Tether and Bitfinex confirm USDT is not fully backed by fiat, only 74% of tethers backed with cash

Legal representatives for Bitfinex and Tether confirm the widely held suspicion that USDT is not one-to-one backed by US dollars. Court documents confirm tethers are only 74 percent backed, and those holding tokens are “subject to the risk of default, insolvency, inability to collect, and illiquidity.”

Coming Untethered

In February of 2019, Tether updated the content on its website to specify that USDT reserves “may include other assets and receivables from loans made by Tether to third parties, which may include affiliated entities.”

Updates to the language around Tether’s claims of “one-to-one” backing with dollars had been changing since early 2018, with growing suggestions that USDT is not fully backed.

The updated terms-of-service in February again reaffirmed that tethers are no longer one-to-one backed. The disclosures went as far as to say:

“…assets backing digital assets such as Tether Tokens, including loan receivables owed to Tether, are subject to the risk of default, insolvency, inability to collect, and illiquidity.”

Other clauses in the terms-of-service suggested that token holders are assuming non-trival amounts of risk by holding USDT

“Tether assumes no liability or responsibility… for any and all other commercial losses directly or indirectly arising out of… loss of value of Tokens or reserve backing… failure or insolvency of any bank… or form the theft of such assets, or from freezes, seizures, or other legal processes asserted by a Government.”

As of Apr. 30th, 2019, Tether had cash and cash equivalents of $2.1 billion, representing 74 percent fiat backing of outstanding USDT, according to Bitfinex’s legal counsel Stuart Hoegner.

Meanwhile, in response to the New York Attorney General’s Apr. 25th preliminary injunction, which suggested Tether ought to hold $1 in cash fiat for every USDT, Tether’s legal representative Zoe Phillips responded:

“These allegations are wrong on multiple levels.”

These statements confirm that USDT is not fully backed by cash reserves. As such, token holders should acknowledge they are assuming risk, with limited upside, by holding tethers.

Summary of the Scandal

On Apr. 25th, New York Attorney General Letitia James (“NY AG”) issued a preliminary injunction against iFinex, the company that owns Bitfinex and Tether, preventing Bitfinex from accessing a $900 million line-of-credit provided by Tether Ltd indefinitely.

“Bitfinex has already taken at least $700 million from Tether’s reserves.  Those transactions—which also have not been disclosed to investors—treat Tether’s cash reserves as Bitfinex’s corporate slush fund, and are being used to hide Bitfinex’s massive, undisclosed losses and inability to handle customer withdrawals.”

Both Sides of the Tether Debate: is the Crypto Market Vulnerable to Implosion?
Related: Tether price falters following iFinex investigation, bitcoin moved from Bitfinex

According to court documents from Bitfinex’s legal representation, the company needed the $900 line-of-credit to cover the loss of access to $850 million from payment processor Crypto Capital. Bitfinex had entrusted Crypto Capital with increasingly large sums of cash due to the exchange’s difficulties in securing a traditional banking relationship.

However, attorneys from Bitfinex and Tether claim that funds from Crypto Capital were seized by at least one government, hindering access to the funds. Losing access to these funds jeopardized the exchange’s ability to honor customer withdrawals, leading Bitfinex to tap Tether’s reserves, through a loan, to cover these withdrawals.

Bitfinex’s general counsel Stuart Hoegner stated:

“Freezing Bitfinex’s access to the credit line is highly disruptive and will only serve to reduce liquidity on hand to satisfy the needs of Bitfinex’s customers and impede the normal operations of Bitfinex’s business.”

Defending Against the Allegations

In response to the accusations, Tether and Bitfinex claim the statute leveraged by the NY AG to issue the preliminary injunction, the Martin Act, does not apply to the facts and circumstances around Bitfinex’s line-of-credit.

The Martin Act is is a New York antifraud act enacted in 1921 that grants the Attorney General of New York expansive law enforcement powers to conduct investigations of securities fraud and bring civil or criminal actions against alleged violators.

Tether and Bitcoin prices diverge on exchanges following fraud investigation
Related: Tether and Bitcoin prices diverge on exchanges following fraud investigation

However, the Martin Act uses the precedent of “proper disclosure” around the risks associated with the sale of securities and commodities. So long as there is disclosure, Phillips asserts, then there is no case for fraud—”members of the public can decide for themselves whether to buy or sell [USDT].”

As noted earlier, there is a bounty of information disclosing that USDT was not backed one-to-one by fiat. As a result, it seems that Bitfinex is claiming that Tether does not necessarily need to keep its reserve of fiat held in Tether Ltd and that Bitfinex should have access to the loan that was provided.

As noted by Hoegner, even if Bitfinex fully draws on the remaining $200 million left in its line-of-credit from Tether, then USDT would still have 68 percent backing.

