1 PREFACE
Holders of USDT do not earn interest.
Tether charges the greater of $1000 or 0.1% on redemptions.
You cannot redeem less than 100k USDT.
Tether was the seventh largest buyer of US bonds in 2024.
The Federal Republic of Germany was the eighth.
In 2024, Tether made $93 million dollars per employee.
2 TETHER LIMITED
Tether (USDT) is operated by Tether Limited.
The owner of Tether Limited is Tether Holdings Limited.
The owners of Tether Holdings Limited are Giancarlo Devasini, J.L. van der Velde, and DigFinex, Inc.
The owners of DigFinex, Inc. are J.L. van der Velde, Giancarlo Devasini, Paolo Ardoino, Phil Potter, Stu Hoegner, and Perpetual Action Group (Asia) Inc.
iFinex is the parent company of Bitfinex.
3 BITFINEX
aka unclescrooge
Bitfinex reused most of the code from another exchange called Bitcoinica
The hack happened because phantomcircuit's email was compromised.
and because Bitcoinica's source code was leaked.
aka Amir Taaki.
Vitalik Buterin wrote a nice obituary for Bitcoinica.
On 06 April 2013, a BitcoinTalk user says he recently joined the Bitfinex Team doing -- among other things -- risk management.
The user's handle is Urwhatuknow
aka Giancarlo Devasini
Devasini was once (in 1995) ordered to pay Microsoft 100 million lira for selling counterfeit software.
Devasini also founded a company called Perpetual Action Group that was accused of shipping a block of wood instead of the memory chips a customer ordered.
Here is a 2009 video of Devasini cooking nettle risotto.
Devasini's signature on BitcoinTalk in Spring 2013 is: Giancarlo / Customers Relations / The Bitfinex Team
Devasini introduces josh as the new "PR guy" on 15 July 2014.
When someone asks how to find Bitfinex on the Hong Kong Money Service Operator Register, Devasini says: "look for Renrenbee Limited..."
In response to a question about Bitfinex leadership, a users says: urwhatuknow = Giancarlo Devasini, CFO of Bitfinex and unclescrooge = Raphael Nicolle, CTO of Bitfinex
Devasini says Jean Louis van der Velde CEO
aka Ludovicus Jan van der Velde
Devasini is still CFO of Bitfinex.
Jean Louis van der Velde is still CEO of Bitfinex.
Sam Bankman-Fried said of Devasini “He’s responsive 24/7, and he’s not just responsive to crises or unbelievable opportunities, he’s responsive to day-to-day operations.”
At one point in time, Bitfinex kept half its funds at Mt Gox.
Vitalik wrote a pretty good description of Bitfinex, too.
On 05 September 2014, Devasini registers Tether Holdings Limited in the British Virgin Islands with Philip Potter.
Philip Potter was trading bitcoin on Bitfinex in 2013.
Potter developed a relationship with Devasini because Devasini was super available to big customers.
In February 2014, Potter became Chief Strategy Officer at Bitfinex.
Potter's LinkedIn states that he was Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Tether from March 2014 - February 2018.
On 11 January 2015, Devasini says Realcoin became Tether.
Also on 11 January 2015, Devasini responds to someone saying they didn't get an invite to the Tether beta version: "You should have received an invitation ( I did ). Check your spam folder and if it's not there please send me a PM."
4 REALCOIN
Realcoin was launched by Brock Pierce, Craig Sellers, and Reeve Collins.
William Quigley claims he "Provided essential financial insights by upholding a strict 1:1 reserve ratio and enhancing transparency through regular audits. Quigley’s financial oversight has been critical in maintaining market trust in Tether. His efforts in implementing regular audits and transparent reporting have helped address controversies regarding Tether’s reserve backing."
Quigley may have been an early backer of Mastercoin.
Brock Pierce used to drive a DeLorean with the California license plate SATOSHI
He was also the star of the hit movie First Kid (the one with Sinbad).
And he was in the Mighty Ducks.
Internet Gaming Entertainment was founded by Brock Pierce and Alan Debonneville.
IGE sold in-game items.
Brock Pierce was CEO of Internet Gaming Entertainment.
Pierce is married to Crystal Rose.
Craig Sellars's LinkedIn says he was CTO of Tether from April 2014 to May 2016.
He was also CTO of Bitfinex from January 2015 to May 2016.
The details of his life do not seem to be as remarkable as Brock Pierce's.
Reeve Collins founded Traffic Marketplace -- famous for bringing pop up ads to the internet.
Collins's LinkedIn says he was CEO of Tether from 2013 to 2015.
dolfcao was an avid investor in such altcoins as Dragoncoin and Sexcoin.
On 04 June 2014, Coinaaa had a buyback price of 8600 NOK.
Sometime during the summer of 2014, ownership of Realcoin changes to Tether Holdings Limited (see 3.6), but I don't have a link for this.
Tether's first tweet was on 12 November 2014 at 1:14 PM UTC-4.
On 20 November 2014 Realcoin rebranded as Tether and announced a Beta.
Reeve Collins explained the rebranding by saying: "We're not an altcoin, we're not our own blockchain. We're a service, a token that represents dollars" and also that they wanted to avoid association with earlier altcoins.
The rebranding announcement lists Bitfinex as a launch partner.
It also lists as partners: GoCoin, ZenBox, OmniWallet, HolyTransactions, and Expresscoin.
These transactions used Mastercoin.
Mastercoin was launched on 31 July 2014 by J R Willet.
aka dacoinminster
People could invest in Mastercoin by sending bitcoin to the Exodus address: 1EXoDusjGwvnjZUyKkxZ4UHEf77z6A5S4P
Brock Pierce became an investor through this avenue, and joined the Mastercoin board, and then resigned from the board on 14 July 2014.
Willet outlined the concept of Mastercoin on 06 January 2012 in what he called the Second Bitcoin Whitepaper.
Vitalik wrote a pretty good description of Mastercoin, too.
5 INTERLUDE
As of July 22, 2025, there are 162,513,452,583 USDT in circulation.
1.78 billion new USDT were issued in the seven days before July 23, 2025.
202 thousand USDT were redeemed in the same time.
82 million USDT are on Omni Layer (although, as of August 17 2023, it no longer mints new tokens on Omni Layer.
39 million are on the Liquid Network
6 POLONIEX
"The real inflection point for Tether was when Poloniex -- a new exchange, tiny exchange -- integrated Tether as its fiat option." -Phil Potter, Tether co-founder and former CSO.
Poloniex exchange is announced by Tristan D'Agosta on January 18 2014.
A vulnerability on Poloniex leads to a loss of 12.3% of BTC held by the exchange.
busoni socializes the loss: "The exchange funds are 12.3% short. Because there is not enough BTC to cover everyone's balances, all balances will temporarily be deducted by 12.3%."
Most users seem to be okay with it.
busoni runs a poll about users' preferred method of recovering funds: sell shares of Poliniex, dividends paid from exchange fees is the clear winner.
February 16, 2015 Poloniex adds Tether.
"Tether is now live on the @Poloniex Exchange" says Tether.
March 24 2015 superresistant asks "Also, anyone using USDT (tether) ? How do you withdraw ? Tether is not even working, it's still in beta and I can't access it."
"Tethers can be obtained at Tether.to, Bitfinex, Poloniex, Expresscoin, and Crypto Next, with more exchanges and wallets coming soon." -March 9 2015
Tether's website says "Tether currency is backed 100% by actual fiat currency assets in our reserve account and always maintains a one-to-one ratio with any currency held. For example 1 USD₮ = 1 USD. With almost zero conversion and transfer fees, Tether currency is redeemable for cash at any time."
Reeve Collins, CEO of Tether, is on Trace Mayer's The Bitcoin Knowledge Podcast.
Tether is available on ShapeShift.
Tether integrates with Cryptsy Exchange.
"Margin Trading on Poloniex is here." -May 18, 2015
Poloniex shotgun kyc's their users on May 21, 2015.
Tristan D'Agosta releases open letter explaining kyc changes.
Bitfinex confirms the hacker swept the bitcoin to this address: 17owg8RWb73qfE5HeQk6gg6RAgEUfxPXks
Tether issues 200,000 new Tethers
Tether issues 500,000 new Tethers
By January 2016, Poloniex reaches 100k users.
There are now 1.45 million Tethers in circulation.
Poloniex sees "unprecedented traffic" due to the events.
User AtlasRand1 on Reddit doesn't like the Trollbox function on Poloniex.
"All of a sudden Poloniex was doing crazy volume." - Phil Potter
Poloniex only trades cryptocurrencies -- you can't withdraw to fiat (but you can trade to Tether).
7 RAZZLEKHAN AND DUTCH
In August 2016 almost 120,000 bitcoins are stolen from Bitfinex.
The hacker used a number of advanced hacking tools and techniques to gain access to Bitfinex’s network.
“The bitcoin was stolen from users’ segregated wallets,” -Zane Tackett, Director of Community & Product Development for Bitfinex
The hacker was Ilya Lichtenstein.
Lichtenstein co-founded MixRank.
MixRank "reveals your competitors' campaigns showing you exactly what's working for them. See their most successful ad copy, landing pages, and traffic sources across 93,000 sites."
Techcrunch calls MixRank a spytool for AdSense.
SalesFolk says "One bad sales email can kill your chances with an entire account. Don’t risk it with stale, canned email templates or sloppy copy."
aka Razzlekhan
aka Versace Bedouin
aka Crocodile of Wallstreet
Morgan says she has written more than 10,000 cold emails.
Morgan was writing blog posts about Bitcoin in 2014.
Awkwafina was interviewed by Morgan.
Morgan says "Who ACTUALLY responds positively to cold calls in 2018? I feel like it's the same people who hackers/scammers can successfully social-engineer... no? #nomorecoldcalls"
Morgan says "I guess you can compare cold emails to phishing attacks too, but cold calls feel too similar (or have the potential to be) to call scammers"
Lichtenstein says "Believe me, I am more than capable of hacking a cryptocurrency exchange by myself."
Lichtenstein plans to dedicate himself to working in the cybersecurity industry when he is released.
Lichtenstein steps back from MixRank in May 2016.
Morgan steps back from SalesFolk in early 2018.
"I had legal threats, learned that dishonest employees that were fudging numbers, and people I once deeply respected were trying to bully and shame me into removing content I had published that I firmly believed the public needed to see. " -Heather Morgan
Morgan releases audio-only version of her first track "Versace Bedouin."
"It’s an absurdist stoner story, similar to the likes of Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle, but underneath is an allegory of Silicon Valley, chock-full of symbolism." -Heather Morgan
Razzlekhan's tracks include DIPLOMAT PU$$¥, VACUUM CLEANER, PHO KING BADD BHECH, and SAASHOLES among others.
Description of Morgan's song Razzlekhan vs The United States: "Inspired by Razzlekhan's bizarre real experiences throughout the Bitfinex hack case, the music video blends sexy surrealism with cringe memes for your eyes to feast on."
Bitfinex posts an announcement about the hack on August 2, 2016.
Bitfinex halts all trading, withdrawals, and deposits.
Bitfinex takes down its site.
Bitfinex on August 5, 2016: "we are leaning towards a socialized loss scenario among bitcoin balances and active loans to BTCUSD positions."
Bitfinex on August 6, 2016: "After much thought, analysis, and consultation, we have arrived at the conclusion that losses must be generalized across all accounts and assets. This is the closest approximation to what would happen in a liquidation context. Upon logging into the platform, customers will see that they have experienced a generalized loss percentage of 36.067%."
NYTimes reporter Nathaniel Popper later claims that Coinbase got a better deal after threatening to sue.
"BFX tokens will remain outstanding until redeemed in full by Bitfinex or possibly exchanged—upon the creditor’s request and Bitfinex’s acceptance—for shares of iFinex Inc." -Bitfinex
Bitfinex employee Zane Tackett posts 5% bounty for recovery of stolen coins on Reddit.
August 7, 2016: Bitfinex site is relaunched.
Bitfinex announces that "Ledger Labs Inc., a top blockchain forensics and technology firm, is undertaking an analysis of our systems to determine exactly how the security breach occurred and to make our system’s design better going forward. We engaged Ledger Labs in the hours immediately after the attack happened. The investigation is ongoing. We are also in the process of engaging Ledger Labs to perform an audit of our complete balance sheet for both cryptocurrency and fiat assets and liabilities."
Another Reddit user points out that they seem to have time to post in r/showerthoughts
Bitfinex signs a letter of intent with BnktotheFuture: "Bitfinex and BnkToTheFuture will be structuring a deal to allow qualifying customers to exchange their BFX tokens for equity in iFinex Inc. via a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV)"
On September 1, 2016, Bitfinex announces redemption of 1.1812% of BFX Tokens
On September 30, 2016, Bitfinex announces redemption of 1.3152% of outstanding BFX tokens.
BFX token to iFinex equity conversion update "THIS IS NOT A SOLICITATION. Any participation in any SPV is void where prohibited by applicable law. Interested users can enable the Conversion wallet."
Giancarlo Devasini posts "Message to the individual responsible for the Bitfinex security incident of August 2, 2016" Devasini says "Our interest here is not to accuse, blame or make demands, but rather to discuss an arrangement that we think you will find interesting."
Ilya Lichtenstein does not respond.
Neither does Razzlekhan.
Bitfinex "More than 20 million BFX tokens have been thus exchanged for shares of iFinex; all tokens exchanged for shares have been destroyed by us."
Recovery Rights Token announced.
"In the event of any recovery of the bitcoins stolen from Bitfinex, the first priority will be to use any recovery amounts to repay the then-outstanding or unconverted BFX tokens. If there are any excess recovered amounts after all outstanding BFX tokens have been redeemed at full face value, the recovered funds will be distributed to RRT holders."
"Subscriptions received on or before October 7 were provided with one RRT for each BFX token converted into shares of iFinex. Those subscribing on or after October 8 but before November 1 will be entitled to one-half an RRT for each BFX token converted into shares. Subscriptions received after October 31 up to and including November 30 will receive one-quarter of an RRT per BFX token converted to shares. After November 30, no RRTs will be offered to subscribers."
Here is the investment overview deck.
Bitfinex works with a marketing firm called Eco Strategic Communications.
On November 2, 2016, Bitfinex announces redemption of 1.5% of outstanding BFX tokens.
Zane Tackett: "I Have Resigned from Bitfinex."
"I have decided to resign because of the draining nature of dealing with the insane conspiracy theories, the vile people, and the incessant vitriol spewed at a team who have dedicated their life to bitcoin and creating the world’s best trading platform."
"As a personal anecdote, I visited Giancarlo, our CFO, in July and we had a little get together with Bitfinex employees. On a Saturday at 1:00am Giancarlo is sitting off by himself while we’re all mingling and for probably an hour he sat there and went through all of the pending withdrawals. Paolo, our CTO, he’s a terminator, I can send him questions at 3:00am and get a response within minutes, always. I’ll see him making commits at 4am and handling a support ticket at 8am the next morning. I’ve never met anyone who even comes close to working as hard as Paolo. Our CEO joins the weekly developer calls even though it often runs to 1:00am or later in Asia where he is located."
8 BITFINEX'ED
Between December 28 2016 and January 4 2017, 8 million new Tethers are minted, more than doubling supply to 14.95 million.
By February 1, 2017 10 million more Tether are minted, bringing supply to 24.95 million.
By March 8, 2017 another 10 million Tether have been minted, bringing supply to 34.95 million.
Bitfinex claims to be the "Only Billion Dollar Cyrptocurrencies Exchange" in the world (based on 30-day trading volume).
By March 22, 2017 another 10 million Tether have been minted, bringing supply to 44.95 million.
By March 29, 2017 another 10 million Tether have been minted, bringing supply to 54.95 million.
On March 31, 2017 Bitfinex's primary financial institution in Taiwan, KGI Bank, says that Wells Fargo will no longer service US correspondent accounts for the benefit of Bitfinex and its affiliated entities (eg Tether).
On April 3, 2017, Wells Fargo tells Bitfinex that Wells will only communicate with their client, KGI Bank.
Bitfinex's lawyers respond "Continued delay in resolving this matter will create a substantial interference with our client’s ability to operate their business and presents an existential threat to the company."
"A combination of factors has led to this seminal moment for Bitfinex, including a dramatic uptick in equity conversions; record operating results in March; and, the decision to reduce our reserves in favor of this opportunity."
"At 20:00:00 UTC today (April 3, 2017)...Platform-wide, we will be pausing withdrawals, wallet movements, margin liquidations, and automatic settlement of negative balances while the settlement process is running (this process is estimated to last approximately 25 min)."
On April 4, 2017 Bitfinex informs Wells that they "intend to go to court tomorrow in the Northern District of California."
April 7, 2017 Bitfinex says "We do not bank with Wells Fargo; they serve as a correspondent bank only. Funds are not frozen. This isn't a regulatory action."
AtlasRand1 posts a Law360 page about the Wells lawsuit, claiming $180 million belonging to Bitfinex and Tether are "frozen." Other users push back noting that Wells is a correspondant bank, not Bitfinex or Tether's bank.
"AtlasRand1 has nothing better to do than spread FUD All day. Look at his history." -Reddit user bitniyen
"Please don't post misleading and damaging headlines like this " -brucefenton
"the money though does not seem to be lost or frozen like i originally thought but this can still affect bitcoin prices if people can't deposit to buy" -AtlasRand1
April 8, 2017 "Intermediate bank blocking international transfers happened to MtGox back in June 2013. It is a difficult situation to be in." -MagicalTux
aka Mark Karpeles
aka Founder of Mt Gox
April 9 2017 Karpeles responds to Buttcoin thread "Mark Carpeles offers counsel and consolation to his spiritual brethren at Bitfinex" by saying "I'm afriad there isn't much consolation to be offered" and "You see how well it went for MtGox. By the way our lawyers at the time dismissed trying to sue the intermediate bank as the worst thing we could possibly do."
"how do you convert tether to usd...with bitfinex. bitfinex = tether" -AtlasRand1
On April 10, 2017 Twitter user @Bitfinexed makes their first post with a screenshot of the Bitfinex v Wells lawsuit and a link to the Reddit thread.
"yes i am atlasrand1 on reddit not a sock" -Bitfinexed
Bitfinexed says "I have no BTC or USD on Finex but could not ignore the withdrawal issue and not warn people about it. It's a massive fundamental issue."
On April 10, 2017 The Merkle News publishes an article claiming Wells Fargo "froze" $180 million of Bitfinex customer assets, however, on Reddit, Bitfinex employees clarify that no Bitfinex money is held at Wells and that Wells "has chosen to block wire transfers between us and our customers which we are challenging in court."
"No USD withdrawals from Bitfinex. Only way out of Bitfinex is to buy Bitcoins. BTC withdrawals unaffected, currently." -Bitfinexed
Potter says "We have 201 waiting on wires. The top ten comprise 8.7 million dollars. The bottom 50% are wires for less than $10k."
