June 4, 2020 – Bitfinex, Tether, and their related entities today rejected blatantly false allegations made in an amended consolidated class action lawsuit filed in the Southern District of New York.
Stuart Hoegner, General Counsel for Tether, said: “Even after taking three full months to amend their complaint, the plaintiffs’ allegations remain untethered to either the facts or the law. They conflate perceived correlation with causation in an effort to prop up theories that are untrue and unsupportable.”
Plaintiffs’ accusations started with an academic paper whose authors were forced to walk back their central claims. After their first argument fell apart, plaintiffs have dreamed up an unproven conspiracy theory involving three large cryptocurrency exchanges and a secret scheme to manipulate the cryptocurrency market. The only consistency in their arguments is the complete lack of evidence. Plaintiffs cherry pick pieces of information and string them together to weave an elaborate story unsupported by truth or proof.
“While suggesting the sheer size of the demand for Tether coupled with changes in the market clearly led to only one conclusion – market manipulation – plaintiffs disregarded the actual workings and financial backing of Tether, the operations of Bitfinex, general principles of supply and demand, and publicly available research that confirms there was no manipulation,” confirmed Hoegner. “If you see a group of people opening umbrellas, that doesn’t mean that they caused it to rain.”
“Tether is proud to play a critical role in the digital token ecosystem. This meritless lawsuit is an insult to the ingenuity of Tether’s customers, as well as the success and innovation of the industry and all who play a role in it. Bitfinex and Tether will vigorously defend themselves, their customers, their stakeholders, and the crypto community against these unfounded allegations and continue to counter fiction with facts,” said Hoegner.
Completely counter to the allegations, Tether was created to establish stability – not volatility – in the cryptocurrency market. The first financial technology company to issue a “stablecoin,” USDT tokens are pegged 1:1 to the U.S. dollar, backed by Tether’s reserves. The market demand for this stablecoin has increased significantly, with more than nine billion Tether in circulation today. Tether is popular because of its unique combination of innovation, liquidity, and stability.
