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Bitfinex has launched a crypto-powered online-payments platform, Bitfinex Pay, that will provide online merchants with a means of receiving contactless and borderless digital token payments. The Bitfinex Pay widget can be integrated into websites, allowing small merchants to accept bitcoin, ether, Lightning Network BTC, and Tether's own USDT stablecoin, with the crypto-assets sent directly to a Bitfinex wallet.

Bitfinex has repaid its sister company Tether the remaining loan balance of $550 million. In 2018, Tether opened a credit line worth $900 million for Bitfinex, of which $750 million was used by the exchange. Bitfinex repaid $100 million each in 2019 and 2020. That loan is at the heart of an ongoing legal dispute with New York's Attorney General.

A New York state appeals court ruled that Bitfinex must face claims by New York state that it hid the loss of commingled client and corporate funds. Companies connected to Bitfinex are accused by the New York Attorney General of hiding the loss of more than $800 million in client and corporate funds. Companies tied to Bitfinex also operate the stablecoin Tether, which serves as a conduit for trading in much of cryptocurrency market globally. The appeals court rejected the argument that Tether, with a market capitalization of more than $9 billion, is not a security or commodity, and said the court has jurisdiction over its issuer.

Bitfinex and Tether reached a $18.5 million settlement with the New York Attorney General (NYAG) over allegations that they hid the loss of commingled client and corporate funds and lied about Tether's USDT reserves. Within ninety days of the agreement effective date, and on a quarterly basis thereafter for two two years, the firms will be required to publish reports on the composition of Tether reserves. Without admitting or denying any wrongdoing, Tether committed to publicly share these reports. https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2021/attorney-general-james-ends-virtual-currency-trading-platform-bitfinexs-illegal https://tether.to/tether-and-bitfinex-reach-settlement-with-new-york-attorney-generals-office/

"Bitfinex is pleased to announce that on Friday, February 28, 2020, it repaid $100,000,000 of the outstanding loan facility to Tether. Bitfinex made this payment in fiat wired to Tether's bank account. This payment is all on account of principal. Interest on all amounts due under the facility agreement has been prepaid up to March 2020."

iFinex Inc, the parent company of Bitfinex and Tether, has asked the New York Supreme Court to push back its trial date again, and another 30 days to produce the documents demanded by the Office of the Attorney General (NYAG). The document production process was originally supposed to be completed by December 16, 2020, which was subsequently extended to January 15. The new request noted that a "substantial volume" of material had already been handed over to the OAG, but that there remained "supplemental agreed-upon items" that still had to be sourced. The legal battle extends back to April 2019, when the NYAG alleged that Bitfinex had attempted to cover up the loss of $850 million of customers' funds by taking illegal loans from Tether.

In a letter filed to the New York State Supreme Court Tuesday, attorneys for Bitfinex, Tether and other affiliated entities wrote that a request made by the NYAG's office relating to a $900 billion loan between sister companies Bitfinex and Tether should be denied.

A New York Supreme Court Appellate Division filing claims that Bitfinex and Tether (which share executives and shareholders) had gradually been depleting the reserves backing Tether's USDT stablecoin, by first by going from actual cash in hand to $625 million in an inaccessible Crypto Capital account, and then by replacing that with a $625 million IOU from Bitfinex. That debt, said the NYAG, "seemed unlikely to be repaid," as Bitfinex required the funds for withdrawals on its exchange.

Bitfinex discovered a security breach that required it to halt all trading on platform, as well as halt all digital token deposits to and withdrawals. Only Bitcoin wallets were affected, and some users' Bitcoin holdings were stolen. Bitfinex said that they will look at various options to address customer losses later in the investigation. As it accounts for individualized customer losses, it may need to settle open margin positions, associated financing, and/or collateral affected by the breach, with any such settlements being made at 18:00 UTC prices.

Bitfinex said it would be immediately closing the accounts for Ontario-based customers who have no balances on the platform. In addition, it planned to restrict access to those who do not have open positions in the exchange's peer-to-peer financing market or open margin positions. Ontario-based users who have balances or open positions on Bitfinex will no longer have access to any services starting on March 1. The exchange advised customers to withdraw funds before the effective date.

Bitfinex has reportedly raised $1B worth of US dollars, Bitcoin and Tether with its UNUS SED LEO exchange utility token offering. LEO lies "at the heart of the [Bitfinex parent] iFinex ecosystem" and will be useable for a variety of exchange-based activities.

LEO is a curiosity in the crypto space, spawned after an initial exchange offering (IEO) by Bitfinex that ran until June 10. According to the claims of Bitfinex, the exchange raised $1 billion from private placements. Conveniently placed, the IEO in effect offset the $900 million debt to Tether, Inc.

Ilya Lichtenstein and his rapper wife, Heather Morgan, were arrested in New York for allegedly trying to launder Bitcoin that was stolen during the 2016 hack of Bitfinex, and the Justice Department has seized more than $3.6 billion of the $4.5 billion of the stolen bitcoin. David Gerard covers this story in detail, with an eye towards assessing whether the two alleged money launderers could have been responsible for the Bitfinex hack, concluding that they have the minimal skills needed.

Cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex is ready to ship a derivatives product with up to 100 times leverage, CTO Paolo Ardoino told The Block.

Bitfinex borrowed as much as $700 million from the stablecoin issuer through a line of credit in early 2019. The exchange needed the cash to make up for an $850 million hole which resulted from its payment processor, Crypto Capital, having its funds seized by authorities in three separate nations. On Tuesday, the exchange said it had transferred $100 million from its account to Tether's.

Bitfinex has won an appeal in the New York Supreme Court, which means it won't have to turn over documents pertaining to its use of the the cryptocurrency Tether.

The Bitfinex crypto exchange is making a new push to find and potentially recover more than $800 million in user funds seized by legal authorities in four different countries after its payment processor's bank accounts were frozen. The funds were seized by authorities pursuing anti-money laundering criminal charges against Crypto Capital.

Crypto exchange Bitfinex is launching a perpetual swap that enables traders to speculate on Bitcoin dominance. Dominance refers to Bitcoin's share of the total market capitalization for all crypto-assets.

A class action lawsuit was filed today against Bitfinex, Tether and others  was filed in the United States District Court in the Southern District of New York. The new federal court class action lawsuit alleges over $1.4 trillion in damages suffered by class members.

Roche Freedman filed a class-action suit claiming that stablecoin firm Tether and its affiliate crypto exchange Bitfinex have been involved in defrauding investors, manipulating markets and concealing illicit proceeds, the firm's founding partner Kyle Roche tweeted on Oct. 7.