Potter says "At the end of the day, we realized that Wells Fargo can do this if they want. It does bring into question the long term viability of bitcoin trading versus us dollars."
Potter says "It's going to become increasingly difficult to run US dollar markets from outside the United States. And even within the United States the headaches in banking are really substantial."
Potter also says "No, Tether is not iFinex, but we bank with the same banks and we've actually, part of our effort with Wells Fargo, we just want to explain to that Tether is not a cryptocurrency exchange. But it is an MSB."
On April 13, 2017 Bitfinex posts this update: "There is currently no ETA on full normalization of USD wires, but we are working hard to provide alternatives to our customers and will continue to provide updates as we progress. Notably, we can process withdrawals in other currencies, namely, Hong Kong Dollars (HKD) and Swiss Francs (CHF)."
"Bitfinex is not insolvent. In fact, completing the BFX Token redemption process on April 3rd has paved the way for us to retain a major accounting firm to audit our balance sheet. We are in active discussions with several candidates and expect an announcement on this by the end of this month." -Bitfinex
On April 17, 2016 Bitfinex announces that its Tawainese banking partners are refusing deposits: "Beginning April 18, 2017, all incoming wires to Bitfinex will be blocked and refused by our Taiwan banks. This applies to all fiat currencies at the present time. Accordingly, we ask customers to avoid sending incoming wires to us until further notice, effective immediately."
On Twitter Bitfinex adds: "Cryptocurrency deposits and withdrawals are processing normally. Swiss Franc and Hong Kong Dollar withdrawals are working, as well."
Bitfinex issues correction: "We were advised by our banks that we would be able to process outbound wires in HKD and CHF, and while we were able to successfully process several such transactions, we are now being told that the moratorium is being extended to these currencies, as well."
However: "Domestic transfers in all currencies within Taiwan, however, are working with no problems or delays."
BTC-E "Due to change banking account we don't accept USD wire transfers till the end of the month"
Okcoin: "Starting from today (April 18, 2017) Okcoin would temporarily suspend USD deposit because of the issues with intermediary banks."
As of April 26, 2017 Tether's website says "Tether Platform currencies are 100% backed by actual fiat currency assets in our reserve account. Tethers are redeemable and exchangeable pursuant to Tether Limited’s terms of service. The conversion rate is 1 tether USD₮ equals 1 USD."
It also says: "The Tether Platform is fully reserved when the sum of all tethers in circulation is greater than or equal to the balance of fiat currency held in our reserve. Through our Transparency page, anyone can view both of these numbers in near real-time."
"Curious correlation between increase in Tether supply and Bitfinex paying back BFXTokens from the hack" -Wojtek Palczynski
April 16, 2017 Bitfinexed asks about Ledger Labs audit of Tether "Did you guys audit Bitfinex in August 2016? What were the results of the audit of their books?"
Ledger responds "Hi - Bitfinex has updated their previous post with a clarification about our role"
By April 17, 2017 A 6% price difference in bitcoin exists between Bitfinex / Poloniex and other exchanges.
Bitmex "we are weighting Bitfinex to 0 in the .BXBT Index, effective 1600 UTC today (30 minutes from the time of their post).
Bitfinexed tweets a picture of Tether's terms of service, saying "Tethers are not USD. THEY ARE NOT MONEY. STOP USING THEM."
"There is no contractual right or other right or legal claim against us to redeem or exchange your Tethers for money. We do not guarantee any right of redemption or exchange of Tethers by us for money. There is no guarantee against losses when you buy, trade, sell, or redeem Tethers." screenshot
Bitfinex says "Every Bitfinex user’s deposit is always held on deposit in our regulated financial institutions, dollar for dollar."
"There is no guarantee because the right of redemption cannot be automatic, in our view. For example, if the person seeking to redeem Tethers were on the OFAC (SDN) list, we would not redeem." -GamingCounsel
aka Stu Hoegner, General Counsel at Bitfinex
aka @bitcoinlawyer
His first blog post about Bitcoin is from March 28, 2013.
Before this, he published "Cash Is Not King: Thoughts on Financial Transactions in Internet Gaming" in 2011.
He devotes a small section to Bitcoin at the end of the paper.
After this, he published The Law of Bitcoin with Jerry Brito in 2015.
Hoegner was one of the first lawyers in Canada to accept bitcoin payments.
April 19, 2017 AtlasRand1 is banned from r/BitcoinMarkets because "the extreme volume and repetitive nature of your posting amounts to SPAM"
Bitfinex is pleased to announce that they have engaged Friedman LLP to complete a comprehensive balance sheet audit.
Bitfinexed says "liquidity bubble ala mtgox when they lost the ability to send money and people trapped on exchange. 1 way out: buy btc"
Bitfinexed says "remember kids: if you cant sell your bitcoins for the cash, and get the cash, price isnt real"
Bitfinexed asks "how do we have $9 million in new Tethers in 3 days when Tether and Bitfinex can't accept deposits?"
BitcoinTalk post analysing Tether terms of service notes that "Tethers are redeemable subject to the condition that they're not."
Bitcoin hits an all time high of $1490 USD.
Roland says: This ATH is Bitfinex driven .... not very sustainable imho. Be careful out there!
"Unfortunately, due to the cumbersome nature of the settlement procedure, we are processing these requests in descending order of size as we learn how to handle the process more efficiently. For the time being, we will only process requests above $50,000 in size."
"We believe that by te time we are able to get to the smaller withdrawals, other, less cumbersome withdrawal solutions will become more widely available."
By May 24, 2017 there are 69 million Tethers in circulation.
By May 31, 2017 there are 108 million Tethers in circulation.
By end of June 2017, there are 217 million Tethers in circulation.
Bitfinex opens an account at Noble Bank International in Puerto Rico.
Brock Pierce was a co-founder.
Tether does not have an account at Noble Bank at this time.
A user on Reddit claims Tether support provided them with a response about who is minting new Tether: "There are Institutional Tether customers that have their own bank accounts in Taiwan that are able to make an internal transfer to their Tether accounts , hence the new Tethers created."
By end of July 2017, there are 320 million Tethers in circulation.
"Tether did not have a significant bank relationship in its name from at least March 2017 until September 15, 2017" NY Attorney General Letitia James
On August 1, 2017 Bitfinexed publishes "Meet Spoofy: How a single entity dominates the price of bitcoin"
The story alleges "A trader, or a group of traders, or possibly even Bitfinex themselves manipulates the price of Bitcoin." -Bitfinexed
And also "The exchange rate of Bitcoin has been heavily manipulated as a result of spoofing, wash trading, and other shenanigans."
This is also the day BCH forks off BTC.
Speaking of how Bitfinex handles the BCash fork, Matt Levine says in Bloomberg: "There is no single obviously correct solution to these issues. Instead, each decision was sort of weird and contingent and reversible: not the immutable code of the blockchain, but just humans sitting around and trying to figure out which approach would cause the fewest complaints."
"Furthermore, over the next 90 days, we will be discontinuing services to our existing U.S. individual customers. We will be communicating further with affected users on timing and specifics. Our intention is to reduce disruption as much as possible for our U.S. customers."
"Bitfinex will be barring U.S. customers from trading ERC20 tokens issued through "ICOs." That ban will go into effect at noon UTC on Wednesday, August 16, 2017. No trading of these tokens will be allowed for U.S. customers as of that date and time. Please note that nothing in this announcement should be taken as fact or opinion that any such ERC20 tokens are a security pursuant to U.S. law or require regulation under U.S. law."
"Tether notified Friedman that the company did not have a bank account at Noble Bank (or any other institution) but were in the process of opening one." -Office NY Attorney General Letitia James
In mid September, "Tether deposited the vast majority of its cash holdings (ostensibly backing USDT) into a trust account at the Bank of Montreal in the name of its General Counsel." -Office of the NY Attorney General Letitia James
See 8.244
"Until September 15, 2017, the only U.S. dollars held by Tether ostensibly backing the approximately 442 million tethers in circulation was the approximately $61 million on deposit at the Bank of Montreal." -Office of the NY Attorney General Letitia James.
"The Bank of Montreal account never had more than $61.5 million dollars on deposit." -Office of the NY Attorney General Letitia James.
"On the morning of September 15, 2017, Tether opened an account at Noble Bank. Later that day, Bitfinex transferred $382,446,847.71 from Bitfinex’s account at Noble Bank into Tether’s account at Noble Bank." -Office of the NY Attorney General Letitia James.
"Friedman conducted its verification of Tether’s assets as of 8:00 p.m. EST." -Office of the NY Attorney General Letitia James.
September 28, 2017 Friedman LLP sends an attestation of Tether balances to "Management of Tether Limited."
The attestation shows USD balances at a redacted bank for the benefit of Tether Limited.
These USD balances equal $442,984,592.00
The attestation says total Tether supply at this time is 442,481,760.00
Tether publishes a Transparency Update, stating: "As the amount of Tethers in circulation has increased substantially in recent months, we have also asked Friedman to analyze our bank balances and our issued and outstanding token balance on an interim basis."
By end of September 2017, there are 420 million Tethers in circulation.
On November 19, 2017 "$30,950,010 USDT was removed from the Tether Treasury wallet and sent to an unauthorized bitcoin address."
Tether provides new builds of Omni Core to the community. (Omni Core is the software used by Tether integrators to support Omni Layer transactions.)
"These builds should prevent any movement of the stolen coins from the attacker’s address."
"We strongly urge all Tether integrators to install this software immediately to prevent the coins from entering the ecosystem."
"All Tether tokens remain fully backed by assets in the Tether reserve."
Ronn Torassian is CEO of 5WPR.
"There's a fear going on that the recent price rise was helped by printing of USDT (Tether) that is not backed by USD in a bank account." -SatoshiLite
aka Charlie Lee
aka the creator of Litecoin.
He also says: "I urge @bitfinex and @Tether_to to perform a 3rd party audit to prove their reserves. Please do the right thing. Thanks."
Bitfinex says "While we have some clear challenges, please note that tens of millions of dollars continue to flow in and out of Bitfinex daily. Although not available to everyone, these fiat flows have been sufficient to keep our market in alignment with other exchanges as we continue to gain market share."
Bitfinex says they "have made the decision to disengage from servicing U.S. individuals on our platform."
On December 3, 2017 Bitfinex engages a law firm to "signaling to those who engage in this activity that they are serious about protecting the truth and their business.”
“To date, every claim made by these bad actors has been patently false and made simply to agitate the cryptocurrency ecosystem. As a result, Bitfinex has decided to assert all of its legal rights and remedies against this agitator and his associates.” -Stuart Hoegner
Although Bitfinex does not say at whom their legal efforts are aimed, Ronn Torossian says "I think you can infer who."
Bloomberg runs an article with the title: "There's an $814 Million Mystery Near the Heart of the Biggest Bitcoin Exchange."
"Since there’s $814 million of tether circulating, there should be $814 million parked in bank accounts somewhere."
The article describes a person who "said that in early November he tried to cash out $1 million of tether, a request Tether refused."
"Due to ongoing banking difficulties we are only able to process requests for verified corporate customers,” Serdar was told by Tether, according to emails he shared with Bloomberg News."
"The customer in question was flagged as suspicious because of numerous irregularities,” he added. “If this customer wishes to complete our KYC process properly, we may review this matter further. Until that time, this individual will not be permitted to do business with us."
"As of December 19, 2017, Tether is enabling limited wallet services, allowing users to login and start withdrawing any funds held in their wallets, as needed. The system is still processing a backlog of transactions sent after the original Nov 19th shutdown, so any user deposits sent in the past month should become available and accessible in their respective wallets over the course of a few days." -Tether Wallet Service and Platform Update
"Until we are able to migrate to the new platform, the purchase or sale of Tether will not be possible directly through tether.to. For the time being, though, we invite you to use the services of any one of a dozen global exchanges to acquire or dispose of Tethers for either USD or other cryptocurrencies. Such exchanges and other qualified corporate customers can contact Tether directly to arrange for creation and redemption. Sadly, however, we cannot create or redeem tether for any U.S.-based customers at this time."
On December 17, 2017 Bitcoin hits a new all time high of $19,783.21.
By the end of 2017, there are more than 1.2 billion Tethers in circulation.
The number of Tethers in circulation increases from 6.95 million to 1.2 billion during the calendar year 2017.
9 INTERLUDE
PlanB Lugano's website directs you to planb.network when you click on the Bitcoin Education link.
10 CRYPTO CAPITAL CORPORATION
"Hi everyone, Over the past 2 weeks we have witnessed a minor increase in tickets centered around delayed fiat deposits & withdrawals, specifically those executed between 10th January-5th February 2018. We are fully aware of these delays and we are working closely with partners to expedite affected transactions in a timely and supportive manner. We have seen an increase in processed transactions over the past 3 days with the majority of backlogged transactions going through yesterday. We expect for all backlogged fiat transactions to clear within the next 4 business days. We apologise to those affected and we will continue to monitor transactions to ensure smooth processing." -social_bfx on r/bitfinex, 20 February 2018
The top of thread is full of arguments users accusing each other of being paid to shill for Bitfinex and being paid to fud bitfinex. However, the bottom of the thread is just people posting their ticket numbers and the complaint that they haven't received their funds yet.
Tether changes its terms of service to say "Beginning on January 1, 2018, Tether Tokens will no longer be issued to U.S. Persons."
On 3 January 2018 the number of tethers in circulation reached 1.48 billion
Tether gives a statement to Coindesk that says its relationship with its auditor, Friedmann LLP has been dissolved.
"We confirm that the relationship with Friedman is dissolved. Given the excruciatingly detailed procedures Friedman was undertaking for the relatively simple balance sheet of Tether, it became clear that an audit would be unattainable in a reasonable time frame. As Tether is the first company in the space to undergo this process and pursue this level of transparency, there is no precedent set to guide the process nor any benchmark against which to measure its success." -Tether spokesperson
31 January 2018 the number of tethers in circulation reaches 2.2 billion
This is ~50% increase in the number of tethers.
"Over the course of the past few days, when Bitcoin appeared as if it was almost about to crash but at the last minute recovered, we saw an awful lot of buys that look like this, many of which are suspiciously timed shortly after those $100 million Tether issuances." Tony Acieri, "The Tether Conundrum: A Quick Backstory"
"I am a former HODLer, present nocoiner, and perpetual Bitcoin bear, so take that for what you will. Well, the nocoiner part is a bit of a lie: I have a JPCoin." -Tony
Tony previously published "The Death of Bitcoin" (20 May 2015), "The Dangers of Blockchain Monoculture" (5 January 2016), and "A tale of two cryptocurrencies: Ethereum and Bitcoin’s ongoing challenges" (21 June 2016)
User Buttcoins-R-Us on Reddit says, "1) You buy any crypto coin of your choice on Bitfinex with your US Dollars. No Tether involved here. Bitfinex will sell you crypto coins for cold hard cash any day. 2) When you decide to sell your coins, Bitfinex will offer you something shady called USD-T. It sounds like USD but in fact it's Tether. Here's where you either get stuck holding tethers mistaking them for USD or figure out the scam and take your tethers to another exchange to cash out. 3) But wait there's more. The other exchanges don't cash out tethers directly for USD either. So you have to buy altcoins at those exchanges with your tethers then withdraw the whole thing for cash."
Bloomberg runs an article revealing that the CFTC subpoenaed Bitfinex and Tether in December, 2017.
Friedman LLP removes all mention of Bitfinex from their website
"The auditor quit because of the Twitter FUD. Self full-filling prophesies." -Brock Pierce on Twitter
Tether's website on 12 February 2019 "Every tether is always backed 1-to-1, by traditional currency held in our reserves. So 1 USD₮ is always equivalent to 1 USD."
"We routinely receive legal process from law enforcement agents and regulators conducting investigations." -Bitfinex and Tether
18 February 2018 BitMex Research publishes a blog post on Tether, speculating that Tether is using Noble Bank in Puerto Rico.
Noble Bank was co-founded by Brock Pierce.
Noble Bank is not the only bank being used by Tether and Bitfinex.
In early April 2018, Polish authorities seize more than 400 million euros from accounts at a small bank in Lodz.
A user on a Polish Bitcoin forum claims this account (Crypto sp z o.o.) is connected to Bitfinex.
This user also claims "The prosecutor’s office from Łódź came after me over the company Crypto sp. z o.o., because I transferred money from Bitfinex and, through it, the money was paid out to me."
Back in November of 2017, Bitfinexed claimed "Bitfinex's new Euro bank is under the account name "CRYPTO SP.ZO.O". The Euro Bank is not in the name of Tether, or Bitfinex."
Bitfinexed posted a screenshot of Bitfinex deposit instructions listing the Crypto Sp. ZO.O account.
Bitfinexed gets this by cajoling a Twitter user who is also presumably a Bitfinex customer to post a screenshot of the wiring details.
Twitter user @Hashdeus says "The 99% owner of Crypto sp z o.o. is CRYPTO CAPITAL CORP. https://cryptocapital.co (Panama)"
This public information comes from a Polish site that aggregates public information, but the link is no longer live.
Polish media were reporting the connection between Bitfinex and the Crypto SP ZO.O account in late November, 2017.
Crypto Capital acquired Crypto SP ZO.O for PLN 4,950.00.
There is a screenshot of this public information.
The Crypto Sp ZO.O bank account is connected to a Panamanian Canadian and a Columbian with citizenship in Panama.
The Panamanian Canadian individual is Ivan Manuel Molina Lee.
Ivan Manuel Molina Lee is also the director of Crypto Capital Corporation.
Crypto Capital Corporation's website says: "DEPOSIT AND WITHDRAW FIAT FUNDS INSTANTLY TO ANY CRYPTO EXCHANGE AROUND THE WORLD"
Crypto Capital is first proposed on 3 May 2013 as a "fiat bank for bitcoiners" in a long post by a Reddit user named bitfan2013. The whole post is worth reading.
Bitfan2013 says the core issue Bitcoiners are facing is "Fiat to Bitcoin and back to Fiat. A real Fiat Bank from scratch should be setup by Bitcoin users, miners, merchants and developers for the purpose of doing business in Bitcoin and exclusively to Virtual Currencies."
Bitfan2013 also says, "I know that Bitcoiners everywhere believe that the Banks are scared of Bitcoin and are out to crush it; however, nothing could be further from the truth. Bankers are businessmen and run the Bank as a business and as any other business with profits being the goal while providing services for a fee to their customer’s base."
And "Bitcoin solves many issues on a global scale providing the ability to move “currency” for almost no fees, everywhere in seconds, don’t you think that’s a Bankers wet dream not being tied to the slow moving Swift system where everyone and their mother takes a cut from a simple wire."
Bitfan2013 may be Ivan Manuel Molina Lee, a Panamanian Canadian.
Bitfan2013 posts an update on 8 May 2013, saying "We have decided to offer Private International banking to Bitcoin Customers, Merchants and Traders"
On 6 August 2013, a public offering is announced for something called Crypto Financial.
