[ur-whale]

> Chief Technical Officer Paolo Ardoino

Can't say this news comes out as a surprise. I'm actually surprised by the fact that there are any reserves at all.

What is really interesting about Bitfinex / Tether is to research the history of the people who started these entities, especially their history prior to Bitcoin's existence.

Here's a taste:

https://nicolaborzi.medium.com/the-lawless-rollercoaster-of-...

As much as I'm a proponent of crypto, some folks very early on intuitively realized that the friction-less nature of the new technology made it the perfect vessel for running scams:

https://steemkr.com/bitcoin/@binyamin/bitfinex-s-founder-see...

[TrackerFF]

On a tangent - ever since cryptocurrencies gained popularity, every known crook and MLM scam-artist here in Europe shifted their focus to some coin service.

Some of these are of course difficult to soit, as they tend to use numerous different names and identities, and have been in the scamming "game" for decades.

The takeaway from all of this is that one should absolutely do a quick research on founders and key figures when dealing with businesses that focus on crypto. People don't tend to change overnight, and especially not those that have been scamming people for decades before.

[user-the-name]

There's not much point in doing research like that, given that the vast majority of cryptocurrency businesses are scams, whether or not the founders are known or unknown scammers.

Just assume it's a scam from the off, it will save you a lot of work and money.

[DebtDeflation]

From your first link:

"On November 5, 2018, as an executive of Tether Mr Devasini lent 900 million dollars to Bitfinex and as an executive of Bitfinex, Mr Devasini signed the receipt to Tether."

That sounds totally legit and normal.

[ur-whale]

> That sounds totally legit and normal.

lol, maybe he has a twin brother :D