As one of a number of Cointelegraph representatives attending the Paris Blockchain Week Summit (PBWS) at the historic Palais Brongniart — a neoclassical building previously serving as the headquarters for the Parisian stock exchange from 1826 to 1987 — European news reporter, Joe Hall sat down for an in-depth interview with the Chief technology officer of Bitfinex and Tether, Paolo Ardoino. Previously ranked 88th in Cointelegraph’s prestigious Top 100 2021 for his influential impact on the growth of the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem, Ardoino spoke on an array of topics including the adoption of Bitcoin and Tether as legal tender …

Amid global businesses boycotting the Russian residents over military conflict in Ukraine, some companies in the cryptocurrency industry stand up for the rights of non-sanctioned Russian citizens. Bitfinex, an affiliate firm of the world’s largest stablecoin provider, Tether (USDT), will not unilaterally freeze the accounts of ordinary Russian customers as part of the global sanctions unless it's forced to do so, a spokesperson for Bitfinex told Cointelegraph on Thursday. The representative emphasized that Bitfinex has taken appropriate action against the accounts of Russian users who have been sanctioned. “As with all our customer accounts, we work to ensure that there …

Major global cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex is finally moving forward with its security token platform (STO) in Kazakhstan, opening the first day of trading. Bitfinex Securities, Bitfinex’s blockchain-based investment platform, is officially starting on Tuesday, the company representatives announced to Cointelegraph. Announced in September 2021, the new STO platform is regulated within Kazakhstan’s national financial hub known as the Astana International Financial Center (AIFC). Bitfinex Securities specifically operates from a special economic zone in Kazakhstan, which has an independent court system, according to Bitfinex Securities chief technology officer Paolo Ardoino. The platform is not available to citizens or residents of countries …

As public understanding of how digital assets work becomes more nuanced along with the mainstreaming of crypto, the language of Bitcoin’s (BTC) “anonymity” gradually becomes a thing of the past. High-profile law enforcement operations such as the one that recently led to the U.S. government seizing some $3.6 billion worth of crypto are particularly instrumental in driving home the idea that assets whose transaction history is recorded on an open, distributed ledger are better described as “pseudonymous,” and that such a design is not particularly favorable for those wishing to get away with stolen funds. No matter how hard criminals …

It’s the Netflix script that wrote itself. A story so outlandish, it’s stunned the crypto community; an industry accustomed to apparent suicides in Spanish jail cells and nonfungible token auctions for dead rappers. The plot involves the United States Department of Justice (DoJ), a crypto exchange with a checkered history, a rapper-cum-Forbes magazine writer, a voucher to buy a new PlayStation, an occasional magician and $4 billion worth of Bitcoin (BTC). The alleged Bitfinex hack money launderers have kept the internet enraptured since the larger-than-life story emerged last week. It’s no wonder that Netflix has actually announced that they will …

The husband-wife duo accused in the infamous $3.6 billion Bitcoin (BTC) money laundering case had quite a contrasting valentine. A federal judge upheld the decision of a suspended release for wife Heather Morgan while husband Ilya Lichtenstein has been sent to pre-trial detention. Beryl A. Howell, the chief judge at the Federal District Court in Columbia, ruled that Lichtenstein has the motivation and resources to flee and thus must be kept under detention. While Morgan managed to fulfill the criteria for a suspended release on a bond of $3 million. The lawyer representing the couple denied any motivation for fleeing …

Unus Sed Leo (LEO) surged by almost 70% on Feb. 9 to reach its record highs as traders assessed the potential of an incoming supply crunch in its market. The token was issued in 2016 to refinance crypto exchange Bitfinex after it lost about $70 million worth of Bitcoin (BTC) in a hacking incident. In its original whitepaper explaining LEO, Bitfinex had promised that if they could recover the lost funds, they would use 80% of the proceeds to buy back and burn LEO. Around 80% of stolen Bitcoin recovered On Feb. 8, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced …

On February 1, there were movements of around $2.5 billion from the 2016 Bitfinex hack wallets. After reviewing the transactions, Cointelegraph reported that around 90,000 Bitcoin (BTC), worth $3.6 billion, consolidated into one wallet address. More than a week later, the hackers were caught. The United States Department of Justice seized $3.6 billion in crypto and arrested two suspects connected to the 2016 hack. Alleged hackers Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan were apprehended after federal authorities exercised their ability to “follow the money through the blockchain” according to the DoJ. While some of the funds were partially recovered in 2019, …

Authorities in the United States have made arrests and announced the seizure of $3.6 billion in cryptocurrency more than five years after hackers stole 119,756 Bitcoin from the Bitfinex exchange. In a Tuesday announcement, the U.S. Department of Justice said it had ordered the arrest of Ilya Lichtenstein and his wife Heather Morgan for allegedly conspiring to launder crypto connected to the 2016 Bitfinex hack. The 119,756 Bitcoin (BTC) — worth $72 million at the time hackers breached security at the exchange in August 2016 — is now valued at more than $5.1 billion. Since the 2016 hack, individuals connected …

A chunk of the inactive Bitcoins (BTC) stolen in the 2016 Bitfinex exchange hack has moved from the hacker’s wallets to an unknown wallet on Tuesday, as detected by blockchain analytics bot Whale Alerts. 20 transactions involving the stolen Bitcoins were flagged. A sum of 64,641.29 BTC, worth almost $2.5 billion at the time of writing, was moved. This is more than half of the total amount seized by the hackers which are estimated to be around 120,000 BTC. The biggest transaction detected was around 10,000 BTC, worth over $383 million, while other transactions amounted to as little as 0.29 …

In a Friday announcement, Bitfinex said it would be immediately closing the accounts for Ontario-based customers who have no balances on the platform. In addition, it planned to restrict access to those who do not have open positions in the exchange’s peer-to-peer financing market or open margin positions. Users who have balances or open positions on Bitfinex and are one of the roughly 15 million residents of Ontario — which includes Toronto and the nation's capital city of Ottawa — “will no longer have access to any services” starting on March 1. The exchange advised customers to withdraw funds before …

Tether (USDT) has gone from being a renegade cryptocurrency to becoming the industry's primary crutch during the last seven years, according to a new report. Essentially, USDT is a bridge between traditional currencies like the U.S. dollar and decentralized digital currencies operating on open blockchain networks. Independent crypto outlet Protos provided an in-depth insight into the most common stablecoin and the liquidity providers who supply it to cryptocurrency platforms. According to the report, issued USDT is primarily acquired by just two market makers. Between 2014 and October 2021, Alameda Research and Cumberland received a projected $60.3 billion in USDT, accounting …