This morning, a class action lawsuit was filed against iFinex companies, Bitfinex and Tether claiming they have caused over 1 trillion in damages. To those who follow the companies, this comes as no surprise. Just last week they released statements about how “mercenary lawyers” were going to sue them based off of “bogus studies.”
Lawyers in the case against iFinex are the same ones who took Craig Wright down in Florida. The plaintiffs accuse Bitfinex and Tether of running a fraudulent pump-and-dump and money laundering scheme.
“This action concerns a sophisticated scheme that coopted a disruptive innovation — cryptocurrency — and used it to defraud investors, manipulate markets, and conceal illicit proceeds.”
Bitfinex and Tether’s defense
In nearly identical statements released by Bitfinex and Tether last week, they claimed to expect a lawsuit based off of an “unpublished and non-peer reviewed paper.” Using words like “vigorously disputes” and “flawed assumptions,” the companies held a very offensive stance.
iFinex companies implied in the press releases that the lawsuit against them was undermining the entire digital token community. Though they had many colorful words to say, they provided no evidence to back anything up.
Community responses
Crypto Loomdart, a popular trader in the community pointed out that the lawsuit insinuated that price is lower now than it would have been without the manipulation.
Reading the bitfinex lawsuit is uhh….. well….. https://t.co/ClJUw1u4eY
they're referencing balance analysis and that research paper from 2018, both of which are rarely ever mentioned by even the tether haters because of how laughable they are pic.twitter.com/yXcuKSjWE7
— Loomdart (@loomdart) October 7, 2019
Others are under the impression that tether is one of the only things that can make Bitcoin pump
“Only Tether can pump bitcoin by printing”
