Cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex has filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit according to which, the exchange triggered market manipulation with the help of the USDT stablecoin back in 2017-2018.
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According to the motion, the plaintiffs did not plead direct evidence of the manipulation.
The plaintiffs note that USDT was repeatedly transferred from Bitfinex to specific digital addresses as part of the manipulation. However, Bitfinex claims "unusual or abnormal circumstances are not sufficient to infer an illegal agreement."
The Plaintiffs also say that billions of USDT tokens were sent to Bitfinex. However, Tether, the issuer of the USDT tokens, did not receive the equivalent sum in the US dollars in return. With these funds — the Plaintiffs allege— the exchange pumped the price of cryptocurrencies.
"The CAC [Class Action Complaint] spins a fantastical tale alleging an elaborate scheme of epic fraud. But innuendo is insufficient to state a claim," Bitfinex concluded.
In November 2019, John Griffin, a professor at the University of Texas, and Amin Shams, an adjunct professor at Ohio State University, revealed an article in which described how a Bitfinex whale manipulated bitcoin price in 2017, when it jumped by 2,000%.
The article examined various transactions made with USDT and bitcoin (EXANTE: Bitcoin) between March 1, 2017, and March 31, 2018. According to the article, there were major purchases on the Bitfinex trading platform right when bitcoin price fell.
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