The attorneys representing Reggie Fowler — the accused operator of the notorious shadow-bank to the crypto sector, Crypto Capital — have filed a motion to withdraw as Fowler’s counsel. According to the motion, law firm Hogan Lovells’ James McGovern and Michael Hefter have discussed withdrawing from the ongoing case between the businessman and the United States government since Feb. 26, after Fowler rejected a nine-figure plea deal the prior month. Crypto Capital is accused of providing unlicensed money-transmitting services, committing bank fraud, and laundering funds on behalf of Columbian drug cartels. Crypto exchange Bitfinex and sister company Tether further claim …

Cryptocurrency exchange DragonEx is introducing a stopgap measure to reintroduce withdrawals after some problems last month. According to an official announcement on Nov. 8, DragonEx is introducing a temporary solution to allow crypto withdrawals. The exchange will require its users to acquire so-called “DragonEx Withdraw Quota” tokens. One DWQ will allow the withdrawal of assets worth 1 Tether (USDT). DragonEx executives said that customers can acquire DWQ through trading, mortgage loan, or a deposit. “When users make a withdrawal, the same value of DWQ will be consumed,” the announcement reads. According to the exchange, DWQ-based withdrawals are a temporary solution …

According to Tether’s official transparency data, the USDT market cap crossed a $17 billion mark for the first time, hitting over $17 billion in total assets. Tether’s market cap has been growing exponentially in 2020. As of mid-September, Tether’s market cap had seen nearly a four-fold increase since the beginning of the year, surging above $15 billion from around $4 billion. According to data from crypto analytics firm Messari, USDT saw a notable increase from August 2020 to date. As such, USDT added more than $5 billion in market cap over the past three months. Tether (USDT), the largest stablecoin …

Crypto Twitter has been abuzz with speculation about a large amount of Tether (USDT) flowing into the Huobi crypto exchange. Significant amounts of Bitcoin (BTC) also appear to have exited the platform during the same period. The Singapore-based entity recently issued a statement claiming all is well. "We have noticed that recent events have sparked inquiries and speculation from some users," Huobi said earlier today, adding: "Huobi reiterates: 'We are currently operating normally, user assets are safe, and trading, deposits and withdrawals are operating as expected.'" The exchange's native asset, Huobi Token (HT), has suffered a red day around the …

Simplex, a crypto-to-fiat payments provider, is adding another fiat offramp to enable its partner exchanges like Binance and Huob to sell major stablecoin Tether (USDT) to the euro. According to an Oct. 29 announcement, Simplex has rolled out new Tether (USDT) offramps across its partner network including major exchanges like Binance, OKEx and Huobi. A Simplex representative told Cointelegraph that the latest development marks the first time when the sell option is enabled for Tether on Simplex, stating: “USDT has been available to purchase through our partner network for a while but ‘cashing out’ and selling directly in this currency …

Australia’s crypto-friendly capital-raising platform Stax has announced its client West Coast Aquaculture Group, or WCA, will be conducting the country’s first initial public offering that accepts virtual currency as payment. Investors participating in WCA’s offering can purchase equity in the company using Tether (USDT) or Australian dollars. USDT was chosen over Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) due to its price stability. Speaking to Cointelegraph, Stax CEO Kenny Lee emphasized that stablecoins offer the benefits of cryptocurrency without the volatility of other digital assets: “The acceptance of USDT in an IPO is a transformative move in Australia and a significant step …

Stuart Hoegner, general counsel for Tether and cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex, is pushing back against claims the stablecoin operator has abandoned podcaster Peter McCormack in his lawsuit against Craig Wright, the Australian national claiming to be Satoshi Nakamoto. In an Oct. 24 tweet from Hoegner, the general counsel called a recent article from crypto media platform Coingeek which stated Tether had pulled funding from McCormack in his legal battle against Wright “a lie.” Coingeek is owned by Calvin Ayre, a high-profile supporter of Wright who backs his claims that Wright is the creator of Bitcoin (BTC). “Tether supports Peter McCormack and …

In the days preceding Bitcoin’s latest rise in price, stablecoins went wild, exhibiting some largely unprecedented behavior. On October 18, stablecoins moving to exchanges reached record highs of 60,000 and 56,000 respectively, according to data from CryptoQuant. The outlet's data tracked USDT on Ethereum, PAX, USDC, TUSD, DAI, SAI, BUSD, HUSD and USDK. When it comes to the total inflow of all stablecoins in terms of the dollar value, no extraordinary trends were detected. CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju told Cointelegraph that, although the inflows were not huge in terms of dollar value, they signified a bullish trend among retail …

The Tether (USDT) Treasury has minted almost half a billion new USDT tokens and distributed more than 185 million tokens to exchanges and other addresses in the last 36 hours. As shown by blockchain tracker Whale Alert, two transactions of 150 million and 300 million USDT tokens were minted on Oct. 20 and Oct. 21, respectively. The first 150 million was printed only hours before Paypal’s announcement and the Bitcoin (BTC) price rally that followed. Although some raised the usual allegations of market manipulation in response to Whale Alert’s tweets, both transactions were acknowledged by Tether chief technical officer Paolo …

The latest data from analytics providers suggest that cumulative Tether transaction volume has just surpassed $600 billion as it begins to dominate crypto exchange trading. On-chain analytics provider Glassnode has revealed that Tether transaction volume increased by around 20% over the past 30 days to reach that new cumulative milestone. Cumulative $USDT Transaction Volume just went above 600,000,000,000 USDT. Current value: 600,000,880,895 USDT View metric:https://t.co/az0Gbp07tR pic.twitter.com/LMzh9hqFGG — glassnode alerts (@glassnodealerts) October 14, 2020 It should be noted, however, that this is a cumulative figure and not the daily transaction volume which is closer to $35 billion according to an average …

Tether’s (USDT) stablecoin has been the leading base pair for cryptocurrencies for over eighteen months. This is a rather impressive feat given the ongoing court case with the New York Attorney General and the other frequent rumors that USDT is not sufficiently backed or subject to regulators' reach. USDT has also been the dominant stablecoin in China even though the country banned cryptocurrency exchanges in 2017. This is because large exchanges like Binance, Huobi and OKEx turned to the stablecoin as their leading base pair. It’s also worth noting that competitors like USD Coin (USDC), TrueUSD (TUSD), and Paxos Standard …

A new report predicts Tether could surpass Ether’s market cap by the end of next year, paving the way to mainstream adoption of stablecoins and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). According to Bloomberg’s Crypto Outlook report for Q4 2020 written by Senior Commodity Strategist Mike McGlone, Tether (USDT) is likely to take the number two position by market capitalization from Ether (ETH) in 2021. The report cited the “stagnant market cap” of ETH, which currently stands at $43.2 billion but remained under $30 billion for most of 2019 and 2020, before getting a boost from DeFi in late July. USDT’s …