Blockchain
Tether (USDT) January 15th Deadline on iFinex Case: Everything You Need to Know


Many in the cryptocurrency field have recently discussed the upcoming January 15th date as an important consideration for the ongoing case between the office of the New York Attorney General (NYAG) and iFinex, the parent company of Bitfinex and Tether.
With this in mind, below is a comprehensive summary of what happened and what to expect on this date.
The NYAG v. iFinex Case: What Happened?
Back in April 2019, the office of the New York Attorney General alleged that the popular cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex lost $850 million and then used funds from its affiliated stablecoin operator Tether (the company that issues USDT) to cover the shortfall.
As CryptoPotato reported, later on, Tether issued a statement through a blog post which said that the allegations were written in “bad faith” and were also “riddled with false assertions.”
In May 2019, Judge Joel Cohen granted a partial stay on the NYAG office’s request for documents from the two companies until their hearing takes place on July 29th. During that hearing, the judge on the case, Joel Cohen, decided to extend the preliminary injunction as he was not ready to make a final decision on whether the case should go forward or be dismissed. Hence, he extended that injunction by 90 days.
In August, however, the NYAG presented new evidence on the case, alleging that apart from covering up the $850 million, Bitfinex and Tether had served New York customers for longer than they claimed. In part, the document stated:
The OAG has uncovered substantial ties between Respondents and New York concerning Respondents’ corporate operations; trading on the Bitfinex platform; the issuance, redemption, and trading of tethers; use of financial institutions to move money and process customer deposits and withdrawals; and representations to the market that might have been misleading.
Essentially, the NYAG also attacked Bitfinex’s LEO initial exchange offering, claiming that it “has every indicia of a securities issuance subject to the Martin Act, and there is reason to believe that the issuance is related to the matters under investigation,” meaning the alleged cover-up.
Additionally, the NYAG called iFinex’s motion to dismiss “an improper attempt to impede a lawful investigation.”
The Order to Turn in Documents
In September 2020, Judge Cohen ruled that Bitfinex and Tether must turn over documents detailing their financial relationship and history to the NYAG’s office. In addition to that, he also extended an injunction that barred Tether from loaning funds to Bitfinex by 90 more days.
However, on December 9th, 2020, Letitia James, the Attorney General, filed a document, asking Justice Cohen to extend the deadline to January 15th, 2021. James said that “the parties continue to cooperate on the production of documents in response to the 354 Order, and anticipate that the production could be finalized in the coming weeks.”
Why the January 15th Deadline is Important?
With this, we arrive at the time of this writing and the importance of the January 15th deadline. There are a few reasons for which this is a critical point in this case. First, it requires that iFinex produces the necessary information for the NYAG to continue its investigation and to further substantiate the merits of its claims.
And perhaps what’s even more important, however, is the nature of the documentation. In essence, iFinex has to produce materials on the process by which they determine whether, when, and how to issue and redeem tethers, banks, documents, and communications regarding specific issuances and redemptions, as well as trading activity on the Bitfinex trading platform regarding tethers and bitcoin.
This is a landmark case for the entire cryptocurrency space as USDT is the most popular and biggest stablecoin on the market. The company issuing it has been involved in many scandals in the past, with many questioning the fact that it’s actually backed by USD.
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Blockchain
Korean Government To Levy Taxes On Bitcoin Capital Gains Starting 2022


As cryptocurrencies continue to pick up steam and encompass the features of regular asset classes, governments have likewise imposed taxes on capital gains from digital currency. South Korea is the latest country to adopt this initiative. Its Ministry of Economy and Finance said it will levy taxes on cryptocurrency profits from next year.
The South Korean government is going ahead with its proposal to tax cryptocurrency returns after several reconsiderations. A local news agency, Yonhap reported in December that the National Assembly’s Planning and Finance committee deliberated on the amendment of income tax laws and individual consumption tax laws.
As part of the income regulatory initiative, cryptocurrency traders and investors are mandated to pay 20 percent if they earn more than 2.5 million won (almost $2300 at the present exchange rate) from bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Gains below 2.5 million won will not be taxed. The law was initially scheduled to be implemented in October this year, but it will now be enacted in 2022.
According to the new report, bitcoin gains will be filed under ‘other income.’ Cryptocurrency investors will report their gains through an income statement and will pay taxes in May every year.
A turn of proceedings saw South Korea become a burgeoning cryptocurrency market. In 2017, the government announced that it would strictly regulate cryptocurrency transactions and even shut down exchanges in the country after Seoul-based exchange, Youbit, was hacked.
Bithumb Tax Saga
This is not the Korean government’s first attempt at bitcoin taxation. Korea’s National Tax Service asked cryptocurrency exchange, Bithumb to pay its foreign customers withholding taxes to the tune of 80 million won in 2019.
There were uncertainties surrounding that. It was unclear whether the cryptocurrency industry was subject to withholding tax. Bithumb filed a complaint to the tax tribunal over what is referred to as a “groundless” tax imposed by the NTS. It also argued that cryptocurrencies were not recognized by South Korean law and should not be taxable.
The industry has evolved since then. Cryptocurrencies are bridging the gap on conventional assets, and emerging laws classify them as taxable properties.
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Blockchain
Vice President of Nigeria Tips Cryptocurrencies To Challenge Traditional Banking


