5 PREFACE
5.0 As of July 22, 2025, there are 162,513,452,583 USDT in circulation.
5.1 1.78 billion new USDT were issued in the seven days before July 23, 2025.
5.11 202 thousand USDT were redeemed in the same time.
5.2 80 billion USDT are on Tron
5.21 77 billion USDT are on Ethereum
5.22 1.8 billion USDT are on Solana
5.23 82 million USDT are on Omni Layer (although, as of August 17 2023, it no longer mints new tokens on Omni Layer.
5.24 39 million are on the Liquid Network
5.25 3 billion tethers have been frozen for law enforcement.
6 POLONIEX
6.0 "The real inflection point for Tether was when Poloniex -- a new exchange, tiny exchange -- integrated Tether as its fiat option." -Phil Potter, Tether co-founder and former CSO.
6.1 Poloniex exchange is announced by Tristan D'Agosta on January 18 2014.
6.11 aka busoni
6.12 Polienx adds the Trollbox.
6.13 A vulnerability on Poloniex leads to a loss of 12.3% of BTC held by the exchange.
6.131 busoni socializes the loss: "The exchange funds are 12.3% short. Because there is not enough BTC to cover everyone's balances, all balances will temporarily be deducted by 12.3%."
6.132 Most users seem to be okay with it.
6.133 busoni runs a poll about users' preferred method of recovering funds: sell shares of Poliniex, dividends paid from exchange fees is the clear winner.
6.2 February 16, 2015 Poloniex adds Tether.
6.21 "Tether is now live on the @Poloniex Exchange" says Tether.
6.22 March 24 2015 superresistant asks "Also, anyone using USDT (tether) ? How do you withdraw ? Tether is not even working, it's still in beta and I can't access it."
6.23 "Tethers can be obtained at Tether.to, Bitfinex, Poloniex, Expresscoin, and Crypto Next, with more exchanges and wallets coming soon." -March 9 2015
6.231 Tether's website says "Tether currency is backed 100% by actual fiat currency assets in our reserve account and always maintains a one-to-one ratio with any currency held. For example 1 USD₮ = 1 USD. With almost zero conversion and transfer fees, Tether currency is redeemable for cash at any time."
6.24 Tether claims 50,000 USD 24 hour volume.
6.25 Reeve Collins, CEO of Tether, is on Trace Mayer's The Bitcoin Knowledge Podcast.
6.26 Tether integrates with GoCoin
6.27 Tether is available on ShapeShift.
6.28 Tether integrates with Cryptsy Exchange.
6.3 "Margin Trading on Poloniex is here." -May 18, 2015
6.31 Poloniex shotgun kyc's their users on May 21, 2015.
6.32 Tristan D'Agosta releases open letter explaining kyc changes.
6.41 Bitfinex confirms the hacker swept the bitcoin to this address: 17owg8RWb73qfE5HeQk6gg6RAgEUfxPXks
6.411 Bitfinex says the amounts are "relatively small and easily absorbed" by the company.
6.42 Tether issues 200,000 new Tethers
6.5 Poloniex adds Ethereum/Bitcoin and Ethereum/Tether markets on August 6, 2015
6.51 Tether issues 500,000 new Tethers
6.6 By January 2016, Poloniex reaches 100k users.
6.61 There are now 1.45 million Tethers in circulation.
6.7 Tether mints 3 million new Tethers on or around June 15, 2016.
6.8 The DAO is hacked on June 17, 2016.
6.81 Poloniex sees "unprecedented traffic" due to the events.
6.82 User AtlasRand1 on Reddit doesn't like the Trollbox function on Poloniex.
6.9 "All of a sudden Poloniex was doing crazy volume." - Phil Potter
6.91 Poloniex only trades cryptocurrencies -- you can't withdraw to fiat (but you can trade to Tether).
7 RAZZLEKHAN AND DUTCH
7.0 In August 2016 almost 120,000 bitcoins are stolen from Bitfinex.
7.1 The hacker used a number of advanced hacking tools and techniques to gain access to Bitfinex’s network.
7.11 “The bitcoin was stolen from users’ segregated wallets,” -Zane Tackett, Director of Community & Product Development for Bitfinex
7.12 The hacker was Ilya Lichtenstein.
7.121 aka Dutch
7.13 Lichtenstein co-founded MixRank.
7.131 MixRank "reveals your competitors' campaigns showing you exactly what's working for them. See their most successful ad copy, landing pages, and traffic sources across 93,000 sites."
