I've never understood why there is such blind faith in Tether, even after that fake audit in July... Don't pretend to be an expert but it seems like a massive scam. Someone has to be the bagholder or the whole peg will completely implode as we see a much larger run than what happened this morning.

As someone that's largely an outsider I feel like I missing the obvious arbitrage opportunity for people here.

If Bitfinex was legit and working properly, how is someone with a ton of capital not buying BTC on another exchange and moving it over to sell it.

Call me cynical, but my guess is either that Bifinex is in fact not on the up and up, and/or the crypto market is considerably less liquid than most seem to think.

Either way, their shutting down USDT withdrawals this morning for Cold wallet maintenance just came at about the worst possible time if the goal is avoiding the appearance of impropriety.

I don't think there is an arbitrage opportunity. The premium on Bitfinex is Bitcoin->Tether, not Bitcoin->US Dollars.

Mt Gox was an exchange that was hacked multiple times and was insolvent. Bitfinex has shown they aren’t insolvent and bitmex research has shown strong evidence tether is backed 1 to 1. The situation is completely different.

What a crazy day today.

I actually think there were good arb spots today, something like 6300 on coinbase pro (formerly gdax) and 6700 on binance. Would have had to move btc into something else like ETH, BCH, ect...

Also how in the **** is tether back to basically even?

Because bitfinex is solvent and the people spreading fear have no solid evidence that bitfinex isn’t solvent and tether isn’t backed 1 to 1.

Market trying to be efficient..

Usdtusd~ 0.96
Btc usdt 6700

6700* 0.96 = btcusd price


this is why there was a dislocation last night where tether was trading around 0.85 and premium on tether exchanges for BTC skyrocketed. But its really just an illusion because at the time tether was not valued at 1:1.

only way to sell usdt on exchanges is to buy btc and alts.

Back down to .96. Swongs

Tether missed the ultimate arb opportunity. Buy up cheap tethers last night at $.85 per, then return them to the treasury at a profit of 15 cents per tether returned. Once this little FUD blip passes, it's all good.

Since each tether is backed by one dollar held in reserve, this can be done until demand dries up. Free moniez.

There is no evidence either way and as pointed out bitfinex can make a killing buying tether at below 1.00
if tether is 100% backed but failed to do so.

its not an easy arb.


AFAIK there are only a few select firms that actually have the ability to withdraw. I was told this information 2nd hand idk if its true at all. A normal guy who AMLKYCs himself won't be able to withdraw... then again, the only folks who are buying tether rn through the treasury are in SE asia and do so knowing that there is no withdrawals of fiat.

it was not a fake audit.


Simply put, no one wants to audit any crypto companies right now because of risks associated with actually saying that any of these companies books' are true. BFX had hired a relatively well known firm and they backed out eventually because of the complexity involved (e.g. setting up nodes, understanding private keys) and political risks (when it became known what firm was auditing BFX, the amount of hate campaigning that spewed on twitter was insane) of saying that their books were fully balanced and clean.

I'm sorry, I realize sarcasm doesn't transfer well in text sometimes, but that was the point.

They (Tether) did not do it because there is no there there. They don't allow returns to cash via their portal and essentially only one place allows a USDT-USD pair Kraken, it takes a ridiculous fee to do it, and to the shock of absolutely no one, the is essentially zero liquidity because next to no one wants Tethers.

USDT @ .94 currently for anyone interested

Can you explain the bolded? What risks do I face if RT Services gets a chances to audit Bitfinex/Tether's books and verify that their assets cover their liabilities that dont exist for any other kind of audit?

They have cold and hot wallets and their previous bank was revealed. Do some research before commenting.

I did enough research on Tether to know there was no actual audit and anything else was just claims of accounts that could have been owned by anybody. Tether trading for less than 1.00 is already strange if it is fully backed trading at .94 or lower is insane. You understand that the company that issued tether makes free money for every tether it buys back for less than 1.00 right?

I was one of the guys who shrugged of any potential tether issues in the past. After yesterday and looking at arguments by the pro and anti tether guys i decided i
A) wont leave as much money in tether as i did in the past
B) drastically reduce holdings on finex

Might be genius, might be stupid but i treat this fiasko yday as a warning shot...

Tether dropping that low could just be fud and incompetence on the side of bitfinex and the other parties involved but the longer tether stays below .98 the more likely it is that there are actual issues.

Rationally, tether should always trade at least a tiny percentage below 1, right?. There's always a risk of something happening, even if they are solvent now.

Tether risks:

1. All of the USDT is backed 1:1 by USD. They are unable to process transfers. BFX is now openly admitting their inability to secure a banking partner. Their only option is to continue shifting money around without consent, in a game of cat-and -mouse. As long as the transfer demand does not overwhelm this ability things work.

2. All of the USDT is backed by *assets*. Instead of transferring BFX USD to the BFX USDT reserve account when issuing Tether, they could simply back it with crypto. The benefits are:

-USD remains available to fund expenses, salaries, acquisitions, losses, etc

-An increase in the value of the backing crypto assets creates a freeroll. They capture the upside of price movement.

This breaks down when redemption demands cannot be met by the USD value of the backing assets. There needs to be enough USD coming into the system to allow these backing assets to be converted for payouts.

3. All USDT is not backed by assets. Here they could simply issue USDT without moving USD into a reserve account. They could also juggle the accounting by backing USDT with future revenue tokens, or equity, or whatever. As long as redemptions do not exceed a certain level this works. They can operate fractionally indefinitely.

BFX team are trash, they openly scammed everyone during the 'hack'. They have proven lol backgrounds (supporting trivially obvious ponzi schemes, pirating Mircorsoft software on a commercial scale, etc). Their method of response by casting themselves as persecuted, attacking customers, etc says a lot.

People who claim BFX is fully backed either have an agenda/can't model reality. Knowing this fact requires BFX opening their books up, since they have to keep quiet about their banking to avoid losing it, they are never going to do this. This doesn't mean they aren't backed, it just means this knowledge isn't available.

There is not going to be a reputable audit. There is no reason for a legitimate firm to take the reputational risk of certifying something like BFX.

The most likely outcome here is that fiat payments start moving again, the spread closes and the system continues to work.

Your research is seems to be reading r/cryptocurrency and bitfinexed. Bitfinex/tether are probably fudding themselves to usdt themselves and laugh at the guys who sold at 90c. The reason for the spread is that the market is obviously dumping faster than people can arb.

At least I am open to both possibilities while you blindly believe bitfinex without proof.

I have done my research and its crystal clear bitfinex isn't insolvent. This can be proven on a blockchain explorer easily. Quite a lot of smart people in the space have pointed to solid evidence showing tether is backed 1 to 1 and bitfinex themselves are making huge profits from both tether and cryptocurrency trading. I'm open to the possibility tether implodes due to the US govt shutting bitfinex down but that isn't what you've been arguing.

Why don't you share your research? I check up on a lot of things in this space, and even if I think they are most likely solvent, I in no way think it's crystal clear. How can their fiat balances be proven on a blockchain explorer, or do you mean that their solvency depends on something other than their USD backing of Tether?