QuadrigaCX Allegedly Traded Against Its Own Customers Without Assets To Back Them (ambcrypto.com)

geoskd writes: QuadrigaCX, the Canadian crypto exchange that made news recently with the passing of its CEO, Gerald Cotten, has been alleged to have been buying cryptocurrency from traders on its platform without having actual assets to perform the transactions. The transactions showed credit to the customers accounts, but when the customer tried to withdraw cash, they had to wait until other customers deposited cash before the funds became available. There is also an accusation that this behavior exists at many other crypto exchanges as well. Perhaps it is time to take a fresh look at Tether...

Comments

"Perhaps it is time to take a fresh look at..."

[DogDude]

No. Just stop. Really. Just stop.

Re:"Perhaps it is time to take a fresh look at..."

[Krishnoid]

I really hope these stories *do* continue. I'd like to find one of these middlemen willing to violate as many financial laws as possible, so general education gets into the news cycle as to why investment regulations exist in the first place.

In addition, it would be great if it covered how each of these violations is currently playing out nearly identically to the way it did at the time in history when/prompting enactment of these regulations. A few months of this and I think even the get-rich-quickers will understand the point.

Re:"Perhaps it is time to take a fresh look at..."

[arglebargle_xiv]

The transactions showed credit to the customers accounts, but when the customer tried to withdraw cash, they had to wait until other customers deposited cash before the funds became available. There is also an accusation that this behavior exists at many other crypto exchanges as well.

So you're saying they're just ordinary Ponzi schemes dressed up with fancy geekery? I'm shocked, shocked I tell you!

Re:"Perhaps it is time to take a fresh look at..."

[Guspaz]

Except your money in a bank account is protected by the CDIC (if you're in Canada, or the FDIC if you're in the US), and there are all sorts of regulations to make sure that banks have enough money on hand to cover withdrawals under normal circumstances.

Re:"Perhaps it is time to take a fresh look at..."

[sjames]

Exactly this! Many of the banking regulations were put into place in the wake of a disastrous series of bank failures during the depression. These include the FDIC and minimum reserve requirements. the depression era failures are where we get the stereotype of grandma or grandpa stuffing their money in the mattress.

Crypto currencies bypass those regulations, so it should be no surprise that some "bank like" institutions dealing in crypto currencies are no safer than the pre-regulation banks.

This SHOULD serve as a warning to the deregulate all the things crowd, but I doubt very much it will sink in.

Crypto is MLM

[mabu]

It amazes me that this Ponzi scheme is still ongoing. There's ample evidence of wash trading at all the major exchanges.

One of my favorite quotes on this is from the NYU economics professor who was famous for identifying the housing bubble, who also called out the crypto currency bubble in 2017, is asked again what he thinks of the crypto movement:

"I also have attended many of these crypto or blockchain conferences. I met some of these individuals, and I must say I’ve never seen in my life people who on one side are so arrogant in their views, who are total zealots and fanatics about this new asset class, while at the same time completely and totally ignorant of basic economics, finance, money, banking, central banking, monetary policy.

They want to reinvent everything about money, but most of them are absolutely totally clueless. The ratio between arrogant and ignorant is astounding — I have never seen such a gap in my life. These are fanatics. Some of them, like criminals, zealots, scammers, carnival barkers, insiders who are just talking their book 24/7.

There is an element of excess in every bubble, but the typical bubble is an outgrowth of some technological evolution that maybe changes the world for the better. The internet was in a bubble in the late 1990s, but it was a real thing but valuations of many internet-related stocks were sky-high. Prices crashed and dot-coms went bust, but the internet kept on growing. Billions of people used it, and it has changed the world. Cryptocurrency as a technology has absolutely no basis for success, and the mother of all bubbles is now bust.

Twitter and in-person interactions with the fans of cryptocurrencies made me stronger and more secure in my belief."

Re:Crypto is MLM

[mabu]

Well, in fairness, the early days of crypto currency treated crypto currency like an actual currency: having zero intrinsic value and mainly being a placeholder for goods and services that were exchanged. In fact the original premise of Bitcoin was as a micro-payment system of nominal value, allowing people to send tiny bits of pennies, that in aggregate would matter to third world countries and various charities, etc.

What we see now, is something completely different: the treatment of crypto as an investment security itself, which makes absolutely no sense because it has nothing tangible backing it up.

So the problem isn't with bitcoin as much as the perverse way people have now begun to use it, which is fundamentally different than how it was originally designed.

Now bitcoin (and all crypto) is basically a distributed money laundering system with a Ponzi scheme on top. There is no reason for anybody to be in this space unless they're a criminal, or want to engage in criminal-like behavior (such as profiting by exploiting others and not offering anything of real value in return).

Crypto and blockchain offer nothing to regular, ethical businesspeople. But they're like catnip to anarchists and narcissists.

Cryptocurrency value for money

[alvinrod]

I'm beginning to think that cryptocurrency is some of the best value you can get for your money. At least in terms of entertainment for the people who didn't invest in any of it. Maybe it will all eventually settle down and turn into a respectable currency, but right now you can't find a bigger shit show anywhere and it's utterly engrossing. We should at least require that all cryptocurrency algorithms do something useful like protein folding so that at least some good comes out of all of this idiocy.

Re:Fractional reserve

[jpaine619]

No. It's not the same. Your bank is earning interest on the money it loans out.. i.e. there is always some positive cash flow.. Well, assuming it's not 2008 and they aren't loaning gobs of money to assholes with a credit score of 400.

These morons were buying coins with money they did not have. If your bank runs out of cash, they make a phone call and have more delivered via armored truck. Your bank can also sell assets or loans to generate cash. i.e. they can sell real property or debt obligations that are backed by real property.

I feel like I shouldn't have to explain this. Gonna have to assume you're a product of our (USA) public school system and have never been taught financial responsibility and how the banking system actually works. Mostly this, probably, isn't your fault. Well, unless you're an adult.. Then you should have sought out the knowledge.. You can't be expected to be spoon fed every bit of information you need to navigate life.

Fiscal education should be absolutely mandatory.. Knowing how to manage your money and how the whole damn system works is information that is critical to a person's financial well being and stability.