Among a number of other arguments, the legal representatives for Bitfinex and Tether claim that fractional reserves are not a novel concept. Commercial banks in the US operate with a 10 percent reserve requirement, meaning banks only need to keep cash on hand representing 10 percent of the bank’s liabilities. Hoegner wrote:

“Tether’s cash [reserve percentage] is far more than that, and the company has never lacked the funds to process a redemption.”

The post Tether and Bitfinex confirm USDT is not fully backed by fiat, only 74% of tethers backed with cash appeared first on CryptoSlate.


Source: CryptoSlate
Original Post: Tether and Bitfinex confirm USDT is not fully backed by fiat, only 74% of tethers backed with cash

Coinbase Custody Now Supports Mainnet KIN Tokens

Coinbase Custody announced immediate support for mainnet KIN tokens


Source: Cointelegraph.com
Original Post: Coinbase Custody Now Supports Mainnet KIN Tokens

ConsenSys Spinoff Truffle Integrates With Goldmans Sachs-Supported Blockchain: Report

Truffle is reportedly integrating with AxCore, a proprietary blockchain jointly created by Goldman Sachs and Axoni


Source: Cointelegraph.com
Original Post: ConsenSys Spinoff Truffle Integrates With Goldmans Sachs-Supported Blockchain: Report

Despite Crypto Winter, US Bitcoin Awareness, Knowledge, and Perception Increased “Dramatically” Since 2017

Research suggests that Bitcoin is more fully understood and accepted today across US society than it was at the height of the bull market of 2017. According to a recent study, young adults are way ahead of other demographics with regards awareness, familiarity, perception, and likelihood to buy Bitcoin in the future.

Blockchain Capital recently asked 2,029 randomly selected American adults a series of questions relating to Bitcoin. The survey was a follow up to a similar one conducted in October 2017, when prices were rising and overall market sentiment was entirely different.

US Public Becoming Increasingly Knowledgeable About Bitcoin

The test was divided into various categories. First, the participants were asked if they had even heard of Bitcoin. A massive 89 percent answered that they had. This was up from 77 percent in October 2017. This is hardly surprising given that the spectacular crash of late 2017/early 2018 was covered by just about ever mainstream media outlet on the planet.

Next, the participants’ familiarity with Bitcoin was gauged. They were given the question: How familiar are you with Bitcoin? along with a series of responses: “never heard of it”, “heard of but not familiar”, “somewhat familiar”, “very familiar”, and “I own/have owned Bitcoin”.

The percentage of people that are “at least somewhat familiar” with Bitcoin rose by nearly half — from 30 percent in October 2017 to 43% in April 2019.

Amongst those aged 18 to 34, 60 percent described themselves as at least ‘somewhat familiar’ with Bitcoin — up from 42 percent in October 2017. An equally large increase was observed in the age group 45-54. Previously, just 25 percent were at least familiar with Bitcoin. Now that figure is 43 percent.

The percentages of those familiar with the cryptocurrency really diminish in older generations but still show an increase over those from 2017. Of  those aged 55 to 64, 32 percent were at least familiar with it. This was up from 22 percent in 2017. Meanwhile, just 20 percent of those over 65 claimed to be knowledgeable about the decentralised payment tech, up from the 15 percent observed in the previous study.

Next, the participants were asked how much they agreed that Bitcoin is a positive financial and technological innovation. Again, there was a significant increase in those answering favourably here too. In 2017, 34 percent of those asked agreed or strongly agreed with the statement. This rose by 9 percent in the recent survey to 43 percent.

Younger respondents were much more likely to view Bitcoin positively. Of those aged between 18 and 34, a massive 59 percent said that they though Bitcoin was a positive innovation versus 48 percent in the previous survey.

The figures relating to the likelihood that Bitcoin will be widely used in the future show similar tendencies too. A third of US adults now believe that the digital asset will be in common use in the next 10 years. This is a five percent increase to the figure observed in the previous study.

Raising this overall average once again is the younger generation. A massive 48 percent of those aged between 18 and 34 agree that Bitcoin will be widely used within the next decade.

The findings also indicate that 27 percent of people are considering buying Bitcoin in the next five years. Despite the bear market, this figure is up from just 19 percent in 2017.

The write up of the report, summarised by Spencer Bogart, concludes by inquiring about people’s store-of-value preferences. The respondents were asked which asset they would like to own $1,000 of between Bitcoin and a traditional investment:

Again, the figures for the youngest age group in the sample reflect a much greater acceptance of Bitcoin than the rest of the US public. Almost one in three prefers Bitcoin to government bonds, more than one in four prefers Bitcoin to stocks, just under one in four would rather own Bitcoin than real-estate, and over one in five would favour the crypto over gold.

