The owner of Bitfinex wants control capacity with a return of 150 million dollars

In response to Bitfinex's recent regulatory challenges, iFinex Inc., its Hong Kong-based parent company, is set to purchase approximately 9% of the company's total outstanding capital worth $150 million in shares. The move, reported by Bloomberg on October 10, aims to give iFinex more control over its private companies and streamline its ownership structure.

On September 22, iFinex proposed to buy back 15 million shares at $10 per share. The initiative values ​​the company at $1.7 billion and is contingent on a cash infusion from at least one of iFinex's subsidiaries.

iFinex's decision to participate in the share buyback is a strategic response to its positive performance in recent years and demonstrates its commitment to explore the challenges and opportunities presented by the ever-changing regulatory landscape.

The share buyback initiative concerns shareholders who acquired iFinex shares through BnkToTheFuture, providing a way out of what has been described as a relatively illegal investment. This move follows a major downturn in 2016 when Bitfinex suffered a Bitcoin hack that resulted in a loss of $71 million. In an effort to compensate users affected by the hack, Bitfinex issued BFX tokens, which were later exchanged for shares in its parent company, iFinex.

Several directors in iFinex and its partners will participate in the share buyback, the deadline of which has been changed to October 24.

Bitfinex's parent company targets shareholders affected by the hack

Recently, a New York couple linked to the Bitfinex hack were arrested and pleaded guilty to money laundering conspiracy, marking a major development in the case.

The couple, Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan, were arrested in February 2022 after US authorities found a digital wallet containing about 95,000 stolen bitcoins, worth $2.8 billion today.

Lichtenstein, 35, admitted to hacking Bitfinex's network, making more than 2,000 fraudulent transactions and withdrawing 119,754 bitcoins. Morgan helped launder the money. Both face significant prison sentences if convicted.

Shortly before their arrests, federal agents were able to access a file on a Liechtenstein cloud storage account containing 2,000 virtual currency addresses and their corresponding private keys. Blockchain analysis found that almost all of these addresses were directly linked to the hack.

In July, Bitfinex announced that it had received $312,219.71 in cash and 6.917 BCH from the United States Department of Homeland Security from the 2016 heist. The funds raised are being used to redeem Recovery Right Tokens (RRTs) issued to account holders after the incident, serving as estimated compensation for victims of the attack.

Bitfinex's resilience in the face of regulatory challenges and global expansion efforts

In the year In 2021, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) fined Tether and Bitfinex a whopping $42.5 million. The lawsuit includes Tether's misleading claims that it supports the USDT stablecoin and Bitfinex's unauthorized services to US customers.

According to the CFTC statement, Tether's stablecoin was Between 2016 and 2018, it was fully funded for only a quarter of the 26 months. The investigation revealed Tether's mix of reserves and corporate funds, as well as holdings in non-cash assets.

The CFTC's order highlighted that Tether relied on unregulated entities and certain third parties to hold its reserves instead of holding them in US dollars as required.

In a significant development, in August 2023 Tether and Bitfinex celebrated a comprehensive legal victory when a US District Court dismissed a class-action lawsuit. They were charged with misconduct.

The court's ruling was based on the lack of a “plausible allegation of damages” in the plaintiffs' complaint. Basically, he found no tangible evidence of a drop in the value of USDT, Tether's stablecoin, at any point in time.

However, despite regulatory challenges, Bitfinex has demonstrated remarkable resilience during market volatility and has actively pursued opportunities in international markets. Earlier this year, Bitfinex became the first cryptocurrency exchange to receive a license in El Salvador.