Twitter Temporarily Suspends Vocal Tether Critic Bitfinex’ed
A Twitter account operated by vocal Tether critic Bitfinex’ed was temporarily suspended by the social media giant, only to be restored hours later.
On Wednesday, the @Bitfinexed Twitter account went offline, and its pseudonymous operator took to Reddit to inform followers of the situation.
“My Twitter account is currently suspended, Bitfinex’ed wrote in a post on the /r/Buttcoin subreddit, before proceeding to explain that his account had been flagged for violating Twitter’s privacy policy.
Hailed as a whistleblower by some and lambasted as a troll by others, Bitfinex’ed has been the most vociferous critic of blockchain startup Tether and cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex, which he claims are using Tether’s dollar-pegged USDT token to artificially inflate the Bitcoin price — and by extension the cryptocurrency markets as a whole.
He alleges that Tether — which shares several executives with Bitfinex — is issuing USDT tokens that are not actually backed by actual dollars stored in company-owned bank accounts. These Tether tokens, he claims, are then being used to purchase Bitcoin, either to spur on rallies or to mitigate losses during a downturn.
Bitfinex’ed said that approximately 20 of his tweets were flagged as “private,” even though he claims they all contained public information, including content that had been published in mainstream media outlets reporting on the Tether controversy.
He suggested that Bitfinex was likely behind the suspension, stating on Reddit that “they’ve been using bots to mass report my tweets,” although there is no hard evidence that backs up this claim.
The account’s suspension quickly began to circulate through social media, and supporters aggressively lobbied Twitter to restore access to his account. Within hours, the company had, and a company spokesperson told Bloomberg that the suspension had been a mistake.
The Tether controversy, meanwhile, continues to intensify as USDT’s market cap grows despite the lack of an audit proving that tokens are full-backed by USD reserves.
Last month, CCN.com reported that Tether’s relationship with its auditor, Friedman LLP, was “dissolved,” news which broke just days before reports emerged that the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) had issued subpoenas to both Tether and Bitfinex in early December.
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