-180m-in-funds-belonging-to-ifinex-and-tether-customers/

ifinex taking banks to court lol

sorry but just because ifinex uses "usdT" does not make them absolved from fiat regulations.

any virtual currency that is easily transferable (paypal dollar to fiat dollar.. tether dollar to fiat dollar) where its pegged 1:1.. the 'virtual currency' is treated as if it is fiat.

so although bitfinex uses bitcoin.. its still ALSO playing with something thats deemed as fiat (tether pegged 1:1 for dollar.. much like paypal MySQL balance of paypal dollar is not real dollar, but resembles and easily translatable visually representing fiat)

[Wind_FURY]

The rabbit hole is going deeper and deeper. All USDT is supposed to have the equal amount of USD in the "vaults" of Bitfinex but how can it be proven? How can we know that there is $65m in their vaults in case all USDT holders want to convert them to real USD?

[Nagadota]

The rabbit hole is going deeper and deeper. All USDT is supposed to have the equal amount of USD in the "vaults" of Bitfinex but how can it be proven? How can we know that there is $65m in their vaults in case all USDT holders want to convert them to real USD?

On their transparency page.

So basically, they admit themselves that it's currently not all backed since there's more Tether in circulation on there than the amount of USD in their reserves.

You're not actually capable of cashing out USDT whenever you want, you just have to convert it to something else like Bitcoin and then withdraw.  That's why coinmarketcap says that the price is only about $0.93 right now.  They could completely crash the market at some point.

[talkbitcoin]

The rabbit hole is going deeper and deeper. All USDT is supposed to have the equal amount of USD in the "vaults" of Bitfinex but how can it be proven? How can we know that there is $65m in their vaults in case all USDT holders want to convert them to real USD?

haha, USDT is a good example of how all of us makes assumption that are clearly wrong. as the comment above this said USDT has never supposed to have aqual price with USD, it is the assumption that we made because we have always seen price at $1.
this is also another good reason for us to start reading more details about what we invest our money in.

[monsanto]

The rabbit hole is going deeper and deeper. All USDT is supposed to have the equal amount of USD in the "vaults" of Bitfinex but how can it be proven? How can we know that there is $65m in their vaults in case all USDT holders want to convert them to real USD?

haha, USDT is a good example of how all of us makes assumption that are clearly wrong. as the comment above this said USDT has never supposed to have aqual price with USD, it is the assumption that we made because we have always seen price at $1.
this is also another good reason for us to start reading more details about what we invest our money in.

If you trade on Bitfinex things are listed in "USD." So it is an assumption many traders are probably making on Bitfinex -- that they are holding and trading dollars. Do you think those are dollars or Tethers? On other sites like Poloniex, Tethers are explicitly listed as "USDT".

[European Central Bank]

If you trade on Bitfinex things are listed in "USD." So it is an assumption many traders are probably making on Bitfinex -- that they are holding and trading dollars. Do you think those are dollars or Tethers? On other sites like Poloniex, Tethers are explicitly listed as "USDT".

dollars. it would not be the world's largest exchange if everyone thought they were in usdt.

however it's pretty much the same thing. a bitfinex dollar is a credit from them, not anything particularly real. but at least it maintains the right redeemability rate.