7.132 Techcrunch calls MixRank a spytool for AdSense.
7.14 Lichenstein is an advisor for SalesFolk.
7.2 SalesFolk was founded by Heather Morgan.
7.21 SalesFolk says "One bad sales email can kill your chances with an entire account. Don’t risk it with stale, canned email templates or sloppy copy."
7.22 Heather Morgan is an expert "in persuasion, social engineering, and game theory."
7.221 aka Razzlekhan
7.222 aka Versace Bedouin
7.223 aka Crocodile of Wallstreet
7.23 Morgan says she has written more than 10,000 cold emails.
7.24 Morgan was writing blog posts about Bitcoin in 2014.
7.25 Awkwafina was interviewed by Morgan.
7.3 Lichtenstein says that he was solely responsible for the Bitfinex hack.
7.31 Lichtenstein says his wife, Morgan, "didn't even know about it for years."
7.311 Morgan says "Who ACTUALLY responds positively to cold calls in 2018? I feel like it's the same people who hackers/scammers can successfully social-engineer... no? #nomorecoldcalls"
7.32 Lichtenstein says "Razzlekhan is not the Bitfinex hacker. I am."
7.321 Morgan says "I guess you can compare cold emails to phishing attacks too, but cold calls feel too similar (or have the potential to be) to call scammers"
7.33 Lichtenstein says "Believe me, I am more than capable of hacking a cryptocurrency exchange by myself."
7.34 Lichtenstein also says "But my days of malicious hacking are over."
7.35 Lichtenstein plans to dedicate himself to working in the cybersecurity industry when he is released.
7.4 Lichtenstein steps back from MixRank in May 2016.
7.41 Morgan steps back from SalesFolk in early 2018.
7.411 "I had legal threats, learned that dishonest employees that were fudging numbers, and people I once deeply respected were trying to bully and shame me into removing content I had published that I firmly believed the public needed to see. " -Heather Morgan
7.42 Morgan releases audio-only version of her first track "Versace Bedouin."
7.421 "It’s an absurdist stoner story, similar to the likes of Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle, but underneath is an allegory of Silicon Valley, chock-full of symbolism." -Heather Morgan
7.43 Razzlekhan's tracks include DIPLOMAT PU$$¥, VACUUM CLEANER, PHO KING BADD BHECH, and SAASHOLES among others.
7.44 Description of Morgan's song Razzlekhan vs The United States: "Inspired by Razzlekhan's bizarre real experiences throughout the Bitfinex hack case, the music video blends sexy surrealism with cringe memes for your eyes to feast on."
7.5 Bitfinex posts an announcement about the hack on August 2, 2016.
7.51 Bitcoin's price drops 20% the day the hack is disclosed.
7.52 Bitfinex halts all trading, withdrawals, and deposits.
7.53 Bitfinex takes down its site.
7.6 Bitfinex on August 5, 2016: "we are leaning towards a socialized loss scenario among bitcoin balances and active loans to BTCUSD positions."
7.61 Bitfinex on August 6, 2016: "After much thought, analysis, and consultation, we have arrived at the conclusion that losses must be generalized across all accounts and assets. This is the closest approximation to what would happen in a liquidation context. Upon logging into the platform, customers will see that they have experienced a generalized loss percentage of 36.067%."
