So you have the non-existent assets, bag holding, difficulty getting out and the promise of above average returns.
If I put my money into my saving account then I can get out at a clearly stated time, there is no expectation apart from very little interest and I am reasonably sure that the government will bail out the bank if the bank fails.
In between there are a spectrum of investment options, property is a good investment asset and you actually have a property made from things like bricks and glass as the 'store of wealth'. Yes it might be difficult to get out if there is a property crash. But it is not a ponzi scheme even if it has some characteristics of one.
But selling Bitcoin is _exactly_ an older investor being paid out by a newer investor.
IMO it's Bitcoin in combination with Tether that's the actual Ponzi. Unfortunately unlikely to unwind until and unless people start needing to redeem Tether rather than selling it on.
> IMO it's Bitcoin in combination with Tether that's the actual Ponzi.
Bingo.
The problem is, the big players have no interest in unwinding the scheme. As long as exchanges can wash trade USDT:BTC to drive the inflow of retail investment, things keep going.
What'll be interesting is if BTC continues to fall. I think the low $30k is a support level; if it crashes below that, I bet we're going to see more outflow from undercapitalized exchanges and things will adjust hard.
That is pretty much the accusation against tether. Most exchanges use it, so rather than the exchanges being knowingly undercapitalized, they are by virtue of using tether. Which is supposed to be 1=1 backed with the $. Which it isnt, and it is not clear how backed it actually is.
They always claimed it was backed 1:1 with the US dollar. Then they paid a fine to the NY AG because it was not backed 1:1, and as part of that they had to produce quarterly reports about how it was backed.
Dude I think you are kidding yourself. There is something not legit about Tether, or at least it feels that way. And neither Bitfinex or ifinex have done anything to help that through their misleading and sometimes outright lying, about Tether and its reserves.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duck_test
So you have the non-existent assets, bag holding, difficulty getting out and the promise of above average returns.
If I put my money into my saving account then I can get out at a clearly stated time, there is no expectation apart from very little interest and I am reasonably sure that the government will bail out the bank if the bank fails.
In between there are a spectrum of investment options, property is a good investment asset and you actually have a property made from things like bricks and glass as the 'store of wealth'. Yes it might be difficult to get out if there is a property crash. But it is not a ponzi scheme even if it has some characteristics of one.