Bitfinex repays $100 million loan to Tether before due date

Bitfinex, one of the world’s top cryptocurrency exchanges, has announced that it has repaid the $100 million loan it had received from Tether, a company, closely associated with Bitfinex.

In a recent blog, Bitfinex said,

“Bitfinex is pleased to announce that on July 1, 2019, it repaid $100,000,000 of the outstanding loan facility to Tether. Bitfinex made this payment in fiat wired to Tether’s bank account. This amount was not yet due to be paid to Tether under the facility, but Bitfinex has made the prepayment based upon its financial position at the end of the second quarter of 2019.”

Additionally, the blog added that Bitfinex had repaid all the loans accrued from Tether until June 30, 2019, and that there is no outstanding loan. The stablecoin giant, Tether, confirmed the said repayment, stating,

“Tether confirms that on July 1, 2019, it received $100,000,000 in fiat as prepayment on the outstanding loan facility from Bitfinex in its bank account. Tether also confirms that it has received all interest accrued under the loan facility in fiat due to it up to the end of day on June 30, 2019.”

As previously stated, Bitfinex and the stablecoin minting company, Tether, are both intertwined with their individual holding companies, iFinex and DigiFinex. The rumors that most of the crypto-community were speculating about Tether’s reserves turned into reality, when New York’s Attorney General, Letitia James, filed a court order with the Supreme Court of New York.

Bitfinex and Tether’s scuffle with the AG revealed that Tether had only 74% of its reserves backed by cash. It also revealed that Bitfinex had lost $900+ million to a Panamanian institution, The Crypto Capital.

However, Bitfinex hasn’t been lying down comatose. Instead, it launched a token, LEO, to raise $1 billion through a token sale, which it successfully did. It is safe to assume that this was due to the lost $900 million.