Amended crypto manipulation lawsuit against Bitfinex, Tether, now drags Bittrex and Poloniex

A leading digital currency exchange, Bitfinex and the people behind Tether (USDT) have been called up to court again following an amended crypto manipulation lawsuit filed against them on Wednesday. This time, the plaintiffs included two popular crypto exchanges, Poloniex and Bittrex, as being faulty as well.

Plaintiffs amend their crypto manipulation lawsuit

On June 3, the plaintiffs filed the lawsuit with the Southern District Court of New York, alleging that the defendants – Tether and its sister company, Bitfinex – willingly manipulated the digital currency market. This crypto manipulation lawsuit against the two companies was initially tabled in October, last year.

The plaintiffs claimed in those fillings that Tether issued several units (billions) of its stablecoin (USDT) without any backing with the United States dollars. This meant that they released the stablecoins out of nowhere. 

Moving forward, the filing noted that Tether went ahead to sell those stablecoins it created to its sister company, Bitfinex, in order to hide that fact. Given that the exchange and Tether were seemingly related, new USDT could be transferred to Tether’s account with Bitfinex, without any exchange of US dollars, as required from other customers, the plaintiffs claimed.

The recently amended 156-page crypto manipulation lawsuit further dragged Poloniex and Bittrex exchanges. It accused them of being aware that Bitfinex was moving unbacked Tether stablecoins to their respective platform, yet they accepted it.

Initial filing mentioned $1.4 trillion as damage

According to the filing, the two digital currency exchanges received these transfers, which enabled the lead defendants to sell unbacked stablecoins as crypto-commodities on their platform. This spiked the USDT prices, causing damages worth $1.4 trillion, as the plaintiffs claimed in the initial crypto manipulation lawsuit.

Having made revisions in the plaintiffs’ list to include Matthew Script, a cryptocurrency trader, and exclude David Leibowitz, including one of the defendants named in the initial filing, the entire plaintiffs want “reasonable costs of suit, pre- and post-judgment interest, and reasonable attorneys’ fees,” including a trial by jury for their claims.