Thursday, May 8 — after a brief market falter yesterday following the $40 million hack of major crypto exchange, crypto markets are showing resilience, with bitcoin (BTC) rallying above the $6,000 mark, as Coin360 data shows. Market visualization courtesy of Coin360 Bitcoin is outperforming all of the other top ten cryptocurrencies and has seen 3.4% growth on the day to break back above the psychological price point of $6,000 — for the first time in almost six months (Nov. 14, 2018). To press time, the top coin is trading at $6,086, according to CoinMarketCap. The bullish rally has sealed a …

Embattled cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex confirmed it would conduct a $1 billion so-called initial exchange offering (IEO) in a whitepaper issued on May 8. Bitfinex, which faces ongoing legal scrutiny from authorities who accuse it of losing $850 million, had hinted it would seek to sell its own tokens earlier this month. The release of a formal whitepaper reveals few changes from the original rumors, with the sale of up to 1 billion LEO tokens, each worth 1 tether (USDT), lasting until May 11. Investors will be able to use to tokens for various on-exchange activities, while Bitfinex, if the entire …

Wednesday, May 8 — having just broken new 2019 highs, crypto markets have tipped into red in the wake of yesterday’s $40 million hack of major exchange Binance. Virtually all of the top 20 cryptocurrencies are down up to 9%, yet most losses remain mild, as Coin360 data shows. Market visualization courtesy of Coin360 Despite being the cryptocurrency stolen in the Binance hack, bitcoin (BTC) is itself showing resilience, and is down a fractional 0.9% on the day to trade at $5,882 by press time, according to CoinMarketCap. After a bullish rally to brush the $6,000 mark yesterday, the top …

Tether has been one of the most controversial topics in the cryptocurrency community over the last two years — and things have come to a head over the past few weeks. The wider crypto community has been skeptical of the stablecoin and its claims that it was operating legitimately, due to concerns around its reserve policy. Stablecoins are centralized cryptocurrencies that are typically pegged to a fiat currency like the United States dollar or valuable commodities like oil or gold. Tether (USDT) claimed to be backed by the U.S. Dollar at a 1:1 ratio. For the last two years, industry …

The New York Attorney General cannot bring the full force of its court order against cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex and stablecoin Tether (USDT), cryptocurrency news media outlet CoinDesk reported, quoting a judge on May 6. Following submission of a refute from lawyers representing the co-defendants, New York Supreme Court judge Joel M. Cohen decided the parties should try to resolve their dispute and submit a refined argument. The Attorney General had accused Bitfinex of losing control of $850 million under suspicious circumstances, subsequently using sister company Tether’s reserves to temporarily fill the gap. “What I would suggest you both do is …

The operator of cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex and stablecoin Tether (USDT) is planning to vacate the court order that accuses it of an $850 million funds loss, a document confirmed on May 5. IFinex, which received scrutiny from the New York Attorney General late last month, is now questioning the authority’s legal basis for its accusations. Cryptocurrency markets tumbled on April 26 after the case went public, with Bitfinex alleged to have lost control of $850 million sent to a third party. The exchange, the Attorney General claims, then used USDT reserves to plug its losses. Subsequently, lawyers from Tether confirmed …

Market data resource CoinMarketCap (CMC) has excluded Bitfinex’s price for bitcoin (BTC) from its global average, its website showed on May 6. The embattled exchange’s BTC price was $5,986.60 at press time — almost $300 higher than the current market rate of about $5,692. An asterisk has been placed next to its price on the CMC website to indicate its exclusion. Explaining why some crypto prices and trading volumes are excluded, CMC’s website states: “Some prices are manually excluded from the average, denoted by an asterisk (*) on the markets tab if the price does not seem indicative of a …

Top Stories This Week Fractional Reserve Stablecoin Tether Only 74% Backed by Fiat Currency, Say Lawyers According to documents released by USD stablecoin tether’s (USDT) lawyers, the company behind the stablecoin only has enough fiat reserves to back a little less than three-quarters of its existing supply — 74%. Tether executives had previously publicly promised that each tether was backed one-to-one to the USD, a claim that has been disproven by the lawyers’ document release. The need to release the figures comes from the recent claims by the U.S. attorney general in New York that cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex, which shares …

The New York State Attorney General (NYAG) Letitia James has requested the disclosure of documents concerning an alleged deal made between cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex and stablecoin operator Tether. The NYAG’s memorandum of law was filed on May 3. The memorandum of law calls for more transparency and claims “that Bitfinex and Tether misled their clients and investors.” The statement also explains why the Office of the State Attorney General feels the need to request said documents: “While that and other discrepancies do not change the core issues in this case [...] they only heighten the OAG’s [Office of the Attorney …

Zhao Dong, a shareholder of cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex, has released new promotional material detailing the exchange’s upcoming initial exchange offering (IEO) for up to $1 billion. The information was shared in a tweet from Dong on May 4. The document, allegedly released by iFinex — the company behind Bitfinex and Tether (USDT) — announces the availability of up to 1 billion USDT worth of the exchange’s tokens, dubbed LEO, for purchase. The token described in the marketing document — which specifies that it is not a white paper — is intended to be the utility token at the heart of …

Changes made to the public Application Programming Interface (API) of major cryptocurrency exchange Binance seemingly reveal that the company has enabled margin trading for nine trading pairs. As Cointelegraph previously reported in March, the API had been updated to add two variables. The name of the first added variable is “isSpotTradingAllowed,” while the second is “isMarginTradingAllowed.” The self-explanatory variable names seemingly suggest that Binance is in the midst of implementing margin trading capability. A Reddit user pointed out on May 1 that the isMarginTradingAllowed flag — which was previously disabled for all the pairs — is now enabled for nine …

Thursday, May 2 — yesterday’s mild market movements continues, with most of the top twenty cryptocurrencies seeing mild green on the day at press time with typical growth of between 1 and 3%, as Coin360 data shows. Market visualization courtesy of Coin360 Bitcoin (BTC) is up 1.4% on the day and is trading at $5,455 by press time, according to CoinMarketCap. After a bullish spike at the start of its 7-day chart — with a break above the $5,500 mark on April 26 — the top cryptocurrency swiftly saw a sharp tumble down to below $5,200 that same day. Since …