7.611 NYTimes reporter Nathaniel Popper later claims that Coinbase got a better deal after threatening to sue.
7.62 Bitfinex also announces creation of BFX token to "record each customer's discrete losses."
7.621 "BFX tokens will remain outstanding until redeemed in full by Bitfinex or possibly exchanged—upon the creditor’s request and Bitfinex’s acceptance—for shares of iFinex Inc." -Bitfinex
7.622 Bitfinex employee Zane Tackett posts 5% bounty for recovery of stolen coins on Reddit.
7.63 August 7, 2016: Bitfinex site is relaunched.
7.631 Tether deposits and withdrawals are resumed on August 13, 2016.
7.7 Bitfinex announces that "Ledger Labs Inc., a top blockchain forensics and technology firm, is undertaking an analysis of our systems to determine exactly how the security breach occurred and to make our system’s design better going forward. We engaged Ledger Labs in the hours immediately after the attack happened. The investigation is ongoing. We are also in the process of engaging Ledger Labs to perform an audit of our complete balance sheet for both cryptocurrency and fiat assets and liabilities."
7.71 When asked about the "audit of our complete balance sheet" on Reddit, the folks at Ledger Labs claim they can't respond because of NDAs, because they are very busy.
7.72 Another Reddit user points out that they seem to have time to post in r/showerthoughts
7.8 Bitfinex signs a letter of intent with BnktotheFuture: "Bitfinex and BnkToTheFuture will be structuring a deal to allow qualifying customers to exchange their BFX tokens for equity in iFinex Inc. via a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV)"
7.81 On September 1, 2016, Bitfinex announces redemption of 1.1812% of BFX Tokens
7.82 On September 30, 2016, Bitfinex announces redemption of 1.3152% of outstanding BFX tokens.
7.83 BFX token to iFinex equity conversion update "THIS IS NOT A SOLICITATION. Any participation in any SPV is void where prohibited by applicable law. Interested users can enable the Conversion wallet."
7.84 Giancarlo Devasini posts "Message to the individual responsible for the Bitfinex security incident of August 2, 2016" Devasini says "Our interest here is not to accuse, blame or make demands, but rather to discuss an arrangement that we think you will find interesting."
7.841 Ilya Lichtenstein does not respond.
7.842 Neither does Razzlekhan.
7.85 Bitfinex "More than 20 million BFX tokens have been thus exchanged for shares of iFinex; all tokens exchanged for shares have been destroyed by us."
7.851 Recovery Rights Token announced.
7.8511 "In the event of any recovery of the bitcoins stolen from Bitfinex, the first priority will be to use any recovery amounts to repay the then-outstanding or unconverted BFX tokens. If there are any excess recovered amounts after all outstanding BFX tokens have been redeemed at full face value, the recovered funds will be distributed to RRT holders."
7.8512 "Subscriptions received on or before October 7 were provided with one RRT for each BFX token converted into shares of iFinex. Those subscribing on or after October 8 but before November 1 will be entitled to one-half an RRT for each BFX token converted into shares. Subscriptions received after October 31 up to and including November 30 will receive one-quarter of an RRT per BFX token converted to shares. After November 30, no RRTs will be offered to subscribers."
7.8513 Here is the investment overview deck.
7.852 Giancarlo Devasini comes on Whalepool to talk about RRT.
7.853 Bitfinex works with a marketing firm called Eco Strategic Communications.
7.86 On November 2, 2016, Bitfinex announces redemption of 1.5% of outstanding BFX tokens.
7.9 Zane Tackett: "I Have Resigned from Bitfinex."
7.91 "I have decided to resign because of the draining nature of dealing with the insane conspiracy theories, the vile people, and the incessant vitriol spewed at a team who have dedicated their life to bitcoin and creating the world’s best trading platform."
7.92 "As a personal anecdote, I visited Giancarlo, our CFO, in July and we had a little get together with Bitfinex employees. On a Saturday at 1:00am Giancarlo is sitting off by himself while we’re all mingling and for probably an hour he sat there and went through all of the pending withdrawals. Paolo, our CTO, he’s a terminator, I can send him questions at 3:00am and get a response within minutes, always. I’ll see him making commits at 4am and handling a support ticket at 8am the next morning. I’ve never met anyone who even comes close to working as hard as Paolo. Our CEO joins the weekly developer calls even though it often runs to 1:00am or later in Asia where he is located."
