After last week’s shenanigans, some of you might have breathed a big sigh of relief and collapsed back into your chair and things looked ready to settle down.

Well, if that was you, I hope at least you left your seat-belt on, because the crypto world doesn’t exactly have a “calm” setting.

In the last week, we’ve seen mounting accusations of insolvency against Bitcoin’s biggest exchange, yet another major cryptocurrency hack, and some unique trading opportunities materialize here in Korea and abroad.

Read on for the details.

We’ll start with the situation over in Hong Kong:

Bitfinex’s Past Troubles

For those you who have been living under a rock (or are just new to the scene), Bitfinex is one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, with more than its share of the volume, and more than its share of past drama.

Last year, the exchange was the subject of a massive theft, as hackers ran off with 120,000 bitcoins, at the time worth approximately $72 million. No longer able to cover all its users’ funds, Bitfinex responded by creating BFX, an IOU token, promising to reimburse all tokens over time.

Despite widespread skepticism, Bitfinex proceeded to make good on those tokens, and gradually bought them back. It first occurred in slow increments, until in April of this year when all outstanding tokens were redeemed.

Pretty impressive!

Or was it?

Bitfinex Accused of Fraud

Not everyone, however, was totally convinced that the guys in Hong Kong had really been honest about their recovery.

A blogger under the pseudonym “Bitfinex’ed” has received growing attention as he claims to expose fraudulent actions taken by Bitfinex following the hack. In his more recent pieces, he accuses Bitfinex operations of being nothing more than a ponzi scheme. The assertion is that Bitfinex has relied on fraudulently acquired Tethers, a USD-pegged cryptocurrency.

Officially, Bitfinex and Tether are separate organizations, only connected by a partnership, where Bitfinex is one of several exchanges accepting Tether and offering a platform to trade it. If these recent allegations are to be believed, however, Bitfinex exercises control over Tether — enough to print off millions of unbacked Tether at their whim.

Furthermore, he claims that since Tethers are being used to purchase Bitcoin, this is artificially inflating the price of BTC, since all the new Tethers are being used to purchase Bitcoin.

At this point, it’s worth it to get into a bit more detail about Tether:

What’s the Deal with Tether?