Nigel's Eyes

20221215 Clearing up confusion re Binance

There's a lot of fuss about withdrawals from Binance. So let's clear something up.

It's fine so long as deposits are hypothecated.

It's a problem if the deposit taker has commingled its own and depositors' funds.

If deposits are hypothecated:

a) It's not like a run on a bank: there the bank has taken depositors' money and lent it to borrowers (with the consent of the depositors, of course).

b) it's not like a run on a so-called hedge fund where moneys have been used to purchase assets which may or may not be illiquid and may or may not be worth less than was paid for them.

c) it's not a Ponzi scheme (people really should learn what that is before bandying the term about)

So the only live questions here are these:

a) does Binance strictly segregate its depositors' funds from its own moneys including operating costs, fines, etc?

b) are those depositors' funds protected against claims against Binance.