8 BITFINEX'ED
8.0 Between December 28 2016 and January 4 2017, 8 million new Tethers are minted, more than doubling supply to 14.95 million.
8.01 By February 1, 2017 10 million more Tether are minted, bringing supply to 24.95 million.
8.02 By March 8, 2017 another 10 million Tether have been minted, bringing supply to 34.95 million.
8.021 Bitfinex claims to be the "Only Billion Dollar Cyrptocurrencies Exchange" in the world (based on 30-day trading volume).
8.03 By March 22, 2017 another 10 million Tether have been minted, bringing supply to 44.95 million.
8.04 By March 29, 2017 another 10 million Tether have been minted, bringing supply to 54.95 million.
8.041 Bitfinex announces $2 billion in 30-day trading volume.
8.1 On March 31, 2017 Bitfinex's primary financial institution in Taiwan, KGI Bank, says that Wells Fargo will no longer service US correspondent accounts for the benefit of Bitfinex and its affiliated entities (eg Tether).
8.11 On April 1, 2017 a Twitter user asks Bitfinex "Are funds secure?"
8.111 Bitfinex responds: "Yes, all balances are in place. This is a display issue only."
8.11 On April 3, 2017, Wells Fargo tells Bitfinex that Wells will only communicate with their client, KGI Bank.
8.111 Bitfinex's lawyers respond "Continued delay in resolving this matter will create a substantial interference with our client’s
ability to operate their business and presents an existential threat to the company."
8.12 On April 3, 2017 Bitfinex announces "100% Redemption of Outstanding BFX Tokens"
8.121 "A combination of factors has led to this seminal moment for Bitfinex, including a dramatic uptick in equity conversions; record operating results in March; and, the decision to reduce our reserves in favor of this opportunity."
8.122 "At 20:00:00 UTC today (April 3, 2017)...Platform-wide, we will be pausing withdrawals, wallet movements, margin liquidations, and automatic settlement of negative balances while the settlement process is running (this process is estimated to last approximately 25 min)."
8.13 On April 4, 2017 Bitfinex informs Wells that they "intend to go to court tomorrow in the Northern District of California."
8.11 Reddit posts that USD withdrawals are not working at Bitfinex.
8.14 On April 5, 2017 Bitfinex files for a temporary restraining order against Wells Fargo.
8.15 April 7, 2017 Bitfinex says "We do not bank with Wells Fargo; they serve as a correspondent bank only. Funds are not frozen. This isn't a regulatory action."
8.151 AtlasRand1 posts a Law360 page about the Wells lawsuit, claiming $180 million belonging to Bitfinex and Tether are "frozen." Other users push back noting that Wells is a correspondant bank, not Bitfinex or Tether's bank.
8.152 "AtlasRand1 has nothing better to do than spread FUD All day. Look at his history." -Reddit user bitniyen
8.153 "Please don't post misleading and damaging headlines like this " -brucefenton
8.154 "the money though does not seem to be lost or frozen like i originally thought but this can still affect bitcoin prices if people can't deposit to buy" -AtlasRand1
8.155 April 8, 2017 "Intermediate bank blocking international transfers happened to MtGox back in June 2013. It is a difficult situation to be in." -MagicalTux
8.1551 aka Mark Karpeles
8.1552 aka Founder of Mt Gox
8.156 April 9 2017 Karpeles responds to Buttcoin thread "Mark Carpeles offers counsel and consolation to his spiritual brethren at Bitfinex" by saying "I'm afriad there isn't much consolation to be offered" and "You see how well it went for MtGox. By the way our lawyers at the time dismissed trying to sue the intermediate bank as the worst thing we could possibly do."
