Bittrex, Poloniex Motion For Summary Judgement, Tether Denies Allegations

Bittrex and Poloniex will be moving for a summary judgement in the class-action lawsuit that alleges the firms were involved in fraud and market manipulation, court documents from last Friday reveal.

According to the filings, Judge Katherine Polk Failla of the Southern District of New York was informed by attorneys representing the two exchanges that they will seek summary judgement. The two exchanges entered the lawsuit, which alleges that Tether and Bitfinex manipulated the Bitcoin market, in June 2020, when the Plaintiffs in the case claimed that the exchanges were essentially backdoor conduits in the scheme.

At the time, the plaintiffs argued that Poloniex and Bittrex set up wallet addresses specifically to receive large USDT transfers, while knowing that Bitfinex was the one sending it. The motion from the exchanges’ lawyers claims the plaintiffs are unable to “prove the central premise of their claims”, that the crypto addresses in fact belong to Bitfinex, nor that the firm used the funds to manipulate the market.

The court documents read:

“In fact, both addresses belong to an individual with no apparent connection to Bitfinex, other than as a customer of its exchange, who is known to engage in a lawful arbitrage strategy. So while plaintiffs might believe that this individual’s highvolume, cross-market trading renders him not, in their view, a “normal customer”, it does not yield an inference that he was manipulating the market for Bitfinex, much less that the Exchange Defendants would know that.”

Tether and Bitfinex continue to strongly disagree with the claims that they manipulated the Bitcoin market in any way. Following the release of Bittrex and Poloniex’s letter, Tether wrote that once again the Plaintiffs have failed at “framing a legitimate complaint”.

The firm further noted:

“Bitfinex and Tether will not settle any of the meritless claims plaintiffs continue to manufacture. We remain singularly committed to defending ourselves, our stakeholders, our customers, and the digital token community by fighting these meritless claims with full vigor and support by the one thing the plaintiffs don’t have: the truth.”

Back in July, Bitfinex’s appeal was rejected, forcing the exchange to face the allegations that it hid the loss of more than $850 million, with the help of its stablecoin company Tether. It has been claimed that the lost funds were deposited with Crypto Capital, a firm accused of providing shadow banking services to cryptocurrency exchanges, and were later confiscated by various countries.