On Oct. 15, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, or CFTC, handed sister crypto companies Tether and Bitfinex fines totaling $41 million and $1.5 million, respectively, citing violations of the Commodity Exchange Act, or CEA, and of a prior CFTC order. The regulator has found that Tether, the firm behind an eponymous stablecoin, has only held sufficient fiat reserves to back the dollar-pegged asset for 27.6% of time during the 26-month period under review between 2016 and 2018. The agency also stated that Tether violated the law by holding part of the reserves in non-fiat financial instruments, as well as by …

Tether (USDT), the largest stablecoin issuer by market capitalization, has refuted the details of a Bloomberg story on its reserves holdings. In a Thursday report, Bloomberg journalist Zeke Faux made numerous claims against Tether, including that its chief financial officer Giancarlo Devasini has used the company’s reserves to make investments, that seem to contradict Tether’s public position that the holdings were fully backed at all times. In addition, Faux alleges that Tether has invested in Chinese firms and issued crypto-backed loans “worth billions of dollars.” According to the report, he was only able to confirm one bank in the Bahamas …

The judge in the class-action lawsuit filed in the Southern District of New York against stablecoin issuer Tether and crypto exchange Bitfinex has granted motions to dismiss many of the claims in the case. According to court documents filed Tuesday in the Southern District of New York, District Judge Katherine Polk Failla has granted motions from Tether’s and Bitfinex’s parent company iFinex to dismiss key claims in the plaintiffs’ case that the two firms manipulated the crypto market. Altogether, Judge Failla granted motions to dismiss five complete claims and part of one, while denying six others. Specifically, the judge said …

Crypto exchange Bitfinex completed a highly consequential transaction on Sept. 27 when sending $100,000 of the stablecoin Tether (USDT) to the layer-2 subsidiary platform DeversiFi. For reasons unknown, the exchange paid 7,626 ETH, equivalent to $23.7 million, marking quite possibly the largest gas fee ever recorded on the Ethereum blockchain. According to blockchain data from EtherScan, the deposit transaction was initiated at 11:10 UTC this morning from Bitfinex’s second-largest wallet, via a second address, to the wallet of DeversiFi. The transaction carried an “erroneously high gas fee”, even though DeversiFi promotes a service to “avoid gas costs and frustration, saving …

As the prospect of Chinese property giant Evergrande defaulting on $305 billion worth of debt looms, pundits are weighing in on how the firm’s bankruptcy could impact the legacy and crypto markets. Speculation as to whether the real estate investment giant will default has coincided with a downturn across the crypto and stock markets, leaving many analysts divided on whether traders should be buying the dip or looking to take profits in preparation for further bearish momentum. At the time of writing, Bitcoin (BTC) is down by around 13% since the downturn started on Saturday, while the S&P 500 is …

The United States Treasury Department is reportedly preparing a review highlighting challenges posed by stablecoin redemptions and the effect of a possible run on the crypto asset market. According to a Sept.1 report from Bloomberg citing anonymous sources, Treasury officials are readying policy recommendations designed to ensure stablecoin holders can freely convert between their tokens and other assets. The report states the lawmakers hope to mitigate “the most urgent risks” associated with Tether (USDT) and other stable tokens, also emphasizing the threats of a “fire-sale run” on crypto assets could wreak for financial stability broadly. Critics have long scrutinized Tether’s …

Amid speculation as to whether China’s second-largest property developer, Evergrande Group, will default on its $300 billion in debts, analysts are wondering whether the firm’s collapse could pose contagion risks for the crypto industry. On Sept. 8, Fitch Ratings asserted it “appears probable” that Evergrande will default on its debts, with the firm having since conceded that it will be unable to sell properties or other assets in its possession quickly enough to service its rapidly mounting debts. In a Tuesday statement, Evergrande predicts “significant continuing decline in contract sales in September, thereby resulting in the continuous deterioration of cash …

A sharp sell-off across the cryptocurrency market on Tuesday — that saw top tokens Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Cardano (ADA) and Solana (SOL) fall by double-digital percentages — created a venue for stablecoins to prove their worth. The fixed-price cryptocurrencies offered interim protection to traders from the notorious crypto price volatility. They did so by almost maintaining their one dollar-peg and offering sufficient liquidity to traders who looked for a safety net during the market decline. Blockchain analytics service CryptoQuant reported dramatic spikes in stablecoin transfers as the cryptocurrency market capitalizati fell from $2.38 trillion to $2.103 trillion on Tuesday. …

United States Senator Elizabeth Warren, one of the most vocal cryptocurrency skeptics in the U.S. government, has called the cryptocurrency industry the “new shadow bank.” In a Sunday interview with the New York Times, Warren said that the cryptocurrency industry offers “many of the same services” as shadow banks but still lacks “consumer protections or financial stability that back up the traditional system.” Warren expressed concerns over the rapidly growing market for stablecoins, a type of cryptocurrency whose value can be pegged to that of other assets, including fiat currencies like the U.S. dollar, the euro or commodities like gold. …

A recent price rally in the market of Polygon's native MATIC token pushed its prices above $1.56 for the first time in more than two months. The MATIC/USDT exchange rate rose 20.65% in just two days to reclaim its June 17 high. Traders raised their bids for the pair after Polygon announced that it would create a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) for its community members while focusing specifically on the booming decentralized finance (DeFi) space. Polygon, which offers layer-two scaling solutions for Ethereum projects, allocated $100 million for the DAO creation — and also to bring DeFi projects into its …

Tether Holdings Ltd, the issuer of the largest stablecoin, Tether (USDT), reported that its total market capitalization had crossed $64 billion for the first time in history. The company called the event a “milestone,” adding that it is another indication of the cryptocurrency market’s “continued trust and confidence” in its stablecoin. Tether’s $USDt market cap hits $64B! A new milestone reached and another indication of the market’s continued trust and confidence in #Tether ! pic.twitter.com/t85i6e6UQt — Tether (@Tether_to) August 16, 2021 In detail, Tether’s business model revolves around providing digitized dollars to cryptocurrency traders and investors. In doing so, the …

USD Coin (USDC), Circle’s dollar-pegged stablecoin, seemingly lost one of its biggest competitive advantages over its main rival, Tether (USDT). Major crypto exchange Coinbase made an important change on the USD Coin page on its website following an audit that revealed that not all of USDC’s reserves were held in cash. This ran contrary to the previous statement that “each USDC is backed by one U.S. dollar held in a bank account.” Coinbase visitors are now greeted with a statement that says USDC is “backed by fully reserved assets” when they enter the USD Coin webpage. This new claim states: …