8.16 On April 9, 2017 AtlasRand1 on Reddit posts "All Known Bitfinex Lawsuit Information."
8.17 "how do you convert tether to usd...with bitfinex. bitfinex = tether" -AtlasRand1
8.17 On April 10, 2017 Twitter user @Bitfinexed makes their first post with a screenshot of the Bitfinex v Wells lawsuit and a link to the Reddit thread.
8.171 "yes i am atlasrand1 on reddit not a sock" -Bitfinexed
8.172 Bitfinexed says "I have no BTC or USD on Finex but could not ignore the withdrawal issue and not warn people about it. It's a massive fundamental issue."
8.173 On April 10, 2017 The Merkle News publishes an article claiming Wells Fargo "froze" $180 million of Bitfinex customer assets, however, on Reddit, Bitfinex employees clarify that no Bitfinex money is held at Wells and that Wells "has chosen to block wire transfers between us and our customers which we are challenging in court."
8.174 "No USD withdrawals from Bitfinex. Only way out of Bitfinex is to buy Bitcoins. BTC withdrawals unaffected, currently." -Bitfinexed
8.175 Bitfinexed posts a chart of the USD/BTC price on Bitfinex and says the sudden increase in BTC's price is not a coincidence, saying later "Price will not reverse for a while. Largest bitcoin exchange is unable to process USD withdrawals and this is artificially inflating"
8.18 Bitfinex withdraws complaint against Wells Fargo.
8.181 Phil Potter gives 45 minute interview on Whalepool.io
8.182 Potter says "We have 201 waiting on wires. The top ten comprise 8.7 million dollars. The bottom 50% are wires for less than $10k."
8.183 Potter says "At the end of the day, we realized that Wells Fargo can do this if they want. It does bring into question the long term viability of bitcoin trading versus us dollars."
8.184 Potter says "It's going to become increasingly difficult to run US dollar markets from outside the United States. And even within the United States the headaches in banking are really substantial."
8.185 Potter also says "No, Tether is not iFinex, but we bank with the same banks and we've actually, part of our effort with Wells Fargo, we just want to explain to that Tether is not a cryptocurrency exchange. But it is an MSB."
8.19 On April 13, 2017 Bitfinex posts this update: "There is currently no ETA on full normalization of USD wires, but we are working hard to provide alternatives to our customers and will continue to provide updates as we progress. Notably, we can process withdrawals in other currencies, namely, Hong Kong Dollars (HKD) and Swiss Francs (CHF)."
8.191 "Bitfinex is not insolvent. In fact, completing the BFX Token redemption process on April 3rd has paved the way for us to retain a major accounting firm to audit our balance sheet. We are in active discussions with several candidates and expect an announcement on this by the end of this month." -Bitfinex
8.192 On April 17, 2016 Bitfinex announces that its Tawainese banking partners are refusing deposits: "Beginning April 18, 2017, all incoming wires to Bitfinex will be blocked and refused by our Taiwan banks. This applies to all fiat currencies at the present time. Accordingly, we ask customers to avoid sending incoming wires to us until further notice, effective immediately."
8.193 On Twitter Bitfinex adds: "Cryptocurrency deposits and withdrawals are processing normally. Swiss Franc and Hong Kong Dollar withdrawals are working, as well."
8.194 Bitfinex issues correction: "We were advised by our banks that we would be able to process outbound wires in HKD and CHF, and while we were able to successfully process several such transactions, we are now being told that the moratorium is being extended to these currencies, as well."
8.1941 However: "Domestic transfers in all currencies within Taiwan, however, are working with no problems or delays."
8.195 BTC-E "Due to change banking account we don't accept USD wire transfers till the end of the month"
8.1951 BTC-E "Added new withdrawal method Tether USD"
8.196 Okcoin: "Starting from today (April 18, 2017) Okcoin would temporarily suspend USD deposit because of the issues with intermediary banks."
8.197 As of April 26, 2017 Tether's website says "Tether Platform currencies are 100% backed by actual fiat currency assets in our reserve account. Tethers are redeemable and exchangeable pursuant to Tether Limited’s terms of service. The conversion rate is 1 tether USD₮ equals 1 USD."