The public offering is facilitated by Havelock Investments.
aka James Grant
They charged 80BTC/month + 0.50 BTC/minute anywhere in Canada/Continental USA. Details on Lightbox's webpage
A year later, in 2011, James launched canadianbitcoins.
When Havelock Investments first launched, James' announcement had no comments or replies after three days.
Havelock Investments launches (relaunches?) a new fund on 1 August 2012
Havelock Invements announces the public offering of Crypto Financial (CFIG) shares at a price of 0.15BTC/unit with a total of 50,000 units.
A prospectus for Crypto Financial is published on Havelock's website.
The prospectus is written by as MS Office Word 2007 user with the name oz-office.
A user named Crypto Financial provides some background for the public offering.
"Members of this company are currently board members in a Medium size bank in Panama." -Crypto Financial on BitcoinTalk
"Our solution is to provide the Exchanges with pre-approved customers that they will not be required to verify. The same way a Stock broker handles and manages their customers account, and the actual trades are performed by a trading platform software provided by a third party; so will we offer our customers the ability to choose their own trading platform provided by the exchanges. As the Exchange companies will only offer software, their liability for reporting and compliance will be void and null." -Crypto Financial on BitcoinTalk
"We will offer several exchanges the opportunity to bid for and open an account with our company. Each Exchange platform company will be able to offer their own rates and fees for access to their platform to our customers. This will encourage competition among the different exchanges and offer our customers a choice when choosing an exchange. This will also encourage innovation for the Exchange Platform as the Exchanges will compete and will want to attract our customers by offering the best Trading Platform and Best Rates. The same way the free market dictates the rates offered by different Stock Brokers or Forex agents." -Crypto Financial on BitcoinTalk
"We will deal with Fiat currency only, and the exchanges will operate the Crypto Currency portion of the transaction." -Crypto Financial on BitcoinTalk
"We will provide services to U.S based customers and comply with FACTA if the customer qualifies for it (over $50K). U.S Citizens should also comply with FBAR" -Crypto Financial on BitcoinTalk
The Crypto Financial public offering announcement is also posted on Reddit by bitfan2013.
Two days later, a Reddit account named CryptoFinancial posts an ad for a graphic designer to create a logo for their new corporation.
In November 2013, bitfan2013 makes a comment on Reddit saying Havelock Invesments is owned and operated by a Panamanian company.
James announces on BitcoinTalk that Havelock Investments has been acquired by the Panama Fund.
On 20 May 2014, Crypto Financial's page on Havelock Investments posts an update using the name Crypto Captial Corp.
Crypto Capital's website says it is owned and operated by Global Trade Solutions A.G., a licensed financial institution in Zug, Switzerland, the "Crypto Valley".
Global Trade Solutions was originally called Semacon AG Software Engineering, Management & Consulting, but was renamed in 2016.
Semacon AG Software Engineering, Management & Consulting, located in Feusisberg, CHE-109.428.391, a public limited company (SHAB No. 249 of December 21, 2012)
Global Trade Solutions purpose is stated as: Operation of a debt collection agency for the collection of own receivables and those of third parties.
As early as 2015, somebody from France created a blog to complain about Crypto Capital and their use of Global Transaction Services LLC, which they claimed was based in Georgia, US.
On 28 January 2016, a BitcoinTalk user was complaining about being given a bank account called "Global Transaction Services (HK) Limited" to deposit funds at Crypto Capital.
In May of 2016, the owner of a Atlanta, Georgia based company called Global Transaction Services was indicted for failing to establish an effective anti-money laundering program.
It is unclear whether the Global Transaction Services referenced in the indictment had any connection with the Global Transaction Services operating in Hong Kong or to Global Trade Solutions AG, the parent company of Crypto Capital, or to Global Trade Solutions LLC, the Colorado company later founded by Reginald Fowler.
Decrypt believes they are connected.
In March of 2017, Ivan Manuel Molina Lee, a Panamanian citizen, becomes the chairman of the board of directors for Global Trade Solutions, AG.
Ivo Michael Krämer is also added to the board.
In April of 2017 Ivan Manuel Molina Lee changes his citizenship on the documents to Canadian.
Amit Raz, an Israeli citizen, is added to the board as a director with joint signature by two.
Eitan Treger, an Israeli citisen, is also added to the board as a director with joint signature by two.
In August of 2018, Global Trade Solutions declares as its new purpose: "Provision of services in the areas of asset and investment advisory, financial and organizational planning, management and family office services, handling of all types of administrative work and providing support services in the area of general financial and asset advisory, as well as accepting mandates in these areas, operating a debt collection agency for the collection of own receivables and those of third parties"
"From early 2017 through late 2018, Bitfinex customers transferred more than $1.5 billion to various bank accounts purportedly held or controlled by Crypto Capital." -Declaration of Giancarlo Devasini in support of application to conduct discovery
The New York Attorney General claims that Bitfinex began a relationship in 2014 with a (believed to be) Panamanian entity called Crypto Capital Corp. to act as payment processors.
"As explained to OAG attorneys by Respondents' counsel, no contracts or similar written agreement was ever entered into between Crypto Capital and Bitfinex or Tether." -New York Office of the Attorney General
"By mid-2018, Crypto Capital held over $1 billion of funds that emanated from customer deposits at Bitfinex." -Settlement agreement between Bitfinex and Tether and the New York Attorney General
"In or about March or April 2018, however, we learned from news reports that Crypto Capital funds had been seized by authorities in Poland as part of an investigation into potential money-laundering. At the time, Yosef acknowledged to me that Crypto Capital's Polish bank accounts had been frozen, but claimed that none of iFinex's funds were affected by these actions." -Declaration of Giancarlo Devasini in support of application to conduct discovery
"Bitfinex can confirm that it is aware of the current allegations that have been reported by Polish media over the past several hours.Bitfinex believes that these allegations are untrue and Bitfinex customers and operations are unaffected by false rumors. Bitfinex is proud to be the world’s leading crypto exchange, and in this capacity works tirelessly to remain in strict compliance with authorities and regulators worldwide." -Bitfinex statement in response to the reports of their connection to the seizure of funds from Polish Crypto SP ZO.O account
"At some point between April 2018 and July 2018, “Oz” informed Bitfinex that a Crypto Capital account in Portugal containing approximately $150 million of Bitfinex client funds had also been frozen." -Settlement Agreement between New York Office of the Attorney General and Bitfinex-Tether
"Crypto Capital's agreement to act as a payment processor was made by one of its principals -- an individual who identified himself to me as Oz "Joseph." -Declaration of Giancarlo Devasini in support of application to conduct discovery
"in 2019, I learned that Mr Joseph's last name was actually "Yosef." -Declaration of Giancarlo Devasini in support of application to conduct discovery
Also in early April, 2018 Crypto Capital is named in a 93-count indictment of Backpage.
"According to court documents, the government seized several financial accounts belonging to Backpage owners, including a number of accounts held with Crypto Capital, as well as Global Trading Solutions." -decrypt
Global Trading Solutions is not the same name as Global Trade Solutions, however, I couldn't find the court documents referenced by Decrypt.
"U.S. Launches Criminal Probe into Bitcoin Price Manipulation" -Bloomberg
"In May 2018, Bitfinex asked “Oz” how Bitfinex could 'move money efficiently out of Cryptocapital.'" -Settlement Agreement between New York Office of the Attorney General and Bitfinex-Tether
"In communication logs produced to OAG covering the period of April 2018 to early 2019, a senior Bitfinex executive ("Merlin") repeatedly beseeched an individual at Crypto Capital ("Oz") to return Bitfinex's funds." -New York Office of the Attorney General
"Noble Bank International, based in San Juan, Puerto Rico, took over banking duties for Bitfinex last year. As a stopgap between Wells Fargo’s exit and Noble’s entrance, Bitfinex used a string of third-party accounts based in Panama City to stay in the game, according to online documents." -Bloomberg, 24 May 2018
6 June 2018 The CFTC denies a FOIA request for the supoenaes they reportedly issued to Bitfinex and Tether.
"Some records are exempt from disclosure under FOIA Exemption 7(A), 5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(7)(A), because disclosure of that material could reasonably be expected to interfere with the conduct of the Commission’s law enforcement activities." -CFTC letter denying the FOIA request
"Some records were obtained on the condition that the agency keep the source of the information confidential. Those records are exempt from disclosure under FOIA Exemption 7(0), 5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(7)(D). That exemption is intended to ensure that “confidential sources are not lost because of retaliation against the sources for past disclosures or because of the sources’ fear of future disclosures." -CFTC letter denying the FOIA request
6 June 2018 the number of tethers in circulation reaches 2.5 billion
Tether publishes an attorney-client communication from the law firm Freeh, Sporkin, & Sullivan in which the lawyers say "FSS is confident that Tether’s unencumbered assets exceed the balance of fully-backed USD Tethers in circulation as of June 1st, 2018."
Louis Freeh is the former director of the FBI.
"John Betts, founder and CEO of Noble Bank, and Brock Pierce were both part of Sunlot Holdings in 2014, which unsuccessfully offered to take over the assets of Mt. Gox and revive the bankrupt exchange. Louis Freeh, co-founder of Freeh Sporkin & Sullivan, had an advisory role for Sunlot Holdings in 2014." diar
Eugene R Sullivan is on the board of advisors for Noble Bank.
22 June 2018 Phil Potter steps down as Chief Strategy Officer at Bitfinex
"As Bitfinex pivots away from the U.S., I felt that, as a U.S. person, it was time for me to rethink my position as a member of the executive team." -Philip Potter
"We find that purchases with Tether are timed following market downturns and result in sizable increases in Bitcoin prices. The flow is attributable to one entity, clusters below round prices, induces asymmetric autocorrelations in Bitcoin, and suggests insufficient Tether reserves before month-ends. Rather than demand from cash investors, these patterns are most consistent with the supply-based hypothesis of unbacked digital money inflating cryptocurrency prices." Is Bitcoin Really Un-Tethered
"I am aware of the delayed and rejected deposits from the past couple weeks; from what I understand, some of our banking relations were changed and that led to the present situation." -Bitfinex representative on r/Bitfinex
4 July 2018 the number of tethers in circulation reaches 2.7 billion
In July 2018, Bitfinex told “Oz,” that over eighty percent of Bitfinex’s client deposits were held at bank accounts controlled by Crypto Capital.
"By July 2018, the amount Crypto Capital held and owed to iFinex exceeded $1 billion." -Declaration of Giancarlo Devasini in support of application to conduct discovery
"Hey Oz, sorry to bother you every day. is there any way to move at least 100M to either [redacted]? We are seeing massive withdrawals and we are not able to face them anymore unless we can transfer some money out of Cryptocapital" -Giancarlo "Merlin" Devasini on 15 August 2018
"I understand some of the funds are being held by [redacted], but what about the rest?" -Giancarlo "Merlin" Devasini on 15 August 2018
"Under normal circumstances I wouldn't bother you ( I never did so far) but this is a quite special situation and I need your help. thanks" -Giancarlo "Merlin" Devasini on 15 August 2018
"As I have recently been contacted by many of you with regards to delays in fiat deposits and withdrawals for your Bitfinex accounts, we have decided to open a separate thread so that we can keep all similar matters in one place." -garbis_bitfinex on Reddit
"An individual at Crypto Capital told the senior Bitfinex executive the reason that funds totaling $851 million could not be returned to Bitfinex was because the funds were seized by governmental authorities in Portugal, Poland, and the United States." Office of the Attorney General of New York
"We strongly recommend for you to stay up to date with the latest operating systems and browsers to get the most out of your trading experience using Bitfinex." -Bitfinex Twitter account
3 October 2018 the number of tethers in circulation reaches 2.8 billion
"Bitfinex is not insolvent, and a constant stream of Medium articles claiming otherwise is not going to change this. As one of only a very few exchanges operating since 2013, with a small team and low operating costs, we do not entirely understand the arguments that purport to show us to be insolvent without providing any explanation about why. The wallets below represent a small fraction of Bitfinex cryptocurrency holdings and do not take into account fiat holdings of any kind." -Bitfinex on 7 October 2018
On 6 October 2018, Twitter user @lawmaster (aka Larry Cermak) posts a screenshot of Bitfinex deposit instructions showing an HSBC account under the name of Global Trading Solutions, LLC (based in Chandler, Arizona).
Note that this Global Trading Solutions, LLC is based in Chandler, Arizona but may not be the same as the Global Trading Solutions in 10.4331.
The Block runs an article saying Bitfinex is now banking at HSBC.
"Both fiat and cryptocurrency withdrawals are functioning as normal. Verified Bitfinex users can freely withdraw Euros, Japanese Yen, Pounds Sterling and U.S. Dollars." -Bitfinex on 7 October 2018
Bitfinexed posts a screenshot of a Reddit post that claims to describe how banking works for Bitfinex: "The way it works is Crypto Capital Corp creates or buys a company somewhere in Europe that acts as a payment processor for them. They open bank accounts in this company name, register for a money transmitting licence and use the bank accounts as much as they can. When the bank accounts are frozen by the bank or the authorities, they switch to another company/bank account and start over."
"Today we are pleased to present our users with a new suite of reports designed to enhance user control and understanding when it comes to their trading." -Bitfinex blog on 9 October 2018
11 October 2018, Bitfinex temporarily pauses all deposits.
13 October 2018 "If you cannot send our fiat money to a Bank account why can't you simply just return it to the customers Bitfinex account and allow them to withdraw it in Crypto instead?" -Reddit user @grahamsnoplus1 on r/bitfinex
"I have been telling you since a while...too many withdrawals waiting for a long time...is there any way we can get money from you? Tether or any other form?" -Giancarlo "Merlin" Devasini on 15 October 2018
On October 15 2018, Bitfinex publishes a statement saying "All cryptocurrency and fiat withdrawals are, and have been, processing as usual without the slightest interference"
"Apart with cryptocapital we are running low in cash reserves...please help." -Giancarlo "Merlin" Devasini on 15 October 2018
"I know. We are following the banks we post as many as we can and let them process as much as possible according to them. Everytime we push them they push back with account closure without reason" -CCC on 15 October 2018
"Dozens of people are now waiting for a withdrawal out of cryptocapital" -Giancarlo "Merlin" Devasini on 15 October 2018
Tether "traded at $0.51 per USD Coin (USDC) on Poloniex. $2 million dollars cleared on Poloniex’s USDT/USDC trading pair that day." -Protos
"I need to provide customers with precise answers at this point. can't just kick the can a little more the international I mean." -Giancarlo "Merlin" Devasini on 15 October 2018
"I will keep you posted here. On the process of all international payments." -CCC on 15 October 2018
"Please understand all this could be extremely dangerous for everybody. the entire crypto community." -Giancarlo "Merlin" Devasini on 15 October 2018
"BTC could tank to below 1k if we don't act quickly." -Giancarlo "Merlin" Devasini on 15 October 2018
"Today we are introducing a new, improved and increasingly resilient fiat depositing system for sending fiat currencies to Bitfinex." -Bitfinex blog
"Bitfinex and Tether have also used a number of other third party "payment processors" to handle client withdrawal requests. Including various companies owned by Bitfinex/Tether executives. as well as other "friends" of Bitfinex - meaning. human being friends of Bitfinex employees that were willing to use their bank accounts to transfer money to Bitfinex clients who had requested withdrawals." Office of the Attorney General of New York
"We believe this system to be significantly more durable in the face of sustained attacks by our competition and their supporters." -Bitfinex blog
"Ongoing campaigns against us will only result in our company becoming stronger and better." -Bitfinex blog
Binance temporarily pauses all Tether withdrawals.
The price of USDT falls to an 18-month low at $0.925284, the lowest level since April 27, 2017 – and was last seen trading at $0.967296, representing a 2 percent drop on a 24-hour basis, according to CoinMarketCap.
"We would like to reiterate that although markets have shown temporary fluctuations in price, all USDT in circulation are sufficiently backed by U.S. dollars (USD) and that assets have always exceeded liabilities." -Tether statement as reported by CoinDesk
"Beginning in or about August 2018 and continuing through in or about November 2018, Bitfinex entered into a series of transactions whereby tethers issued by Tether to Bitfinex were purchased through account transfers between Bitfinex and Tether’s accounts at Crypto Capital." -Stuart Hoegner
"Additionally, customer requests to purchase, sell, or redeem for cash value U.S. Dollar tether continued unabated." -Stuart Hoegner
"Oz I need urgently some funds." -Giancarlo "Merlin" Devasini on 17 October 2018
"Either Tethers or USD. we need at least 100M within the next week." -Giancarlo "Merlin" Devasini on 17 October 2018
"The situation looks bad. we have more than 500 withdrawals pending and they keep coming in." -Giancarlo "Merlin" Devasini on 17 October 2018
A post on r/bitfinex asks "Where is my 1.28 million USD?" -Someone who trades "$100m per month on Bitfinex"
"We can not get a response from Bitfinex on these issues from account managers so are posting here on Reddit." -Someone who trades "$100m per month on Bitfinex"
"If the withdrawals have not actually been processed yet please just credit the funds back to our account and we will withdraw Tether and sell it OTC for a loss. We would prefer that than to wait indefinitely for the funds to hit." -Someone who trades "$100m per month on Bitfinex"
"Sorry to be pushy but can you try sending something already today. We have about 400 small wires pending. the total amount is only 5M but we have to send them out quickly." -Giancarlo "Merlin" Devasini on 18 October 2018
"People are enraged." -Giancarlo "Merlin" Devasini on 18 October 2018
"This banking information is being provided to you for the purposes of contributing good faith funding to your account on Bitfinex. At all times, you are subject to our Terms of Service. This banking information is commercially sensitive and confidential. You should be very careful with this information. You are asked to keep this information to yourself and not to share it except with your financial institution. Divulging this information could damage not just yourself and Bitfinex, but the entire digital token ecosystem. Accordingly, you are cautioned that there may be serious negative effects associated with this information becoming public. Pursuant to the Terms of Service, Bitfinex is not liable for or responsible for the actions of third parties." -Bitfinex deposit instructions as of 18 October 2018
"Today we are happy to announce the release of the Honey Framework, beginning with an Algorithmic Order Library for creating custom, complex order types on Bitfinex." -Bitfinex Twitter account on 18 October 2018
"Too much money is trapped with you and we are currently walking on a very thin crust of ice." -Giancarlo "Merlin" Devasini on 18 October 2018
The Block runs an article saying that Tether has begun a banking relationship with Deltec Bank in the Bahamas.
31 October 2018 the number of tethers in circulation drops to 1.75 billion
Tether announces on Twitter that they are banking with Deltec Bank.
And, on their blog, they include an attestation of their balances.
