Top all-time · #5316
Bennett Tomlin
Personal blog · bennettftomlin.com · on HN as bennettfteconomicsbusiness
Bennett Tomlin writes Bennett's Blog, a personal blog at bennettftomlin.com about economics and business. Since 2019, 14 different Hacker News readers have linked it 20 times, most often “An Introduction to the Tether/Bitfinex Controversy”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-01-12, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (7) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Bennett Tomlin's blog posts on Tether and crypto scams and frauds, citing them as sources for the Tether story and recommending them to anyone invested in crypto.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 7 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Bennett's blog contains writings, rantings, and pieces on cryptocurrency, fraud, and more.
Most-linked posts?
- An Introduction to the Tether/Bitfinex Controversy3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2021-02-19
- /2021/03/27/before-bitfinex-and-tether/2 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2021-06-26
- How Big Is Tether?2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2021-06-11
- /2021/06/21/a-non-exhaustive-list-of-bitfinex-and-tethers-misdeeds-and-red-flags/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2021-06-26
What Hacker News says?
Bennet Tomlin's blog where he writes about cryptocurrency scams and frauds: https://bennettftomlin.com
Comment linking /
on “Ask HN: Favorite Blogs by Individuals?”Submitted Why I have zero faith in crypto venture capitalists as a story · 234 points
HN discussionIf you're interested in Tether, I highly recommend the Crypto Critics' Corner podcast: https://cryptocriticscorner.com/episode-list/ . Bennet Tomlin and Cas Piancey have done a fantastic job chronicling the story. Their blog posts are also quite good: - https://thecaspiancey.medium.com/finding-finex-3eefac0d45a2 - https://bennettftomlin.com/
Comment linking /
on “Anyone Seen Tether’s Billions?”Submitted $175M and Four Million Fake Users: The Story of Frank’s Fraud as a story · 2 points
HN discussionIt took Liberty Reserve 7 years and 17 countries cooperating to get nuked from orbit. Tether was founded as Realcoin in 2014 by a group including former child star and accused sex offender Brock Pierce, so while it’s technically just rounding the 7 year mark, it didn’t begin in earnest until it was taken over by Bitfinex towards 2015 and didn’t become majorly problematic until 2016/2017 according to the NYAG finding…
Comment linking /2020/12/08/an-introduction-to-the-tether-bitfinex-controversy/
on “Anyone Seen Tether’s Billions?”Submitted How Big Is Tether? as a story · 2 points
HN discussion> Most people in crypto are aware of why Tether is bad. In fact a huge portion of stable-coins are handled algorithmically and backed by their network asset. You are building strawmen, likely out of ignorance. haha, I strongly suspect I know much more about this space than your average coiner. Simply because you disagree doesn't make my positions wrong. You haven't actually indicated anything wrong with my position…
Comment linking /2021/07/27/my-second-appearance-on-the-blockchain-debate-podcast-with-sam-kazemian/
on “Tell HN: We have a responsibility to speak out against blockchain technologies”Submitted Bitstamp, 2015 Bitfinex, and 2017 Tether Hacks are Connected as a story · 2 points
HN discussionhttps://bennettftomlin.com/2021/06/21/a-non-exhaustive-list-...
Comment linking /2021/06/21/a-non-exhaustive-list-of-bitfinex-and-tethers-misdeeds-and-red-flags/
on “Shorting Bitcoin”Submitted An Introduction to the Tether/Bitfinex Controversy as a story · 2 points
HN discussionThe same author also has an article on Tether.[1] Tether remains scary. Tether has a market cap of US $62 billion. They're approaching the market cap of General Motors, and are up there with big mutual funds. And nobody has any idea where the money is being stored. The "commercial paper" story does not hold water. If Tether really had that much commercial paper, Tether would be the 7th largest buyer of it. Since com…
Comment linking /2021/06/10/how-big-is-tether/
on “Why I have zero faith in crypto venture capitalists”Submitted Why I Left Medium as a story · 2 points
HN discussionYeah, it's in the NYAG settlement I linked as [3]. At one point, all their money was in Stuart Hoegner's personal Bank of Montreal account (#17 in [3]). Hoegner (their GC) was the director of compliance at Excapsa, the parent company of the wildly non-compliant Ultimate Bet. That online poker site had a back door where some of their friends could see other poker players cards [1] [1] https://bennettftomlin.com/2021/…
Comment linking /2021/03/27/before-bitfinex-and-tether/
on “CFTC Orders Tether and Bitfinex to Pay Fines Totaling $42.5M”Submitted An Introduction to the Tether/Bitfinex Controversy as a story · 1 points
HN discussion"The Markets Can Remain Irrational Longer Than You Can Remain Solvent" https://twitter.com/BennettTomlin/status/1375900452798234634 https://bennettftomlin.com/2021/03/27/before-bitfinex-and-te...
Comment linking /2021/03/27/before-bitfinex-and-tether/
on “US Fed Official Calls Tether a ‘Challenge’ to Financial Stability”Anyone invested in crypto should read Bennett Tomlins blog about tether https://bennettftomlin.com/2021/06/21/a-non-exhaustive-list-... I think there's a 90 percent chance that this will blow up and a movie like the Big Short will be made about the story behind it. Tl;Dr Tether is ran by very dubious people, don't trust anything they do or say
Comment linking /2021/06/21/a-non-exhaustive-list-of-bitfinex-and-tethers-misdeeds-and-red-flags/
on “US Fed Official Calls Tether a ‘Challenge’ to Financial Stability”I love that they included Stuart Hoegner's tweet. Hoegner is a hilarious villain, sort of the Saul Goodman of Bitfinex/Tether (he's their GC). He was the head of compliance at Excapa, the parent company of the wildly non-compliant Ultimate Bet. That online poker site had a back door where some of their friends could see other poker players cards [1] Seeing him call anyone a liar - as he does regularly - is downright…
Comment linking /2021/03/27/before-bitfinex-and-tether/
on “The crypto movement is destroying itself”USDT is a fascinating story that I can't do justice in a quick post. The overwhelming majority of crypto trading isn't carried out against fiat currency but against a Stablecoin called Tether [1]. They settled recently with the NYAG, and lost access to doing business in New York at all a few months ago. The AG says: > “Tether’s claims that its virtual currency was fully backed by U.S. dollars at all times was a lie.…
Comment linking /2021/06/21/a-non-exhaustive-list-of-bitfinex-and-tethers-misdeeds-and-red-flags/
on “Coinbase plans to add $500M worth of crypto to its balance sheet”Who could have known. Other than folks who read the CFTC settlement [1] and the NYAG settlement [2]. And their org chart. 1. Tether and Bitfinex CEO J. L. van der Velve used to sell a product he claimed could transform the nicotine in cigarettes into vitamins - and suggested it allowed you to smoke 300 per day. 2. Their chief council, Stuart Hoegner, once held all of the Tether backing reserves in his personal Bank…
Comment linking /2021/03/27/before-bitfinex-and-tether/
on “Tether ownership and company weaknesses revealed in documents”Past claims to this effect date pack to 2015. https://bennettftomlin.com/2021/07/17/a-history-of-tether-an...
Comment linking /2021/07/17/a-history-of-tether-and-bitfinexs-audits-attestations-memos-and-letters-both-promised-and-actual/
on “Tether Says Audit Is Still Months Away as Crypto Market Falters”