8.1971 It also says: "The Tether Platform is fully reserved when the sum of all tethers in circulation is greater than or equal to the balance of fiat currency held in our reserve. Through our Transparency page, anyone can view both of these numbers in near real-time."
8.2 "Curious correlation between increase in Tether supply and Bitfinex paying back BFXTokens from the hack" -Wojtek Palczynski
8.21 April 16, 2017 Bitfinexed asks about Ledger Labs audit of Tether "Did you guys audit Bitfinex in August 2016? What were the results of the audit of their books?"
8.211 Ledger responds "Hi - Bitfinex has updated their previous post with a clarification about our role"
8.212 A footnote is added to Bitfinex's blogpost about engaging Ledger Labs (see 7.7).
8.22 By April 17, 2017 A 6% price difference in bitcoin exists between Bitfinex / Poloniex and other exchanges.
8.23 Bitmex "we are weighting Bitfinex to 0 in the .BXBT Index, effective 1600 UTC today (30 minutes from the time of their post).
8.24 Bitfinexed tweets a picture of Tether's terms of service, saying "Tethers are not USD. THEY ARE NOT MONEY. STOP USING THEM."
8.241 "There is no contractual right or other right or legal claim against us to redeem or exchange your Tethers for money. We do not guarantee any right of redemption or exchange of Tethers by us for money. There is no guarantee against losses when you buy, trade, sell, or redeem Tethers." screenshot
8.242 Bitfinex says "Every Bitfinex user’s deposit is always held on deposit in our regulated financial institutions, dollar for dollar."
8.243 "There is no guarantee because the right of redemption cannot be automatic, in our view. For example, if the person seeking to redeem Tethers were on the OFAC (SDN) list, we would not redeem." -GamingCounsel
8.2431 aka Stu Hoegner, General Counsel at Bitfinex
8.244 Hoegner wrote a blog for Pokerati.
8.245 His first blog post about Bitcoin is from March 28, 2013.
8.246 Before this, he published "Cash Is Not King: Thoughts on Financial Transactions in Internet Gaming" in 2011.
8.2461 He devotes a small section to Bitcoin at the end of the paper.
8.247 After this, he published The Law of Bitcoin with Jerry Brito in 2015.
8.248 Hoegner was one of the first lawyers in Canada to accept bitcoin payments.
8.25 April 19, 2017 AtlasRand1 is banned from r/BitcoinMarkets because "the extreme volume and repetitive nature of your posting amounts to SPAM"
8.3 Bitfinex is pleased to announce that they have engaged Friedman LLP to complete a comprehensive balance sheet audit.
8.31 Bitfinexed says "liquidity bubble ala mtgox when they lost the ability to send money and people trapped on exchange. 1 way out: buy btc"
8.311 Bitfinexed says "remember kids: if you cant sell your bitcoins for the cash, and get the cash, price isnt real"
8.312 Bitfinexed asks "how do we have $9 million in new Tethers in 3 days when Tether and Bitfinex can't accept deposits?"
8.313 Bitfinexed claims Bitfinex paid of BFX tokens by minting Tethers.
8.314 BitcoinTalk post analysing Tether terms of service notes that "Tethers are redeemable subject to the condition that they're not."
8.3141 To which users york780 replies "Tether was fine until some exchanges like Kraken hate it. Tether to the moon! I expect a Tether pump soon."
8.32 Bitcoin hits an all time high of $1490 USD.
8.321 Jameson Lopp says "Most. Bittersweet. BTC. ATH. Ever."
8.322 Mandrik says "I'll take it. 👍"
8.323 Roland says: This ATH is Bitfinex driven .... not very sustainable imho. Be careful out there!
8.33 BTCE announces they can do international USD wires again.
8.34 Bitfinex says a "one time withdrawal solution" is coming online.
8.341 "Unfortunately, due to the cumbersome nature of the settlement procedure, we are processing these requests in descending order of size as we learn how to handle the process more efficiently. For the time being, we will only process requests above $50,000 in size."
