E Pluribus Unum: Four Class-Action Suits Against Bitfinex Over 2017 BTC Price Now One

The four class-action suits against Bitfinex, Tether and parent company iFinex over alleged market manipulation leading to Bitcoin’s (BTC) 2017 bull market have been consolidated — with implications for every BTC buyer since April 2017. The original allegations and controversy surrounding Bitfinex, Tether The class-action suits against iFinex and its daughter companies crypto exchange Bitfinex and stablecoin operator Tether allege that those companies worked together to create Bitcoin’s infamous price bubble at the end of 2017.

The relationship between iFinex, Bitfinex and Tether has been the source of considerable controversy, with one of the complaints in this class-action including the below schema (BFXWW and BFXNA are the names of Bitfinex’s legal registration):  Source: Ebanks v. iFinex Ebanks’ complaint alleges that the relationship between these entities was deliberately opaque to allow illegal activity, explaining:  “Despite defendants’ best efforts, the close interconnections between Tether and Bitfinex were exposed, in part, through the leak of documents from offshore legal services provider Appleby (colloquially dubbed the “Paradise Papers” leak) in November 2017.” In that case, the attorney general believes that Bitfinex used its revenue to cover an $850 million dollar loss from Tether’s reserves, which are designed to back its stablecoin USDT 1-to-1 with the United States Dollar.

Timeline of Tether, Bitcoin