What'll happen when USDT collapses?

[TheQuin]

You may be right, but we don't know if this accountancy firm is on the level.

I've done as much research as I can and Friedman LLP seems to be on the level. Established in 1924 with many partners who all stand to be struck off and never work again if they even had the wool pulled over their eyes let alone faked anything. It's just too implausible to happen.

I've got funds in Bitfinex and I'm watching closely if anything makes me nervous I'll get out as quick as I can, but right now it looks OK. Anything may have happened since the audit in October that hasn't been made public yet. However all the noise from a few anonymous bloggers and tweeters I'll ignore for now.

It reminds me of Janet Yellen's garbage responses:
Q. "Why won't you let the Fed be audited?"
A. "The Federal Reserve is one of the most trusted and transparent...."

The Federal Reserve, on the other hand, I wouldn't trust an inch.

Can you provide a link to where to find a report ?

I read it when it came out back in October, can't remember the link but I'm sure if you search for you'll find it.

Edit. It turns out I saved a copy https://drive.google.com/file/d/128lgqWUqvkITyPrCfupCJgI5Vz4z0-rq/view

[1715014312]

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[1715014312]

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[gentlemand]

Can you provide a link to where to find a report ?

https://ftalphaville.ft.com/2017/10/02/2194319/tethers-transparency-update-is-out/

There's a dead link here but I do recall seeing a PDF somewhere a couple of days ago. However it doesn't appear to be a full on flat out audit, more of a skim, but there's no way Friedman would put their name to some absolute dogshit.

As noted in the article - "…these consulting services do not constitute an audit or attestation engagement, which would include a significantly expanded scope of procedures and take substantially more time to complete."

[Ludwig Von]

Can you provide a link to where to find a report ?

https://ftalphaville.ft.com/2017/10/02/2194319/tethers-transparency-update-is-out/

There's a dead link here but I do recall seeing a PDF somewhere a couple of days ago. However it doesn't appear to be a full on flat out audit, more of a skim, but there's no way Friedman would put their name to some absolute dogshit.

As noted in the article - "…these consulting services do not constitute an audit or attestation engagement, which would include a significantly expanded scope of procedures and take substantially more time to complete."

I had read that report already. And as Friedman says it is not a valid (measured to the standards applied for financial institutions). So only smokescreen. (weel paid for).

As I have been Goxed, Cloudstripmined straight through the bottom of my pockets, I tell you : if it looks like crook business, smells like and behaves like, just run away as fr as you can.

[fabiorem]

As I have been Goxed, Cloudstripmined straight through the bottom of my pockets, I tell you : if it looks like crook business, smells like and behaves like, just run away as fr as you can.

Do you think a Bitfinex scandal would affect prices? If so, how much?

[julian071]

I never understood the importance of USDT for trading. I thought that BTC was the gateway drug to all the alts, so I don't get why exchanges like poloniex would suffer if USDT would disappear. Plus there is always Dash and LTC if you don''t like Bitcoin's high fees.

[gentlemand]

I don't get why exchanges like poloniex would suffer if USDT would disappear.

Because tens to hundreds of thousands of people are using it on exchanges to park their value. If it disappears then so does their wealth and it could happen with nauseating speed as well. No one's going to want that shit if it is truly problematic and it's not as if there's someone else who's going to step in and magic up hundreds of millions of real dollars.

[Ludwig Von]

As I have been Goxed, Cloudstripmined straight through the bottom of my pockets, I tell you : if it looks like crook business, smells like and behaves like, just run away as fr as you can.

Do you think a Bitfinex scandal would affect prices? If so, how much?

Gosh, difficult and I do not consider myself knowledgable enough. It will affect prices, of course. But I think, contrary to Gox, will be assimilated very fast. I tend to hold on to the idea that
it might be a necessary cleaning of the system.

[pera]

I think that someone or some group has been trying to manipulate the BTC price by spamming these worries on various social media over the last couple of weeks, which has created some natural pushback against the idea. But that doesn't make the idea false.

Bingo! the only thing I wish now is for all this Tether fiasco to end ASAP, even if a small correction is needed.

People should start demanding financial audits to every single exchange they trade on, that should be the norm.

[nidacoinlove]

USDT is a scam there can be nothing else more. It is only dogging with the real dollar transaction. There is no transparent audit publication of it. Even if it has in past we have examples of audit firms involved with the clients in a high level scams.
It's impact on BTC will be not as much as on the alts if USDT collapsed but still it will be disastrous.
Let's hope all these theories turn to be false, otherwise the repercussions will be unbearable; some exchanges and people will become bankrupt.

[Lopumbo]

It looks like a hilarious conspiracy because iFinex has even shares of Blockstream 
We have to therefore accept that the BTC price was artifically inflated by worthless tokens over a period of 6-8 month.
I cannot understand how USDT can trade to USD bei 1:1? There has to be some counterparty-risk involved in the price. Is everybody so dumb?
After the official meltdown my prediction was/is that at first BTC prices will further increase as long as Ponzifinex somehow manages to distribute withdrawals accordingly.
Maybe "the market" will suck it up over time or it believes in BTCs value regardless of the air - with all that greed that is likely to happen.

[Paashaas]

That's from March the most recent audit was in October. Do you think an accountancy firm would risk its license by fabricating an audit?

Most likely not but possible.

I saw this on r/CryptoCurrency today that Thether might be hacked by the same person who hacked Stamp in 2015.