"The next day, November 2, 2018, Tether made the first of five transfers ultimately totaling $475 million from its bank account at Deltec Bank to Bitfinex’s account at Deltec Bank. At the same time, a corresponding transfer was made from Bitfinex’s account at Crypto Capital to Tether’s account at Crypto Capital via ledger entry Bitfinex also “purchased” 150 million tethers by transferring $150 million in funds held at Bitfinex’s Crypto Capital account to Tether’s account at Crypto Capital. These transfers were not disclosed." -Office of the Attorney General of New York
On November 5, 2018, as an executive of Tether Mr Devasini lent 900 million dollars to Bitfinex and as an executive of Bitfinex, Mr Devasini signed the receipt to Tether.
I hope you will be able to send something pretty soon. the situation is not looking good -Giancarlo "Merlin" Devasini on 15 November 2018
Crypto Capital support page suggests "When sending a transfer between your Crypto Capital account a your own account at an external financial institution please use the following narrative: "Treasury transfer back to my own account."
"We are pushing everyday. the previous KNF from Poland just resigned over scandal of shaking down banks...So it's very good for us to get funds release asap" -CCC on 15 November 2018
"Any realistic estimate about Poland?" -Giancarlo "Merlin" Devasini on 15 November 2018
"It was july when you told me for the first time it was to be expected any time" -Giancarlo "Merlin" Devasini on 15 November 2018
"Please update me about the situation. we have serious problems if we don't get some funds from you within this week." -Giancarlo "Merlin" Devasini on 21 November 2018
On November 21, 2018 counsel for Bitfinex and Tether, and attorneys for New York Office of the Attorney General discussed the investigation.
"During November 2018, Tether transferred $625 million held in its account at Deltec to Bitfinex's account at Deltec. Bitfinex. in turn, caused a total of $625 million to be transferred from Bitfinex's account at Crypto Capital to Tether's account at Crypto Capital. through a ledger entry at Crypto Capital crediting Tether's account in the amount of $625 million and debiting Bittinex s account by a corresponding amount. The purpose of this exchange was to allow Bittinex to address liquidity issues unrelated to tethers." -Jason Weinstein on behalf of Bitfinex and Tether
"Now, that’s an awkward thing to do." -Matt Levine
"I wish we had some clarity. it's always very difficult to tell our customers something real and this fuels the uncertainty." -Giancarlo "Merlin" Devasini on 27 November 2018
"We are at the end of the month and you haven't been sending out one wire, even 1 usd for the whole month" -Giancarlo "Merlin" Devasini on 28 November 2018
"I think you should stop playing and tell me the truth about what is going on" -Giancarlo "Merlin" Devasini on 28 November 2018
"I am not your enemy. I am here to help you and have been very patient so far. but you need to cut the crap and tell me what is going on" -Giancarlo "Merlin" Devasini on 28 November 2018
"On November 29, 2018, Yosef provided documentation, prepared by Crypto Capital, showing that it held more than $306 million of Bitfinex funds in a "TCA Bank," which Yosef later explained was TCA Investment Bancorp & Trust Company." -Giancarlo Devasini
"At no time did Crypto Capital or Yosef disclose any relationship between it and Spiral Global Development Limited or its sole director and shareholder, Reginald Dennis Fowler." -Declaration of Giancarlo Devasini in support of application to conduct discovery
"Indeed, until December 2018, Crypto Capital never disclosed that several of the bank accounts to which Bitfinex's customers transferred fiat funds were actually held and controlled by Spiral and Fowler, and not by Crypto Capital or any of its related entities." -Giancarlo Devasini
11 REGINALD FOWLER AND RAVID "OZ" YOSEF
Spiral Global Development Limited was incorporated in May 2018 by Reginald Fowler.
"Fowler made his fortune, which The Arizona Republic reported at upward of $400 million, running Spiral Inc. (No. 11 on the BE INDUSTRIAL/SERVICE 100 list with $314 million in sales). The Chandler, Arizona, firm sells supplies to grocery store chains and also has dealings in real estate and aviation." Black Enterprise Magazine
"Fowler invested nearly $25 million in the AAF during its inaugural season." -Sports Illustrated
"But withdrawals from his domestic and foreign accounts were reportedly "held up around Christmas," freezing a key source of the league's funding." -Sports Illustrated
“Thus, when Fowler represented his net worth by relying on those accounts, he was lying about both the source of those funds (they were not from real estate or drone businesses) as well as the ownership of those funds (they belonged to GTS and, more generally, were necessary to redeem GTS/Crypto Capital clients who sold their cryptocurrency, not money Fowler could use),” -US prosecutors cited in a Blockworks article
Global Trading Solutions LLC was also established by Reginald Fowler in Colorado.
"On December 13, 2018, Yosef provided us with a "Reference Letter" from TCA Bancorp dated December 6, 2018. In it, TCA Bancorp states that the letter is provided at its customer's request. It represents that an account ending in -1401 has an "Available Balance" of $304,000,000. The letter, however, identifies TCA Bancorp's customer as "G.T.S Resources Limited" and not Crypto Capital or any other entity related to Crypto Capital of which we were aware." -Giancarlo Devasini
"This letter is provided at our customer's request to inform the following: Name of Customer: G.T.S. RESOURCES LIMITED Account: XXXXX1401 Available Balance: $304,000,000 We can confirm that this relationship is maintain in a satisfactory manner. -TCA Bancorp Investment & Trust, Re: Reference Letter, 6 December 2018
"Indeed, until Applicant received the Reference Letter, we were unaware of "G.T.S. Resources Limited" or its relationship with Crypto Capital. -Giancarlo Devasini
On December 17, 2018, Reginald Fowler changed the name of the entity to Spiral Global Development Limited. -Giancarlo Devasini
"Between in or about June 2018 and in or about July 2018, Defendant sent approximately $60 million from scheme accounts to his personal bank accounts. Beyond the fact of allegedly operating an illegal shadow bank, Defendant appears to have comingled client deposits in his own accounts." -Elizabeth Strange, First Assistant U.S. Attorney
There are accusations that the "scheme accounts" held funds belonging to Bitfinex and Tether customers.
In August 2018, Reggie opened a bank account in under Global Trading Solutions at an HSBC bank in New York.
Fowler provided information to HSBC indicating that Global Trading Solutions was a real estate development and investment business that collected rental income and sold properties.
On or about 23 October 2018, the government seizes the funds in a number of HSBC accounts in the name of Reginald Fowler and Global Trading Solutions, LLC.
The government seizes further funds from HSBC accounts in the name of Reginald Fowler and Global Trading Solutions, LLC on 16 November 2018.
"On or about October 24, 2018, Defendant spoke with FBI agents regarding this seizure. During that conversation, Defendant expressed his desire to cooperate and his willingness to keep the investigation confidential. The following day, the agents sent him a follow-up email. Rather than keep this email confidential, Defendant forwarded it to another scheme member." -Elizabeth Strange, First Assistant U.S. Attorney
Reginald Fowler has a “Master US Workbook” that indicates Crypto Capital and Global Transaction Solutions had received over $740 million in 2018.
The "Master US Workbook" lists sixty different bank accounts "held at both domestic and international banks, with a combined account balance of over $345 million as of January 2019" -Elizabeth Strange, First Assistant U.S. Attorney
On 9 December 2018, Gerald "Gerry" Cotton, CEO of QuadrigaCX exchange, dies from complications of Crohn's disease while building an orphanage in India on his honeymoon.
"Gerry took sole responsibility for the handling the funds and coins and the banking and accounting side of the business. Gerry moved the majority of the coins to cold storage." -Jennifer Robertson, Gerald Cotten's widow
"The laptop computer from which Gerry carried out the Companies' business is encrypted and I do not know the password or recovery key. Despite repeated and diligent searches, I have not been able to find them written down anywhere." -Jennifer Robertson, Gerald Cotten's widow
Quadriga was also experiencing banking delays throughout 2018.
Quadriga also relied on Crypto Capital Corporation for payment processing.
"Authorities investigating GTS [Global Trade Solutions AG] and related entities have effectively frozen bank accounts and disabled traditional banking services as it relates to crypto currency and exchange services; in many instances ex parte without a warrant or court order. Indeed, authorities have exceeded the boundaries of simply freezing crypto currency related bank accounts, and extended their reach into personal and unrelated business accounts, merely through association, all of which has created enormous financial pressure on GTS." -Ivan Manuel Molina Lee, Re: Regulatory/Banking Issues, 19 December 2018
"Just recently, three separate Account Freezing Orders were placed on bank accounts at HSBC -London by the criminal courts in London, UK based simply on alleged AML issues involving unrelated crypto currency account activities by GTS in other locations. Similar orders in the United States, Portugal and other international locations have resulted in bank accounts being frozen and blocked without warning or explanation, banking services terminated, and access to bank accounts denied." -Ivan Manuel Molina Lee, Re: Regulatory/Banking Issues, 19 December 2018
"We have been advised by counsel that due to the on going investigations against GTS AG related entities and its financial activities with third parties we are not to share any details about the company and its banking operations until amicable resolutions is in place." -Ivan Manuel Molina Lee, Re: Regulatory/Banking Issues, 19 December 2018
"A few of the many Articles publishing private account information of GTS AG and related entities causing unsolicited funds to be sent to the accounts and exposing GTS AG Accounts to fraud and leading authorities/regulators to freeze or close the accounts:" Ivan Manuel Molina Lee lists the Block article from October 6 as one of the reasons their accounts have been frozen. -Ivan Manuel Molina Lee, Re: Regulatory/Banking Issues, 19 December 2018
"In or about late December 2018. the Companies and their counsel developed concems about the availability of some of the funds at Crypto Capital. totaling over $850 million. While Crypto Capital's principals have represented that the unavailable funds have been seized or otherwise restrained by governmental authorities in Poland. Portugal. and the United States. the Companies grew concerned that Crypto Capital s principals may be engaged in a fraud." -Jason Weinstein on behalf of Bitfinex and Tether
"Bitfinex immediately undertook negotiations with Tether on an agreement under which Tether extended a secured, revolving line of credit of up to $900 million on commercially reasonable tenns (including a term of three years and an interest rate of 6.5% in outstanding loans under the facility). documented in a loan facility negotiated between the two companies at arm's length with the benefit of separate counsel and approved as required by each company's corporate governance processes. Under this transaction, the line of credit is secured by a share charge over 60.000,000 iFinex Inc. shares owned by DigFinex. which DigFinex agreed not to otherwise encumber." -Jason Weinstein on behalf of Bitfinex and Tether
"It was for the protection of the virtual currency market that, when in December 2018, senior executives of Bitfinex grew concerned that Crypto Capital might fail to return funds held there, the Companies began to proactively negotiate a credit facility through which Tether would extend Bitfinex a secured, revolving line of credit of up to $900 million." -Stuart Hoegner
Giancarlo Devasini signed both sides of the agreement for this line of credit.
"That transaction closed on or about March 19. 20I9. The total accessed under the loan facility as of today's date is equal to $700 million." -Jason Weinstein on behalf of Bitfinex and Tether
Tether's website on 19 March 2019 "Every tether is always 100% backed by our reserves, which include traditional currency and cash equivalents and, from time to time, may include other assets and receivables from loans made by Tether to third parties, which may include affiliated entities (collectively, “reserves”). Every tether is also 1-to-1 pegged to the dollar, so 1 USD₮ is always valued by Tether at 1 USD."
"Bitfinex are pleased to announce that 27.66270285 BTC that were unlawfully taken in the August 2016 security breach have been received by Bitfinex from the U.S. government as the result of U.S. law enforcement efforts." -Bitfinex blog
On April 25 2019, the US Department of Justice announces an indictment of Reginald Fowler and Ravid Yosef.
The indictment does not have much information about Ravid Yosef.
Oz Yosef appears in a promotional video for Dell.
A Decrypt article claims Oz Yosef was "the director of a Panama shell company OZ49 Corporation." Decrypt further claims: "Also on the board of directors of that corporation? Crypto Capital’s director, Ivan Manuel Molina Lee."
Unfortunately, the records have been updated and no longer show either name on the board of Oz49 Corporation.
A UK filing for a company named Finnovative Holdings Limited lists Ravid Yosef as a board member.
Both of whom are board members for Global Trade Solutions AG, the parent company of Crypto Capital Corporation.
Ravid Yosef is later traced through her Google reviews, but has not yet been apprehended (but it seems like she's in Jerusalem.
Neither has Oz Yosef been apprehended.
Also on 25 April 2019, the New York Attorney General sues Tether and Bitfinex parent company, iFinex.
The NY attorney general claims Bitfinex "no longer has access to over $850 million dollars of co-mingled client and corporate funds that it handed over, without any written contract or assurance, to a Panamanian entity called “Crypto Capital Corp."
Bitfinex issues a response to the NY attorney general's suit.
Bitfinex claims it was "without notice or a hearing" and "an attempt to compel Bitfinex and Tether to provide certain documents and seeking certain injunctive relief."
Bitfinex also claims: "The New York Attorney General’s court filings were written in bad faith and are riddled with false assertions, including as to a purported $850 million “loss” at Crypto Capital. On the contrary, we have been informed that these Crypto Capital amounts are not lost but have been, in fact, seized and safeguarded. We are and have been actively working to exercise our rights and remedies and get those funds released."
The counterfeit currency consisted of sheets of $100 bills that were found in a filing cabinet in an office.
Reginald Fowler initial pleads not-guilty, but changes his plea to guilty in February 2020.
12 IVAN MANUEL MOLINA LEE
News of this isn't released until he is transferred to Poland on 25 October 2019.
On 6 June 2024, Ivan Manuel Molina Lee is sentenced to six years of imprisonment by the District Court in Warsaw, XVIII Criminal Division.
The court determined that he "operated within an organized group engaged in concealing the criminal origin of large sums of money, laundered funds by transferring them through Polish and foreign companies, including entities connected to "Crypto Capital," and signed and used documents containing false information in order to justify the circulation of these funds in legal transactions." -Copy of judgment in Case XVIII K 234/24
"The Court did not find the accused’s explanations credible, as they were contradicted by the remaining body of evidence." -Copy of judgment in Case XVIII K 234/24
This article by Cas Piancey includes the only picture I've seen that claims to be Ivan Manuel Molina Lee.
On 1 March 2019. Global Trade Solutions AG filed a new purpose: "Provision of services in the areas of asset and investment advisory, financial and organizational planning, management and family office services, handling of all types of administrative work, and providing support services in the area of general financial and asset advisory, as well as accepting mandates in these areas; full purpose description according to the articles of association."
Ivan Manuel Molina Lee may have moved to Zug, Switzerland on 31 October 2018.
Bitfinex announces the sale of a new token called LEO
1 May 2019 the number of tethers in circulation is back to 2.8 billion
"LEO is created with the iFinex and crypto community at heart and in mind." -LEO Whitepaper
Under the heading "LEO Tokenomics," Bitfinex says "iFinex and its subsidiaries will use an amount equal to 95% of the recovered net funds from Crypto Capital (described above) to redeem and burn a corresponding amount of outstanding LEO tokens. Net recoveries will be calculated by iFinex in good faith and will be net of legal costs, operational and recovery costs, governmental charges, and reserves for contingent costs.
A few days earlier, on 7 May 2019, Bitfinex was pleased to announce Peter Warrack joining their team as Chief Compliance Officer.
LEO is a "A special purpose subsidiary of iFinex intends to sell up to USDt 1 billion worth of LEO tokens." -LEO Whitepaper
It "is a Latin citation from Aesop’s fable, “The Sow and the Lioness.” The fable (in short) details how a sow brags about how many children she has and then asks the lioness if she only had one child. The lioness replies “One, but a lion.”" -LEO Whitepaper
"Ideally, digital assets developed and introduced by iFinex, including the LEO token, will be among the first digital assets launched on the Lighting Network." -LEO Whitepaper
In a section titled "A history of doing right by our customers" Bitfinex says "By the end of 2018, Bitfinex grew concerned that Crypto Capital might fail to return funds held there, and began negotiating a credit facility for a secured, revolving line of credit on commercially-reasonable terms."
The whitepaper does not say that the credit facility was arranged with Tether.
Bitfinex also says "iFinex and its subsidiaries will use an amount equal to at least 80% of the recovered net funds from the Bitfinex hack (described above) to repurchase and burn outstanding LEO tokens."
On 22 May 2019, a judge grants "an immediate stay of the document demands, requiring the companies to produce only documents and information relevant to the limited issue of whether there is personal jurisdiction over the companies in New York but staying the document order in all other respects."
This comes after a flurry of motions back and forth between Bitfinex and the New York attorney general.
29 May 2019 the number of tethers in circulation reaches 3.1 billion
On 21 July Stuart Hoegner files an affidavit stating: "on July 1, 2019, Bitfinex repaid $100 million of the outstanding loan facility to Tether, together with all interest accrued on the loan facility up to June 30, 2019"
Bitfinex's lawyers continue to cliam claim "This court lacks personal jurisdiction over Bitfinex and Tether."
Bitfinex's lawyers also claim "This court lacks "Subject matter jurisdiction under the Martin Act."
Eventually, in February 2021, Bitfinex and Tether agree to pay the State of New York $18.5 million in penalties in a settlement.
13 INTERLUDE
aka AtlasRand1 on Reddit
Bitfinexed starts tweeting on 10 April 2017.
patio11 posts first tweet about Tether on 19 September 2017 https://x.com/patio11/status/910354076864532481?s=20
aka Patrick McKenzie
McKenzie first mentions Bitfinex on 9 April 2017, when Bitfinex sued Wells Fargo for debanking them.
In August 2017, David Gerard says "I really need to get my head around Tether. I didn't put it in the book cos I don't understand it at all."
The book is Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain: Bitcoin, Blockchain, Ethereum & Smart Contracts, published in July 2017.
David Gerard publishes his first blog post about Tether on 16 September 2017, "China, Tethers, and what's happened to the Bitcoin price in the past few days"
Tr0llyTr0llFace first calls Tether a fraud on 31 December 2017
Trolly maintained a website (tr0lly.com) until at least mid-2021. I couldn't reach it in 2026.
They come to be known as Tether Truthers.
On 7 February 2018, Amy Castor publishes "Warning Signs? A Timeline of Tether and Bitfinex Events" in Bitcoin Magazine.
She later expands this into one of the best timelines of Tether's history (unfortunately it only goes up to May 2021).
Castor has published more than 150 articles about Bitfinex and Tether in outlets such as Bitcoin Magazine, Forbes, The Block, and CoinDesk, as well as on her own blog.
On 5 March 2018, Cas Piancey publishes first Medium article about Tether: "An Interview with the Psuedonanonymous User Calling Out Bitfinex and Tether: Bitfinex'ed Explains it to a Layman"
"Tether is going to collapse the whole market at some point" -Bennett Tomlin, 14 May 2018
This is the first of over 95 posts Tomlin writes about Tether and Bitfinex.
Tomlin launches something called the FUD Letter on 2 Jan 2022
The Tether critics attract journalists, too.
On 25 June 2018, Larry Cermak publishes a detailed diagram of Tether's banking connections in Diar.
In October of 2018, Cermak publishes details about Bitfinex's relationship with HSBC -- details that had not previously been public.