The Nigerian cryptocurrency community was shaken to its core when the country’s apex bank released a circular warning financial institutions to desist from enabling cryptocurrency transactions. The Central Bank made arguments to justify the decision, with several notable figures weighing in on the subject.
Nigeria’s Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo is the latest to share his view on the ban. In his keynote address at the CBN Bankers’ Committee Economic Summit, Osinbajo tipped digital assets to fiercely challenge traditional and reserve banking in the future.
Calls For Knowledge-Based Actions That Will Prove Beneficial
The ban on cryptocurrencies has continued making the rounds in Nigeria. Several weeks after, it has finally forced reactions from the upper echelon of the government. Vice President Yemi Osinbajo bared his views at a summit organized by the Central Bank earlier today.
He admitted to the disruptive capacity of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology, stating that they could well displace existing banking systems in the coming years.
Cryptocurrencies in the coming years will challenge traditional banking, including reserve banking, in ways that we cannot yet imagine, so we need to be prepared for that seismic shift. pic.twitter.com/tbIR8eah2s
— Prof Yemi Osinbajo (@ProfOsinbajo) February 26, 2021
He further opined that emerging technologies like blockchain must be adopted strategically, before praising the regulatory bodies for being ‘very articulate’ with their measures. He called for initiatives that will enable people to enjoy the benefits of blockchains and cryptocurrencies while keeping the adverse effects in check.
Prior to Osinbajo’s remarks, CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele publicly defended the ban, saying that cryptocurrencies were created “out of thin air”. He further described cryptocurrencies as being “used to describe the activities of players in an electronic dark world”
Many Nigerians have taken the Vice President’s comments with a grain of salt. They urged him to use his influence to turn the tides instead.
Waging War Between Cryptocurrencies and Nigerian Banking System
Industry enthusiasts in Nigeria interpreted the CBN ban as a direct attack on cryptocurrencies. Speculations emerged that the apex bank was rattled by the traction gained by the digital assets and the fact that they were gradually displacing conventional banks.
A Nigerian economist shared a shocking statistic that bared the Nigerian Stock Exchange trading volume and how it measured against the trading volume on Binance.
How important is crypto in Nigeria? On binance today the value of BTC/NGN trades was worth N13.4bn. For context the volume of trade on the Nigerian stock exchange today was N5.6bn. And binance is just one exchange.
— Nonso Obikili (@nonso2) February 5, 2021
In all of these, it is widely rumored that the adoption of bitcoin in last year’s protest against police brutality was the last straw to break the camel’s back. Activists spearheading the protests started accepting bitcoin donations after the Central Bank issued orders to freeze their bank accounts. The recent ban allegedly signals the central bank’s intention to maintain a stronghold on the country’s monetary system.
Entrepreneur and investor, Victor Asemota believes that banning cryptocurrencies is self-defeating and does not address the deficient banking system. He tweeted :
“I have predicted the demise of traditional banking institutions in Africa for a while now until things accelerated during the pandemic and agent models became prominent. The cost structure of old banking Africa do not make sense. Community banking and cooperatives make more sense. What happened to Nigerian remittances during the pandemic was that people discovered more efficient channels to send money home as bank branches were closed. We now had multiple FX exchanges as people became aware that it was lucrative. Crypto is not the problem, it is banking.”
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Blockchain
Stellar, BitTorrent, DigiByte Price Analysis: 28 February

The cryptocurrency market has had to face increased bearish momentum in the past week and with Bitcoin dropping to the $45k price range, many of the market’s altcoins too have followed BTC and traded lower. At the time of writing, Bitcoin was trading at $44,474 with a 24-hour trading volume of $42.9 billion.

Source: CoinStats
For altcoins like Stellar, DigiByte, and BitTorrent such has been the case and an immediate recovery looks unlikely given the current market conditions.
Stellar [XLM]

Source: XLM/USD, TradingView
Stellar’s price fell by over 15 percent in the past week and currently trades at $0.41. According to CoinMarketCap’s list, the coin has a market capitalization of over $9.3 billion and occupies the 10th spot. The coin’s price has tested the support at $0.37 in the past few days and is now making slight gains towards its immediate resistance at $0.54. If the present support would fail, XLM may even drop down towards the second support at $0.27.
The Bollinger Bands for the coin have contracted and show less volatility in the coin’s price action. The RSI indicator looks bearish at the moment as it heads closer to the oversold zone.
BitTorrent [BTT]

Source: BTT/USD, TradingView
BitTorrent’s price fell by over 28 percent in the past 7 days and is currently valued at $0.0011. The bearish pressure is visible as the coin’s price plummeted by over 8 percent in a day’s time. The coin is currently testing its support level around its current trading price and if this support fails BTT is likely to undo all its recent gains and trade around the $0.0004 price range. There is significant resistance around the $0.0014 range if an uptrend were to occur.
The RSI indicator for the coin is falling steadily as it heads into the oversold zone. Interestingly, the EMA ribbons have settled below the coin’s trading price and are offering support for the coin.
DigiByte [DGB]

Source: DGB/USD, TradingView
DigiByte is currently trading at $0.051 and has a market cap of over $730 million. In the past week, the coin’s price fell by 33.6 percent and currently finds itself close to the support level at $0.049. If the downtrend were to continue there is another support around the $0.035 price level that could help stabilize the coin’s price.
The MACD indicator and the RSI signal increased bearish pressure for DGB. The MACD indicator has undergone a bearish crossover while the RSI continues to move into the oversold zone.
Source: https://ambcrypto.com/stellar-bittorrent-digibyte-price-analysis-28-february
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