Insane: Bitfinex exchange owner admits using insider information to trade

[NotHatinJustTrollin]

https://twitter.com/DoctorBitcoin/status/557526205709037568


The post was deleted on reddit but this guy saved it.



As always gentlemen, this is actually good news™

[N12]

What's the jurisdiction of this Potter guy? It's possible that he could get investigated (may or may not be illegal).

But it's good to see continued evidence of how criminal the exchanges are.

[zby]

I would assume they all do that. At some point MtGox was earning bitcoins and they had such amounts of them that it would be completely crazy to trade them on other exchanges.

[ronald98]

https://twitter.com/DoctorBitcoin/status/557526205709037568


The post was deleted on reddit but this guy saved it.



As always gentlemen, this is actually good news™

I copied it here for people at work who cannot view twitter.

[Q7]

Can somebody verify that? The reddit post was made in reference to another voice channel which I don't know where it can be found. But like pointed out by other users, doesn't this happen all the time?

[Hunyadi]

Can somebody verify that? The reddit post was made in reference to another voice channel which I don't know where it can be found. But like pointed out by other users, doesn't this happen all the time?

It's trolling. Phil said he buys and sells small amounts of btc around round numbers on his own exchange (so his partners can see what he is doing). He says, he is not actively trading.

[thresher]

Even if it is small amounts or not, it is still inexcusable (why would he admit that, fucking major bitcoin players seem to have no fucking common sense.)
We were holding above $200, and I was feeling good about it.........not anymore thanks to this dipshit. 

[cdlsrm]

https://twitter.com/DoctorBitcoin/status/557526205709037568


The post was deleted on reddit but this guy saved it.



As always gentlemen, this is actually good news™

The important thing is that he does not manipulate market, he just trades his own bitcoins. I dont get why buthurt about that.

[podyx]

LOL who gives a fuck
If I was him, I would redirect everybody that goes on bitfinex.com to this http://i2.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/140/872/5a0.jpg

[manselr]

I hate giving information to random people so they can sell it to third parties, thats why if I sell I use Local Bitcoins.

[mayax]

LOL who gives a fuck
If I was him, I would redirect everybody that goes on bitfinex.com to this http://i2.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/140/872/5a0.jpg

well, you are right in a way BUT these so called exchangers are posing as being fair and that they care about "Bitcoin". 

You can clearly see that all the big exchangers form a GANG and nothing more. Enjoy using them

[LiteCoinGuy]

of course there is insider trading. like in every market on earth too.

[alani123]

insider information to trade could mean a lot of things. This might not surprise many it it also wouldn't be surprising if he didn't get convicted over this.

[clownius]

To Play devils advocate here

That same info would be useful on any exchange he chose to trade on.  Is he forced to dump or escrow all BTC holdings and income because he has this access?

I would kinda prefer it be open and somewhere we can see it.  Maybe tag his trade somehow so people can see hes not front running or any such thing


P.S Also the title is misleading he admits having said access and trading on his own platform not using said info to decide when/what to trade

[Serpens66]

that does not surprise me.
The last news about bitfinex regarding a simular topic was, that they do arbitrage between bitfinex and other exchanges. It was a statement saying, that they stopped arbitrage, and that's why there are big price differences to bitstamp (it was ~ one year ago).
Don't know if they do still arbitrage.

[sangaman]

This has been addressed in the bitfinex thread and does not constitute insider trading at all IMO. Insider trading would be if bitfinex higher-ups traded in bitfinex stock, but that's not what's happening here. Bitcoins are fungible and are traded all over the place, there's not much difference between a Bitfinex admin trading on Bitfinex or on any other exchange.

If there were proof that bitfinex admins were front running or manipulating the trading engine to their own advantage, that would be a completely different story. But merely trading on their own exchange is a non-story as far as I'm concerned.

[mayax]

This has been addressed in the bitfinex thread and does not constitute insider trading at all IMO. Insider trading would be if bitfinex higher-ups traded in bitfinex stock, but that's not what's happening here. Bitcoins are fungible and are traded all over the place, there's not much difference between a Bitfinex admin trading on Bitfinex or on any other exchange.

If there were proof that bitfinex admins were front running or manipulating the trading engine to their own advantage, that would be a completely different story. But merely trading on their own exchange is a non-story as far as I'm concerned.

Please see here:

They are manipulating the trading engine to their own advantage.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=660948.0;all

http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/2t3p7f/xpost_from_rbitcoinmarkets_bitfinex_cso_phillip_g/

www.google.com/search?q=bitfinex+front+running+site:reddit.com

www.google.com/search?q=bitfinex+front+running+site:bitcointalk.org

[toddtervy]

Well the way the article read how do we know if it was true the spin they are putting on it.  Of course it is a possibility. 

[2dogs]

Not surprised by this at all.

This is still the wild west, and anything goes in an unregulated arena.

[sangaman]

This has been addressed in the bitfinex thread and does not constitute insider trading at all IMO. Insider trading would be if bitfinex higher-ups traded in bitfinex stock, but that's not what's happening here. Bitcoins are fungible and are traded all over the place, there's not much difference between a Bitfinex admin trading on Bitfinex or on any other exchange.

If there were proof that bitfinex admins were front running or manipulating the trading engine to their own advantage, that would be a completely different story. But merely trading on their own exchange is a non-story as far as I'm concerned.

Please see here:

They are manipulating the trading engine to their own advantage.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=660948.0;all

http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/2t3p7f/xpost_from_rbitcoinmarkets_bitfinex_cso_phillip_g/

www.google.com/search?q=bitfinex+front+running+site:reddit.com

www.google.com/search?q=bitfinex+front+running+site:bitcointalk.org

Where is there any evidence that they are manipulating the trading engine? The first link looks unrelated to this, it talks about short squeezes. I don't know the details there but I do know this is a possibility when the price moves sharply and someone's margin position automatically is closed. The second link is the same thing as what's posted in the OP, and again that's an admission of an exchange admin trading on his own site (fine IMO) and not an admission of manipulation or front-running (not fine). The rest are google searches for which the top few hits link to the same reddit threads, I'm not going to dig through those. Anyway I've shared my opinion and unless there's evidence of actual manipulation then I think that's all there is to see here.