8.342 "We believe that by te time we are able to get to the smaller withdrawals, other, less cumbersome withdrawal solutions will become more widely available."
8.35 By May 24, 2017 there are 69 million Tethers in circulation.
8.36 By May 31, 2017 there are 108 million Tethers in circulation.
8.4 By end of June 2017, there are 217 million Tethers in circulation.
8.41 Bitfinex opens an account at Noble Bank International in Puerto Rico.
8.411 Noble Bank International was publicly launched on May 11, 2017.
8.411 Noble Bank was founded by John Betts.
8.412 Brock Pierce was a co-founder.
8.42 Tether does not have an account at Noble Bank at this time.
8.43 A user on Reddit claims Tether support provided them with a response about who is minting new Tether: "There are Institutional Tether customers that have their own bank accounts in Taiwan that are able to make an internal transfer to their Tether accounts , hence the new Tethers created."
8.5 By end of July 2017, there are 320 million Tethers in circulation.
8.51 "Tether did not have a significant bank relationship in its name from at least March 2017 until September 15, 2017" NY Attorney General Letitia James
8.6 On August 1, 2017 Bitfinexed publishes "Meet Spoofy: How a single entity dominates the price of bitcoin"
8.61 The story alleges "A trader, or a group of traders, or possibly even Bitfinex themselves manipulates the price of Bitcoin." -Bitfinexed
8.611 And also "The exchange rate of Bitcoin has been heavily manipulated as a result of spoofing, wash trading, and other shenanigans."
8.61 This is also the day BCH forks off BTC.
8.62 On August 11, 2017 Bitfinex announces suspension of US individual verification requests
8.621 "Furthermore, over the next 90 days, we will be discontinuing services to our existing U.S. individual customers. We will be communicating further with affected users on timing and specifics. Our intention is to reduce disruption as much as possible for our U.S. customers."
8.622 "Bitfinex will be barring U.S. customers from trading ERC20 tokens issued through "ICOs." That ban will go into effect at noon UTC on Wednesday, August 16, 2017. No trading of these tokens will be allowed for U.S. customers as of that date and time. Please note that nothing in this announcement should be taken as fact or opinion that any such ERC20 tokens are a security pursuant to U.S. law or require regulation under U.S. law."
8.63 "Tether notified Friedman that the company did not have a bank account at Noble Bank (or any other institution) but were in the process of opening one." -Office NY Attorney General Letitia James
8.7 September 11, 2017 Tether announces ERC20 Tether on Ethereum.
8.71 In mid September, "Tether deposited the vast majority of its cash holdings (ostensibly backing USDT) into a trust account at the Bank of Montreal in the name of its General Counsel." -Office of the NY Attorney General Letitia James
8.711 See 8.244
8.712 "Until September 15, 2017, the only U.S. dollars held by Tether ostensibly backing the approximately 442 million tethers in circulation was the approximately $61 million on deposit at the Bank of Montreal." -Office of the NY Attorney General Letitia James.
8.713 "The Bank of Montreal account never had more than $61.5 million dollars on deposit." -Office of the NY Attorney General Letitia James.
8.72 "On the morning of September 15, 2017, Tether opened an account at Noble Bank. Later that day, Bitfinex transferred $382,446,847.71 from Bitfinex’s account at Noble Bank into Tether’s account at Noble Bank." -Office of the NY Attorney General Letitia James.
8.73 "Friedman conducted its verification of Tether’s assets as of 8:00 p.m. EST." -Office of the NY Attorney General Letitia James.
8.8 September 28, 2017 Friedman LLP sends an attestation of Tether balances to "Management of Tether Limited."
8.81 The attestation shows USD balances at a redacted bank for the benefit of Tether Limited.
8.82 These USD balances equal $442,984,592.00
8.83 The attestation says total Tether supply at this time is 442,481,760.00
8.84 Tether publishes a Transparency Update, stating: "As the amount of Tethers in circulation has increased substantially in recent months, we have also asked Friedman to analyze our bank balances and our issued and outstanding token balance on an interim basis."
