Bitfinex, the major cryptocurrency exchange and partner firm of stablecoin Tether (USDT) is listing a multi-million-dollar cryptocurrency hedge fund. The exchange announced on March 16 that it has listed Bahamas-based crypto hedge fund Fulgur Alpha, which is currently worth $280 million dollars. According to the Bitfinex, the fund — which is only accessible to professional investors — aims to increase its assets under management this year. Fulgur Alpha’s assets are held at licensed crypto-asset custodian Delchain Limited and the fund’s regulatory compliance is ensured by Bahamas-based administrator Deltec Fund Services and a division of financial services firm Deltec International Group. …

The iFinex–Tether market manipulation lawsuit continues. Last week, Judge Katherine Failla of the Southern District of New York selected Roche Cyrulnik Freedman as interim lead plaintiff counsel, and four civil actions were consolidated into a single class action: Leibowitz v. iFinex Inc. In the complaints, iFinex’s subsidiary, Bitfinex, and related stablecoin Tether (USDT) are charged with manipulating the Bitcoin market in 2017 — something the firm strenuously denied. Combination of old and new This isn’t shaping up as an ordinary civil action. As Failla observed in announcing her lead counsel decision on Feb. 27 via a telephone conference call, she …

Major cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex, the sister exchange of stablecoin firm Tether, has rolled out futures trading for Tether’s new gold-backed coin. Starting on March 6, Bitfinex users can trade futures contracts on Tether Gold (XAU₮) against Tether (USDT), a widely-known and controversial stablecoin pegged to the United States dollar. New feature is only available to verified users in certain jurisdictions Announcing the news on Friday, Bitfinex specified that the futures trading enables traders to buy or sell assets at a specified price and data in future, featuring up to 100x leverage. The exchange also noted that futures and derivatives trading …

Reginald Fowler has pleaded not guilty to a new charge of wire fraud during a March 6 hearing at the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. On Feb. 20, the U.S. government filed a superseding indictment against Fowler, adding wire fraud to existing charges of bank fraud, illegal money transfer and conspiracy stemming from Crypto Capital alleged shadow banking practices. James McGovern, Fowler’s attorney, criticized the fresh indictment, asserting that he has “no idea what [Fowler has] been charged with,” such as when and how the alleged wire fraud took place. “I've never really seen …

As the cryptocurrency industry continues to mature, security remains a major challenge. Over the last few weeks, a number of cryptocurrency exchanges — namely, OKEx, Bitfinex, Digitex and Coinhako — have experienced security breaches. Although the attackers apparently did not manage to steal any funds, one of the incidents resulted in a leak of Know Your Customer data. All of the breaches have reportedly been dealt with as of press time, and all of the affected exchanges are back online. OKEx and Bitfinex targeted in a series of DDoS attacks Two different major crypto exchanges were reportedly hit with distributed …

Bitfinex, the 11th largest cryptocurrency exchange by daily trading volume, will remove dozens of cryptocurrency trading pairs later this week. According to a March 2 blog post, Bitfinex will remove 46 crypto trading pairs on Friday, March 6 due to low liquidity on the platform. The cryptocurrency exchange noted that the delisting of the trading pairs is a common measure that is expected to improve liquidity on Bitfinex platform and lead to a “more streamlined and optimized trading experience for our users.” The majority of trading pairs that are planned to be removed on Friday include a wide list of …

Amid ongoing lawsuits surrounding controversial stablecoin Tether (USDT), the company’s CTO plans to detail the asset’s background at an upcoming conference. Bitfinex and Tether CTO Paolo Ardoino is slated to recount “the story of Tether’s inception and success” in a keynote speech at the CryptoCompare Digital Asset Summit in London on March 10, a statement from CryptoCompare said on Feb. 28. The firm’s CTO appears confident Although Tether still sits entangled in a complicated legal battle, the firm’s CTO thinks the stablecoin is at its best. “Through continuous innovation, Tether is stronger than ever,” Ardoino said in a statement, adding: …

An ex-employee of cryptocurrency derivatives exchange Digitex began leaking stolen Know-Your-Customer (KYC) on Telegram. The stolen data reportedly includes passport and driving license scans and other sensitive documentation pertaining to more than 8,000 Digitex customers. The Seychelles-based exchange issued Cointelegraph a statement indicating that it is not currently able to comment on the incident and is seeking legal counsel: “Digitex Futures is aware of a leak of confidential data. We are not able to comment fully on the incident at this time and are currently seeking legal counsel. However, we can confirm that this was not an external hack but …

Hours after experiencing a major denial of service attacks (DDoS) attack, Bitfinex has announced it repaid another part of the loan facility to Tether. In a Feb. 28 blog post, Bitfinex revealed that the cryptocurrency exchange repaid $100 million of outstanding loan facility to major stablecoin operator Tether (USDT). Similarly to a previous repayment in July 2019, Bitfinex processed the transaction in fiat via wire transfer wired to Tether's bank account. According to the post, the payment has been made “all on account of principal,” while interest on all amounts due under the facility agreement has been prepaid up to …

Once again, Tether has ridiculed and dismissed allegations that it used its USDT stablecoin for manipulating Bitcoin’s (BTC) price. In a statement sent to Cointelegraph on Feb. 28, iFinex, the firm behind Tether, states that the claims in the market manipulation lawsuit against the firm are “reckless and false.” The statement reads: “The allegations in the complaint are without merit or legal basis, and exhibit a fundamental lack of understanding of the market structure of cryptocurrencies. Indeed, it is reckless and false to allege that USDT tokens are issued in order to manipulate markets.” Many of the accusations regarding Tether’s …

Cryptocurrency exchanges OKEx and Bitfinex are suffering multiple denial of service attacks. It is unclear as of now if the attacks are connected, though OKEx CEO blamed competitors on his personal Weibo page. OKEx first suffered a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack on Feb. 27 at approximately 11:30 AM EST. CEO Jay Hao posted on his personal Weibo page as the attack was unfolding, blaming unnamed competitors in the attack. The attack routed as much as 200 gigabytes per second of traffic, which put strain on OKEx systems. At approximately 4:30 AM EST on Feb. 28, the denial of …

In a U.S. courthouse for the Southern District of New York, Judge Katherine Failla heard this afternoon from three plaintiff teams suing iFinex et. al. and vying to serve as lead counsel in the emerging class action with potentially tens of thousands of injured members. IFinex’s Tether (USDT) stablecoin firm and its Bitfinex subsidiary are charged with manipulating the Bitcoin market in 2017 — something the firm strenuously denies. Kyle Roche, representing plaintiffs Leibowitz et. al., argued that his firm Roche Cyrulnik Freedman LLP was the first to investigate the alleged market manipulation, the first to file a complaint, and …