Probably out of topic, but...
Here's a simple flow chart I made...to explain what I think is happening.
When a player deposits, the "money" goes into Mindark's account...while PEDs get created into the player's account.
Whatever happens to the "money" from then onwards...is Mindark's business now. Unless and until the player withdraws.
PEDs in a player's account is a liability...unless and until a player spends it. It can be in the form of pure peds or items whatsoever.
Stuff that has TT value but cannot be sold to the Trade Terminal for PEDs can be discounted...since you can't withdraw them and will have to use them up first.
PEDs used up are no longer in the player's control and everything is left up to the "loot pool".
A portion of the PEDs used is siphoned out of the system as payment to deeds, LA, Mindark and planet partners. (Mindark and PPs probably have a higher hierarchy for withdrawals...since they need "money" for day to day operations.)
A player's returns, in the form of loot, is likely to be purely dependent upon the "state" of the loot pool. The loot pool can "never" pay out more than it has.
From then on, its a "closed" loop...wherein the loot (PEDs) obtained gets fed back into the player's account and then spent or withdrawn...depending on what he or she decides to do with it.
The more the player cycles it (without "input"...aka "deposits"), the "thinner" the PEDs become...since there's the part which gets siphoned off.
The lesser amount of PEDs that the loot pool has, the more disastrous the player's returns become.
So long as there's no deposits to replenish the loot pool that is.
And in this scenario, we're talking about "one" player. Multiply that with the number of active players/depositors...and we get what we're looking at now....where someone could "potentially" get more out of the system than what he or she had deposited. (But that's merely an illusion.)
At any point in time, PEDs are not "asset-backed"...as in 10 PEDs backed with 1 USD of asset. But as long as Mindark can continue to fulfill the player's withdrawals...nothing serious is gonna occur. But once that fails...all hell breaks loose.