Tether, Crypto Exchange Bitfinex to Pay $42 Million for Violating Norms

Tether, a cryptocurrency, and Bitfinex, a cryptocurrency exchange, will pay $42.5 million to resolve civil charges brought by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) for allegedly making false representations and transacting illegally. The CFTC stated in a statement on Friday that firms doing business as Tether agreed to pay $42 million to satisfy CFTC accusations that they made false statements regarding Tether's cryptocurrency stablecoin.

Tether made misleading or false claims regarding whether it had adequate US dollar reserves to properly back up its US dollar tether token at various points between June 2016 and late February 2019, according to the regulator. In a separate decision, Bitfinex-related companies agreed to pay a $1.5 million fine over allegations that its controls were insufficient to prevent US consumers from participating in unlawful retail commodities transactions on the exchange.