Another One will be Biting the Dust Soon

[Darker45]

The once popular crypto lending platform BlockFi should have died earlier in the middle of the crypto winter. Thanks to the glorious savior and redeemer of the crypto industry, Sam Bankman-Fried, its timely death was prevented. $250 million of credit facility was injected into the platform to keep it afloat and survive the bearish months. It indeed survived.^[1]

But probably not for long. BlockFi is now forced not just to limit activities on the platform but also to halt withdrawals. While it continued operation despite the collapse of FTX, citing its $400 million credit line from FTX US, which is a separate entity from FTX and has been operating despite the latter's fall, the latest development could signal its eventual end.^[2]

Despite statements that FTX US is 100% liquid and that it is not in any way affected by what's happening with FTX international, it is now beginning to show serious signs that it will probably share the same fate with the latter. As a matter of fact, a banner has already been put on FTX US website saying "trading may be halted... in a few days.”^[3]

And along goes BlockFi as well!

[1] https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/22/sam-bankman-fried-rescues-crypto-lenders-blockfi-voyager.html
[2] https://cointelegraph.com/news/blockfi-limits-platform-activity-including-a-halt-on-client-withdrawals
[3] https://cointelegraph.com/news/ftx-us-announces-it-may-halt-trading-on-its-platform-in-a-few-days

[NotATether]

FTX's US arm is supposed to be separate from the main company. How on earth did they get dragged into this liquidity mess?

It spells bad news for them as the US government will be all over them and will probably a) fine FTX.US or b) revoke their license.

[dkbit98]

Check out FTX websites to see their publicly posted partners, shareholder and ambassadors like Major League Baseball, Tom Brady, Gisele Bundchen, Stephen Curry, Golden State Warriors, FTX Arena & Miami HEAT,
Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1, Naomi Osaka, Kevin O’Leary, Shaquille O'Neal, Trevor Lawrence, David Ortiz, Udonis Haslem... than you have Circle, TrueUSD, Paxos, Paradigm, Multicoin Capital, etc.
All this people and companies could be in big trouble now, and I am sure there are more companies like BlockFi out there... maybe stable coin problems are coming next.
https://ftx.us/our-partners
https://about.ftx.com/

[Darker45]

FTX's US arm is supposed to be separate from the main company. How on earth did they get dragged into this liquidity mess?

It spells bad news for them as the US government will be all over them and will probably a) fine FTX.US or b) revoke their license.

But to what extent are they really separate? In the first place, both are owned by SBF. And if SBF managed to take away billions of users' funds from FTX without necessarily asking permission or even informing its executives before transferring it to Alameda or use it for something else, can't he also not do the same with FTX US?

Right now, the exact relationship between FTX, FTX US, and Alameda are under investigation by the SEC. But even before any official finding is released, it's not rocket science to jump into conclusion that it has significant financial overlaps.

And even if FTX US is trying hard to distance itself away from FTX, repeatedly emphasizing that it is a separate entity and is independent, that it is not in any way affected by what's been happening with FTX, that it is 100% liquid, that its clients' assets are safe, very recent developments seem to disagree.

Now, they're selling assets, accordingly without necessarily informing SBF himself, probably to make it appear that they're indeed independent. But who are they fooling? What are these assets? These are the same assets acquired by SBF himself through FTX US and its mother company. That includes the naming rights of Miami Heat's arena.

At the end of the day, West Realm Shires Inc., the company to which FTX US belongs, is the same company that SBF used to bid $1.4 billion to acquire Voyager's assets just a couple of months ago. It is also the same company that provided BlockFi $250 million credit facility and a credit line extension of $680 million. It's also probably the same company from which SBF took millions for his political pledges.

So it is no wonder that BlockFi crumbles when FTX US crumbles, and FTX US crumbles if FTX crumbles.

https://decrypt.co/114116/ftx-us-derivatives-ceo-funds-safe-entirely-separate

[DaveF]

This is what happens when financial business get intertwined like this. I hate to say it and I am probably going to get raked over the coals here for saying it but GOOD.
1) Will make more people aware of not your keys, not your coins.

2) Will force the government to get involved with regulating places like this, no more of someone running an exchange on a computer they they have in the basement of their parents house where they live. You want to handle other people money then prove you can handle it.

3) Along with the same way banks are now more regulated and monitored then they were in 2008. You had a few chances, you blew them all, now here are the new rules.

4) Which will force more and more people to places like bisq / decentralized exchanges where YOU have your money.

5) It may actually stop some of the actual fraud going on where it's so obvious that it's a scam to people here because we know and understand what is going on, but to someone new to crypto being taken in by a slick salesman has no chance.

And so on. I don't like regulation, but I really don't see any other way at this point.

-Dave

[hugeblack]

1) Will make more people aware of not your keys, not your coins.

