Skip to content

0:00 / 0:00

#tether #stablecoin #bitfinex

Exposing Tether - Bitcoin's Biggest Secret

4.7M subscribers • 2 videos on Hallway

Recommended by 7 people: 7 on Hacker News.
A classic. People kept recommending it from 2021 to 2025.
Presented by Coffeezilla
An opinion. It argues one side of a question engineers disagree on.

Beginner. No background in the topic needed.

4.6M views5 years ago7 recommendations

Security History and culture Cryptography The tech industry

Coffeezilla investigates the history of Tether, examining the reserves backing the stablecoin and the controversies surrounding its founders.

A short history of the world's most controversial cryptocurrency: Tether Tether is a stablecoin cryptocurrency with tokens issued by Tether Limited, which in turn is controlled by the owners of Bitfinex. Many people have accused Tether of being fraudulent, but until now, the story has been told in pieces. Today I'm trying to tell a comprehensive story of tether. I hope you enjoy. Follow Coffeezilla ► Twitter: twitter.com/coffeebreak_YT ► Instagram: instagram.com/coffeebreak_yt/ 🎶 Music: youtube.com/watch?v=nMSQ1yoPT2c&list=PL4qw3AkxFDSNhEgawXD1j6… This video is an opinion and in no way should be construed as statements of fact. Scams, bad business opportunities, and fake gurus are subjective terms that mean different things to different people. I think someone who promises $100K/month for an upfront fee of $2K is a scam. Others would call it a Napoleon Hill pitch. #tether #crypto #Bitcoin

Why it's here

7 people recommend this, 1 disputes it

What people say. Recommended as a comprehensive and entertaining breakdown of the controversies and risks surrounding Tether.

paulgbon Hacker News • 5 years agoRecommends

On “Legal expert says Tether and Binance Coin are likely picks for SEC lawsuit”

A YouTuber called Coffeezilla had an entertaining video yesterday that I think is one of the most comprehensive (and entertaining) takes on this. It's pretty damning when you look at all the evidence together. link to this video Even in the off-chance that people with a track record of lying about being backed have suddenly gone legitimate, it's a pretty big indictment of the system that it could grow to the size it did while looking incredibly like a scam .

View on Hacker News

_fat_santaon Hacker News • 5 years agoRecommends

On “Legal expert says Tether and Binance Coin are likely picks for SEC lawsuit”

Saw a really good YT video1 on Tether yesterday. Breaks down all the sketchiness. But the problem he mentions in the video is a problem with pretty much all stablecoins, in order to function you must have the proper reserves before generating a token, but inevatably greed kicks in and you start thinking what if you minted coins without the backing. USD pegged stablecoins are basically money printing machines in the hands of whoever runs the project. 1: link to this video

View on Hacker News

santamexon Hacker News • 5 years agoRecommends

On “Tether executives said to face criminal probe into bank fraud”

This one explains the Tether scam quite nice: link to this video Edit: summary: 8 people founding the tether company, 7 of them with a criminal background. Lying and denying and then admitting after they have no other option. Yeah, seems like a nice company…

View on Hacker News

arcticbullon Hacker News • 5 years agoRecommends

On “Tether executives said to face criminal probe into bank fraud”

I highly recommend the first five Cas Piancey and Bennett Tomlin podcasts 1 and the (albit a little bit dated) Kalzumeus post 2. I also really enjoyed the Calacanis podcast with Bitfinex'ed 3 and the Coffeezilla 4. 1 link 2 link 3 link 4 link to this video

View on Hacker News

yadaenoon Hacker News • 5 years agoRecommends

On “Tether executives said to face criminal probe into bank fraud”

What I don't understand is why major exchanges continue to give tether their customers money when it's not backed by cash? Would an exchange not be incentivised to manage the cash themselves and significantly reduce risk for their customers and business? It seems like huge risk for what looks like a minor convenience. Also, very good video on the history and current state of tether: link to this video

View on Hacker News

richbellon Hacker News • 3 years agoRecommends

On “Caroline Ellison, CEO of Alameda Research, pleads guilty to seven offences”

