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Comment by darth_avocado | Hacker News Reader

At what point does this border a scam? You can't sell when it matters the most. This isn't the first time. And this isn't the only one down.

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Aren't they a crypto exchange and, similar to Coinbase, make their money on fees? If so, being down, especially when prices are soaring, hurts. If people cannot trade on their platform, they're not getting any fees.

It sounds like a pretty dumb scam if you as me.

You're assuming their not trading themselves.

And before you mention it: yes, that'd likely be illegal under US law, but still, it's a scenario.

You're missing the forest for the trees. If crypto crashes, and retail goes away permanently, they lose their entire business. These are 100% planned circuit breakers by the exchanges to halt panic selling.

This only works if all the major exchanges go down. Is there any evidence of this conspiracy?

In the past, Mtgox being offline caused crashes, not prevented them. And that was at the time when it was the major bitcoin exchange.

Thats not how the crypto markets work. There is no breaker needed. They allow people to bet on falling and rising prices. A crash doesn't make people go away it makes winners and looser just like if the price goes up. The more it move in one direction the more people will be interested in betting on counter movement anyway so if it swings more its swings more likely back too.

There are certainly "cheating" exchanges out there but cheating by stooping trades every once in a while is absurdly inefficient and makes people leave the exchange even if they dont know about the cheating. Exchanges can cheat way way simpler by front running the order books.

I'd guess at the same time we accept the stock market is a scam when it shuts down when trading goes full crazy? Helps prevent runs on them?

> Helps prevent runs on them?

Sorry for my ignorance, but what do you mean by this? I have zero knowledge about the stock market.

He's likely talking about trading circuit breakers which trigger when the market is down a substantial percentage in a short time. Trading is suspended for a period

With COVID it happened twice iirc - the stock market has been automatically stopped to prevent panic runs.

Online trading platforms also go down...just like crypto exchanges. The tech stack has to be incredibly resilient and fast, several steps above most software in terms of performance and reliability.

How is this a scam? Kraken makes money on trading fees. How is it in their interest to shut down when volume is high?

See my above comment. They are playing the long game.

There have similar issues with Merrill Lynch recently.

I've had issues accessing Schwab too on days the market tanks.

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