Additional evidence is emerging to link the mysterious cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex to the island of Puerto Rico.
According to ‘people with knowledge of the matter,’ the company has been banking with the island’s Noble Bank International since last year.
Bitfinex Linked to Noble Bank Again
According to a report from Bloomberg, the cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex have opened an account with Noble Bank International. The publication cites ‘three people with knowledge of the matter’ as its source. The unnamed confidants reportedly told Bloomberg that the cryptocurrency exchange has held an account with Noble since last year.
Interestingly, the Puerto Rican financial institution doesn’t hold any funds themselves. They act a a third-party custodian for a large New York-based bank.
If true, the move would represent the latest in a growing list of banking partners that the exchange has held. They were initially using the services of Wells Fargo. However, this ended last year. It has since been something of a mystery how the service was able to transfer government-issued cash when it seemingly lacked a bank to work with.
This isn’t the first time that Noble have been rumoured to be affiliated with Bitfinex. Back in March, NewsBTC reported on a document published by BitMEX claiming that they had evidence to suggest that Bitfinex, and by extension Tether, were using the services of Noble.
According to the report, Puerto Rico experienced a growth 248% in bank deposits in the fourth quarter of 2017. BitMEX identified this extraordinary growth as being connected to Bitfinex relocating their base of financial operations to the small Caribbean island.
The BitMEX document also pointed towards Tether’s growth in value of 215% during the fourth quarter of 2017. For them, this provided further grounds to speculate that Noble was the primary reserve bank of the company.
Some commentators on the cryptocurrency space believe that Bitfinex is using Tether to prop up the price of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. This, they say, is why the company has had such difficulty finding reliable banking partners and has still not managed to have a full financial audit. Back in January, software engineer and security analyst, Tony Arcieri commented:
“I, and many others, suspect Tether is being used to effectively counterfeit hundreds of millions of dollars of perceived value, which are being immediately reinvested into Bitcoin.”
Earlier today we reported on a U.S. Justice Department initiative to work with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Together they’ve launched a criminal probe into the Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency markets. They’re hoping to discover whether the prices are being artificially manipulated in some way. This could link the uncertainties with Tether to supposed manipulation, along with a host of other dubious practices that are rumoured to be occurring. Investor confidence could be rocked if evidence does surface of such manipulation.
Featured image from Shutterstock.
Erica 
Last week 19th there was a transfer of $250,000,000 of Tether onto an exchange (we all know which one). Guess what happened a few days later? An all mighty pump on a 1 minute candle going against the the down trend of what? $250,000,000 of Bitcoin purchased. This is not a whale or a hedge fund or anyone. No one with access to $250,000,000 USD would even consider crypto (this is just nonsense) and if there was a fund or person with millions to invest they would be smart enough to do an OET not try and buy on an exchange like an idiot. There are no whales in crypto trading, this is a myth. Only exchanges and in particular one exchange that prints Tether out of thin air is manipulating the market especially on pumps.
Why you might ask? Simple this exchange is not liquid. So they print Tether out of thin air and then purchases BTC on their exchange and every other exchange from real people pumping the price. In return they get something REAL which is BTC for something fake they printed out of thin air Tether. Not only that I would put this claim forward that I bet this particular exchange takes your fiat USD and changes it for Tether without you realising. That is why there is horror stories of people with large sums of USD taking months to withdraw their cash. This is absurd. Best thing that can happen and I think it will this year is for Tether and this exchange to implode and leave this space. A lot of customers with assets on that exchange or who are holding Tether on some exchanges that use it will get burnt, but the warnings have been out there for some time now.
Don’t use an exchange that uses Tether. Only trade on exchange that accepts crypto and pays in crypto. If you want to onboard use a reputable exchange in your local country and then transfer the crypto to the exchange you want to trade on. Also despite what many say, if you want to trade learn to margin trade. It is more profitable and you don’t risk your assets sitting on some exchange online. Otherwise just buy the dips and HODL, don’t be buying and selling your portfolio. That is not trading that is being stupid.