I do not know, but the user does not have good options. We are fully knowledgeable of the principle of "not your keys, not your coins," but the decentralized platforms are still far from fulfilling all the calls of traders, and such platforms are what gives bitcoin its price or at least the average.
The role is now for investors and developers to fill the gaps between CEXs and DEXs.

2) Will force the government to get involved with regulating places like this, no more of someone running an exchange on a computer they they have in the basement of their parents house where they live. You want to handle other people money then prove you can handle it.

The intervention of governments will not make a difference, many companies that have shares on the stock exchange, yet manipulation and money is the prevailing name.

Perhaps the solution to developing a more advanced mechanism than Proof Of Assets, although I do not think it will fully solve the problem.

[o_e_l_e_o]

But to what extent are they really separate?

Not that separate, it seems, given that some insider employee has managed to empty the wallets of both companies.

I don't like regulation, but I really don't see any other way at this point.

I also don't like regulation, but specifically I don't like regulation regarding bitcoin. There should be no regulations on my own personal wallets, demanding KYC for private wallets, preventing me from trading peer to peer, preventing me from spending bitcoin directly, and so on. But regulations when it comes to centralized exchanges? Fire away. I don't care. The whole centralized exchange space is a just a haven for scams and illegal business practices, as has become abundantly clear over the last few months. You already accept zero privacy and zero security when using centralized exchanges, and at least a highly regulated centralized exchange has a slightly lower chance of an average person losing all their money. The government can already monitor every move you make either way.

And the more and more regulations placed on CEXs, the more and more difficult it becomes for them to be compliant and the more and more difficult life becomes for the average user. All of this drives people towards actually using bitcoin as intended, without third parties.

I was talking about the exchanges, not your wallets. My bad for not making that clear.

Oh no, I understood that. Was just talking about my own opinions on the matter.

[DaveF]

I don't like regulation, but I really don't see any other way at this point.

I also don't like regulation, but specifically I don't like regulation regarding bitcoin. There should be no regulations on my own personal wallets, demanding KYC for private wallets, preventing me from trading peer to peer, preventing me from spending bitcoin directly, and so on. But regulations when it comes to centralized exchanges? Fire away. I don't care. The whole centralized exchange space is a just a haven for scams and illegal business practices, as has become abundantly clear over the last few months. You already accept zero privacy and zero security when using centralized exchanges, and at least a highly regulated centralized exchange has a slightly lower chance of an average person losing all their money. The government can already monitor every move you make either way.

And the more and more regulations placed on CEXs, the more and more difficult it becomes for them to be compliant and the more and more difficult life becomes for the average user. All of this drives people towards actually using bitcoin as intended, without third parties.

I was talking about the exchanges, not your wallets. My bad for not making that clear. Regardless no matter how hard they try you can't really force it. Coming off a KYC / regulated exchange they could force them to (as they are trying to) only send to a wallet that you prove you own. After that, you can send anywhere. And as others have pointed out it's somewhat simple after that to make the coins disappear with plausible deniability.

Code:

"I sent them to the DaveF gambling site and lost it all, just before the DaveF site closed."
"But look the DaveF site is still up"
"No, that's the dAveF site, take a look totally different"

I guaranty that if it really becomes that bad, sites like that will pop up all over Panama and other jurisdictions that don't care.

-Dave

[Accardo]

The once popular crypto lending platform BlockFi should have died earlier in the middle of the crypto winter. Thanks to the glorious savior and redeemer of the crypto industry, Sam Bankman-Fried, its timely death was prevented. $250 million of credit facility was injected into the platform to keep it afloat and survive the bearish months. It indeed survived.

Not only did the Savior rescue Blockfi from falling off the cliff he ponied out $1billion to balance the crypto winter by supporting falling cryptocurrency companies. Practically, SBF, the supposed Savior of Blockfi and others, needs to be saved. Therefore, Blockfi and the other companies who were supported by him, SBF, won't survive the hit and they'll go back to their previous condition before SBF rescued them. 

“The contagion will spread out" like Theymos said in his announcement.

2) Will force the government to get involved with regulating places like this, no more of someone running an exchange on a computer they they have in the basement of their parents house where they live. You want to handle other people money then prove you can handle it.

The regulation won't be funny on exchanges; the SEC have been observing the market for quite too long and it won't be new if they are prombted to pay a certain amount let's say $1trn before an exchange will be eligible to operate again. And they'll hover around their activities like helicopter parents do. They is always a way out of this, but from regulating exchanges it'll be simpler to regulate cryptocurrency.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2022/11/08/business/nightcap-crypto-ftx-binance/index.html

[Darker45]

The once popular crypto lending platform BlockFi should have died earlier in the middle of the crypto winter. Thanks to the glorious savior and redeemer of the crypto industry, Sam Bankman-Fried, its timely death was prevented. $250 million of credit facility was injected into the platform to keep it afloat and survive the bearish months. It indeed survived.