> I don’t hold any tether, and I wouldn’t recommend it to others. But the common opinion that Tether is insolvent might be wrong. Tether, as a stable business, is a money printing machine. I’m not sure it’d be worth risking the business and jail time to pump shitcoins I encourage you to watch Coffeezilla's video about Tether. There's lots of shady stuff going on behind the scenes, like them borrowing $383M from Bitfinex and showing that to an auditor to prove they were solvent (~20:00). link to this video

View on Hacker News

udev4096on Hacker News • 1 year agoRecommends

On “Stripe Launches L1 Blockchain: Tempo”

Bullshit. The biggest stable coin, Tether, is pure scam. They are essentially creating money out of nowhere. They were found guilty of massive fraud and were fined $18M 1. They refuse to get audited by a third-party 2. The ones that do audit them are just as sketchy as them 3. I would recommend watching this video to grasp the scope of their fraud 4 1 - link 2 - link 3 - link 4 - link to this video

View on Hacker News

naileron Hacker News • 3 years agoDisputes

On “Crypto.com Will Delist Tether in Canada”

Remember Tether is bullshit. Pardon the bad language but it’s a scam and as someone involved in blockchain I hate it. link to this video

View on Hacker News

richbellon Hacker News • 3 years agoDisputes

On “Coinbase suspending USDC:USD conversions over the weekend”

> Tether has lots of experience in this field. They were "pioneer" and they went through a lot worse: Tons of FUD, the Bitfinex exchange hack, lawsuits, bank runs etc... They're experts in fraud and deception. link to this video

View on Hacker News

gogopuppygogoon Hacker News • 5 years agoMentions

On “Doge Branded as Ponzi by Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President”

Crypto currencies today are basically all decentralized Ponzi schemes inflated in value by the very centralized tether that is is printing something like $4Bn a week of new tether with no US dollar currency known to be backing it: link to this video

View on Hacker News

danukeron Hacker News • 3 years agoMentions

On “Binance freezes withdrawals of stablecoin USDC as investors pull $2B”

…hat means Paxos could have borrowed it for a short while. Quote 1: "Any activity prior to or after the Report Dates and Times at 5:00 pm ET was not considered when testing the assertions described above." This is the same trick pointed out by Coffeezilla about a year ago, about Tether. 2 And the one from November is missing. 1 - link 2 - link to this video…

View on Hacker News

richbellon Hacker News • 3 years agoMentions

On “Caroline Ellison, CEO of Alameda Research, pleads guilty to seven offences”

> They don't claim it's backed 1:1 by USD. They claim it's backed by more or less liquid alternatives They used to, for several years, until they were pressured to prove it and could not (27:05). link to this video They were also investigated and found guilty by the New York Attorney General, and were subsequently banned from activity in New York and fined 18.5M. > Bitfinex and Tether recklessly and unlawfully covered-up massive financial losses to keep their scheme going and protect their bottom lines,” said Attorney General James. “Tether’s claims that its virtual currency was fully backed by U.S. dollars at all times was a lie. link

View on Hacker News

richbellon Hacker News • 3 years agoMentions

On “Caroline Ellison, CEO of Alameda Research, pleads guilty to seven offences”

> HN has been talking about how Tether is a scam and how it will blow up AnyMomentNow(TM) for two years Tether managed to come back from the brink of death (user loss of confidence) by co-mingling funds with Bitfinex and getting a third-party to provide an 'attestation' based on money they didn't actually have. This was only discovered years after the fact, and were it not for this deception they would have collapsed ages ago, much like FTX. link to this video

View on Hacker News

naileron Hacker News • 3 years agoMentions

On “Tell HN: Coinbase is a joke (product and support)”

Re: 2 and 3. I'd stick to USDC over USDT. link to this video . USDC still has capitalisation statements. USDT doesn't. Eth is indeed slow and expensive, but more people (as in: active wallets) use Solana (a fast and cheap layer 1) than the any of the eth layer 2s these days. Coinbase staff have been caught front running their customers on new tokens listings multiple times now, even after they promised to actively stop it. Whatever's going on in Japan is going on in Japan. Don't trust other people with custody of your funds.

View on Hacker News

jay-barronvilleon Hacker News • 3 years agoMentions

On “Tether ownership and company weaknesses revealed in documents”

Coffeezilla (on YouTube) has been exposing the Tether scam for almost two years now 1. Even as a crypto believer (long-term), it’s been fascinating to see this scam survive this long despite being repeatedly exposed. 1: link to this video

View on Hacker News