7 ms·

I had recently remembered that I used Binance to purchase $100 worth of XRP in 2017 (around the time everyone was jumping on the crypto wagon), so I decided to

I had recently remembered that I used Binance to purchase $100 worth of XRP in 2017 (around the time everyone was jumping on the crypto wagon), so I decided to try to log in to see how my investment was going. This is when I found out Binance no longer allowed US investors, and I was redirected to a US site (Binance.us). The problem was my account was on Binance.com, and it was not migrated in anyway to this new US site. I contacted support and they gave me a 7 day period to log in and withdraw my funds (which in itself is weird -- why not just migrate my account to the US site; why the sketchy, arbitrary 7 day period? whatever). I was finally able to log in! And I saw that my $100 investment had (unsurprisingly) turned into $17. I chuckled and tried to get my 17 bucks out anyway, only to find that the site no longer even offers a way to withdraw funds as an American! This whole experience that spanned maybe an hour was hilarious. I've resigned to the fact that I was scammed out of a hundred bucks. Woulda been nice to use that to buy a few games on Steam, but oh well, here we are. Hope this tale at least amuses or informs someone.

Lionga 4y ago
You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave in the Hotel of Binance
darkwizard42 4y ago
You can withdraw your money by moving it to a Binance US wallet or honestly any other wallet (including one on Coinbase) and withdraw from there in USD. I’m not sure where you missed this in your exploration. I went through this recently as well.
- hartator 4y ago
  Maybe it's not worth to give away all your data again to maybe get $17?
- toastercat 4y ago
  I did consider that, and at first tried to, but then it asked me to verify my identity. Which I had done already years ago. I frankly did not feel like going through all the trouble of uploading my drivers license/supporting documents for $17. Maybe I'll try again before the 7 days is up? IDK it's the week of Christmas.
smabie 4y ago
Can't withdraw funds as an American? This is factually not true
- toastercat 4y ago
  The only way I could see was transferring it to some Euro banks or e-cash services I do not possess. In the withdrawal process, I could not even designate my country as "USA". That or transferring to another coin wallet, but that also required me going through the identification process again (which I had already done in 2017). I did not feel like going down the rabbithole of research/contact support/waiting for $17. I'm lucky enough that I make more than $17 an hour, and I also value my time more than that.
raffraffraff 4y ago
Your % loss in crypto value for that period is almost exactly the same as mine, even though I didn't have any XRP and "spread my investment" over 4 different cryptocurrencies. Thankfully my "investment" was low enough to walk away from. It was basically an experiment. Glad I did it. Now I know. Of course my wife told me it was a ponzi scheme from the start, and was completely right. The real combined value of all the crypto in the universe is zero. The market just hasn't corrected itself yet.
- thatguy0900 4y ago
  As long as you can buy illegal stuff online with it it isn't zero. There's real value in that, to some at least.
  - meepmorp 4y ago
    The real treasure was the German amphetamine paste we bought along the way
    - sizzle 4y ago
      Wow never heard of a paste, got any more info so I can learn more about it?
      - science4sail 4y ago
        Pervitin was believed to be used by the Nazis during WW2 as a combat stimulant. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_policy_of_Nazi_Germany?wprov=sfla1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_policy_of_Nazi_Germany?wp...
  - dumbfoundded 4y ago
    It's the dumbest technology to try to buy illegal stuff now. Most coins have touched an exchange and everything you do is public. Once deanonymized, it's the opposite of private. Monero & Zcash are exceptions and the only parts of crypto I'm bullish about (including some new upcoming chains like Ironfish & Aleo). I think private p2p cash has a lot of value. BTC & ETH are the opposite of private.
lebed2045 4y ago
Lucky you. I deposited a bunch on ethers in 2017/18 and wasn’t being able to withdraw anything since. They claim my passport isn’t enough, so I couldn’t withdraw the same money I deposited to the same address. After several weeks of attempts I gave up and call it a loss. So, saying it out loud: Binance had scammed me. Happy to jump of public debate about it on Twitter(same nickname).
- sy7ar 4y ago
  - lebed2045 4y ago
    Well, this is a problem. As a little man who shared a personal story - there’s no way people on internet can believe me over all mighty Binance. But this is my story, Binance took my deposit and never gave it back. Although I have no influence whatsoever, there are still a few hundred people from the blockchain industry whom I met over a years on hackathons and conferences. Perhaps we might have friends/contacts in common https://twitter.com/lebed2045 https://twitter.com/lebed2045? via whom happy share all details. What’s my motivation to lie? when if this story even get attention (that is unlikely) - binance would always able to disprove it by sending tx proofs that they sent money back or never took in the first place?
- lebed2045 4y ago
  This is bizarre. There was a reply to this comment from of person who claimed there’s something wrong with me, and when I reply to it with my contacts. Now I don’t see any of this comments. So if the parent comment is deleted- so all replies to it as well?
  - mlyle 4y ago
    It's right there next to your comment, flagged and collapsed by default. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34082481 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34082481
  - salawat 4y ago
robotnikman 4y ago
I don't even think you can even withdraw XRP anymore from any exchange due to the whole SEC investigation thing. At least that's what I experienced when I tried last year.
starwind 4y ago
Crypto is def the future
chakintosh 4y ago
Bag holder lol
yunohn 4y ago
They actually did the same in NL, when they ran afoul of regulations here. I had to transfer to Coinbase to cash out.
sizzle 4y ago
How much would $100 worth of BTC be worth today?
- npc12345 4y ago
  [dead]