8.85 By end of September 2017, there are 420 million Tethers in circulation.
8.9 On November 19, 2017 "$30,950,010 USDT was removed from the Tether Treasury wallet and sent to an unauthorized bitcoin address."
8.91 Tether posts about the hack on November 21, 2017.
8.92 This hack happens on the OMNI layer.
8.93 Tether provides new builds of Omni Core to the community. (Omni Core is the software used by Tether integrators to support Omni Layer transactions.)
8.931 "These builds should prevent any movement of the stolen coins from the attacker’s address."
8.932 "We strongly urge all Tether integrators to install this software immediately to prevent the coins from entering the ecosystem."
8.933 "All Tether tokens remain fully backed by assets in the Tether reserve."
8.94 Bitfinex names PR firm 5W its PR Agency of Record.
8.94 Ronn Torassian is CEO of 5WPR.
8.942 "There's a fear going on that the recent price rise was helped by printing of USDT (Tether) that is not backed by USD in a bank account." -SatoshiLite
8.9421 aka Charlie Lee
8.9422 aka the creator of Litecoin.
8.9423 He also says: "I urge @bitfinex and @Tether_to to perform a 3rd party audit to prove their reserves. Please do the right thing. Thanks."
8.943 Bnktothefuture publishes BFX's quarterly report.
8.9431 Bitfinex says "While we have some clear challenges, please note that tens of millions of dollars continue to flow in and out of Bitfinex daily. Although not available to everyone, these fiat flows have been sufficient to keep our market in alignment with other exchanges as we continue to gain market share."
8.9432 Bitfinex says they "have made the decision to disengage from servicing U.S. individuals on our platform."
8.95 On December 3, 2017 Bitfinex engages a law firm to "signaling to those who engage in this activity that they are serious about protecting the truth and their business.”
8.941 “To date, every claim made by these bad actors has been patently false and made simply to agitate the cryptocurrency ecosystem. As a result, Bitfinex has decided to assert all of its legal rights and remedies against this agitator and his associates.” -Stuart Hoegner
8.942 Although Bitfinex does not say at whom their legal efforts are aimed, Ronn Torossian says "I think you can infer who."
8.943 Bloomberg runs an article with the title: "There's an $814 Million Mystery Near the Heart of the Biggest Bitcoin Exchange."
8.9431 "Since there’s $814 million of tether circulating, there should be $814 million parked in bank accounts somewhere."
8.9432 The article describes a person who "said that in early November he tried to cash out $1 million of tether, a request Tether refused."
8.9433 "Due to ongoing banking difficulties we are only able to process requests for verified corporate customers,” Serdar was told by Tether, according to emails he shared with Bloomberg News."
8.9434 "The customer in question was flagged as suspicious because of numerous irregularities,” he added. “If this customer wishes to complete our KYC process properly, we may review this matter further. Until that time, this individual will not be permitted to do business with us."
8.95 "As of December 19, 2017, Tether is enabling limited wallet services, allowing users to login and start withdrawing any funds held in their wallets, as needed. The system is still processing a backlog of transactions sent after the original Nov 19th shutdown, so any user deposits sent in the past month should become available and accessible in their respective wallets over the course of a few days." -Tether Wallet Service and Platform Update
8.951 "Until we are able to migrate to the new platform, the purchase or sale of Tether will not be possible directly through tether.to. For the time being, though, we invite you to use the services of any one of a dozen global exchanges to acquire or dispose of Tethers for either USD or other cryptocurrencies. Such exchanges and other qualified corporate customers can contact Tether directly to arrange for creation and redemption. Sadly, however, we cannot create or redeem tether for any U.S.-based customers at this time."
8.96 On December 17, 2017 Bitcoin hits a new all time high of $19,783.21.
8.97 By the end of 2017, there are more than 1.2 billion Tethers in circulation.
8.971 The number of Tethers in circulation increases from 6.95 million to 1.2 billion during the calendar year 2017.