US Justice Department is investigating possible impact of Tether (USDT) on the Bitcoin (BTC) price

As Bitcoin (BTC) drops, the U.S. Justice Department is investigating whether last year’s epic rally was fueled in part by manipulation, with traders driving it up with Tether — a popular but controversial digital token.

According to Bloomberg, three people familiar with the matter said that while federal prosecutors opened a broad criminal probe into cryptocurrencies months ago, they’ve recently homed in on suspicions that a tangled web involving Bitcoin, Tether and crypto exchange Bitfinex might have been used to illegally move prices.

Bitfinex has the same management team as Tether Ltd., a company that created the namesake cryptocurrency. When new coins come to market, they’re mostly released on Bitfinex.

Some traders and academics have alleged that these Tethers are used to buy Bitcoin at crucial moments when the value of the more ubiquitous digital token dips. JL van der Velde, the chief executive officer of Tether Ltd. and Bitfinex, has previously rejected such claims.

The Justice Department’s probe adds to an existing inquiry into possible misconduct. Both Tether Ltd. and Bitfinex received subpoenas last year from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The Justice Department and CFTC are coordinating their examinations, the people said.

It couldn’t be determined whether government officials are solely investigating activity that occurred on Bitfinex or if exchange executives are suspected of illegal behavior. Neither the Justice Department nor the CFTC has accused anyone of wrongdoing, and authorities may ultimately conclude that nothing illicit occurred.

A focus of the Justice Department’s investigation is whether the dramatic rise of digital tokens in recent years was purely driven by actual demand, or was partially fanned on by market tricks.

Among the issues the Justice Department is examining is how Tether Ltd. creates new coins and why they enter the market predominantly through Bitfinex.

30 replies on “US Justice Department is investigating possible impact of Tether (USDT) on the Bitcoin (BTC) price”

I can’t believe Tether wants to create difficulties to market deliberately. Maybe there were such circumstances that make them to act in a way they did it.

those stupid attempts to uncover unreal facts about USDT by some journalists failed and they can freely leave crypto alone

seems like journalists like spreading bullshit about USDT, because it became hard to search for truly independent and not paid articles on the topic.

Tether is the coin that protects our market from inevitable falling, are you blind or just like to ignore facts??

on the distance we would all have our answers, we all expect this situation to be solved without any victims and losses from Tether and BTC

Hard to estimate the results of this media noise but I hope that the company will comment on it somehow

The reporters are not often impartial in their articles, that’s why I put less attention to what they want to convey

I think Tether doesn’t intend to distress crypto processes willfully. Otherwise, what does he stand to gain?

I’ve thought that conflict resolved but what can I see now? Everything repeats. I don’t believe in these rumors and fake articles and hope you don’t believe it too.

The point of view of reporters I know but It has no weight because they are driven by interests of the people who pay them. For me Tether still have the same reputation.

ehhh am I the only one who didnt see any changes in Tether even with all this stuff happening? the coin’s the same for all intents and purposes, so I’ll keep it on my roster I guess

these guys who write nasty stuff about Tether don’t understand that crypto suffers a lot from their slandering, they should stop dramatizing things.

if the investigation doenst end before the beginning of the summer it would be a big surprise for me cuz I think Tether is obviously clear

The supposed connection between USDT and BTC is a minor conspiracy theory for entertainment, the two do have some impact on each other, but it is not significant enough for us to pay attention to it

aint there more important things to talk about in media? we had enough negative stuff said about Tether, either balance it with smth positive or keep silent already for once

I don’t want to argue here because it is useless you will see that tether do nothing bad and then you’ll take all bad words about Tether back immediately

its clear that the rebounding is happening all around, the coin aint an expection, soon itll be free of all the blame placed on it unfairly, im sure

Interesting to see how ppl try to find some weaknesses in tether and abuse them, business is a truly dirty sphere nowadays

I had my doubts about Tether so I was watching it to find any traces of influencing BTC prices – nothing of the sort, the coin’s fine in this regard based on what I saw

isn’t that weird, Tether was Bitcoin’s rival and i still remember that, so it doesnt make sense to me that USDT would impact BTC prices… sry, but that feels like nonsense

in this BTC-Tether pair (so to speak) the coins are independent enough to go on just fine if the other one is not there, that should be pretty obvious to anyone attentive

don’t think usdt is actually capable of doing such illegal things, the coin isn’t about that at all

Bitcoin and Tether relationship is a complicated one for sure and I dont see any chance of the latter affecting the former rly strongly, just do the math and you’ll see that too

hard to convince a blind man to see so I don’t even see reasons to make an argue with tether haters

The situation in media is rather strange in media. They don’t know what new reason to find to accuse Tether one more time.

and so we’re back to square one – what was the point of blaming usdt for smth it wasnt even guilty of? the end result is the same as if nothin was done, you dont just attack a coin of this size haphazardly and hope to win

hopefully no one will buy this crap, it’s just another piece of nonsense about tether

Seems like the accusations look more like jokes for USDT, that’s not serious

i imagine, when will people understand, that btc is a giant, who can’t be impacted by anyone, even tether

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