Younger Generations Championing Crypto Revolution

The figures show that the younger generations are much more knowledgeable of, familiar with, and accepting of Bitcoin. This is summed up by Bogart himself when he states:

“Ultimately, Bitcoin is a demographic mega-trend: Younger demographics are leading in terms of Bitcoin awareness, familiarity, perception, conviction, propensity to purchase, and ownership rates.”

As a purely digital currency, it figures that the first to get to grips with the concept would be those that have grown up in a purely digital world. In that vein, crypto investment fund Adamant Capital’s CEO Michiel Lescrauwaet neatly summed up why digital cash might be alluring for millennials earlier today in response to the research detailed above:

 

Related Reading: Global Bitcoin Acceptance Up More than 702% Since 2013

Featured Image from Shutterstock.

The post Despite Crypto Winter, US Bitcoin Awareness, Knowledge, and Perception Increased “Dramatically” Since 2017 appeared first on NewsBTC.


Source: News BTC
Original Post: Despite Crypto Winter, US Bitcoin Awareness, Knowledge, and Perception Increased “Dramatically” Since 2017

Is Binance’s Changpeng Zhao the ‘Zuckerberg’ of Crypto?

facebook mark zuckerberg

Believable parallels have been drawn between Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao and Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook on podcast #74 of Coin Talk hosted by Aaron Lammer & Jay Caspian Kang, titled “When Trolls Get Rekt.”


The podcast was later covered by Forbes contributor Billy Bamrough who covers cryptocurrency-related content for the publication.

In his article, Bamrough shared several parallels between blockchain and social media companies and their leadership. For instance, before Facebook, there was Myspace; a platform that reportedly “struggled to grow beyond its original interests.”

“Then came along Facebook,” wrote Bamrough. “Building a userbase of 2.3 billion people worldwide and successfully integrating itself and social networks into aspects of life that seemed entirely unnecessary as little as 10 years ago.”

Bamrough then gave a summation of how the social media and blockchain landscapes have converged in terms of their key challenges:

Bitcoin and cryptocurrency developers are now faced with a similar challenge to that of Myspace—how to grow beyond the niche uses that currently exist to something more that can be used by people around the world for things that we find hard to imagine today.

Zuckerberg’s and Zhao’s parallels

Personal parallels were also drawn between Zuckerberg and Zhao — such as their unconventional business styles and humble caricatures described as “alternative company leaders.”

changpeng zhao binance

Zuckerberg was reportedly known for wearing jeans and t-shirts instead of suits “thumbing his nose at many of the traditional chief executive tropes” writes Bambrough.

While Changpeng Zhao, CEO of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, is described as the real-life version of ‘Zuckerberg’ in the film The Social Network, which depicts the creation of Facebook.

He was play acting a cool guy that doesn’t care about anything, seemed to be just rolling with the punches but is totally in control. CZ is like the real version of that in crypto.

CZ’s and Zuckerberg’s shared charity and humility

There also appears to be a deeply empathetic human side to both CEOs. CZ went as a far as putting down his own blockchain a peg in a series of tweets covered by Bitcoinist stating that

Ethereum can can do much more than BNB in features. Let’s grow together.

Binance also has its own charitable organization. Through donations from the Binance community, the organization donates during time of disasters and has started an initiative to feed the hungry titled “Binance Lunch for Children.” At the time of writing, this initiative, in particular, had raised 8.7227 BTC or USD $45972 to feed hungry children in countries such as “Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania.”

While the “Chan Zuckerberg Initative” on Facebook’s side is a limited liability company with an investment of “up to 1 billion in Facebook shares in each of the next three years.” The initiative aims to “advance human potential and promote equality in areas such as health, education, scientific research, and energy.”

Is CZ similar to Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg? Share your thoughts below!


Images via Shutterstock, Bitcoinist archives

The post Is Binance’s Changpeng Zhao the ‘Zuckerberg’ of Crypto? appeared first on Bitcoinist.com.


Source: Bitcoinist.com
Original Post: Is Binance’s Changpeng Zhao the ‘Zuckerberg’ of Crypto?

Venezuela’s Maduro Is Running Out Of Time. So Is His Petro

By CCN: The petro token, one of the last financial schemes crafted by Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, will likely fall by the wayside like his regime if the uprising against him is successful. This is the corrupt, illegitimate Maduro Regime. pic.twitter.com/79sFbYrzOp — The White House (@WhiteHouse) April 30, 2019 In a move that caught many in the global community off guard, Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó called for the military to rise up and oust Maduro. As people flooded the streets in what was complete chaos, more questions arose as to what will happen to the petro. One thing is

The post Venezuela’s Maduro Is Running Out Of Time. So Is His Petro appeared first on CCN


Source: CCN.com
Original Post: Venezuela’s Maduro Is Running Out Of Time. So Is His Petro

Ripple (XRP) Climbs Back Above Trend Line Resistance To Retest 50 DMA

Ripple (XRP) had declined below a critical trend line support. The price tested this support as resistance but struggled to break past it for days. Now, the price is finally above it and is testing the 50 day moving average. RSI and stochastic indicators on the daily chart show that there is ample room for a retest of the trend line resistance. XRP/USD might have some hope of breaking above this trend line support finally and the long symmetrical triangle that extends back more than a year could finally be broken to the upside. However, just like the breakout to the downside, this breakout is likely to be inconsequential as well. This is because BTC/USD has room to rally towards $5,800-$6,000 but it is highly unlikely to break past it.

