Tether advocates rejoiced on Tuesday after a story by Bloomberg’s Matt Leising seemed to reassure readers that the stablecoin had enough dollars to back each token. “Bank statements reviewed by Bloomberg News suggest those fears may be unfounded,” Leising wrote. The story’s big contribution to the Tether debate was only that Bloomberg saw four separate months’ worth of Tether’s balances and each exceeded the amount of circulating tokens. Yet Tether’s bank balances should be expected to be positive at month’s end. As written in the often-cited study by John Griffin and Amin Shams of the University of Texas on alleged manipulation of Bitcoin prices using tethers: “the strong negative effect on…
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Tether’s bank issues letter, critics pounce
Deltec’s says Tether has $1.8 billion in bank, but letter adds fuel to fire
In recent weeks, more than half of all bitcoin trades took place against Tether. Yet few knew for certain if there were dollars backing those tokens. This week, Tether released a letter from its bank, Bahamas-based Deltec, saying, “We hereby confirm that, at the close of business on October 31, 2018, the portfolio cash value of your account with our bank was US$1,831,322,828.” That amount was nearly $55 million above the amount of Tether tokens in circulation. Over and done with, right? Not exactly. Crypto Twitter talmudicly began parsing the letter, particularly the second part, which reads: “This letter is provided without any liability, however arising, on the part of…
- Nothing says summer like getting sand in your hat and scratching your tablet and sunglasses in the sand (via Pixabay)
Must-reads for August 24, 2018
Here are the crypto stories you should be watching today and this weekend
It’s Getting Harder to Pump Up Prices in Cryptocurrency Markets (Bloomberg) Bloomberg’s Matt Leising is quickly becoming our personal hero. He faces a barrage of insults from cryptobros on Reddit and Twitter but instead of backing down, the intrepid reporter doubles down, noting, “It’s getting hard to pump amid the dump in the $209 billion cryptocurrency market. At least that appears to be the case when you look at Tether, one of the most-traded digital assets and also one that’s allegedly been used to manipulate the price of Bitcoin.” Stay strong, Matt. Stay strong! Mt Gox’s Bitcoin Creditors Can Now File for Rehabilitation Claims (CoinDesk) Another step forward in…