Tether (USDT) is now available on Aave, a non-custodial lending platform formerly known as ETHLend. The top stablecoin by market capitalization appears to be signaling its move into Ethereum (ETH) decentralized finance (DeFi). Tether shared an announcement on the development with Cointelegraph on March 10. USDT Aave’s existing offering of DAI, USDC, TUSD and sUSD stablecoins. Paolo Ardoino, CTO at Tether, told Cointelegraph: “I believe that DeFi is one of the most promising markets or technologies that are rising at the moment. The entire ability of having on-chain exchanges and loan issuance is a key element of growth for the …

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 …

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: …

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 …

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 …

With increasing speculation in the crypto community that cryptocurrency markets are on the cusp of the next major bull season, it can be easy to lose sight of the maturation that the crypto ecosystem has undergone to get to the present moment. When comparing the current crypto markets against the climate preceding the previous bull run, many top markets have seen volume gains by a factor of multiple thousands, evidencing a significant expansion in market liquidity. Daily BTC trade up 519 times since 2017 As of Feb. 15, 2017, Bitcoin (BTC) was the single-most traded crypto asset, having generated $89.76 …

Chainalysis is rolling out a global compliance solution for Tether (USDT), a Feb. 12 press release announced. The stablecoin’s issuer is now able to identify “high risk” transactions occurring on its network. The tracking is made possible by Chainalysis’ Know Your Transaction (KYT) suite, which allows token issuers to monitor the activity of their assets. The real-time Anti-Money Laundering (AML) solution assists compliance efforts by tracking the entire chain of a token’s life, from issuance to redemption. KYT provides both an API and a user interface to track suspicious activity, with various filtering tools. Preparing for regulators Tether representatives did …

Leading stablecoin operator Tether launched its U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin USDT on the Algorand proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain. In a press release on Feb. 10, Tether announced that USDT on Algorand will feature confirmation times as low as four seconds and transaction fees of a fraction of a percent. Tether chief technology officer Paolo Ardoino said: “Our latest collaboration with Algorand leverages the speed and security of Algorand’s protocol to give traders fast settlement and reduced counterparty risk in their fiat to digital asset transactions.” When asked whether Tether plans to launch USDT on more blockchains, Ardoino told Cointelegraph that the firm …

Binance’s futures platform is launching a Zcash (ZEC)–Tether (USDT) perpetual contract with maximum leverage of up to 50x. An announcement from the exchange on Feb. 4 revealed that trading for the new ZEC/USDT contract will go live at 8.00 a.m. on Feb. 5. In a bid to prevent market manipulation, Binance says it has chosen to set a pricing limit of ±1% on the mark price within the first 15 minutes after trading begins. Perpetual vs. traditional futures As reported, when the Binance Futures platform launched — offering maximum leverage of as high as 125x — the exchange emphasized it …