Bitfinex Moves to Quash Insolvency Rumors

Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex has addressed recent media reports to deny circulating insolvency claims and Noble Bank-related issues while also ensuring investors that its trading operations continue as normal.

Rumors of the potential collapse of Bitfinex and its stablecoin Tether (USDT) surfaced over a year ago but have intensified in recent days. On Sunday, the company hit back at any “watchful ‘investigators’” who “are quick to scream insolvency, seemingly with little understanding of what this concept means and what they are generally talking about.”

“Bitfinex is not insolvent, and a constant stream of Medium articles claiming otherwise is not going to change this,” the company said in a blog post.

To prove its solvency, the exchange provided links to “a small fraction” of its cold wallet crypto holdings. They reveal that Bitfinex holds almost $1 billion of Bitcoin (BTC), $400 million of Ethereum (ETH) and $200 million of EOS (EOS).

The company went on to state that “stories and allegations currently circulating mentioning an entity called Noble Bank have no impact on our operations, survivability, or solvency.”

As reported last week, Puerto Rico-based Noble Bank was found to be on the verge of collapse, with sources claiming the financial institution was for sale for $5 to $10 million. The bank also allegedly abandoned its most prominent clients — Bitfinex and the Tether company.

The Block head analyst Larry Cermark took to Twitter on Saturday to reveal that Bitfinex is now banking with UK-based financial services giant HSBC through a private account of Global Trading Solutions. The information, however, has been neither confirmed nor denied by the parties involved.

The Noble Bank news coincided with Bitfinex pausing its euro, Japanese yen, and British pound deposit services. The exchange stated on Sunday that any issues with fiat currency are being dealt with, adding that such problems are not unique to the Bitfinex platform.

“Complications continue to exist for us in the domain of fiat transactions, as they do for most cryptocurrency-related organisations. However, we continue to do our utmost to minimise any waiting times associated with fiat deposits and withdrawals,” the company said.