They first post about Bitfinex on 8 October 2018.
intel_jakal produces a lot of very detailed research on Crypto Capital Corp and Global Transaction Services (and Celsius and Quadriga and Tether).
Alex Danco and Social Capital team publish "Tether, Part One: The Stablecoin Dream" on 28 October 2018
Borzi publishes "Bitfinex, the Italian network behind the boss that makes Bitcoin tremble" on 17 February 2021
He follows it up on 11 March 2021 with "Deltec, the roots of the Tether house bank lie in the history of Wall Street"
Sadly, he never publishes the promised part II.
Frances Coppola publishes an article in Forbes with the title "Tether's U.S. Dollar Peg Is No Longer Credible" on 14 March 2019.
She first tweets about Bitfinex when they got hacked in 2016.
Matt Levine publishes a newlsetter with the title "Things Got Weird for Stablecoin Tether" on 26 April 2019.
A user named coloradotravis publishes a thread about Tether on 23 November 2020. (sadly, I have not been able to get a reliable copy of this thread).
aka Travis Kimmel
By early 2021, a user named DRHOSP1 is calling himself "Paolo's.Court.Document.Deliverer."
Zeke Faux publishes his first Bloomberg article about Tether on 26 July 2021
Three months later Faux publishes "Anyone Seen Tether's Billions?"
On September 12 2023, Faux publishes Number Go Up: Inside Crypto's Wild Rise and Staggering Fall which would have been all about Tether if SBF hadn't created such a monumental shitshow with FTX.
Ben McKenzie publishes "Untethered" with Jacob Silverman on 19 October 2021.
a few weeks prior to this, McKenzie published "Celebrity Crypto Shilling Is a Moral Disaster."
"I wrote a thing for @Slate with @SilvermanJacob about how my (dearly beloved) fellow celebs pushing crypto scams is bad" is how he promoted it on Twitter.
Ben McKenzie publishes Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud on 18 July 2023.
14 DELTEC BANK & TRUST LIMITED
Clarence J. Dauphinot Jr. is the founder.
"Dauph married Nancy White in l 939. In 1945, he wed Valerie Lathrop. He married Penelope Charske in 1959." -Princeton Alumni Weekly
"Deltec has pioneered in raising investment capital in Brazil to develop new industries for the country and set a pattern that others are copying." -Time Magazine, 7 July 1958
"The U.S. had been exporting all sorts of American know-how," says Dauphinot, "except a very basic one—the formation of capital-marketing techniques."
Deltec "became Brazil’s most active stock underwriter, was doing business in New York, Colombia and Venezuela."
By 1989, Gustavo Vollmer Herrera Sr was already a long-time Deltec board member.
Julio is the founder of Britannia Financial Group.
“The business we are in requires that we grow to sustain viability. Portfolio acquisition is an important part of this growth strategy.” -Julian Francis
Julian Francis is a former governor (1997 - 2005) of the central bank of The Bahamas.
From 1989 to 1995, Deltec becomes one of the largest worldwide holders and traders of Brady Bonds, participating actively in the restructuring of the Latin American debt owed to the USA.
In 2012, Fraser-Smith meets an untimely demise when he falls from the roof of his home in Lyford Cay as he tries to repair a window shutter during Hurricane Sandy.
"Everyone – employees, associates and clients – appreciated his integrity, great professionalism, sense of humour and friendship. We will miss him dearly." -Jean Chalopin
Jean Chalopin is described as executive chairman of Deltec International Group.
"Deltec Bank & Trust Limited is 100% owned by Deltec International Group and its employees." -Deltec FAQ: Who owns and runs Deltec Bank?
Chalopin is one of the guys who came up with Inspector Gadget.
By 1981, DIC group of companies had become the world's largest creator and producer of children's programs for television.
DIC group also [create](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Care_Bears_(TV_series) Care Bears.
And they [create](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M.A.S.K._(TV_series) M.A.S.K.
In 1983, Chalopin proposes "to the city of Paris that he build a covered amusement park for the city’s youth in the heart of the city."
The amusement park will to be called Planet Magique.
The sale causes Planet Magique to lose the rights to the cartoon series and characters (ie. Inspector Gadget) on which the park was based.
The majority of the rides and attractions that Planet Magique had promised and advertised are either heavily modified or cancelled altogether.
The park opens to the public hastily on 20 December 1989 before it is remotely near completion.
30000 visitors attend during the first week, but they were wildly and vocally disappointed, as was the press.
Chalopin opens a "budding restaurant and entertainment chain that will soon also offer travel services" with Ye Tian.
Sometime between 2010 and 2022, Jean Chalopin becomes the Chairman and CEO of Deltec International Group.
Giancarlo Devasini is introduced to Chalopin in 2017, by a different Deltec customer who had "gotten rich from Bitcoin" -Zeke Faux, Number Go Up
Devasini made Chalopin a risotto lunch. -Zeke Faux, Number Go Up
Devasini spent some of his childhood in the same village in Italy as Chalopin's mother. -Zeke Faux, Number Go Up
The village is Casale Monferrato, near Turin. -Zeke Faux, Number Go Up
On 1 November 2018, Tether publishes a letter from Deltec Bank & Trust stating that "the portfolio cash value of your account is $1,831,322,828.00"
On 17 July 2019, The Block runs an article saying that Tether is now banking with Deltec.
This is also when, according to the New York Office of the Attorney General, Tether transfers almost $500 million from its account at Deltec to Bitfinex's account at Deltec (see also 10.793).
The fund's assets are held in custody provider Delchain Limited, and managed by Deltec Fund Services, a division of Deltec International Group
"With the launch of the Fulgur Alpha I Fund, Delchain, Deltec Fund Services and Bitfinex are jointly working on a general framework for crypto funds around the world." Delchain blog, "Delchain, a leading financial services company for blockchain, launches crypto fund with major players."
"The diversification of risk makes this a unique proposition, not seen before" -Bruno Machialli, Executive Head of Operations, Delchain
In September 2021, Bennett Tomlin publishes a screenshot showing Paolo Ardoino as a director at Delchain from 6 July 2018 to 1 January 2019.
In April 2019, The Bahamas announces the formal release of its Digital Assets and Registered Exchanges Bill 2019 (the DARE Bill) for an eight-week public consultation.
Ryan Pinder quits his role as Financial Services Minister in The Bahamas to take a "extraordinary, mind-blowing" job offer as Head of Wealth Management and Chief Legal Officer at Deltec.
It is also called an "offer he couldn't refuse."
In September 2021, Ryan Pinder is appointed Senator and to the Office of the Attorney-General and Ministry of Legal Affairs.
"When the Act was being developed, I don’t think FTX and Deltec commented in any way." -Christina Rolle, Executive Director, Securities and Exchange Commission of The Bahamas
"We have this normal consultation process, and I recall one executive from Deltec participated in our normal consultation meetings along with other industry participants." -Christina Rolle, Executive Director, Securities and Exchange Commission of The Bahamas
By November 2021, Deltec announces that its CEO paid a courtesy call on the Attorney General, Senator L Ryan Pinder.
A 2024 class-action complaint against FTX and Deltec claims it passes "with the help of With the help of Deltec Bank"
In September of 2021, FTX Digital Markets is registered in The Bahamas.
FTX's Bahamian Subsidiary becomes first digital asset business licensed under The Bahamas DARE Act -yahoo!finance
FTX Digital Markets address: Building 27 Veridian Corporate Centre West Bay Street Nassau, New Providence, The Bahamas
This is a two minute walk from the headquarters of Deltec Bank & Trust.
According to a class-action complaint against FTX, Alameda and Deltec, Chalopin says the crypto industry "would be nothing in The Bahamas if it weren’t for us in the beginning."
15 FTX AND ALAMEDA RESEARCH
"Alameda Research accounted for 37% of all outbound [Tether] volume." -Protos, The Tether Papers
“Deltec has been a long-time friend of FTX, and it is our pleasure to support them.” -Jean Chalopin, attributed by 2024 class action complaint
"Mr. Pepin participated in the Alameda-Tether Deltec Telegram chat, along with Giancarlo Devasini and Paolo Ardoino, Tether’s CEO and CTO, respectively, and Caroline Ellison, Ryan Salame and members of Alameda’s Settlement Team, including, more often than not, Ms. Ngoy and Mr. Mahomar in California." -Caroline Ellison, CEO, Alameda Research
"When Alameda wanted to create USDT, it would transfer an equivalent amount in U.S. dollars from Alameda’s Deltec Bank account to Tether’s Deltec Bank account." -Caroline Ellison, CEO, Alameda Research
"When Alameda wanted to redeem USDT, it would initiate a redemption transaction on Tether’s website, send the USDT to an address controlled by Tether, and Tether would in turn transfer an equivalent amount of U.S. dollars from Tether’s Deltec Bank account to Alameda’s Deltec Bank account." -Caroline Ellison, CEO, Alameda Research
"On our side, we have customer that we have literally the full kyc that are also I believe customer of Tether, and we just literally instruct us or send to us wires and at the same time instruct I believe Tether about how much Tether they want to receive, they want to get and we notify them once we have been informed by the receipt of the money and that's how a tether is issued." -Gregory Pepin, Deputy CEO, Deltec Bank & Trust
"Every tether is backed by a reserve, there reserve is truly backed with more than what is in circulation. that we can see first hand. so I can confirm that." -Gregory Pepin, Deputy CEO, Deltec Bank & Trust
"All the tether in circulation they have the reserve that is matching that, and more probably, but they have the reserve and there is no secret. The entire reserve is there." -Gregory Pepin, Deputy CEO, Deltec Bank & Trust
"Held by deltec and probably other institutions." -Gregory Pepin, Deputy CEO, Deltec Bank & Trust
"I cannot speak about what I cannot know.I can only control what’s with us." -Jean Chalopin
"money for sam has traditionally = money for Giancarlo so all around good." -Ryan Salame, Head of OTC Operations, Alameda Research, in Tether, Deltec, FTX, Alameda group telegram channel
"MOOONNNEEEYYY TTTIIIIMMMMEEEE" -Gregory Pepin, Deputy CEO, Deltec Bank & Trust, in group telegram channel
"I HEAR A MONEY TIME IS HAPPENING HERE I THINK I NEED TO BE A PART OF IT" -Gregory Pepin, Deputy CEO, Deltec Bank & Trust, in group telegram channel
"Quick MONEYY TIME" -Gregory Pepin, Deputy CEO, Deltec Bank & Trust, in group telegram channel
"I’m on a roll so let’s do more MONEY TIME" -Gregory Pepin, Deputy CEO, Deltec Bank & Trust, in group telegram channel
"MONEY TIME first let’s play “is it yours?" -Gregory Pepin, Deputy CEO, Deltec Bank & Trust, in group telegram channel
"On a positive note your last issuance (15M) took the total number of USDT in circulation to 10 bn, thanks guys!" -Giancarlo Devasini, CFO of Tether, in Tether, Deltec, FTX, Alameda group telegram channel
"Tether is 3m away of 12bn will you be the one crossing 12bn lol" -Gregory Pepin, Deputy CEO, Deltec Bank & Trust, in Tether, Deltec, FTX, Alameda group telegram channel
"Let’s do a 5MM creation!" -Lena Ngoy, Alameda Settlement Team, in Tether, Deltec, FTX, Alameda group telegram channel
"it is MONEY TIME INDEEDE" -Gregory Pepin, Deputy CEO, Deltec Bank & Trust, in group telegram channel
"Congrats on always printing the round one, you did 10, 11 and now 12" -Giancarlo Devasini, CFO of Tether, in Tether, Deltec, FTX, Alameda group telegram channel
"according to my calculation you guys did make it to 13bn with the above wire, I am pleased to see that the big tradition of Alameda breaking the round number is going on" -Giancarlo Devasini, CFO of Tether, in Tether, Deltec, FTX, Alameda group telegram channel
"Hey Guys Moneyyyy time" -Gregory Pepin, Deputy CEO, Deltec Bank & Trust, in group telegram channel
"MONEY TIME dear friends 😀 thank you for being here 😆 and ready to enjoy money time 😆" -Gregory Pepin, Deputy CEO, Deltec Bank & Trust, in group telegram channel
"Stablecoins promote a market-oriented liquidity that is provided by autonomous digital asset market participants...The principal threat they pose is to the stability of fee-driven bank profits." -Matthew Alexander, Compliance Analyst, Tether, "A New Path to Financial Stability: How Stablecoins Promote Transparency and More Equitable Markets"
"You must feel like a dealer sometimes with how eager we are for the tethers I bet" -Unnamed Alameda trader, in Tether, Deltec, FTX, Alameda group telegram channel
In the absence of regulation, stablecoin issuers can earn a profit by investing in higher-return or illiquid assets, or by lending funds or assets, while paying low or no interest to stablecoin holders. -Bank for International Settlements, Working Paper no 905, "Stablecoins: Risks, Potential and Regulation"
Bitcoin-Tether volumes are magnitudes greater than Bitcoin-dollar volumes.
"God bless you all Alameda bunch … the world would be a much worse place without you" -Giancarlo Devasini, CFO of Tether, in Tether, Deltec, FTX, Alameda group telegram channel
The STABLE Act is introduced by Rashida Tlaib, Chuy Garcia, and Stephen Lynch.
"21bn1 … Alameda made it again! … I love you guys!" -Giancarlo Devasini, CFO of Tether, in Tether, Deltec, FTX, Alameda group telegram channel
"MONEY MONEY MONEY TIME" -Gregory Pepin, Deputy CEO, Deltec Bank & Trust, in group telegram channel
"Starting in 2021, Deltec granted Alameda a three-day grace period to pay for the Tethers it was buying, effectively giving the fund a short-term line of credit, according to the lawsuit." -Bloomberg, "Bahamas Bank Deltec Accused of Giving Bankman-Fried 'Secret' Credit to Buy Tether"
"Any issuance [of USDT] today can be paid [Jan.] 7 or 8 your choice (in case you need capital as we cover the first tranch [sic] today of existing line – FYI :))" -Gregory Pepin, Deputy CEO, Deltec Bank & Trust, in group telegram channel
"Whatever you would push now for Tether would be value tomorrow and payout for you decided between [Jan.] 7-8-11-12 … so when is the settlement date on the one you’ll issue now?" -Gregory Pepin, Deputy CEO, Deltec Bank & Trust, in group telegram channel
"Well what delay you want" -Gregory Pepin, Deputy CEO, Deltec Bank & Trust, in group telegram channel
"when do you want to repay anyhow what date works for you guys? … Up to you" -Gregory Pepin, Deputy CEO, Deltec Bank & Trust, in group telegram channel
"So total open 1bn 😀is it symbolic number or something lol?" -Gregory Pepin, Deputy CEO, Deltec Bank & Trust, in group telegram channel
"And here ladys and gentlemen … we broke 2bn" -Gregory Pepin, Deputy CEO, Deltec Bank & Trust, in Tether, Deltec, FTX, Alameda group telegram channel
"The bank didn’t offer the grace period to other customers and a Deltec executive told the Alameda traders to keep it secret, according to the lawsuit." -Bloomberg, "Bahamas Bank Deltec Accused of Giving Bankman-Fried 'Secret' Credit to Buy Tether"
On 5 January 2021, Peter McCormack has Paolo Ardoino and Stuart Hoegner on What Bitcoin Did podcast to "deal with Tether FUD."
One year earlier (January 2020), McCormack tweeted: "Yes, I can confirm that Tether are helping with the costs of the legal case."
McCormack was being sued by Craig Wright.
aka "Faketoshi"
aka not Satoshi Nakamoto.
Crypto Anonymous publishes The Bit Short: Inside Crypto's Doomsday Machine on January 14, 2021.
"From January 2020 to September 2020, the amount of all foreign currencies held by all the domestic banks in the Bahamas increases by only $600 million — going from $4.7B to $5.3B. (The table is in Bahamian dollars, but the Bahamian dollar is pegged to the US dollar, so 1 BSD = 1 USD.) But during the same period, total issued Tethers increased by almost $5.4 billion — going from $4.6B to $10B!" -Crypto Anonymous
Gregory Pepin, Deputy CEO of Deltec Bank & Trust, does an interview with Laura Shin's Unchained podcast to talk about the Crypto Anonymous post.
"That report is actually not relevant and nothing to be seen there." -Gregory Pepin
Pepin says that Deltic is "not a domestic bank for the report of deposit" and that this means their balances are not included in the foreign currency numbers used by Crypto Anonymous.
"Should we do a random number instead of an even number to calm the annoying people on twitter or do we not care about them anymore" -Ryan Salame, Head of OTC Operations, Alameda Research, in Tether, Deltec, FTX, Alameda group telegram channel
"I believe if you do 600 they will call us scammers and that’s good, because the more they bad mouth us the more Tether becomes the one and only" -Giancarlo Devasini, CFO, Tether, in Tether, Deltec, FTX, Alameda group telegram channel
"you crossed the 25 bn line, thanks for taking us there!" -Giancarlo Devasini, CFO of Tether, in Tether, Deltec, FTX, Alameda group telegram channel
"Tether’s reserves are loans to exchanges, collateralized by Bitcoin. The Bitcoins that were used as collateral for margin trading, are now used as collateral for USDT." -Trolly McTrollface, "The Great Tether / Bitcoin Collateral Flippening"
Someone creates a fake Medium account with the username "Paulo Ardoino" and publishes "Tether indefinitely suspends its token redeemability and transfers all its reserve assets to Stuart Hoegner's bank account in Canada."
The post includes this paragraph: "Those recent events led me to finally take the matters into my own hands, and to commit Stu to a specialised facility to deal with his addiction to drugs and kangaroo rimjobs. So I opened a Yellow Pages catalogue to look for such a place (yes we still have these in the Bahamas), and you won’t believe what I found. Our Interactive Brokers password, scribbled on a napkin!"
The post is removed by Medium.
Around the same time, Trolly McTrollface posts this on his blog: "I've taken down this post after a complaint has been filed with my hosting service."
Paulo Ardoino tweets: Recent #tether history 29/01/21: 26 billion (2 days) 02/02/21: 27 billion (4 days) 05/02:21: 28 billion (3 days) 08/02/21: 29 billion ( 3 days)
"Doing my best to hold the wall but such money tsunami is hard to handle dude" -Gregory Pepin, Deputy CEO, Deltec Bank & Trust, in group telegram channel
"With today’s issuance you broke the 29th billion btw, the big tradition of Alameda breaking the round number! -Giancarlo Devasini, CFO of Tether, in Tether, Deltec, FTX, Alameda group telegram channel
"You just broke the 30th billion" -Giancarlo Devasini, CFO of Tether, in Tether, Deltec, FTX, Alameda group telegram channel
Bitrefill begins accepting USDT.
On 23 February 2021, a Medium user named DeltecExposed posts "Deltec Bank & Trust and their relationship to Tether and Ifinex."
