Tether: Bitcoin price manipulation study embarrassingly ‘flawed’

A pair of academics created a stir last week with a paper that alleged a single actor at cryptocurrencyexchange Bitfinex was responsible for Bitcoin’s price surge in 2017. 

And stablecoin issuer Tether, which shares its management with Bitfinex, isn’t taking those allegations lying down, issuing a strongly-worded response yesterday afternoon that characterized the paper as “flawed” and “embarrassing.”

The paper an update to a 2018 research piece written by the same authors—John Griffin of the University of Texas and Amin Shams of Ohio State University. Apart from allegations of Bitcoin price manipulations, the study also reiterated an earlier claim that the Tether stablecoin (USDT), which is necessary for transactions at the Bitfinex exchange, is not backed by adequate U.S. dollars. It’s a claim that Tether has battled for years and continues to publicly dispute:

“All Tether tokens are fully backed by reserves and are issued pursuant to market demand, and not for…