<story><title>Bitfinex never ‘repaid’ their tokens, they started a ponzi scheme</title><url>https://medium.com/@bitfinexed/bitfinex-never-repaid-their-tokens-bitfinex-started-a-ponzi-scheme-86a9291add29</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>thisisit</author><text>Reading this article made me wonder - how much of the bitcoin rally is due to counterparty risks?&lt;p&gt;If I remember correctly the last ramp up happened during Mt. Gox era. They were having USD withdrawal issues which resulted in BTC prices being very high on the exchange. But it din&amp;#x27;t deter them from publishing prices and making markets.&lt;p&gt;Now is the case of Bitfinex suffered from a hack like Mt. Gox and are trying to stay afloat. As per coinmarketcap, has nearly 15% of bitcoin volume which is pretty high to ensure market follows in-step to their market making. A quick search on Google turns up pages of people asking about Bitfinex withdrawals.&lt;p&gt;For people who are curious about this, there was an article yesterday about Zimbabwean Bitcoin soaring to 12k USD, which obviously hinges a lot on counterparty risks and resulting low liquidity:
&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=15627608&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=15627608&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>panarky</author><text>If this was true then you&amp;#x27;d expect the exchange rate on Bitfinex to be much higher than other exchanges.&lt;p&gt;If you can&amp;#x27;t get USD out of Bitfinex, you&amp;#x27;d buy BTC and withdraw, pushing the exchange rate up on Bitfinex. Then you&amp;#x27;d sell the BTC on another exchange, pushing the exchange rate down there.&lt;p&gt;We&amp;#x27;re not seeing that: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;imgur.com&amp;#x2F;a&amp;#x2F;2vxV7&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;imgur.com&amp;#x2F;a&amp;#x2F;2vxV7&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Bitfinex never ‘repaid’ their tokens, they started a ponzi scheme</title><url>https://medium.com/@bitfinexed/bitfinex-never-repaid-their-tokens-bitfinex-started-a-ponzi-scheme-86a9291add29</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>thisisit</author><text>Reading this article made me wonder - how much of the bitcoin rally is due to counterparty risks?&lt;p&gt;If I remember correctly the last ramp up happened during Mt. Gox era. They were having USD withdrawal issues which resulted in BTC prices being very high on the exchange. But it din&amp;#x27;t deter them from publishing prices and making markets.&lt;p&gt;Now is the case of Bitfinex suffered from a hack like Mt. Gox and are trying to stay afloat. As per coinmarketcap, has nearly 15% of bitcoin volume which is pretty high to ensure market follows in-step to their market making. A quick search on Google turns up pages of people asking about Bitfinex withdrawals.&lt;p&gt;For people who are curious about this, there was an article yesterday about Zimbabwean Bitcoin soaring to 12k USD, which obviously hinges a lot on counterparty risks and resulting low liquidity:
&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=15627608&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=15627608&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>al_chemist</author><text>&amp;gt; Now is the case of Bitfinex suffered from a hack like Mt. Gox and are trying to stay afloat.&lt;p&gt;They were hacked few years ago.</text></comment>