The break below trend line support misled the bears into opening short positions against XRP/USD and a break above the trend line resistance will similarly mislead the bulls into opening long positions thinking the bear market is over. As always, the market makers and whales come out as winners in such times while retail traders whether bulls or bears end up losing money. This is nothing new and it has been happening systemically throughout the bear market. The situation is worsened by some industry leaders making overly bullish predictions. Of course, most of them have been proven wrong already but they keep on making new predictions nonetheless. The sentiment against Ripple (XRP) remains negative as far as professional traders are considered. Retail interest is also starting to fade away as the cryptocurrency remains shrouded in uncertainties over its use case and legal status.

The price of Ripple (XRP) has seen one of its worst declines against Bitcoin (BTC) in the past few months. The daily chart for XRP/BTC shows that the price has been on a tear and continues to be. We have seen some relief short term but XRP/BTC continues to be under its trend line support. This support was broken around mid-April when the price kept on falling despite being massively oversold against Bitcoin (BTC). Ripple (XRP) is even more oversold against Bitcoin (BTC) on the weekly time frame which means a strong trend reversal is long overdue. However, investors still need to see if Ripple (XRP) has what it takes to push for mainstream adoption.

When Bitcoin (BTC) made its appearance, the world had just seen a financial crisis and it seemed reasonable to back a currency that would cut the double spending problem and even attain the status of digital gold. Bitcoin (BTC) was never meant to be a faster or cheaper mode of payment. However, somewhere along the way when things started to be ‘all good’ again, the priorities changed. Now people expect Bitcoin (BTC) to be faster and cheaper. In fact, the majority of people in this market do not care at this point whether it is Bitcoin (BTC) or Ripple (XRP) as long as it can achieve mainstream adoption and make them good returns.


Source: CryptoDaily.co.uk
Original Post: Ripple (XRP) Climbs Back Above Trend Line Resistance To Retest 50 DMA

Amazon Web Services Launches Managed Blockchain Service

Amazon Web Services has made its blockchain-as-a-service, Amazon Managed Blockchain, generally available


Source: Cointelegraph.com
Original Post: Amazon Web Services Launches Managed Blockchain Service

Bitfinex Might be Planning to Issue an Exchange Token

Zhao’s suggestion has had a lot of mixed reactions on Weibo, with several people being skeptical about the exchange token.

Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency exchange, Bitfinex, plans to issue a proprietary exchange token. Shareholder Zhao claimed awareness of the plan.

Dong Zhao, a popular over-the-counter trader in China, made the announcement on Weibo. In his statement, he also said that the exchange is planning the issuance, but at the time of writing, there have been no official statement from Bitfinex about the matter.

Presently, the plan still appears vague, but we are keeping our fingers crossed on how the plan would play out or what participants in the exchange token offering would be promised.

 

Zhoa’s opinion on the move

Zhao, who is the founder of blockchain investment firm DGroup, said he made the suggestion to Bitfinex.

On the 28th of April, a few days after the New York Attorney General’s allegations, Zhoa said on his Weibo account that the exchange should take the opportunity to issue tokens worth $850 million. This will bring back to tether an amount that equals the amount frozen by the AG’s office. It is also expected that participants would get the exchange token in return.

Zhao stated that the advantage of the coin to users is that exchange tokens would have better liquidity. To him, they are the only real tokens.

 

Method of Issuance

The method for issuing the token will be similar to that of other exchange tokens. It would be distributed through pre-paid trading fee packages, he said.

He added that he would do his best to make the deal happen.
Zhao’s opinion has been met with mixed reactions on Weibo. Some are skeptical on whether Bitfinex will indeed be able to recover the frozen funds.

The post Bitfinex Might be Planning to Issue an Exchange Token appeared first on Altcoin Buzz.


Source: Altcoin Buzz News
Original Post: Bitfinex Might be Planning to Issue an Exchange Token

Coinbase Ventures invests in Matic Network; platform will integrate USDC and DAI

Coinbase, a leading cryptocurrency exchange, has always been one of the highlights of the cryptocurrency space. The platform has yet again taken the spotlight with news of its venture fund investing in another blockchain project, Matic Network.

