Post
Topic
Board Exchanges
Re: [OFFICIAL]Bitfinex.com first Bitcoin P2P lending platform for leverage trading
by
blueberry
on 06/02/2014, 15:55:20 UTC
I dont see how Bitfinex would have lost anything. Traders are the one's who lose out because someone was able to basically rig the trading. But as a platform, Bitfinex engine was simply matching trades meaning traders positions were being closed and trades were being made "as normal". Bitfinex would me making %fees from all that. Need to be clear here, their platform was exploited, but Bitfinex did not suffer losses that I can see, only traders. I feel sorry for anyone who was bankrupted by this... so rolling back those trades was the right thing to do for sure. But I think you should probably talk with Bitfinex in private, if you dont get resolution then maybe you can be more vocal, but until then, it would be better not to create noise here.

Bitfinex would lose out because they would have to cover all the negative balances if trades were not rolled back. Some customers would also lose out but in that scenario I am guessing Bitfinex would also have to reimburse these customers or face losing their reputation.

How much LTC were the attackers able to withdraw in the end?

Probably not much, if anything. I was talking about a scenario if trades were not rolled back. Many customers accounts got a margin call and ended up in a large negative amount. That would mean that others on the other side of the trade (mainly the exploiters would end up with a hugely positive balance). The positive ill gotten amounts would be withdrawn when withdrawals are re-enabled which as I say could be well in the hundreds of thousands. Bitfinex would have to cover this and reimburse customers who lost or face the wrath of all the customers who lost with ruined repuation.

Here is one account with a negative net value balance of -$131,916.32 and this is just one account:
http://i.imgur.com/LdXwDlM.png

More examples can be found here:
http://www.reddit.com/r/BitcoinMarkets/comments/1x5jpx/psa_bitfinex_bugged_out/
http://www.reddit.com/r/BitcoinMarkets/comments/1x4tt3/possible_bitfinex_bug/

as well as earlier in this thread.