The post says "Deltec Bank — the shadow offshore bank which is backed by iFinex Inc. (Tether and Bitfinex) has suffered a critical security breach."
It also says "There is a private database dump of their business infrastructure and customers on the darknet which may lead to a crash of the whole Bitcoin ecosystem."
And "We’re currently looking for journalists which are willing to successively release articles related to the findings in those database leaks."
According to a later Protos article, the DeltecExposed Medium article "a Medium blog claiming ownership over a trove of sensitive Tether docs circulated on Twitter just hours before the OAG revealed its settlement."
Tether and Bitfinex announce that they have reached a settlement with the New York Attorney General (See 10.41)
"The settlement amount we have agreed to pay to the Attorney General’s Office should be viewed as a measure of our desire to put this matter behind us and focus on our business." -Tether statement
"Under the terms of the settlement we admit to no wrongdoing." -Bitfinex and Tether joint statement
"We're ending @bitfinex and @Tether_to's virtual currency trading in New York after the companies covered up about $850 million in losses around the globe and deceived the market by overstating reserves." -Office of the Attorney General of New York's Twitter
Someone creates a Twitter account with the name DeltecLeaks and begins posting details that seem to be from Posting as DeltecLeaks
The account is quickly suspended.
Another account is created called LeaksTether
David Gerard says "For the moment, I'm treating all of this as interesting but unverified gossip. You should too."
"They belong to our enemies they are scared of us because wgmi" -Giancarlo Devasini, CFO, Tether, in Tether, Deltec, FTX, Alameda group telegram channel
Tether says "PSA: Forged documents are circulating online purporting to be between @tether_to personnel and reps of Deltec Bank & Trust and others. The documents are bogus."
Paolo Ardoino says "Document forgery is the last attempt for Tether thruthers to cope with recent news. For tin foil hats is now a holy war against USDt. Good luck 😃
He also says: The climax of these forgery attacks will be when they will release a screenshot of me in front of a pizza with pineapple."
"Today we also received a ransom demand for 500 BTC to be sent to bc1qa9f60pved3w3w0p7snpxlnh5t4uj95vxn797a7. The sender said that, unless they receive the BTC by tomorrow, they will leak documents to the public in an effort to “harm the bitcoin ecosystem.” We are not paying." -Tether Twitter
"38bn, the big tradition of you breaking the round number is being respected" -Giancarlo Devasini, CFO of Tether, in Tether, Deltec, FTX, Alameda group telegram channel
"I think according to rumor … that we have a some money time here did you hear the same rumor?" -Gregory Pepin, Deputy CEO, Deltec Bank & Trust, in group telegram channel
On 21 April 2021, Tether releases it's first "Independent Assurance Opinion Confirming Tether's Reserves Fully Backed"
The report, by Moore Cayman, states "The group’s consolidated assets exceed its consolidated liabilities."
"No one is required to use Tether’s stablecoin. Unlike fiat money, there are no laws compelling people to hold or use tether tokens. People hold them because they are useful, stable, liquid, and trusted." -Stuart Hoegner, "Tether is Setting a New Standard for Transparency -- And Responding to Criticism That is Untethered From Facts"
"We will meet fiction with facts, as we strive to set a new industry standard for transparency." -Stuart Hoegner, "Tether is Setting a New Standard for Transparency -- And Responding to Criticism That is Untethered From Facts"
Between 12 May 2021 and 19 May, cryptocurrency prices fall by 30% or more.
Tether tweets: "USDt is not "losing" its peg. Subject to our terms of service, Tether issues and redeems one USDt for one dollar: no more, no less. This is irrespective of market conditions."
"I’m glad today we sent you in one day more money that you ever sent to us in one day, it’s a good feeling to be finally revenged 😉 … always a pleasure" -Giancarlo Devasini, CFO, Tether, in Tether, Deltec, FTX, Alameda group telegram channel
"The group also heard a presentation from Treasury staff on the preparation of a report on stablecoins, which would discuss their potential benefits and risks, the current U.S. regulatory framework, and the development of recommendations for addressing any regulatory gaps." -US Department of Treasury Readout of the Meeting of the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets to Discuss Stablecoins
Investors include Paradigm, Sequoia Capital, Thoma Bravo, SoftBank, Ribbit Capital, Insight Partners, Third Point, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Altimeter, BOND, NEA, Coinbase Ventures, Willoughby Capital, 40North, Senator Investment Group, Sino Global Capital, Multicoin, the Paul Tudor Jones family, Izzy Englander, Alan Howard, VanEck, Hudson River Trading, and Circle.
"I’m already preparing the “alameda has a deltec account” tweet for the “How yOu ISssuE oN THe WEekeNd” tweet" -Ryan Salame, Head of OTC Operations, Alameda Research, in Tether, Deltec, FTX, Alameda group telegram channel
In October 2021, he Chalopin secured a US$50 million loan from an entity connected to FTX through one of its executives; the entity’s ties to FTX and its loan to Deltec have not been previously reported.
Alameda invested US$11.5 million into Moonstone Bank, a tiny Washington state bank owned by Chalopin through a holding company.
"S&C investigated the circumstances surrounding two $50 million loans involving Salame, Alameda, and two other companies, Deltec International Group (“Deltec”) and Norton Hall Ltd. (“Norton Hall”). The investigation concluded that the loans were intended to ameliorate Deltec’s capital issues while ensuring that Deltec would “owe” the FTX Group as a result, and the related promissory notes were structured to conceal Alameda’s role in the loans. The investigation further determined that Salame executed one note as a “director” of Norton Hall, despite not being a director of Norton Hall and despite Norton Hall’s director being unaware of the note. Following the investigation, the Debtors reached a settlement regarding the loans, with Deltec agreeing to pay the value of the loan with interest and the remaining obligations extinguished."
"FBH Corp. and its fully owned subsidiary Moonstone Bank™, a robust financial platform to empower fast-growing innovative and disruptive sectors, today announced that it has raised $11.5 million in a private placement from an investment by Alameda Research Ventures."
“Starting in or around August 2021, Jean began discussions with Dan Friedberg about a potential investment,” Chalopin’s spokesperson Eric Hersey tells Forbes.
Dan Friedberg, a top FTX lawyer, was approached by Chalopin about the Moonstone deal because the two had forged a close personal bond.
"Deltec has been a long-time friend of FTX." -Jean Chalopin
"We use as a keyword at Deltec the word limitless." -Jean Chalopin, 29 June 2022 podcast with Henri Arslanian
Deltec is a sponsor of some of his educational content.
Henri Arslanian also says he sits as an independent director on the board of Deltec
In a Twitter spaces, Janvier Chalopin says: “We pitched Alameda Research the whole roadmap,” Janvier Chalopin, Moonstone’s chief digital officer and Jean’s son, said during a Twitter Space in November. “This is the massive gap in banking in the U.S. for digital assets businesses, and this is what we think we can solve.”
"yeah they went up but i think it's it's important to to kind of draw the distinction here that they i think a lot of the things are showing in the news is this little you know this little bank in the middle of farmington and suddenly how we're getting these kind of dollar values that are appearing i there's a couple of things to draw first of all "that building has a ton of historic value and even though it looks really small and and playing those pictures there's definitely you know lost sentimental value to that community, you know, they don't want to change that building. the building is gonna stay that way for a while." -Janvier Chalopin
"It's the first time in their hundred year history they're going to have a card program, first time they're going to have an ATM, first time they're going to have online banking, so it's all very new for the community, some big enhancements for it." -Janvier Chalopin
"It's one of these banks that feels that the perceived risk of digital assets isn't in line with the actual risk of banking digital asset companies. so we bank the dollar side of digital asset companies." -Janvier Chalopin
In a December court filing, Bahamas liquidators revealed that Moonstone held nearly US$50 million in FTX funds across two accounts, appearing to make the exchange its largest customer and Alameda its largest investor.
"By no later than fall of 2021, Alameda had no liquid assets other than FTX customer funds." 2024 Class Action Complaint
16 CUMBERLAND MINING
On 12 August 2021, Protos publishes "SCOOP: Tether minted most USDT to just 2 firms -- Alameda and Cumberland."
In the piece, Protos alleges: "Over two-thirds of all Tether minted across multiple years went to just two crypto companies — Alameda Research and Cumberland Global — sources familiar with the matter exclusively told Protos."
In November, Protos expands on this research, clarifying: "Together, Alameda and Cumberland received at least $60.3 billion in USDT across the time period analyzed (2014 - 31 October 2021), equal to around 55% of all outbound volume — ever." -Protos, "The Tether Papers
"$49.2 billion (71%) of Alameda and Cumberland’s USDT was acquired in the past year alone, equal to about 60% of all Tether issued in that time." -Protos, "The Tether Papers
"Cumberland received 22% of all outbound [tether] volume." -Protos, The Tether Papers
"Tether issued Cumberland $18.7 billion in USDT directly to Binance." -Protos, The Tether Papers
Cumberland is a subsidiary of DRW.
DRW's digital asset trading desk, Cumberland Mining, is launched by Mike Komaransky in 2014.
"I had a very strong distrust of the way the government handled...basically anything." -Mike Komaransky
"I happened to be an anarchist." -Mike Komaranksy
"Komaransky became interested in Bitcoin after reading George Mason University economist Tyler Cowen’s blog about the digital currency in 2010." -Cointelegraph, "Cryptocurrency Trading Helps Make Traditional Wall Street Traders Millionaires"
The first link is "1. Bitcoin: peer-to-peer money" and links to the Wikipedia entry for Bitcoin.
"Because I had been around for four or five years, I knew the people with the crypto who wanted to sell it. These are the nerds who had been mining in their garage for a couple years and seeing the number go up." -Mike Komaransky
Cumberland Mining is co-founded by Erik Saraniecki.
"In 2014 I was the 4th member of Cumberland, DRW’s crypto trading arm, and I believe the first institutional crypto trading desk in the world." -Chadwick Miller
"I was first involved with Bitcoin sometime in 2010." -Chadwick Miller
"Just did a quick google and I was user number 420 on bitcointalk.org" -Chadwick Miller
In November 2010, Miller says he is the owner of bitcoinbank.com and is wiling to sell the domain.
In June of 2014, Miller accidentally sends 800 bitcoins to Mt Gox.
And on BitcoinTalk.
On 19 April 2015, Cho publishes "3 Reasons You Should Consider Investing in Bitcoin" in The Street.
"Whereas many investments require formal accreditations, have minimum trade sizes or are limited to qualified institutional buyers, no such qualifications exist in the bitcoin realm. In turn, bitcoin has a much larger addressable market than most traditional financial products, securities and investments." Bobby Cho, "3 Reasons You Should Consider Investing in Bitcoin"
Cho also says "And, of course, investors can add exposure to bitcoin by investing directly in the product itself. Through itBit, for example, investors can buy and sell bitcoin on a real-time digital exchange that also acts as custodian for these assets."
Cumberland Mining is named after a Grateful Dead song Cumberland Blues.
"First project was a mining project, but the forte of cumberland mining was that we were a trading group. So really we should have been Cumberland Trading." -Mike Komaranksy
On 12 March 2015, CoinDesk publishes an article speculating that Cumberland Mining purchased 47,000 bitcoins auctioned by the US Marshalls.
"Silk road had 150k, 160k bitcoin confiscated and those bitcoins went to auction by the US Marshalls." -Mike Komaransky
"I know that Cumberland Mining took over 60% of the coins during that auction." -Mike Komaransky
"That was when bitcoin was $600." -Mike Komaransky
In 2015, "The Cumberland Mining Twitter account contains just one tweet, but follows five accounts, including Israeli exchange Bits of Gold, the London-based exchange Coinfloor and credit-card payments enabler Simplex. Its avatar is a picture of the character Steve Youngblood of the comedy troupe the Upright Citizens Brigade."
Steve Youngblood is a character portrayed by Ian Roberts.
"At least two bitcoin notables among those following the Cumberland Mining account are Fred Ehrsam, the Coinbase co-founder, and Phil G Potter, a manager of the Bitfinex exchange."
At least 2000 of these bitcoins go "to an address known to be controlled by Bitfinex for customer deposits" -CoinDesk, "Secretive Mining Firm Revealed as Possible US Marshals Auction Winner"
Cumberland is a large market maker on Binance: "The vast majority of USDT issued to Cumberland was sent directly to Binance — approximately 79%." -Protos
17 CELSIUS NETWORK
"Some fraction of the USDT supply would have been generated by issuing USDT loans with no corresponding inflows. Essentially, Tether would be leveraging its clients' deposits, which is exactly how commercial banks create fiat money in TradFi. You could also consider it a leveraged money market fund." -Bernhard Mueller, "Is Tether a Black Swan?"
"We do not have concrete evidence that this is what’s happening, but then again it’s certainly possible. In my opinion, we should demand evidence of proper backing from Tether and assume the worst when that evidence is not provided. Not the other way round!" -Bernhard Mueller, "Is Tether a Black Swan?"
Tether's terms of service on 24 August 2021 state: "Tether will not issue Tether Tokens for consideration consisting of the Digital Tokens (for example, bitcoin); only money will be accepted upon issuance. In order to cause Tether Tokens to be issued or redeemed directly by Tether, you must be a verified customer of Tether. No exceptions will be made to this provision."
Alex Mashinsky is Founder and CEO of Celsius Network.
Celsius Network is launched in March 2018.
"Members who lend coins on the Celsius Network will be protected by the Celsius lending protection pool." -Celsius whitepaper
"Our dual-sided system will create a supply and demand cycle between institutional traders, such as hedge funds, who seek to borrow coins and require the CEL token to pay the fees and commissions; and the crypto holders around the world who receive these tokens as interest on their lent coins." -Celsius Whitepaper
"Celsius is the first to offer interest income on XAUT gold."
"There's a lot of confusion where the yield comes from," says Alex Mashinsky, CEO of Celsius Network.
"Seeing a small correction is probably healthy for Bitcoin." -Alex Mashinksy, CEO of Celsius Network
According to CoinDesk, in June 2021, Celsius may have lost 35,000 ETH when Stakehound misplaced the private keys.
Also according to CoinDesk, Celsius also lost $22 million by mistakenly forfeiting restitution payments from the Badger DAO hack.
In a Financial Times article, Mashinsky says: "If you give them enough collateral, liquid collateral, bitcoin, ethereum and so on . . . they will mint tether against it."
Mashinsky also says: "New USDT is issued for such loans,” he added, and later destroyed when the loan is closed “so it does not permanently increase USDT in circulation.”
"Mashinsky said the loans of USDT are typically at least 30 per cent overcollateralised, with the amount varying depending on market volatility. “If bitcoin drops, they give us a margin call [and then] we have to give them more bitcoin,” he added. Earlier this month, Bloomberg reported Celsius had borrowed $1bn worth of USDT from Tether." "Tether’s bitcoin-backed lending clashes with dollar promise", Financial Times
"Tether’s reserve disclosures show that about 4 per cent of its total assets, or $2.5bn, as of June(opens a new window) this year were “secured loans”, down from 12.6 per cent earlier(opens a new window) in the year. The disclosures do not distinguish whether the loans were made by lending out USDT in return for collateral or by lending out dollars other customers had paid in when buying USDT." "Tether’s bitcoin-backed lending clashes with dollar promise", Financial Times
Mashinsky says this because Bloomberg publishes this: "I also learned that Tether had made loans worth billions of dollars to other crypto companies, with Bitcoin as collateral. One of them is Celsius Network Ltd., a giant quasi-bank for cryptocurrency investors, its founder Alex Mashinsky told me. He said he pays an interest rate of 5% to 6% on loans of about 1 billion Tethers."
The Financial Times publishes an article that includes this response from Tether: “We have a select, small group of customers that borrow USDTs in exchange for posting security. These loans are secured by collateral in Tether’s possession of well in excess of 100 per cent of the loan proceeds and earn monthly interest.”
Jim Cramer says "If Tether collapsed, well then, it’s going to gut the whole crypto ecosystem" on Mad Money.
In June 2020, Tether was the lead investor in Celsius Network's first equity raise.
"The crypto community has only a few great projects and we are excited by the investment from Tether International as it will help us deliver USDt-based services to all our users." -Alex Mashinsky, CEO, Celsius Network
"We are proud to add Tether International as the first institution to participate in our equity fundraising." -Alex Mashinsky, CEO, Celsius Network
"We have worked with Celsius Network Limited since 2018. We found them to have the same passion and commitment to the crypto community that we have. We look forward to advancing our relationship together."-Giancarlo Devasini, CFO, Tether
"yes sir, lets break the 70th bn" -Giancarlo Devasini, CFO of Tether, in Tether, Deltec, FTX, Alameda group telegram channel
On 20 January 2022, FTX and SALT announce that they will be hosting the first Crypto Bahamas event in late April 2022.
Deltec will present the 'Trusting Disruption' Stage at Crypto Bahamas.
Alex Mashinsky posts on LinkedIn that he is "finishing a book that will detail my thoughts and ideas" about what "#Web3.0" is going to look like.
In March 2022, Do Kwon tweeted: "$UST with $10B+ in $BTC reserves will open a new monetary era of the Bitcoin standard."
aka @stablekwon
Do Kwon is CEO of Terra Luna.
As early as 19 March 2018, the v0.0.8 of the Terra whitepaper is published.
Our belief is that while an elastic monetary policy is the solution to the stability problem, an efficient fiscal policy can drive adoption
The official whitepaper is published in April 2019.
When TerraSDR's price < 1 SDR, users and arbitragers can send 1 TerraSDR to the system and receive 1 SDR's worth of Luna. -Terra Money: Stability and Adoption
When TerraSDR's price > 1 SDR, users and arbitragers can send 1 SDR's worth of Luna to the system and receive 1 TerraSDR. -Terra Money: Stability and Adoption
The protocol adjusts the supply of Terra in response to changes in demand to keep its price stable. This is achieved using Luna, the mining token whose stable rewards are designed to absorb volatility from changing economic cycles. -Terra Money: Stability and Adoption
"If UST demand shrinks, it could cause a negative feedback loop and liquidity problems for both UST and LUNA, also known as a “death spiral” where tons of capital pulls out of the Terra ecosystem, which crashes the price of LUNA and then eventually breaks the UST peg. If that occurs, it’s functionally very similar to an emerging market currency crisis." -Lyn Alden
"I think UST will collapse on its own, but if someone attacks it, it will collapse even faster." Kevin Zhou, Galois Capital
"UST is going to blow up." -Cory Klippsten
"It's basically risk-free." -Raoul Paul, Real Vision
On 11 May 2022, Kwon posts a thread starting with: "1/ Dear Terra Community:"
"The price stabilization mechanism is absorbing UST supply (over 10% of total supply), but the cost of absorbing so much stablecoins at the same time has stretched out the on-chain swap spread to 40%, and Luna price has diminished dramatically absorbing the arbs." -Do Kwon
Sometime on 11 May 2022, Celsius withdraws 225,000 ETH ($436 million at the time) from Terra's Anchor Protocol.