Coinbase Ventures is an early-stage venture fund launched by Coinbase in April 2018. This venture fund was launched mainly to focus on funding/ investing blockchain and cryptocurrency projects, with its first investment reported to be Compound Ventures, an Ethereum-based project.

An official announcement by Jaynti Kanani, the co-founder and CEO of Matic Network, stated that Coinbase Ventures was one of its seed investors. The blog post stated,

“We are pleased to announce Coinbase Ventures as our investor in our seed round. This investment is aligned with our goals to achieve adoption through better usability alongside scalability and will help us realize our vision to achieve scale for decentralized applications.”

To add on, Matic Wallet will be collaborating with Coinbase Wallet in order to improve usability, as the platform would be helping users to shift their assets from Ethereum to Matic. It would also help the platform’s decentralized application interaction with the Matic network in a secure and easy manner.

The announcement stated,

“Once the user’s assets are on Matic, they will be able to transfer and trade them on Coinbase Wallet instantly. Users can use DApps built on Matic directly on Coinbase Wallet’s browser or can use WalletConnect to access them through Matic Wallet.”

Matic would also be integrating stablecoins such as Circle’s USD Coin [USDC] and DAI, to better its network’s payment rails, and also tackle the volatility of the cryptocurrency market.

Notably, Coinbase Ventures has invested in over 30 blockchain and cryptocurrency-driven projects so far, with the most prominent ones being The Block, Etherscan, Dharma, and Alchemy.

The post Coinbase Ventures invests in Matic Network; platform will integrate USDC and DAI appeared first on AMBCrypto.


Source: AMBcrypto
Original Post: Coinbase Ventures invests in Matic Network; platform will integrate USDC and DAI

Ripple Surges After Nasdaq Adds XRP Liquidity Index, Will Growing Adoption Propel It Higher?

Over the past several months many cryptocurrencies have incurred relatively large gains that have put a significant amount of distance between their current prices and their 2018 lows. But much to the chagrin of investors, Ripple (XRP) has not been one of these cryptos, as it has remained relatively stable around the $0.30 region.

Today, however, Ripple has gained some upwards momentum after news broke regarding XRP’s Liquidity Index being added to the Nasdaq Global Index Data Service, joining Bitcoin and Ethereum, which were both added previously.

Ripple (XRP) Sees Growing Adoption Despite Lackluster Price Action

Although many investors directly equate positive price action with growing fundamental strength, the two are not inextricably linked, as often times cryptocurrencies incur massive price movements – both upwards and downwards – regardless of fundamental, news-based developments.

XRP, whose future largely hinges on whether or not banks begin taking to it to facilitate payments, has been floating slightly above its 2018 lows that were set in the mid-$0.20 region in late-December, and many investors are beginning to lose faith in it as it continues to face downwards pressure despite the improving market conditions.

Despite this, in the past week the embattled cryptocurrency has incurred a few positive developments that may ultimately help it climb out of its rut.

Today it was announced that Nasdaq would be adding Brave New Coin’s XRP Liquidity Index to its Global Index Data Service, which was developed by BNC with a goal of meeting the “marketplace requirement for a single, reliable and fair USD price for XRP — based on live real-world trading activity.”

In addition to this, it was also recently announced that Saudi British Bank (SAAB) – which is a subsidiary of banking giant HSBC – has officially launched its first Ripple-based payment system, although it remains unclear as to whether or not they will be utilizing xCurrent or the XRP-based xRapid.

Majed Najm, SAAB’s deputy managing director or corporate and institutional banking, spoke about their decision to use a Ripple-based payment system, saying:

“This step is part of the Bank’s ongoing efforts to provide the best banking services to customers, make use of the latest technology and global banking products available, and create methods and means to save time and effort for our customers.”

Could Growing Adoption Push XRP Higher? 

At the time of writing, XRP is trading up 4.2% at its current price of $0.306, up from its daily lows of $0.29.

Over a one-month period, however, XRP is still down significantly from its highs of $0.37 that were set earlier this month.

This recent price surge may be technically significant for XRP, as it recently hit a price level below $0.30 that many analysts deemed to be a “do or die” price level for the cryptocurrency.

Peter Brandt, a popular analyst on Twitter, explained this in a recent tweet, saying its “do or die time for the $XRP bag holders.”

As the week continues on and XRP’s price action continues to unfold, it will likely grow increasingly clear as to whether or not growing fundamental strength will be enough to hold it above $0.30 and to propel it higher.

Featured image from Shutterstock.

The post Ripple Surges After Nasdaq Adds XRP Liquidity Index, Will Growing Adoption Propel It Higher? appeared first on NewsBTC.


