Bitfinex calls $1.4 trillion Tether lawsuit 'meritless and mercenary'

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iFinex, the parent company of crypto exchange Bitfinex and Tether, is facing a lawsuit accusing them of manipulating the market.

Five traders claiming class members suffered $1.4 trillion in damages filed the lawsuit, which Bitfinex called "Meritless and mercenary."

Official court documents, Freedman and Roche claim Bitfinex violated the Commodities Exchange and federal RICO statute and organized a sophisticated scheme to defraud investors, manipulate markets, and conceal "Illicit profits." The plaintiffs also claimed Tether has a monopoly over the stablecoin market in the U.S. and has violated the New York City Trade Practices act.

The lawsuit is based on the claim that the circulating supply of Tether's USDT isn't backed by fiat currency, as the company has claimed.

From 2017 through 2018, Tether allegedly printed 2.8 billion USDT and used it to flood the Bitfinex exchange and purchase other cryptocurrencies, which artificially inflated demand and caused prices to skyrocket.

"Their liability to the putative class likely surpasses $1.4 trillion U.S. dollars," the lawsuit claims.

Despite the serious accusations laid out in the lawsuit Biftinex seems prepared.

A couple of days before the lawsuit was filed, Bitfinex published a blog post.

Rebutting the claims they anticipated would be brought on by the lawsuit.

Paolo Ardoino, the CTO of Bitfinex and Tether, insinuated that the lawsuit was a "Hit job" from their competitors who fail to realize the amount of effort Bitfinex put into protecting the crypto industry.

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