Lionga 4y ago

You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave in the Hotel of Binance

darkwizard42 4y ago

You can withdraw your money by moving it to a Binance US wallet or honestly any other wallet (including one on Coinbase) and withdraw from there in USD. I’m not sure where you missed this in your exploration. I went through this recently as well.

hartator 4y ago
Maybe it's not worth to give away all your data again to maybe get $17?
toastercat 4y ago
I did consider that, and at first tried to, but then it asked me to verify my identity. Which I had done already years ago. I frankly did not feel like going through all the trouble of uploading my drivers license/supporting documents for $17. Maybe I'll try again before the 7 days is up? IDK it's the week of Christmas.

smabie 4y ago

Can't withdraw funds as an American? This is factually not true

toastercat 4y ago
The only way I could see was transferring it to some Euro banks or e-cash services I do not possess. In the withdrawal process, I could not even designate my country as "USA". That or transferring to another coin wallet, but that also required me going through the identification process again (which I had already done in 2017). I did not feel like going down the rabbithole of research/contact support/waiting for $17. I'm lucky enough that I make more than $17 an hour, and I also value my time more than that.

raffraffraff 4y ago

Your % loss in crypto value for that period is almost exactly the same as mine, even though I didn't have any XRP and "spread my investment" over 4 different cryptocurrencies. Thankfully my "investment" was low enough to walk away from. It was basically an experiment. Glad I did it. Now I know. Of course my wife told me it was a ponzi scheme from the start, and was completely right. The real combined value of all the crypto in the universe is zero. The market just hasn't corrected itself yet.

thatguy0900 4y ago
As long as you can buy illegal stuff online with it it isn't zero. There's real value in that, to some at least.
- meepmorp 4y ago
  The real treasure was the German amphetamine paste we bought along the way
  - sizzle 4y ago
    Wow never heard of a paste, got any more info so I can learn more about it?
    - science4sail 4y ago
      Pervitin was believed to be used by the Nazis during WW2 as a combat stimulant. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_policy_of_Nazi_Germany?wprov=sfla1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_policy_of_Nazi_Germany?wp...
- dumbfoundded 4y ago
  It's the dumbest technology to try to buy illegal stuff now. Most coins have touched an exchange and everything you do is public. Once deanonymized, it's the opposite of private. Monero & Zcash are exceptions and the only parts of crypto I'm bullish about (including some new upcoming chains like Ironfish & Aleo). I think private p2p cash has a lot of value. BTC & ETH are the opposite of private.

lebed2045 4y ago

Lucky you. I deposited a bunch on ethers in 2017/18 and wasn’t being able to withdraw anything since. They claim my passport isn’t enough, so I couldn’t withdraw the same money I deposited to the same address. After several weeks of attempts I gave up and call it a loss. So, saying it out loud: Binance had scammed me. Happy to jump of public debate about it on Twitter(same nickname).

sy7ar 4y ago
- lebed2045 4y ago
  Well, this is a problem. As a little man who shared a personal story - there’s no way people on internet can believe me over all mighty Binance. But this is my story, Binance took my deposit and never gave it back. Although I have no influence whatsoever, there are still a few hundred people from the blockchain industry whom I met over a years on hackathons and conferences. Perhaps we might have friends/contacts in common https://twitter.com/lebed2045 https://twitter.com/lebed2045? via whom happy share all details. What’s my motivation to lie? when if this story even get attention (that is unlikely) - binance would always able to disprove it by sending tx proofs that they sent money back or never took in the first place?
lebed2045 4y ago
This is bizarre. There was a reply to this comment from of person who claimed there’s something wrong with me, and when I reply to it with my contacts. Now I don’t see any of this comments. So if the parent comment is deleted- so all replies to it as well?
- mlyle 4y ago
  It's right there next to your comment, flagged and collapsed by default. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34082481 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34082481
- salawat 4y ago

robotnikman 4y ago

I don't even think you can even withdraw XRP anymore from any exchange due to the whole SEC investigation thing. At least that's what I experienced when I tried last year.

starwind 4y ago

Crypto is def the future

chakintosh 4y ago

Bag holder lol

yunohn 4y ago

They actually did the same in NL, when they ran afoul of regulations here. I had to transfer to Coinbase to cash out.

sizzle 4y ago

How much would $100 worth of BTC be worth today?

npc12345 4y ago
[dead]