Source: News BTC
Original Post: Ripple Surges After Nasdaq Adds XRP Liquidity Index, Will Growing Adoption Propel It Higher?

Bernie Sanders Shows His True Colors in ‘Avengers’-Fueled Disney Diss

By CCN: Democratic socialist Bernie Sanders is having a slight beef with the Disney entertainment company after ‘Avengers: Endgame’ earned approximately $1.2 billion in its opening weekend. In a recent message on Twitter, the 2020 presidential hopeful criticized the film and television conglomerate for paying its CEO Bob Iger a salary of $65.6 million, roughly “1,400 times as much as the average worker at Disney makes.” What would be truly heroic is if Disney used its profits from Avengers to pay all of its workers a middle class wage, instead of paying its CEO Bob Iger $65.6 million – over

The post Bernie Sanders Shows His True Colors in ‘Avengers’-Fueled Disney Diss appeared first on CCN


Source: CCN.com
Original Post: Bernie Sanders Shows His True Colors in ‘Avengers’-Fueled Disney Diss

Threats on Voat, Censorship-Free Reddit, Heat Up

Goat Smiling in a Green Field

Justin Chastain, CEO of Voat, a censorship-free Reddit, said that American authorities contacted him regarding death threats posted by users on the platform. Following this, the CEO requested users to “chill on the ‘threats,’” reported Motherboard on April 26, 2019. The Voat Community Responds Chastain took to Voat to notify users that a U.S. agency

Read MoreRead More. The post by Mohammad Musharraf appeared first on BTCManager, Bitcoin, Blockchain & Cryptocurrency News
Source: BTCManager.com
Original Post: Threats on Voat, Censorship-Free Reddit, Heat Up

Tether Lawyer Confirms USDT Is 74% Backed By Cash And Other Assets

The most popular stablecoin Tether (USDT) is not fully backed, according to its lawyer. The general counsel of USDT issuer explained that the stablecoin is only 74 percent […]

The post Tether Lawyer Confirms USDT Is 74% Backed By Cash And Other Assets appeared first on UseTheBitcoin.


Source: Use The Bitcoin
Original Post: Tether Lawyer Confirms USDT Is 74% Backed By Cash And Other Assets

Bitcoin proponent John Carvalho calls BitGo ‘one of the world’s most dangerous companies’

The latest Bitfinex-Tether fiasco caused a stir in the cryptocurrency community after the New York Attorney General’s [NYAG] office issued a lawsuit against Tether Limited, the issuer of the USDT token, and leading crypto exchange, Bitfinex.

The CEO of the Palo Alto-based crypto-custody provider BitGo, Mike Belshe, is in the news after he expressed his views on the whole episode. He suggested that the death of the exchange and the stablecoin will prove advantageous for the crypto-industry in the future. He tweeted,

“The @Tether_to and @bitfinex death will ultimately be a massive boon to digital assets and cryptocurrency. Whatever the short term impact, this will help digital assets move to the next level.”

John Carvalho, who has been one of the most vocal crypto-personalities in the space, lashed out at Belshe and responded that the CEO’s tweet is a reflection of the “regression to the centralized banking paradigm” that the largest crypto-asset, Bitcoin [BTC], is fighting.

Taking a jibe at Belshe, the Bitcoin maximalist tweeted,

“The leader of one of the most dangerous companies in Bitcoin wants Bitfinex & Tether dead.”

The latest scandal has led to many in the crypto community turning skeptical about the future of the industry. The exchange platform is still believed to be in Tether’s debt. According to reports, Bitfinex is planning to raise $1 billion through an IEO and token sale.

The post Bitcoin proponent John Carvalho calls BitGo ‘one of the world’s most dangerous companies’ appeared first on AMBCrypto.


Source: AMBcrypto
Original Post: Bitcoin proponent John Carvalho calls BitGo ‘one of the world’s most dangerous companies’

Loyakk announces huge token burn

The Loyakk Vega enterprise relationship management platform has recently announced that it will burn 1/5 of its circulating token supply. 

This announcement comes on the back of Loyakk completing its token sale in November 2018 and raising $16.9 million mostly from venture capital investment.

Of the entire LYKK token supply, Loyakk sold a total of 48 million, leaving 12 million tokens unsold. 

Investors in the tokens would no doubt be extremely gratified to learn that the final 12 million tokens will be burnt, especially given that those 12 million tokens had been originally earmarked to be added to those set aside for distribution to corporate clients who will be on-boarded onto the platform.

The Loyakk team has let it be known that it wanted to do the right thing by its community. It was also considered to be the right way forward in terms of developing the platform.

Burning such a large part of the LYKK token supply has obvious repercussions for token scarcity and only serves to make the Loyakk Vega platform even more of an attractive proposition for potential clients and investors.

