Crypto traders' urge to create leverage positions with Bitcoin (BTC) appears irresistible to many people, but it's impossible to know if these traders are extreme risk-takers or savvy market makers hedging their positions. The need to maintain hedges holds even if traders rely on leverage merely to reduce their counterparty exposure by maintaining a collateral deposit and the bulk of their position on cold wallets. Not all leverage is reckless Regardless of the reason for traders' use of leverage, currently there is a highly unusual imbalance in margin lending markets that favors BTC longs betting on a price increase. Despite …

A group of four men controlled 86% of stablecoin issuer Tether Holdings Limited as of 2018, according to documents obtained by The Wall Street Journal in connection with United States authorities investigations. New York Attorney General and Commodity Futures Trading Commission probes into Tether in 2021 exposed its previously unknown ownership structure. The company is the issuer of Tether (USDT), the world's largest stablecoin with $68 billion in circulation, according to CoinMarketCap. According to the documents, Tether was built by the joint efforts of ex-plastic surgeon Giancarlo Devasini and former child actor and crypto entrepreneur Brock Pierce. In September 2014, …

Nearly $13 million has been moved into the consolidation wallet of bankrupt crypto trading firm Alameda Research in just 24 hours, revealed data from blockchain security firm PeckShield on Feb. 2. The address received $6 million in Tether (USDT) and $2.5 million in Ether (ETH) from crypto exchange Bitfinex’s hot wallet, along with $4.5 million worth of USD Coin (USDC) from an anonymous source and 30,000 Lido tokens worth roughly $65,500. #PeckShieldAlert ～$13M worth of cryptos have been transferred to Alameda consolidation-labeled address, including ~6M $USDT & 1,545 $ETH ($2.5M) from Bitfinex, ~4.6M $USDC from 0x7889 Wondering why Bitfinex transferred …

El Salvador has passed landmark legislation providing the legal framework for a Bitcoin-backed bond — known as the “Volcano Bond” — which will be used to pay down sovereign debt and fund the construction of its proposed “Bitcoin City”. The bill passed on Jan. 11 with 62 votes for and 16 against, and is set to become law after it is ratified by President Bukele. #Plenaria90✍ Con 62 votos a favor, creamos la Ley de Emisión de Activos Digitales. pic.twitter.com/g1poXwLoH3 — Asamblea Legislativa (@AsambleaSV) January 11, 2023 The National Bitcoin Office of El Salvador announced the passage of the bill …

From Terra to FTX, 2022 has given us many weird crypto stories. While investors have been enduring a bear market that saw the crypto industry sink below the $1 trillion market capitalization mark, adoption in the space has been growing, and old mysteries were finally solved. From the incredible short squeeze of a bankrupt company’s token to old anti-crypto arguments used by a major central bank, we’re getting weird with five stories the best fiction writers couldn’t dream up. “Comedic rapper” charged over Bitfinex hack Back in 2016, popular cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex suffered a major security breach that saw attackers …

The fall of major crypto ecosystems — such as FTX and Terra (LUNA) — this year highlighted the importance of transparency around the true reserves held by crypto exchanges and businesses. Amid the ongoing fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) across the crypto space, crypto exchange Bitfinex revealed its proof of reserves to the general public. Over the past few days, major crypto exchanges, including Binance, OKX, Kucoin and Crypto.com, committed to sharing their proof of reserve to regain investor confidence. Walking the talk, Bitfinex CTO Paolo Ardoino shared the list of the main Bitfinex wallets, last updated on November 11. …

Despite the rise of decentralized finance (DeFi), cryptocurrency investors appear to stick to centralized exchanges (CEX) over DeFi tools, according to a new report. Crypto investors are more comfortable with holding their assets on CEXes because decentralized exchanges are still more vulnerable to the threat of hacks. This is according to a joint report by the blockchain data firm Chainalysis and Bitfinex exchange, issued on Oct. 13. According to the study, the risks of hacks associated with CEXes have significantly dropped over the past few years, while various DeFi platforms have become increasingly hacked. The total value stolen from centralized …

Major stablecoin issuer Tether froze yet another batch of USDT on the Ethereum blockchain, freezing more than $8 million worth of the cryptocurrency. Crypto monitoring resource Whale Alert has identified several transactions indicating that Tether froze three USDT addresses on Oct. 10. According to data from transaction logs on Etherscan, the frozen addresses hold 3.4 million USDT, 1.95 million USDT and 2.9 million USDT. The addresses are no longer able to move funds and collectively hold $8.2 million worth of the USDT stablecoin. "Tether works closely with law enforcement worldwide to assist in investigations, including freezes," a spokesperson for Tether …

The judge for the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, Katherine Polk Failla, ordered Tether to prove 1-to-1 backing of its eponymous stablecoin, Tether (USDT). The company is required to provide “general ledgers, balance sheets, income statements, cash-flow statements, and profit and loss statements” and other documents to the court. The order was published on Sept. 20 as a part of a case that started back in 2019 — the initial complaint by a group of investors against iFinex, Tether and Bitfinex's parent company, alleged that the firm manipulated the crypto market by issuing unbacked …

El Salvador, the Central American nation that adopted Bitcoin (BTC) as a legal tender in September last year, has delayed the launch of its billion-dollar Bitcoin bond again. The Bitcoin bond, also known as the "Volcanic bond" or Volcanic token, was first announced in November 2021 as a way to issue tokenized bonds and raise $1 billion in return from investors. The fundraiser will then be used to build a "Bitcoin City" and buy more BTC. The bond was set to be issued in the first quarter of 2022 but was postponed to September in the wake of unfavorable market …

Welcome to Finance Redefined, your weekly dose of essential decentralized finance (DeFi) insights — a newsletter crafted to bring you significant developments over the last week. This past week, there were some major developments in the run-up to the upcoming Ethereum Merge slated for Sept. 15. Bitfinex became the latest crypto exchange to throw its support behind the chain split token. While DeFi bridge hacks have become a norm this year, developers behind Rainbow Bridge managed to foil an exploit attempt within seconds, leading to the hacker losing their safety deposit. The Tornado Cash developer who was arrested last week …

iFinex, the company responsible for Bitfinex Derivatives, announced on Aug. 23 the launch of a new service offering available to users before the highly-anticipated Ethereum (ETH) Merge. The exchange now offers Ethereum Chain Split Tokens (CSTs). Tokens available to users represent the two systems involved in the Merge: ETHW (PoW) and ETHS (PoS). Bitfinex released the new trading tokens for users to have the possibility to trade on the potential forking event. The coins will be available through the Bitfinex derivatives platform. Bitfinex CTO Paolo Ardoino said they released these new tokens better to prepare users for all eventual possibilities …