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> Nobody is prepared for a bank run, that would be idiotic. It would mean storing strictly only liquid assets. Binance is a broker, not a bank. A bank run on a
by c7b 4y ago
> Nobody is prepared for a bank run, that would be idiotic. It would mean storing strictly only liquid assets.
Binance is a broker, not a bank. A bank run on a broker simply shouldn't be possible. A broker is supposed to hold whatever the customers want to hold on their behalf (in so-called segregated accounts, so that the assets belong to the users, even if the broker should go bankrupt). If the users want to withdraw, you just give them whatever you were holding on their behalf.
A broker is not supposed to invest users' funds into something else. If you're acting honestly as a broker, there can't be a mismatch between users' deposits and their assets. Don't fall for this nonsense touted by SBF, the problem is that they are acting dishonestly (and cluelessly, it seems), not that there was any sort of unfortunate liquidity crisis or whatever.
- Galanwe 4y agoHolding does not mean holding _now immediately liquid assets_. For the 10000th time: no single broker has ever been instantaneously liquid.
- hef19898 4y agoSure, but they are solvent enough, aren't they? Curious, if banks screw up and ruin customers nobody is out there defending traditional banking. Still, there are people defending SBF, FTX and Binance. Not sure how Binance will do, but it doesn't look good, does it?
- c7b 4y ago> Holding does not mean holding _now immediately liquid assets_ What do you mean by liquid? USDC is an ERC-20 token on Ethereum. 'Holding' it means having the private key to a wallet that has been credited with a positive balance in the smart contract. Transferring it is as easy as calling the transfer(address to, uint amount) function from that wallet - you'll have to charge the user for the transaction fee, but that's fair game. According to CZ's tweet, they don't actually hold USDC on behalf of the users, but they try to buy them on the market when users request withdrawals, which is simply not how a broker is supposed to act, and a recipe for disaster. Stop defending this practice.
- Ntrails 4y ago> no single broker has ever been instantaneously liquid. Really? If Vanguard had to transfer all of my cash and all of my ETF holdings to directly and everyone elses too I would expect that to be zero hassle for them bar the likely collapse of their future business.
- Galanwe 4y agoGo ahead then. Log in to your Vanguard account, withdraw everything, sell your ETFs, and tell me when the funds are wired in your bank account.