All in all, token holders, clients and backers have every reason to be cheerful as Loyakk steams ahead with its blockchain platform launch in Q3. Also, the community awaits the listing on exchanges of the LYKK token. This was recently put back but a positive here is that it may well allow ETH to increase to something near its value at the ICO price, therefore helping to maintain the LYKK token price upon listing.

The Loyakk Vega platform

The Loyakk Vega Enterprise Management Relationship Platform continues to attract interest as it gathers momentum. The actual blockchain platform has been long in development but this is to the credit of the team as they seek to leave no stone unturned in order to produce a platform worthy of bluechip corporate enterprises.

Loyakk’s extremely successful platform is already being used by its established client base which includes SAP, Novartis, Abbott, Infosys and Mphasis — all huge corporations from diverse fields such as IT services, health and enterprise solutions. Loyakk has seen the value that blockchain will add and has therefore chosen to go down this route.

Loyakk’s patent-pending blockchain solution centres around the use of a tokenised container which will be used by an enterprise for all interactions across their value webs. The token wraps and secures the data together with permission access and business rules in order to allow the enterprise to have complete control over the data no matter where it goes outside of their firewall.

In fact, the sharing and protection of confidential business and sales data is a massive multi-billion-dollar market which is crying out to be disrupted. The Loyakk Vega platform will allow these businesses to track their data across their value webs which include partners, customers, suppliers and vendors.

The Loyakk team

Enterprise people through and through, the Loyakk team really understand their market given that the leadership team has a long history of managing in top tier companies and has been responsible for multi-billion dollar solutions in the likes of SAP, IBM, Oracle-Siebel, VMware, Etrade and HP. 

It can be said that institutions are extremely risk-aversive and it is for this reason that blockchain adoption by them is happening at a slow rate. They are certainly starting to dip their toes in the water but they need to have their hands firmly held, and who better than experienced personnel such as the Loyakk team members who understand their needs exactly, having worked inside these institutions successfully at the very highest level.

The token burn is an excellent example of Loyakk being completely trustworthy and doing the right thing no matter the gains that are there to be made. This project and its team are winners and will deserve the success that their hard work and foresight have built.

Disclaimer: I have a varied portfolio which does include a small amount of LYKK tokens. All the above views are my own and should in no way be taken as financial advice. All those wishing to invest in the crypto market should do their own research or use the services of a fully certified financial advisor.


Source: CryptoDaily.co.uk
Original Post: Loyakk announces huge token burn

Enjin and CoinSwitch Announce Massive Partnership

In the past three months, Enjin, the Singapore-based company focused on online gaming and the cryptocurrency sector, has struck multiple partnerships. The new one with CoinSwitch is no less promising.

In an exclusive press-release for Altcoinbuzz, the company revealed that it has partnered with CoinSwitch.co, a Sequoia Capital-backed cryptocurrency exchange. The two companies are planning to collaborate in three key areas. The first one concerns the integration of the CoinSwitch exchange platform into the Enjin Wallet.

They are also preparing for the launch of a custom-branded blockchain explorer for CoinSwitch platform users. Moreover, they are aiming to create an in-game payment gateway for Unity game engine.

Users will enjoy the partnership’s multiple advantages. For instance, they will be able to swap between more than 300 cryptocurrencies from 45,000+ possible trading pairs. For this, they will not need to log out of the secure interface.

Besides, the two companies have also launched a blockchain explorer. Powered by EnjinX, it allows using the CoinSwitch trading platform in real time seamlessly.

More in Store

CoinSwitch also has great news for Unity gamers, as it wants to build an in-game cryptocurrency payment gateway. The latter will make it possible for Unity’s 4.5 million game developers to accept more than 300 cryptocurrencies from various platforms. These include big names like Xbox, PlayStation, Android, iOS, Windows, and Oculus Rift.

“At CoinSwitch, we believe that the gaming industry will play a crucial role in crypto mass adoption. Our partnership with Enjin, the leading player in this space, is an effective step that we are taking towards this,” said Sharan Nair, Senior Vice President at CoinSwitch.

CoinSwitch will automatically convert those cryptocurrencies into Enjin Coin (ENJ). The users will get the chance to create decentralized assets with the Enjin Platform and Blockchain SDK for Unity. For example, in-game currency, characters, weapons, and accessories.

“CoinSwitch is an extremely innovative company that has successfully created one of the industry’s most robust cryptocurrency trading platforms,” said Maxim Blagov, Enjin CEO. “We are working together to provide increased utility for all of the cryptocurrencies they support, meanwhile further streamlining the adoption process for the increasing numbers of developers jumping onto the Enjin Platform.”

To celebrate the partnership, the two companies are offering a two month grace period in which all trading fees will be waived on purchases of ENJ made via the CoinSwitch platform.