Interesting development, awsome detective work.

https://www.reddit.com/r/CryptoCurrency/comments/7eho5y/tether_was_hacked_by_the_same_person_who_hacked/

[Ludwig Von]

That's from March the most recent audit was in October. Do you think an accountancy firm would risk its license by fabricating an audit?

Most likely not but possible.

I saw this on r/CryptoCurrency today that Thether might be hacked by the same person who hacked Stamp in 2015.

Interesting development, awsome detective work.

https://www.reddit.com/r/CryptoCurrency/comments/7eho5y/tether_was_hacked_by_the_same_person_who_hacked/

Just to remind : Friedman states explicitly that the report is not an audit.

[colombuszka]

You may be right, but we don't know if this accountancy firm is on the level.

I've done as much research as I can and Friedman LLP seems to be on the level. Established in 1924 with many partners who all stand to be struck off and never work again if they even had the wool pulled over their eyes let alone faked anything. It's just too implausible to happen.

I've got funds in Bitfinex and I'm watching closely if anything makes me nervous I'll get out as quick as I can, but right now it looks OK. Anything may have happened since the audit in October that hasn't been made public yet. However all the noise from a few anonymous bloggers and tweeters I'll ignore for now.

It reminds me of Janet Yellen's garbage responses:
Q. "Why won't you let the Fed be audited?"
A. "The Federal Reserve is one of the most trusted and transparent...."

The Federal Reserve, on the other hand, I wouldn't trust an inch.

Can you provide a link to where to find a report ?

I read it when it came out back in October, can't remember the link but I'm sure if you search for you'll find it.

Edit. It turns out I saved a copy https://drive.google.com/file/d/128lgqWUqvkITyPrCfupCJgI5Vz4z0-rq/view

I would be able to reproduce that pdf with basic photoshop and document edit skills.  Worth nothing without a stamp or a signature.

[pera]

I've got funds in Bitfinex and I'm watching closely if anything makes me nervous I'll get out as quick as I can, but right now it looks OK. Anything may have happened since the audit in October that hasn't been made public yet. However all the noise from a few anonymous bloggers and tweeters I'll ignore for now.

By any chance, are you experiencing any issues like these today?:

https://www.reddit.com/r/bitfinex/comments/7edo1i/23500_usdt_frozen_no_withdraw_emails_sent_this_is/
https://www.reddit.com/r/bitfinex/comments/7egwaa/is_the_support_team_of_bitfinex_on_holiday/
https://www.reddit.com/r/bitfinex/comments/7ehap7/it_has_been_over_24_hours_since_i_transferred_all/

[w00t]

Just a few thoughts regarding the USDT:

I] - I suppose everybody read this by now: https://www.coindesk.com/tether-claims-30-million-stable-token-stolen-attacker/
II] - Tether is worth 673 M USD at the current price it's 81219 BTC - https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/tether/
III] - Tether is "audited" by somebody reputable who actually said it was not an audit but something like "an opinion" (last time I heard this was during the defense of rating agencies after the 2008 CDO/CDS fraud).
IV] - For those who don't remember - when the fraud is big enough even auditors are happy to get their hands dirty - lookup Arthur Andersen and Enron scandal (60+ billion was lost almost overnight in a fraud in year 2000 money ~ easily 600+ billion in today's money).

I don't like baseless panic and FUD but I think there is something smelly about USDT like the OP said - I'm not sure what or how but it doesn't add up.

Is there a way to independently check how many USDT is actually out there?

Is it possible that somehow there is fake fiat aka USDT (wow double fake) buying crypto and artificially pushing the price up? My biggest concern is that there might be 10x or 100x more USDT than they actually report.

[Ludwig Von]

That's from March the most recent audit was in October. Do you think an accountancy firm would risk its license by fabricating an audit?

Most likely not but possible.

I saw this on r/CryptoCurrency today that Thether might be hacked by the same person who hacked Stamp in 2015.

Interesting development, awsome detective work.

https://www.reddit.com/r/CryptoCurrency/comments/7eho5y/tether_was_hacked_by_the_same_person_who_hacked/

Interesting, that 's the least we can say. And it would be more interesting if some courageous journalists would dig a bit further : Bitfinex, Gox, Stamp, Ifinex, BTC-e... . Who actually are the owners of Ifinex ?

[BillyBobZorton]

A potential "thethering" is greatly exaggerated in in my opinion. If it really collapses, then the altcoins will suffer a lot more than BTC. USDT is a gateway way more important for altcoins than for BTC. The altcoin holders may dump for BTC in the danger for an USDT collapse.

This is not 2013 anymore where everything was sitting on a single point of failure. It's really stupid how people compare an USDT collapse to Mt Gox 2.0. These people are deliberately FUDding in hopes of buying a good dip.

[Lopumbo]

what do you think is possible regarding BTC price in a shallow orderbook with >100Mio tether on margin trading (fact) ?
did you ever wondered how, after a sudden 25% drop a super green candle out of the nowhere appears?
bitfinex wants BTC price to rise...its just free money for them

[Technicrate]

As I have been Goxed, Cloudstripmined straight through the bottom of my pockets, I tell you : if it looks like crook business, smells like and behaves like, just run away as fr as you can.

Do you think a Bitfinex scandal would affect prices? If so, how much?

Do not think so. There are only $600 m USDT. It is much smaller than the Bitcoin market cap.

[Lopumbo]

Do not think so. There are only $600 m USDT. It is much smaller than the Bitcoin market cap.

That is irrational thinking. MarketCap means not much. Do you think "all" Bitcoins can be sold for 8k$? I guess not.
A better metric would be the average price paid per BTC - you can move the market alot with 20 million$, if done right.