Not only did the Savior rescue Blockfi from falling off the cliff he ponied out $1billion to balance the crypto winter by supporting falling cryptocurrency companies. Practically, SBF, the supposed Savior of Blockfi and others, needs to be saved. Therefore, Blockfi and the other companies who were supported by him, SBF, won't survive the hit and they'll go back to their previous condition before SBF rescued them.  

But when the savior himself needed saving, there was no one. Although there was somebody who offered false hope, it was obvious it was not his intention considering that he was the one who made the final push that caused FTX to fall off the cliff.

Ironically, though, the one who shoved FTX off the cliff is now trying to portray himself as the new savior and redeemer with this "industry recovery fund" plan.

Apparently, however, if this pushes through, BlockFi would probably not qualify for even a small amount of this fund because it is, to a certain extent, an SBF baby already.

So there's probably no other way for BlockFi but 6 feet below the ground.

2) Will force the government to get involved with regulating places like this, no more of someone running an exchange on a computer they they have in the basement of their parents house where they live. You want to handle other people money then prove you can handle it.

The regulation won't be funny on exchanges; the SEC have been observing the market for quite too long and it won't be new if they are prombted to pay a certain amount let's say $1trn before an exchange will be eligible to operate again. And they'll hover around their activities like helicopter parents do. They is always a way out of this, but from regulating exchanges it'll be simpler to regulate cryptocurrency.

I would echo o_e_l_e_o and agree that crypto exchanges should be regulated. It's certainly too much that they are an exchange and accept deposits only to be using the same funds for lending, trading, investment, acquisition of other businesses, and other risky ventures. Other than this, they could also issue any amount of tokens and make so much money out of thin air.

As I've always been saying, the crypto market badly needs regulation. Crypto projects are created left and right, solicit investments, and scam exit. Platforms are launched everywhere, accept deposit, and pull the rug. And these are the same people who do this over and over again. Imagine Do Kwon scamming people through Luna and then proceeded to create Luna 2.0.

DeFi has to be regulated as well. Crypto lending also. The same goes to all kinds of crypto platforms offering unsustainable investment designs. Many of them are plain Ponzis offering unbelievably high APYs.

Something isn't right! Something has to be done!

[o48o]

Check out FTX websites to see their publicly posted partners, shareholder and ambassadors like Major League Baseball, Tom Brady, Gisele Bundchen, Stephen Curry, Golden State Warriors, FTX Arena & Miami HEAT,
Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1, Naomi Osaka, Kevin O’Leary, Shaquille O'Neal, Trevor Lawrence, David Ortiz, Udonis Haslem... than you have Circle, TrueUSD, Paxos, Paradigm, Multicoin Capital, etc.
All this people and companies could be in big trouble now, and I am sure there are more companies like BlockFi out there... maybe stable coin problems are coming next.
https://ftx.us/our-partners
https://about.ftx.com/

If those haven't distanced themselves yet, they are about to. FTX is toxic now.
I would check their page but for some reason my access is denied, not 404, just denied with error code 1020.
Also some internet "isitdown" cheking services say it's down while others say it's up. Are europeans blocked out or something?

[Darker45]

~snip~

If those haven't distanced themselves yet, they are about to.

Too late now. I don't think they could just easily avoid trouble by distancing themselves just as the ship is sinking. Right now the popular names of Tom Brady, Stephen Curry, Shaquille O'neal, Naomi Osaka, David Ortiz, Larry David, and others are already included in investigations. Not only that, a class-action lawsuit was actually filed against them. These celebrity endorsers are accused of "misrepresentations and omissions," of being partly responsible for the billions of damages.^[1]

I would check their page but for some reason my access is denied, not 404, just denied with error code 1020.
Also some internet "isitdown" cheking services say it's down while others say it's up. Are europeans blocked out or something?

I'm from Asia. The same error here.

[1] https://thehill.com/homenews/3738057-tom-brady-other-celebrities-named-in-class-action-lawsuit-filed-against-cryptocurrency-exchange-ftx/

[Pmalek]

I'm from Asia. The same error here.

I don't think it's a geographical restriction. I tried to access the site without VPN - it didn't work. I tried with a EU VPN and Asian VPN - same thing. I tried with a US server, and the site still doesn't load in my browser. It's pretty safe to assume that it's down for everyone right now.

[DaveF]

It's down for me in the US, its giving a CloudFlare access denied which usually means that someone @ FTX or someone requested it to be taken down.
OR, they skipped out on a bill or 2 and since they have imploded someone at CloudFlare fifgured they were never getting paid so they pulled it.

The other thought is a massive hack and instead of throwing up a "back soon" page the IT staff, also knowing their jobs may or may not exist tomorrow just walked away.

In the end probably does not mater, it's not like you could pull your money out, all people could do was stare at numbers on a screen that we all now know are not real.

-Dave