Previously, Enjin, which ranks 9th in terms of true volume, created a charity foundation with the SENS Research Foundation. Besides, the rumor has it that Google wants to integrate Enjin on their gaming platform.

The post Enjin and CoinSwitch Announce Massive Partnership appeared first on Altcoin Buzz.


Source: Altcoin Buzz News
Original Post: Enjin and CoinSwitch Announce Massive Partnership

Prediction: 20 Percent of Leading Global Grocers to Use Blockchain by 2025

According to Gartner, Inc., 20 percent of the top 10 global grocers will use blockchain by 2025


Source: Cointelegraph.com
Original Post: Prediction: 20 Percent of Leading Global Grocers to Use Blockchain by 2025

New York District Attorney Charges Two for Shadow Banking Crypto Companies

An Arizona man and Israeli woman have been charged with allegedly operating an unlicensed money transferring business for crypto firms


Source: Cointelegraph.com
Original Post: New York District Attorney Charges Two for Shadow Banking Crypto Companies

Crypto Community Reacts to Tether Admitting USDT Not Fully Backed

According to the company behind it, stablecoin USDT is not fully backed by fiat currency deposits. It was revealed today that the controversial crypto asset firm Tether only holds around 74 percent of the total value of USDT’s current circulating supply.

Tether and the crypto exchange Bitfinex are currently defending allegations from the New York Attorney General’s office that the latter borrowed $600 million from Tether to stay afloat after the trading venue reportedly lost $850 million. The dramatic shortcomings are thought to be the result of Crypto Capital, a Panama-based payments processor that Bitfinex used, having assets frozen in various nations around the world.

USDT Not Backed 100%, But Did Anyone Think That it Was?

An affidavit filed by Stuart Hoeger, the general counsel at both Tether and Bitfinex, has today claimed that the stablecoin crypto asset USDT is only backed by around $2.1 billion. This falls short of the $2.8 billion worth of USDT currently in circulation. The document states:

“As of the date [April 30] I am signing this affidavit, Tether has cash and cash equivalents (short term securities) on hand totaling approximately $2.1 billion, representing approximately 74 percent of the current outstanding tethers.”

He also details that a credit agreement between Tether and Bitfinex did indeed exist and was in place “for the protection of the virtual currency market.”

According to a memorandum by Tether’s defence lawyer, Zoe Phillip of Morgan Lewis, there is no need for each USDT token to even be backed by a dollar:

“According to the Attorney General, the line of credit needed to be frozen because it improperly impairs the reserves Tether would use for redemptions. The Attorney General appears to believe that Tether must hold $1 in cash fiat currency for every dollar of tether. These allegations are wrong on multiple levels.”

Hoegner’s affidavit seems to support this by highlighting that the stance of the company had officially changed with regards the 100 percent backing of USDT in recent months. Given that this was widely reported at the time, it seems a wonder firstly that anyone was even continuing to use USDT when numerous other stablecoins now exist and secondly, why the news of the New York Attorney General’s allegations against the two companies should drop the price in the way it did last week.

Crypto Community Reacts to Tether and Bitfinex Legal Troubles

The CEO of social trading platform eToro, Yoni Assia, took to Twitter to opine about the revelation’s likely impact on crypto prices. He mused on the likelihood of a potential Bitcoin price pump if the news causes people exit USDT en masse. Ultimately, however, he admits that the shady goings on between Tether and Bitfinex will be negative for crypto. Although, he is sparse on specific details.

Meanwhile, independent crypto researcher and analyst Hasu seemed to hint that the debacle would inevitably invite greater regulatory scrutiny to exchanges, which could in turn damage the utility of Bitcoin and other crypto assets:

Cardano (ADA) founder and Ethereum (ETH) co-founder Charles Hoskinson used the news to draw attention to the fact that banks routinely operate on far lower reserves than those admitted by Tether today. This sentiment was also echoed by RT’s Max Keiser and many others.

Ultimately, such a comparison is largely redundant, however, as any form of fractional reserve backing USDT the anti-thesis of what many people in crypto signed up for when they got involved with the industry. Larry Cermak, an analyst with The Block, stated that comparisons between the percentage reserves held by Tether and those of the average bank ultimately ignore the shady goings on of the crypto exchange Bitfinex. He went as far as to state that both companies are guilty of pathological lies:

The Tether/Bitfinex saga is far from over yet. NewsBTC will continue to bring you coverage of the legal hearings as they develop.

 

Related Reading: Technical Indicator Suggests Tether Trouble Has Put an End to Bitcoin Rally

Featured Image from Shutterstock.

The post Crypto Community Reacts to Tether Admitting USDT Not Fully Backed appeared first on NewsBTC.


Source: News BTC
Original Post: Crypto Community Reacts to Tether Admitting USDT Not Fully Backed