"A person with direct knowledge of the situation said that there are no Celsius funds left outstanding with Anchor Protocol" -The Block
On 11 May 2022 Celsius says "All user funds are safe. We continue to be open for business as usual."
“Celsius was relatively OK because they used Bonded ETH (bETH) as collateral to borrow UST, which was then lent to Anchor for yield." -Igor Igamberdiev, The Block Research
On 12 May 2022, the value of LUNA plunges 96% to less than $0.10 and many exchanges halt trading on the coin.
On 12 May 2022, USDT briefly loses its dollar peg, trading down to $0.95 on some venues before recovering.
Tether says: "Today, Tether Holdings Limited made available its latest quarterly assurance opinion demonstrating the strength of its reserves revealing significant reductions in commercial paper investments and an overall increase in U.S. treasury bills."
Tether also says: "It also demonstrates that the group’s consolidated assets exceed its consolidated liabilities."
By 17 May 2022, Tether supply falls to 74.127 billion.
"Celsius Network is excited to announce that its wholly-owned Bitcoin mining subsidiary, Celsius Mining LLC, has recently submitted confidentially a draft registration statement on Form S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC")." -Celsius Network press release
"This is not a coincidence. This is somebody who decided, 'You know what? I'm going to take down all of Celsius." -Alex Mashinsky, in a Twitter Spaces, attributed by Joe Light, "Celsius Faces a Revolt as a High-Yield Crypto Plummets"
Mackenzie notes that, according to Tether's attestation, "a 3.27% decrease in the value of these investments wipes out all Tether equity and causes their tokens to be undercollateralized."
Mackenzie also points out: "Cryptocurrency suffered a broad-based decline in May 2022, during which Tether lost the peg not later than May 12th. As of this writing, on May 20th, it has yet to regain the peg. Bitcoin, the most blue-chip of all cryptocurrency investments, declined by approximately 36% between March 2022 and today."
Mackenzie also says that Tether "has invested $62.8 million of the reserves into Celsius Network."
"Celsius is in free-fall due to the current market dislocation; the value of their native token is down by over 86% since their Series B. Clearly, that investment has suffered more than $20 million in impairment. Impairment of 1% of one line item on their balance sheet ate more than 10% of their equity, under assumptions which are extremely generous to Tether." -Patrick Mackenzie, "Tether Required Recapitalization in May 2022"
On 25 May 2022, "Celsius Network fails to post its regular, weekly report of its assets." -Protos, "A complete timeline of Celsius' relationship with Terra LUNA and Tether"
"We are taking this action today to put Celsius in a better position to honor, over time, its withdrawal obligations."
"On July 13, 2022, Celsius and several of its affiliates commenced voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York."
The Wall Street Journal reports that Leon Marshall, head of institutional sales at Genesis Global Trading, claims that traditional hedge funds shorted Tether through his brokerage. Marshall said that the relevant trades involved “hundreds of millions” of dollars in value.
"Today, Tether announced that it has eliminated commercial paper from its reserves, replacing these investments with U.S. Treasury Bill (T-Bills)." -Tether press release
Tether tweets: "Tether has eliminated over $30 billion dollars of commercial paper without any losses, a proof of how Tethers’ reserves are conservatively and professionally managed. Tether has also increased its direct exposure to US Treasuries by more than $10 billion in the last quarter."
Paolo Ardoino adds that Tether "proved to be the only company to be able to pay 7B in 48 hours = 10% reserves, peak at 20B = 25% of reserves in 30 days. Ask your bank or other stablecoins if they can do that, in same time frame of course. Paper != Facts 🦗 🦗 🦗"
"SCOOP: Sam Bankman-Fried's @AlamedaResearch had $14.6 billion of assets as of June 30, according to a private document CoinDesk reviewed. Much of it is the $FTT token issued by @FTX_Official, another SBF company." Ian Allison, Coindesk
"There is people coming to me about alameda insolvency shit. I'm pushing back and say its BS. However seems to grow a bit those FUD." -Gregory Pepin, Deputy CEO, Deltec Bank & Trust, in Tether, Deltec, FTX, Alameda group telegram channel
"To be clear: #Tether does not have any exposure to FTX or Alameda. 0. Null." -Paolo Ardoino
Changpeng Zhao, CEO of Binance, tweets "Due to recent revelations that have came to light, we have decided to liquidate any remaining FTT on our books."
Changpeng Zhao also tweets: "We typically hold tokens for the long term. And we have held on to this token for this long. We stay transparent in our actions."
And: "We won't support people who lobby against other industry players behind their backs. Onwards."
"That was not a good strategic move on my part." Sam Bankman-Fried
On 8 November 2022, Sam Bankman-Fried tweets: "Things have come full circle, and http://FTX.com’s first, and last, investors are the same: we have come to an agreement on a strategic transaction with Binance for http://FTX.com (pending DD etc.)."
Five minutes later Changpeng Zhao tweets: "This afternoon, FTX asked for our help. There is a significant liquidity crunch. To protect users, we signed a non-binding LOI, intending to fully acquire http://FTX.com and help cover the liquidity crunch. We will be conducting a full DD in the coming days."
On 9 November 2022 Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison says "she, Mr. Bankman-Fried and two other FTX executives, Nishad Singh and Gary Wang, were aware of the decision to send customer funds to Alameda."
"Her voice shaking, she apologized, saying she had let the group down. Over recent months, she said, Alameda had taken out loans and used the money to make venture capital investments, among other expenditures. Around the time the crypto market crashed this spring, Ms. Ellison explained, lenders moved to recall those loans, the person familiar with the meeting said. But the funds that Alameda had spent were no longer easily available, so the company used FTX customer funds to make the payments." -David Yaffe-Bellany, "How Sam Bankman-Fried's Crypto Empire Collapsed, New York Times
"MONEY PARTY THE BEST PARTY" -Gregory Pepin, Deputy CEO, Deltec Bank & Trust, in Alameda, FTX, and Deltec group telegram channel
Later that day, Changpeng Zhao messages on Signal: “Sam, I’m sorry, but we won’t be able to continue this deal. Way too many issues. CZ.”
"I shouldn’t throw stones in a glass house, so I’ll hold back a bit,” he said in a message to employees obtained by The Times. “Except to say: probably they never really planned to go through with the deal." -Sam Bankman-Fried
"Mr. Bankman-Fried scrambled to line up new financing." -David Yaffe-Bellany, "How Sam Bankman-Fried's Crypto Empire Collapsed, New York Times
Paolo Ardoino says "He contacted us and asked for economic help. He didn't disclose details or exactly how much he needed, but we categorically refused."
"He suddenly asked for something that he had never asked for before, and he wasn’t talking about $10 million. The way he was talking suggested that he had a big issue. His request was in the billions." Paolo Ardoino, attributed by Steven Ehrlich and Nina Bambysheva, "Inside Tether, Crypto's (So Far) Unbreakable Buck", Forbes
On 11 November 2022 FTX and Alameda research (as well as more than 130 affiliates) file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
FTX tweets "Press Release" and an image of a statement that says "FTX Group Companies Commence Voluntary Chapter 11 Proceedings in the United States Begin Orderly Process to Review and Monetize Assets for Benefit of Global Stakeholders John J. Ray III Appointed Chief Executive Officer; Sam Bankman-Fried Resigns"
"We would like to confirm that at this time, Tether has absolutely no credit towards FTX or Alameda Research. Tether is completely unexposed to Alameda Research or FTX." -Tether blog
"While the situation with FTX has caught many people by surprise given their reputation and size, FTX is not indicative of the practices of all substantial players in the industry." -Tether blog
"FTX did not provide any services to or hold any assets for the Bank. Deltec Bank does not hold or trade any digital assets for its own account or on behalf of its clients. Therefore, there is no credit or asset exposure by the Bank to FTX." -Deltec Bank & Trust
"The Consolidated Reserves Report alleges assets of $68,061,618,458 and liabilities of $67,811,510,720. This implies approximately $250 million in equity, via standard balance sheet math. $250 million was their margin of safety between September 30th and today." -Patrick McKenzie
"I do not know whether Tether had anything in exchanges which folded this week, but it is an incontrovertible historical fact, in both slow databases and public reporting, that Alameda Research was historically their single largest counterparty. Alameda has been vaporized." -Patrick McKenzie
The Securities Commission of The Bahamas freezes FTX assets and appoints provisional liquidator.
"1) What" -Sam Bankman-Fried
Tether publishes "WSJ & CO: The Hypocrisy of Mainstream Media, Asleep at the Wheel of Information" on their blog.
"Calling FTX a bank run is either the height of ignorance or amounts to political cover by media outlets who spent the last two years writing hagiographies of Sam Bankman-Fried and would have a tremendous amount of egg on their faces if they were to admit the reality of the situation." -Tether blog
"FTX didn't just lend out customer deposits and was unable to recall the loans in a timely manner. It used them to engage in a series of increasingly risky bets and suffered losses. The money might be lost, but time will tell. That is what raised the customer concerns." -Tether blog
"Moreover, while CoinDesk has been focused for years on Tether, including trying to access Tether's private reporting to the New York Attorney General, in the name of transparency, it failed to ask for the same transparency from its own owner." -Tether blog
"Yes, CoinDesk is owned by DCG." -Tether blog
"And yes, DCG is also an investor in Circle, a direct competitor to Tether." -Tether blog
"It looks like "everyone" was wrong!" -Tether blog
On 13 November 2022, Stacy Herbert posts pictures of Paolo Ardoino and Max Keiser embracing on the tarmac in El Salvador.
"Best welcome ever 🇸🇻🇸🇻🇸🇻🇸🇻🇸🇻" -Paolo Ardoino
18 EL SALVADOR
iFinex Inc announces that it has entered into an agreement with the government of El Salvador on 19 November 2021.
"iFinex will be tasked with bringing its years of expertise operating a digital asset exchange, and various activities in the cryptocurrency economy. iFinex will help the El Salvador Government to create and implement appropriately balanced cryptocurrency laws, regulations, rules, and guidelines, particularly as they relate to digitized financial instruments in order to promote the growth of the cryptocurrency sector in El Salvador."
"El Salvador to issue $1 billion through a bitcoin bond via Blockstream's @Liquid_BTC & traded on @BFXSecurities. Proceeds go to: 50% ES mining infrastructure, 50% BTC purchase. 1Oy duration, pays 6.5% interest." -Tuur Demeester
"(not financial advice)" -Tuur Demeester
"I'm wonderingy why any institutional bond investor would buy this?...because it's got a 6.5% yield and your yield on your current bonds of El Salvador that come due in ten years is 13%" -Caroline Hyde, Bloomberg TV
"But this bond has a bitcoin component and that is why it is called a bitcoin bond." -Samson Mow
"PREDICTION: The El Salvador bitcoin bond will be ridiculously oversubscribed" -Anthony Pompliano
"I'm really excited to build on #Bitcoin in 🇸🇻 with @nayibbukele @bitfinex @Blockstream @Excellion @adam3us @bitcoinlawyer 🌋" -Paolo Ardoino
"Here's @nayibbukele announcing the Bitcoin City project for El Salvador. A city with 0 income tax, 0 CGT, 0 property tax, 0 payroll tax" -Stephan Livera
The 2021-2022 Salvadoran Vice Presidency report includes a picture of Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert and says "Mr. Félix Ulloa Jr., Vice President of El Salvador, met with Mr. Max Keiser and Ms. Stacy Herbert, both advocates for Bitcoin in El Salvador. They expressed their intention to reside in El Salvador to support the Bitcoin initiative promoted by the administration of President Nayib Bukele. Furthermore, they discussed an investment project involving "volcano bonds," sustainable mining, and the training of future professionals in the field of computer programming."
"Special thanks to @maxkeiser for inspiring #VolcanoBonds 🌋🇸🇻" -Nayib Bukele
As early as 10 June 2021, Max Keiser tweeted ".@novogratz - What about you guys floating a $1 billion in "Volcano Bonds" (backed by future #BTC mining output) for El Salvador to pay off the IMF (@IMFNews) loan - so they can tell the IMF to beat it."
Later that day, blocdesk runs an article entitled "Bitcoin community planning to give El Salvador $1 billion?"
The Wall Street Journal says "Mr. Keiser brought Bitfinex on board as a financial technology provider for the planned $1 billion Volcano Token offering."
Max Keiser's Bitcoin Capital participates in a ShapeShift investment round with Bitfinex.
Max Keiser tweets that everything his crypto VC fund invested in is up 10 - 100x...including Bitfinex.
As early as 22 April 2018, Crowdfund Insider describes Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert as investors in Bitfinex.
In February of 2022, Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert announce the formation of a new venture capital fund called El Zonte Capital.
aka the EZCAP Cult of Psychos
Diario El Salvador reports: "EZ Cap will begin with a $5 million committed capital seed-stage fund. Keiser and Herbert are the firm’s general partners (GPs), along with the founder of Swan Bitcoin and Bitcoiner Ventures, Cory Klippsten."
On a 23 May 2022 episode of Bitcoin Cafe, Max Keiser says "Bitfinex and I have been working very closely over the past few months in El Salvador. We have been working together on several initiatives, including creating an educational initiative. People have probably seen that there is a lot of Bitcoin education in El Salvador, even with MiPrimer, a Bitcoin 101 course taught in high schools in El Salvador. There's also ‘Toro Hora Dev’, an intensive mid-level bootcamp for programmers. I'm doing something with Jimmy Song for advanced and elite coders. We want to build a base in El Salvador and Bitfinex is helping us build it."
"In 500 years from now, President Bukele's transformation of this society will be taught alongside those of the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece." -Stacy Herbert
"it is intended that iFinex will be granted its first licence" and that Bitfinex Securities will process and list the bond issuance.
"This first one will be the Volcano Bond" -Samson Mow
Nayib Bukele includes an initial termsheet for the bond in his presentation at Bitcoin week in El Salvador.
Coupon: 6.50%
Duration: 10 years
Maturation: 2032
Interest on notes: Payable annually in January
Bitcoin lock-up: 5 years
Bitcoin investment distribution: 50% of Bitcoin investment proceeds returned to investors once initial $500M Bitcoin investment is recovered
Interest on Bitcoin investment proceeds: Payable in January, post achievement of $500M threshold
Issuance protocol: Liquid Network
Issuer: The Republic of El Salvador
Funding currencies: USD, USDT, BTC
Minimum subscription amount: $100
Nominal value: $100 (one unit of EBB1 is $100)
Citizenship by investment qualification: investments >= $100,000 will qualify investors for citizenship-by-investment applications after a five year term.
$500 million from the bond will be used to help construct energy infrastructure, while the other $500 will be used to buy bitcoin.
One of the infrastructure projects will be "Bitcoin City"
"Bitcoin City will be a full-fledged metropolis with residential and commercial areas, restaurants, an airport as well as a port and rail service. The city will be laid out in a circle (like a coin) and in the city center will be a plaza that will be host to a huge bitcoin symbol. The city will have no income, property, capital gains or payroll taxes." -CoinDesk
"This is a fully ecological city that works and is energized by a volcano." -Nayib Bukele
"This is going to make El Salvador the financial center of the world." -Samson Mow
"Think about dubai investment corporation and the civil construction of the modern city of dubai 🇦🇪. takes a lot of capital. next up bitcoin city, el salvador." -Adam Back
Bloomberg's Matt Levine points out that the Bitcoin Bond is not a very good deal.
"This is market segmentation by slapping a cool name — “Volcano Bond” — on a bond that is strictly worse than a readily available alternative." -Matt Levine
Many Bitcoiners are also skeptical.
Hashtag: BitcoinBond 🌋🇸🇻
25 February 2022: "Volanco bonds fix this." -Liquid Network
24 March 2022: "Heading to Volcano Bond country, El Salvador." -Max Keiser
In early March 2022, El Salvador announces that the Bitcoin bond may be delayed because of the war in Ukraine.
"We believe that between March 15 and 20 is the right timing, we have the tools almost finished. But the international context will tell us ... I didn't expect the war in Ukraine" -Alejandro Zelaya, El Salvador's finance minister
"Almost everything is ready, the thing is there is also a timing issue." -Alejandro Zelaya, El Salvador's finance minister
The Financial Times reports that the $1 billion volcano bond will be issued by "state thermal energy company La Geo," not the government of El Salvador.
Frank Muci reports that "LaGeo produces 204MW or about 22% of El Salvador's electicity with geo-thermal plants."
Frank Muci adds: "El Salvador has just 6.5 million people" and "consumes about as much electricity as India on a per-capita basis."
According their financial statements, LaGeo's revenue was $136 million in 2021 and it had $773 million in total assets.
"Basically, the volcano bonds will generate $65 million in annual interest payments (6.5% coupon x $1 billion), which is about half of LaGeo’s total revenue. The company’s annual interest expenses would jump from $15 million per year to $80 million per year (+430%), turning its healthy profit of around $35 million into a loss of $30 million. LaGeo’s long-term debt would also rise from $200 million to $1.2 billion (+500%)." -Frank Muci
There is still no volcano bond prospectus (other than pictures of Bukele's power point slides from when it was first introduced.
"The bond is supposed to be issued this week but I can’t find any official documentation anywhere. LaGeo’s website, LaGeo’s page on El Salvador’s securities exchange, bitfinex’s webpage and blockstream’s website don’t have any documents." -Frank Muci
El Salvador's parliament approves a state of emergency that temporarily suspends some constitutional protections on 28 March 2022.
"The measures to be taken will be implemented by the relevant institutions and announced only when necessary. For the vast majority of people, life continues normal. God bless us all" -Nayib Bukele
In 2022, Elfaro reports: "At the legislative session on Feb. 8, the Bitcoin Bond architect Samson Mow and other foreigners posed in a photo with eight Nuevas Ideas deputies including the chair of the Finance Committee, Dania González, and the head of the Nuevas Ideas party, Christian Guevara. In the background was Giancarlo Devasini. Unlike other figures in the cryptocurrency world, Devasini posted nothing about his visit to El Salvador on social media and was not tagged in any posts. Tether did not respond to this newspaper’s February 22 request for comment on the visit, and Devasini did not respond to an interview request."
"Bitfinex and Tether have set up a relief fund to help the families of the people affected by the pandillas in El Salvador." -Paolo Ardoino
"Both companies once again stand with the disadvantaged and have donated 25 #bitcoin (~1M USD equiv now) to bootstrap this initiative (tx: 16dfd73fb9e9fe1e1c47eaf9e55e15066a80936a9c80cfc507b7555effdb2ce"
16 April 2022: "Btifinex hopes El Salvador's 'bitcoin bond' will be just one of many" -Bitfinex
Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert meet "with the mayor of the municipality, José María Chicas, to deliver funds donated by the Bitfinex exchange house and anonymous bitcoiners to families and entrepreneurs."
In July, Bitfinex donates 36 Bitcoin (BTC), US$600,000 Tether tokens (USDt) in Aid for Small Businesses in El Salvador.
