Cryptocurrency firms Tether and Bitfinex agree to pay $18.5 million fine to end New York probe

Cryptocurrency firms Tether and Bitfinex agree to pay $18.5 million fine to end New York probe

Cryptocurrency firms Tether and Bitfinex reached an agreement with the New York attorney general's office to pay an $18.5 million fine to settle a legal dispute.The state's top law enforcement official had been investigating the firms over allegations that they moved hundreds of millions of dollars to cover up the apparent loss of $850 million of commingled client and corporate funds. Tether and Bitfinex “” a popular digital currency exchange “” are owned by the same company, Ifinex.Tether and Bitfinex will be required to cease trading activity with New Yorkers and submit quarterly transparency reports, the attorney general's office said. It's a major development in the crypto industry and concludes a long-running legal battle that started in April 2019.

What is Tether?

Tether is the company behind a well-known "stablecoin" of the same name. That token is meant to be backed one-to-one by U.S. dollars, the idea being that it's much more stable than most digital coins which have huge price swings.Many crypto investors use tether to buy bitcoin and other virtual tokens. But there have been concerns about whether Tether had enough cash reserves to back all the tether tokens in circulation. Critics have also raised fears that tether tokens were