Tether is now running on a sidechain of Bitcoin’s blockchain. While Tether has traditionally operated on the Omni Layer of Bitcoin, the United States dollar-backed stablecoin has begun spreading to other blockchain protocols this month. Most recently, Tether is now being offered on blockchain company BlockStream’s Liquid Network sidechain, according to an official announcement on July 29. According to the announcement, Liquid-based Tether — called Liquid USDT — is being offered immediately for deposits and withdrawals on Bitfinex. Additionally, the staff at Liquid are reportedly developing support for Liquid USDT on a number of other affiliated crypto exchanges, including OKEx, …

Justice Joel M. Cohen of the New York Supreme Court (NYSC) has ruled to extend the preliminary injunction in the ongoing case of crypto exchange Bitfinex and Tether’s parent company, iFinex, against the New York Attorney General (NYAG), on July 29. Cohen reportedly decided to give a 90 day extension to the case, which apparently means that OAG can continue investigating. Lawyers of Tether tried to appeal to dismiss the motion immediately, but Cohen rejected their appeal. Speaking before the court, iFinex also argued that the court does not have subject matter jurisdiction because Tether is not a security or …

United States-based traders can still purportedly access Bitfinex’s cryptocurrency trading services, despite recent claims that the firm is not active in the state. An anonymous source told blockchain and crypto news agency The Block that they were able to access Bitfinex from within the borders of the state of New York, according to a July 26 report. Per The Block, the unnamed trader created an account with the tongue-in-cheek username “ImaNYresident”, and subsequently gained access to the platform by simply selecting a query stating that they are not a U.S. resident. Bitfinex discontinued services for U.S.-based customers in August 2017 …

Lawyers for Bitfinex and Tether, in the course of an ongoing case against the New York Attorney General (NYAG), submitted multiple fillings on July 22 alleging that the companies never served customers within New York. In one filing, attorney Stuart Hoegner noted the provision in Bitfinex’s terms of service that require that customers that transact be foreign entities: “Under Bitfinex’s and Tether’s Terms of Service, Eligible Contract Participants (‘ECPs’) that transact with Bitfinex or Tether must be foreign entities. Although those foreign entities may have shareholders or personnel who reside in, or otherwise have contact with, the United States or …

Are Bitfinex and Tether in trouble? Maybe, but the thing is, we don't know just how much trouble, because the stablecoin issuer has challenged the New York State Office of the Attorney General's (OAG) case against them. In claims filed in April, Attorney General Letitia James asserted that Bitfinex defrauded its customers, having lost $850 million in client and corporate funds, and then having attempted to cover up this loss by secretly helping itself to around $900 million of Tether's cash reserves. Serious charges, but they're denied by Bitfinex and Tether’s parent company, iFinex, which responded in April that the …

The Tether (USDT) stablecoin is about to be released on its fifth blockchain, Algorand, the company announced in a tweet published on July 17. Tether on a ‘pure’ proof-of-stake blockchain In a press release concerning the upcoming release of the stablecoin on the Algorand blockchain published by Tether, the company explains some characteristics of the chain. According to Tether, Algorand is trying to develop a “public, permissionless proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain with an open-source approach.” Tether’s chief technology officer, Paolo Ardoino, commented on the development, saying: “Extending Tether into the Algorand ecosystem is a fantastic opportunity for us to further contribute …

Coming every Sunday, the Hodler’s Digest will help you track every single important news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions, and much more — a week on Cointelegraph in one link. Top Stories This Week Trump tweets opposition to crypto, specifically Libra and Bitcoin Shrinking violet Donald Trump doesn’t often share his views, so it was refreshing to see him share an opinion for once on Twitter. The United States president declared that he isn’t a fan of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies — telling his 61.9 million followers they …

Stablecoin operator Tether accidentally minted and subsequently burned 5 billion USDT tokens, Whale Alert tweeted on July 13. Whale Alert — a Twitter account dedicated to reporting large cryptocurrency transactions — noted that 50 million USDT tokens were transferred from cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex to the Tether Treasury via the Omni protocol on the Bitcoin (BTC) blockchain. The account subsequently reported that Tether Treasury minted 5 billion USDT tokens on the Tron blockchain, after which it burned them. Then, Tether minted another 50 million USDT on the same chain, burned another 4.5 billion USDT, and finally transferred 50 million Tron-based USDT …

New York-based Metropolitan Commercial Bank has shut down accounts associated with stablecoin issuer Tether, Coindesk reported on July 10. Tether and its affiliated companies reportedly had accounts with Metropolitan Commercial Bank for almost half a year, and now the financial institution has reportedly closed those accounts following a request in 2018. A bank spokesperson told Coindesk that Tether has not shown much activity with the accounts since their establishment: “Metropolitan Commercial Bank had limited, corporate operating accounts with Tether Holdings LTD, iFinex Inc, and Digfinex Inc, all with negligible activity, and requested the accounts to be closed after less than …

The office of the New York Attorney General (OAG) has claimed that crypto exchange Bitfinex and stablecoin firm Tether have been operating in New York into 2019, according to official documents filed in the New York State Courts on June 8. The OAG has submitted these documents to fight Bitfinex and Tether’s motion to dismiss the case, a motion filed in May. The defendants argued that the case should be thrown out because they were not operating their businesses in New York. They noted that the OAG had appealed to the Martin Act in bringing their case against the defendants, …

There is perhaps no other crypto asset more subject to scrutiny and accusations of impropriety than the Tether stablecoin. The startup behind the coin has been blamed for market manipulation while its business dealings and accounting practices have stirred up many concerns. Critics argue that Tether lacks transparency, possibly engages in criminal activity and does not have the financial backing that it claims. These accusations are somewhat vindicated by the current case by the New York Attorney General (NYAG) against the business and its owner, iFinex, which is also the owner of the Bitfinex cryptocurrency exchange. Potentially adding fuel to …

Major cryptocurrency exchange Binance has announced that it is switching from Omni-based addresses to ERC-20-based addresses in customer wallets for the stablecoin tether (USDT), according to an official announcement on July 3. In order to make the switch, Binance says that there is a 30-minute downtime planned for USDT withdrawals and deposits on July 4, beginning at 08:00 a.m. (UTC). The announcement notes that Ethereum’s ERC-20 based addresses will be the standard from now on, and exchange users will not be able to withdraw Omni-based USDT; however, Omni-based USDT can still be deposited by sending tether to old Omni-based USDT …