The announcement also says "iFinex Inc., the parent company of Bitfinex, is also collaborating with the Government of El Salvador to create a digital assets and securities regulatory framework to regulate, issue, and operate digitized financial instruments in El Salvador, as well as assist in creating and implementing balanced cryptocurrency legislation and regulation on digitized financial instruments as they promote the growth of the cryptocurrency industry in El Salvador."
In collaboration with Mi Primer Bitcoin, Bitfinex announces the launch of a new Bitcoin education initiative in El Salvador
El Salvador and the city of Lugano, Switzerland sign a memorandum of understanding on economic cooperation.
Bitfinex is "the main whale sponsor" of the 2022 Adopting Bitcoin conference that takes place on the 15th-17th November in El Salvador.
5 August 2022: "The volcano bond Prepare for liftoff LFG 🌋🚀🇸🇻" -Stacy Herbert
21 September 2022: "Anyone out there still think the volcano bond ain't gonna happen?" -Stacy Herbert
The Bitcoin Office is responsible for "coordinating periodic meetings with various domestic individuals or legal entities investing in Bitcoin," "managing and evaluating requests from all individuals or legal entities seekign meetings with the President of the Republic for the purpose of implementing Bitcoin, blockchain, and cryptocurrencies in El Salvador," serving as "a liason, coordinator, and facilitator in the management and implementation of" international cooperation programs and playing "an active role in El Salvador's participation in various international forums concerning Bitcoin, blockchain, and cryptocurrencies."
"Honored to be involved in setting up the Bitcoin Office for President Bukele." -Stacy Herbert
Stacy Herbert clarifies that she will receive no salary, "nor any contracts from either El Salvador or any private company."
Max Keiser says, "We don’t get remunerated in any way," Mr. Keiser told an interviewer on a Salvadoran YouTube channel last week. "I would say it’s just really an act of love."
22 November 2022: "BREAKING: 🇸🇻 El Salvador submits bill to enable launch of the #Bitcoin volcano bonds 🙌" -Bitcoin Magazine
27 November 2022: "Volcano bond is coming 🌋🚀🇸🇻" -Stacy Herbert
29 November 2022: "Wen Volcano Bonds?" -Nayib Bukele
"Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) flows closed with a negative balance in 2022, for the first time in a decade, and the reasons are mainly due to the "legal uncertainty" caused by the political climate in the country, explained economic experts." -La Prensa Grafica
30 January 2023: "@Bitfinex expects El Salvador 🇸🇻 to issue its “volcano” token this year" -Paolo Ardoino
21 February 2023: "Volcano Bonds will stun doubters (and make them cry)" -Max Keiser
"On March 20, 2023, the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund concluded the consideration of the 2023 Article IV of El Salvador. Under Article IV of its Articles of Agreement, the IMF has a mandate to exercise surveillance over the economic, financial and exchange rate policies of its members in order to ensure the effective operation of the international monetary system. The IMF’s appraisal of such policies involves a comprehensive analysis of the general economic situation and policy strategy of each member country. IMF economists visit the member country, usually once a year, to collect and analyze data and hold discussions with government and central bank officials. Upon its return, the staff submits a report to the IMF’s Executive Board for discussion. The Board’s views are subsequently summarized and transmitted to the country authorities....The authorities have not consented to publication of the staff report and the related press release."
Bitfinex Securities El Salvador is granted El Salvador's first-ever Digital Assets License on 11 April 2023.
29 May 2023: "🌋🔌 is coming." -Max Keiser
On 3 June 2023, something called Volcano Energy posts "Wait is over! The power of @Volcano_Energy is here🌋🔌"
Volcano Energy says they are constructing a pathway to a their geothermal future "with a focus on a debt-free approach."
"Volcano Energy represents one of the most ground-breaking and strategic initiatives we are investing in and we look forward to working alongside Josue Lopez and his team to make El Salvador a global force in renewable energy production." -Paolo Ardoino, Tether CTO
"But this also means that investors in the $1 billion initiative, which already have received $250 million in investments, had to dilute their equity to share a part with the local government, which was supposed to get 23% preferred equity participation."
"This project will fulfill President Nayib Bukele's plans for a volcano bond, but with a twist." -Javier Bastardo, "Renewable Bitcoin Mining Project Tweaks El Salvador's Bonds Proposal to Raise $1 Billion"
"The reason behind this change is that after looking closely at the economics of our model, we realized that the potential benefits for all stakeholders were much greater doing equity funding, rather than debt" -Josué López, CEO of Volcano Energy
Volcano Energy and Luxor launch Lava Pool, El Salvador's inaugural mining pool on 4 October 2023.
But before the domain was El Salvador's Bitcoin mining pool, it was a Cardano mining pool.
mining.lavapool.io is no longer reachable.
"El Salvador’s new volcano #bitcoin mining program will be one of the “top 10 most powerful bitcoin mining operations in the world." - Stacy Herbert
54 Salvadorans participate in the first CUBO+ Bitcoin and Lightning education course.
Damien Merlo is the manager of DMM consulting.
Damien Merlo says he is an advisor to President Bukele in the byline to a letter to the editor of the Americas Quarterly Journal
Bitfinex Securities becomes "the first platform approved under El Salvador’s Digital Assets Issuance Law. CNAD’s registry lists the securities entity under PSAD-0001, with a registration date of Oct. 24, 2023."
"Lovely chat and dinner with @nayibbukele" -Paolo Ardoino
11 December 2023: "Wen volcano bond? 🥺" -Nayib Bukele
11 December 2023: "The Volcano Bond has just received regulatory approval." -The Bitcoin Office
12 December 2023: "El Salvador's Bitcoin 'Volcano Bond' could be issued early next year." -Fortune
16 December 2023: "El Salvador #Bitcoin Volcano Bond project coming back online again." -Simon Dixon
17 December 2023: "ICYMI Get ready for Volcano Bond in Q1/2024! 🌋🚀" -Stacy Herbert
"Eligibility for the program prioritizes visionary individuals, including high-net-worth investors, who aspire to contribute significantly to societal progress." -Tether
"Tether and Bitfinex have registered, from 2022 to date, at least 9 companies in El Salvador, according to a review of the Commercial Registry. Both companies are led by Italians Paolo Ardoino and Giancarlo Devasini, they have six licenses from the National Digital Assets Commission (CNAD)." -El Diario de Hoy
In February, 2024, Tether Holdings and Zettahash Inc register Moon Gold NA and Moon Gold El Salvador in El Salvador.
Jean-Louis van der Velde is certified the disclosure as sole director.
On 11 February 2024, Paolo Ardoino posts a picture of a beach in El Salvador and says "A new home 🇸🇻"
"Ardoino bought two plots of land totaling 1,569.93 square meters in the district of San José Villanueva." -Elfaro
"Both Ardoino and Lagorio are naturalized Salvadorans and have DUI cards, according to the public deed of sale." -Elfaro
"On Mar. 6, 2024, Devasini bought a 2000 square-meter house in San Salvador for $2 million." -Elfaro
"Devasini bought that house together with Valentina Picozzi, a Bitcoin artist who designed a giant mural with Bukele's face in Colonia Zacamil. Devasini and Picozzi own 50 percent each of the property." -Elfaro
14 March 2024: "Volcano Bonds on tap" -Max Keiser
"🌋 Volcano Energy!!!" -Max Keiser
"Giancarlo Devasini has registered 15 companies in El Salvador. 11 of these 15 companies are listed at the same address: Office 6, floor 11, World Trade Center, San Salvador." -Elfaro
Dentons Centroamérica, a law firm, may have offices at the same address.
"Tether has retained the legal services of Dentons El Salvador to navigate the intricate landscape of local laws and regulations effectively. Dentons is a well-established and registered law firm known for its legal compliance and guidance expertise."
"Factum found four properties acquired by Devasini and two others cryptoinvestors -Max Keiser and Raymond Friddell, all close to Nayib Bukele's government - in the most touristy area of the historic center, buildings and houses near the three emblematic squares of the capital: Barrios, Morazán and Libertad." -Revista Factum
"The purchases total $7 million 475 thousand dollars. One of these four buildings - the Veiga building - has been proposed as a relevant monument, according to the List of inventoried properties with cultural value in San Salvador." -Revista Factum
"The crypto investors they purchased the properties after the approval of the Law Creating the Planning Authority of the Historic Center of San Salvador (Aplan), which since May 17, 2023 exempted investors in the area from taxes." -Revista Factum
Bitfinex Securities launches the tokenized debt issue for the construction of a new Hampton by Hilton hotel complex at El Savlador International Airport.
"Inversiones Laguardia S.A. de C.V. (HILSV), which has been operational in El Salvador since 2017, seeks to raise $6.25 million. It offers a 10% coupon over a five-year term with a minimum investment threshold of $1,000." -Bitfinex press release
"Unique to this offering, investors can receive incentives such as free hotel nights, varying with the size of their investment. The HILSV tokens will be issued on the Liquid Network(opens in a new tab), a sidechain of Bitcoin, which is leveraging Blockstream AMP(opens in a new tab) technology, and will trade against US dollars and Tether tokens." -Bitfinex press release
The offering is not very popular: "The offering hoped to raise $6.25 million in 30 days, however, over halfway through, only $342,000 has been raised, according to the Bitfinex Securities website." -Protos
"Investors in Bitfinex’s Hampton Hotel securities offering are reportedly entitled to a refund after its fundraiser failed to meet its $500,000 goal to build a hotel near El Salvador’s airport." -Protos
"This digital currency is designed to track the value of one US dollar. What makes aUSD₮ unique is that it is over-collateralized by Tether Gold (XAU₮), which means it is supported by real physical gold stored in Switzerland." -Tether press release
"Users can create aUSD₮ tokens using Tether Gold (XAU₮) as collateral." -Tether press release
"This is a very useful and innovative combination" -Tether press release
"Existing users will continue to be able to return their aUSD₮ and remove their XAU₮ for the next three months, subject to the applicable Alloy by Tether Terms of Use. Starting on 17 September 2026, customers who have not returned their aUSD₮ will no longer be able to recover their XAU₮ through the platform." -Tether press release
Bitfinex partners with El Salvador digital asset issuer NExBridge to launch USTBL, "a tokenized US Treasury Bill offering."
"USTBL was offered on Blockstream’s Liquid Network(opens in a new tab), raising $30 million during its initial public issuance through Bitfinex Securities. NexBridge states it has plans to scale the issuance to $200 million." -Bitfinex press release
"Democratising access to investment opportunities is one of the fundamental benefits of bringing capital markets on-chain, and is a principle very much supported by El Salvador’s policymakers." -Jesse Knutson
"President Bukele announces "We've decided to transfer a big chunk of our #Bitcoin to a cold wallet, and store that cold wallet in a physical vault within our national territory."
Bukele identifies 32ixEdVJWo3kmvJGMTZq5jAQVZZeuwnqzo as the address of El Salvador's cold wallet.
According to analysis by El Salvador News and Protos "80% of these funds do not come from the Chivo Wallet government wallet ecosystem, but from one belonging to the Bitfinex company"
"Most of the bitcoin held in that wallet came from Bitfinex, according to Arkham Intelligence." -CoinDesk
Later analysis concludes "6,111 of the 6,114 Bitcoins that make up the alleged strategic reserve in this cryptocurrency of the Government of El Salvador have come from a wallet of Bitfinex"
El Dario de Hoy says "it was found that only 20% of the Bitcoin that was transferred to that address came from the Chivo Wallet ecosystem, that is, 1,121. The rest came from a Bitfinex wallet, almost exclusively from a single address that appears to be the center of that company's activity as an exchange (see images and explanation below)."
Also that "The address published by Bukele was created on March 12, 2024, that is, 2 days before the announcement. The first transaction he recorded was that of those 1,121 Bitcoin coming from Chivo Wallet that, however, did not arrive directly, but rather through a bridge shipment to another address of an unknown owner. This was done that same March 12."
And that "Then, there were 5 other transactions that Bitfinex wallet sent its 4,569 Bitcoin with. The first, of just 1 Bitcoin, was recorded on March 13 at 3:04 p.m. The last one, which brings together almost the entire total with 4,008 Bitcoin, was on March 14 at 3:32 in the afternoon, that is, just two hours before Nayib Bukele made his announcement on X, at 5:50 in the afternoon."
2 September 2024: "The Statue of Liberty is now a volcano." -Max Keiser
"El Salvador’s first BITCOIN BANK is being prepped now. The impact on the 🇸🇻 economy will be 10x what the current iteration of the Volcano Bond might be." -Max Keiser
25 November 2024: "El Salvador’s rent-a-volcano to mine Bitcoin will put 🇸🇻 in the lead in the global Bitcoin per capita (BPC) race." -Max Keiser
4 December 2024: "🎄VOLCANO COFFEE: A VERY UNIQUE, ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL CHRISTMAS GIFT IDEA!" -Stacy Herbert
"The proposal to tokenize a sovereign bond on a blockchain is now officially dead." -Frank Muci, "El Salvador's Volcano Bond, RIP
"It is a little hard to believe that any of this was real, and of course in an important sense it wasn’t." -Matt Levine
18 December 2024: "Bonds don’t do well in such an environment." -Max Keiser
30 January 2025: "Never launched." -Simon Dixon
"Cheap and clean volcano energy from the balls of the Mother Earth's own testicals, exploding in a jism of free power that's going to make us all fucking rich down here!" -Max Keiser
"please note that Tether International Limited has redomiciled from the British Virgin Islands to the Republic of El Salvador, and is now named Tether International, S.A. de C.V." -Tether terms of service
On 13 January 2025, Tether announces that "Tether and its subsidiaries are about to complete all formalities to relocate to El Salvador, following the successful acquisition of a Digital Asset Service Provider (DASP) license and as a stablecoin issuer"
"This move to El Salvador will be the first time we're going ot have also a physical headquarters." -Paolo Ardoino
29 January 2025 - Bitfinex Securities Day at Plan B Forum "Join an exclusive gathering of regulators, issuers, investors, and thought leaders as we explore the transformative power of tokenisation and security token offerings in modern capital markets. Through engaging panel discussions and invaluable networking opportunities, gain actionable insights into this innovative financial frontier."
On 25 February 2025, Paolo Ardoino says, "USDt is the most succesful tool for US Dollar hegemony and distribution across emerging markets."
IMF Executive Board approves new 40-month US$1.4 billion extended fund facility arrangement for El Salvador.
"The program also addresses risks arising from the Bitcoin project, including by making acceptance of Bitcoin voluntary and by confining public sector engagement in Bitcoin-related activities and transactions in and purchases of Bitcoins." -IMF Executive Board
"Prior actions include legal reforms that have made acceptance of Bitcoin by the private sector voluntary and ensured that tax payments are made only in U.S. dollars. Transparency of the public crypto e-wallet has been strengthened, and the government plans to gradually unwind its participation in the e-wallet. Going forward, program commitments will confine government engagement in Bitcoin-related economic activities, as well as government transactions in and purchases of Bitcoin." -IMF Executive Board
Two days earlier, Bitcoin Magazine reports that El Salvador bought another 7 bitcoin for their strategic bitcoin reserve.
Tether International, S.A. de C.V. [registers])(https://statecraftencyclopedia.org/entries/tether/) on 19 May 2025 with CNAD as stablecoin issuer EME-0003.
On 20 February 2026, Tether publishes a Relevant Information Document under El Salvador's Digital Asset Issuance Law.
The document specifies that Tether tokens are issued by "Tether International Sociedad Anonima De Capital Variable (“Tether International” or “Tether International, S.A. de C.V.”) a company incorporated and in effect under the Laws of El Salvador, whose registered address is Edificio Torre Futura, Oficina 6, Nivel 11, entre 87 y 89 avenida norte, Colonia Escalón, San Salvador, El Salvador" -Tether RID
The document also specifies that "Tether International is wholly owned by Tether Global Investment Fund, Sociedad de Inversión de Capital Fijo, Sociedad Anónima (“Tether Global Investment Fund, SICAF, S.A.)” and Tether Operations Sociedad Anonima De Capital Variable (“Tether Operations” or “Tether Operations, S.A. de C.V.”); both incorporated and in effect under the Laws of El Salvador." -Tether RID
On 12 May 2026, Bitfinex secures license and completes its regulated footprint in El Salvador.
The International Monetary Fund, Western Hemisphere Department determines that El Salvador's public sector is not accumulating more bitcoin.
"despite adherence to the commitment not to voluntarily accumulate Bitcoin, the continuous QPC on voluntary Bitcoin accumulation was missed with minor margins on account of temporary fluctuations in Chivo clients' deposits denominated in Bitcoin." -International Monetary Fund, Western Hemisphere Department
"El Salvador Strategic Bitcoin Reserve absolutely rockets past $750M USD value." -The Bitcoin Office
"JUST IN: El Salvador bought more bitcoin for our Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. Total SBR holdings: 6271.18 BTC" -The Bitcoin Office
"JUST IN: El Salvador bought more bitcoin for its Strategic Bitcoin Reserve." -The Bitcoin Office
"El Salvador bought more bitcoin today. Strategic Bitcoin Reserve holdings: 6285.18 BTC" -The Bitcoin Office
"JUST IN: 🇸🇻 El Salvador bought more #bitcoin today for their strategic reserve 🚀 Buying the dip 👏" -Bitcoin Magazine
"Buying 21 bitcoin for Bitcoin Day" -Nayib Bukele
"JUST IN: El Salvador buys more bitcoin for its Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. 6319.18 BTC" -The Bitcoin Office
"EL SALVADOR BUYS MORE BITCOIN FOR ITS STRATEGIC BITCOIN RESERVE" -The Bitcoin Office
"The ownership and operational control of the government’s e-wallet have been transferred to a private operator, and no public resources have been used for Bitcoin accumulation." -IMF Press release no. 26/285
"Documentation has been provided verifying that Bitcoin accumulation since the first review reflects private donations and that no public resources were used. Understandings were also reached on steps to modernize the legal, regulatory, and supervisory framework for digital assets and to further strengthen the governance and risk-management arrangements for public-sector crypto-asset holdings. Going forward, no further Bitcoin accumulation beyond the documented donations is expected." -IMF Press release no. 26/285
"NEW: El Salvador bought another BTC for its Strategic Bitcoin Reserve today. They now own 7762BTC!" -Bitcoin Magazine
"I'm going to get ahead of myself: they are going to build their own tower, a skyscraper." -Nayib Bukele
El Mundo reports that as of 26 June 2025, Tether is reviewing construction design of the tower.
Bitfinex releases Financial Freedom Tour El Salvador Episode 1 on YouTube.
"Like El Salvador, Rumble has also embraced and defended these ideals. It is natural for us to partner with them and we look forward to a long and mutually beneficial relationship" -Stacy Herbert
"Now that Tether is officially one of the largest shareholders of Rumble, its time to get VERY aggressive with the Rumble eco-system vs Google." -Chris Pavlovski
"Rumble Everything🔥" -Paolo Ardoino