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Bitfinex got hacked for 119,756 BTC last year, and Tether got hacked for $30 mil today. Both are owned by iFinex LTD, and had the same CEO till earlier this ye

Bitfinex got hacked for 119,756 BTC last year, and Tether got hacked for $30 mil today. Both are owned by iFinex LTD, and had the same CEO till earlier this year. Total amount they have lost comes out to $1 Billion. How are you still claiming "They may not be"?

darawk 9y ago
I was a Bitfinex customer when they got hacked. I lost 30% of my funds on that day. I couldn't be happier with how they handled it. They paid me back in full and did the best they could with the situation they had. People being upset with them over it is insane to me. As far as I can tell, it's mostly people who had nothing to do with it spectating from the sidelines. If an exchange you use ever gets hacked, I certainly hope they do exactly what Bitfinex did, for your sake. And you should too.
- ActsJuvenile 9y ago
  Only a shill would claim to be happy with a 30% haircut scenario. Flagged.
  - simias 9y ago
    They said "They paid me back in full" so I assume he did not lose the 30% in the end? Admittedly I'm not sure I understand what they mean. I also wish that "everybody I disagree with is a shill" meme stayed in 4chan and reddit, it's incompatible with reasonable discussion.
    - darawk 9y ago
      What I mean is that when the hack occurred I lost 30% of my funds. However, I received BFX tokens equivalent to the amount I lost. Eventually, as Bitfinex continued operating and accumulating fees from operations, they paid me back 1:1 USD for BFX tokens they had given me as debt. So, I did lose the time-value of that money (they didn't pay me interest on it), and I didn't get paid back in Bitcoin or Ethereum, which would have been more money, but i'm still very happy with how they handled it. I think it was the most reasonable and honest solution to the problem that they had available to them at the time.
  - jstanley 9y ago
    Only a shill would claim that what happened was a 30% haircut...
  - sctb 9y ago
    Do you mind not posting comments that the guidelines clearly ask us not to? > Don't accuse others of astroturfing or shillage. Email us and we'll look into it. > Don't feed egregious comments by replying; flag them instead. When you flag something, please don't also comment that you did. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
mrb 9y ago
Bitfinex already fully financially recovered from the 119k BTC theft by repurchasing the last of the BFX debt tokens a few months ago.
- iamthirsty 9y ago
  ...with suspiciously issued Tethers, which is kinda the whole point here.
  - mrb 9y ago
    But it doesn't matter. From a legal aspect, customers who accepted to sell their BFX tokens are no longer creditors to Bitfinex.
- troc 9y ago
  and those tokens were traded at how many pennies to the dollar ?
  - darawk 9y ago
    They were redeemed by Bitfinex at full face value.
bitreality 9y ago
At the time Bitfinex was hacked, they automatically converted the "hacked" BTC balance to USD. It was around $650 I believe at the time of the hack. It would be unfair to measure the hack in today's BTC value because they converted the liability in customers' accounts in USD.
- joosters 9y ago
  Tell that to the Mt Gox account holders... they don't seem too happy that their BTC claims have been converted to JP¥
  - darawk 9y ago
    They were plenty happy with it when BTC was crashing. People just like to whine. Converting to JPY in MtGox's case and USD in Bitfinex's case was the reasonable thing to do. Denominating massive debts in cryptocurrency is an insane thing in a market this young and volatile.
    - makomk 9y ago
      I don't think this was terribly good for them when bitcoin was crashing either, because it still ate into the amount they'd get paid out since the underlying assets were still partially in bitcoins. The bankruptcy trustee basically gave Mark Karpeles free options on bitcoin with all the customers he'd screwed over as forced counterparties.

darawk 9y ago

I was a Bitfinex customer when they got hacked. I lost 30% of my funds on that day. I couldn't be happier with how they handled it. They paid me back in full and did the best they could with the situation they had. People being upset with them over it is insane to me. As far as I can tell, it's mostly people who had nothing to do with it spectating from the sidelines. If an exchange you use ever gets hacked, I certainly hope they do exactly what Bitfinex did, for your sake. And you should too.

ActsJuvenile 9y ago
Only a shill would claim to be happy with a 30% haircut scenario. Flagged.
- simias 9y ago
  They said "They paid me back in full" so I assume he did not lose the 30% in the end? Admittedly I'm not sure I understand what they mean. I also wish that "everybody I disagree with is a shill" meme stayed in 4chan and reddit, it's incompatible with reasonable discussion.
  - darawk 9y ago
    What I mean is that when the hack occurred I lost 30% of my funds. However, I received BFX tokens equivalent to the amount I lost. Eventually, as Bitfinex continued operating and accumulating fees from operations, they paid me back 1:1 USD for BFX tokens they had given me as debt. So, I did lose the time-value of that money (they didn't pay me interest on it), and I didn't get paid back in Bitcoin or Ethereum, which would have been more money, but i'm still very happy with how they handled it. I think it was the most reasonable and honest solution to the problem that they had available to them at the time.
- jstanley 9y ago
  Only a shill would claim that what happened was a 30% haircut...
- sctb 9y ago
  Do you mind not posting comments that the guidelines clearly ask us not to? > Don't accuse others of astroturfing or shillage. Email us and we'll look into it. > Don't feed egregious comments by replying; flag them instead. When you flag something, please don't also comment that you did. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

mrb 9y ago

Bitfinex already fully financially recovered from the 119k BTC theft by repurchasing the last of the BFX debt tokens a few months ago.

iamthirsty 9y ago
...with suspiciously issued Tethers, which is kinda the whole point here.
- mrb 9y ago
  But it doesn't matter. From a legal aspect, customers who accepted to sell their BFX tokens are no longer creditors to Bitfinex.
troc 9y ago
and those tokens were traded at how many pennies to the dollar ?
- darawk 9y ago
  They were redeemed by Bitfinex at full face value.

bitreality 9y ago

At the time Bitfinex was hacked, they automatically converted the "hacked" BTC balance to USD. It was around $650 I believe at the time of the hack. It would be unfair to measure the hack in today's BTC value because they converted the liability in customers' accounts in USD.

joosters 9y ago
Tell that to the Mt Gox account holders... they don't seem too happy that their BTC claims have been converted to JP¥
- darawk 9y ago
  They were plenty happy with it when BTC was crashing. People just like to whine. Converting to JPY in MtGox's case and USD in Bitfinex's case was the reasonable thing to do. Denominating massive debts in cryptocurrency is an insane thing in a market this young and volatile.
  - makomk 9y ago
    I don't think this was terribly good for them when bitcoin was crashing either, because it still ate into the amount they'd get paid out since the underlying assets were still partially in bitcoins. The bankruptcy trustee basically gave Mark Karpeles free options on bitcoin with all the customers he'd screwed over as forced counterparties.