It can be difficult to talk about Tether, not because there is disagreement on the essential facts, but due to the lens through which these facts are viewed. The skeptics and critics find it unacceptable that these businesses would give over $1 billion to money launderers and NEVER SIGN A CONTRACT. The traders find that … Continue reading Tether and Bitfinex are Unacceptable: The Fundamental Divide
https://tether.to/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/TetherWhitePaper.pdf Tether Releases Asset Breakdown I wrote up my thoughts on it here. https://bennettftomlin.com/2021/05/13/for-every-1-of-tether-there-are-0-03-in-cash/ Cas Piancey and I also did a podcast episode on it: https://bennettftomlin.com/2021/05/15/new-episode-of-tether-a-stable-discussion-with-cas-piancey-tethers-pie-charts/ David Gerard wrote up his and seems to have trouble determining what a 'reverse repo note' might be: https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/2021/05/13/tether-publishes-two-pie-charts-of-its-reserves/ http://web.archive.org/web/20210513214721/https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/2021/05/13/tether-publishes-two-pie-charts-of-its-reserves/ Amy Castor (archive) also wrote up her thoughts on … Continue reading Sunday Reads – Links I Found Interesting 2021-05-16
Episode One Episode Two Episode Three https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgYiujCUI_o My co-author and friend Cas Piancey and I got together to discuss the recent pie charts released by Tether. You can find the discussion of it here: AnchorSpotifyOvercastAppleRSS Feed You can find my article on this topic here: https://bennettftomlin.com/2021/05/13/for-every-1-of-tether-there-are-0-03-in-cash/ And Cas' here: https://protos.com/tether-pie-chart-usdt-dollar-pegged-crypto-stablecoin-dollar-value/
Note: An earlier version of this article contained a version of this diagram with a minor typo. Acknowledgements: I would not have been able to complete this as thoroughly as I did without building off existing work. It needs to be pointed out that years ago u/SpeedflyChris (archive) pointed out these same connections. I also … Continue reading The 2015 Bitstamp, 2015 Bitfinex, and 2017 Tether Hacks are Connected
Tether has released a brand new attestation (archive) (my copy) showing that they are fully backed! Well, it shows that for at least one entire minute Tether was fully backed. Moore Cayman, an auditing firm in the Cayman Islands, has provided an assurance opinion on the current reserves of Tether. I am going to highlight … Continue reading Tether’s New Attestation: Thanks For Nothing
Cas Piancey and Bennett Tomlin discuss the history of Bitfinex and Tether and their struggles with solvency
Cas Piancey and Bennett Tomlin discuss the early history of Bitfinex and Tether
I have been pursuing frauds for the last several years. I love it. However, it can be emotionally taxing to work on this kind of project. First, the entire time you are researching a fraud you feel special. It feels as though you have chanced upon forbidden knowledge, and that feeling is compelling. It can … Continue reading The Emotional Experience of Pursuing Frauds
If you spend any significant amount of time on crypto twitter, especially as a contrarian or a skeptic, you will inevitably come across accounts that seem less than genuine. These bots, sock puppets, or intelligence deficient accounts are a nuisance, but their role in crypto is more complex than their limited speech will convey. Often … Continue reading Sockpuppets, Bots, and Crypto: Oh My!
UPDATE: I MAKE THE CLAIM THAT BITFINEX LIED ABOUT OWNING TETHER, THIS IS TRUE BUT I WANTED TO PROVIDE ADDITIONAL CONTEXT HERE Recently I was asked to do a guest lecture on Bitfinex and Tether. You can find it here: https://whu.cloud.panopto.eu/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?tid=f0fca2e9-f79e-4f81-b659-acd30078104e YouTube version: https://youtu.be/jGl6XKv4k0E My uploaded version: You can find the slides here. You can … Continue reading Guest Lecture at WHU – An Introduction to Bitfinex and Tether