How Bitfinex Got Me Shadowbanned On Twitter and Ruined My Reputation (Or So They Thought)
For those that know me and my brand, it is no secret that I have spent a significant amount of time shedding light on the nefarious activities iFinex Ltd. (parent company over Bitfinex exchange and stablecoin company, Tether Ltd.).
In the past, some of the things that I have reported about Bitfinex and Tether have garnered a significant amount of attention. Much of this attention, obviously, has reflected negatively upon Bitfinex and Tether.
One such example came in October 2018, when I published original research that showed that dozens of customers had not received any cash withdrawals from Bitfinex in months.
This was covered in CoinDesk (among other major crypto publications) at the time: https://www.coindesk.com/crypto-exchange-bitfinex-denies-accusation-of-insolvency
Specifically, this was noted here in the CoinDesk article cited above:
In the situation above, Bitfinex decided to take the unexpected action of responding indirectly (yet clearly directed) to me and the things that I have published about their organization’s insolvency.
At the time, the article that I published caused significant controversy with a range of accusations being leveled against me, such as:
- I was ‘paid’ by some entity (a rival stablecoin) to ‘attack’ Bitfinex.
- I was part of a ‘FUD Mafia’.
- I was fabricating and/or exacerbating Bitfinex’s financial troubles in order to drum up more views for my brand/blog/platform.
- I wanted to spread “FUD” with the goal of causing Bitcoin’s price to drop significantly so that I could either a) accrue profits from a short position b) ‘accumulate’ more Bitcoin at a lower price.
None of the above are true and there’s perhaps no more compelling evidence of this than the New York OAG’s report against iFinex Ltd., which was released at the end of April.
Below are some excerpts that corroborate what I was saying:
Notice that the quoted excerpt from Bitfinex by the OAG in the picture above reflects the same exact language that was used in the CoinDesk article.
Specifically, I am referring to the assertion Bitfinex made at the time (on October 7th, 2018), that accusations of their insolvency were based on a “targeted campaign based on nothing but fiction”.
Let’s check that excerpt from the CoinDesk article again:
Above, is an excerpt from the same article by CoinDesk in which the author adeptly pointed out that I was the target of Bitfinex’s ire in their public response in October.
OAG Confirms Bitfinex Was Lying
The OAG made it clear in their report that Bitfinex was not truthful in the press releases and statements that they made about their financial solvency.
Following this portion of the OAG court filing, the OAG provides correspondence between ‘Merlin’ (Giancarlo Devasini, Bitfinex CFO) and ‘Oz’ of Crypto Capital Co. (whom there is strong evidence to assert is ‘Oz Yosef’).
In the correspondence, Merlin begged Oz for funds to satisfy customer withdrawal requests, going so far as to state that the entire cryptocurrency space would be in a state of crisis if they did not receive funds from Crypto Capital Co. soon.
Thus, we can see that Bitfinex was clearly lying to the public, which leads me to believe that they are more than likely doing the same now.
Mudslinging, Hit Pieces, and Playing “Dirty”
As noted above, Bitfinex launched an official response to the article that I had released on October 6th, 2018, the following day (October 7th).
On that very same day, my Medium account was suspended. The company, Medium, provided no information on why my account was suspended. No notifications, e-mail, nothing. I was essentially “shadow banned”, which means that I was able to post and operate my account as normal, but individuals on the outside would not be able to see what I was writing or posting.
CoinTelegraph noted this as well in an article posted around the same time, which covered the issue:
Given the circumstances, I find the draconian decision to suspend my Medium without so much as a notification or e-mail to be extremely odd and troubling.
I have since migrated all of my content from the platform.
However, I did fortunately leave a copy of the articles that I published there because I didn’t want to go through the trouble of manually deleting each one from the site.
Below is a screenshot showing the final articles that were written before my Medium account was duly suspended:
Readers will see in the screenshot above that one of the boxed articles reflects the exact same title as the one referenced in the CoinTelegraph article covering this issue.
Clicking on the ‘view stats’ option shows the significant reach that the article gained in just a few hours:
Essentially, these stats were accumulated in a little over 24 hours, before Medium suspended my account.
Hate Campaign Against Me Was Launched and Fueled by Whalepool
Whalepool, a self-admitted ‘large shareholder’ with a history of exonerating Bitfinex at the sake of any and all detractors, launched a hit piece against me within the same 24 hour period that my Medium account was suspended.
Below is a copy of the article:
Organized FUD - How The "FUD Mafia" Is Plaguing This Industry (Part 1) - Steemit
Disclaimer: I'm not for sale. I don't take on services and I don't take on personal requests. I don't accept payments…steemit.com
This article, which was published on ‘Steemit’, was written by an author that had no prior posting history or identity in the cryptocurrency community.
There is no reason why the article would have gained in traction had it not been for Whalepool tweeting from their account (with 35,000+ followers) this message:
The person that Whalepool was referring to in this tweet, was me.
The information in the article that they were referring to was, obviously, false.
Who is ‘Whalepool’?
‘Whalepool’ is a large entity/collective of traders in the cryptocurrency community that claim Bitfinex as their home platform.
They have an overwhelming amount of support from Bitfinex as well as the Bitcoin Core community (developers specifically) and, of course, Blockstream.
Why Does Whalepool Have Support From Blockstream?
Because Bitfinex is invested in Blockstream.
Proof of this investment into Blockstream can be found below:
https://soundcloud.com/user-173875295/bitfinex-itself-will-not-be-taking-a-haircut#t=20:09 (it should start automatically playing at 20:09).
The person speaking is Zane Tackett [Director of Community & Product Development for Bitfinex at the time] ; He confirms this investment into Blockstream as well as Shapeshift.
Whalepool is also on record as stating that they have numerous “shareholders” in their community. The term, ‘shareholder’ implies direct ownership, so this is absolutely worth noting.
In addition, Whalepool has hosted Bitfinex/Tether on their platform a number of different times for AMAs, interviews, and just general conversation.
Many of those conversations have been recorded and published by noted Bitfinex critic, ‘Bitfinexed’.
Getting Back to the Blockstream Connection
In addition to it being clear and demonstrable that Bitfinex is an investor in Blockstream (as stated directly in a recorded statement by one of their executives in an interview), employees and executives at Blockstream have seemingly went out of their way over the past few days and weeks to reassure the general public that Bitfinex and Tether are completely fine and that their actions warrant no further scurinty.
Below, are some statements from Adam Back, CSO of Blockstream, which show clear partiality on his part:
These statements are just a microcosm of Adam Back’s (and subsequently, Blockstream’s) general disposition toward Bitfinex and Tether.
Of course, these entities are also antagonistic toward any individuals (such as myself) that have hoisted the mantle upon their shoulders and burdened themselves with the responsibility of exposing the far reaching scheme that is being perpetrated by Bitfinex/Tether.
Russian Bots
As if fighting against anonymous articles, Whalepool and Blockstream simultaneously were not enough, my account on Twitter (https://twitter.com/ProofofResearch) has been inundated with Russian bots that exist for the sole purpose of attempting to discredit me and my posts.
Here they are below:
Here are some of their direct tweets. If you click on them, you can check the profiles and validate that all of these accounts are clear bots. They have no followers and they aren’t following anyone. They have no posting history and they were created within the last month or so. In addition, all of their tweets are targeted/directly solely at me:
The use of bots by Bitfinex and Blockstream have been noted by several individuals in the community:
Conclusion
Whenever you hear negative information about Zerononcense or ProofofResearch, understand that 99% of it is fabricated.
Why?
Because they understand that I am a potent source of factual information about the crimes and capers of Bitfinex/Tether and several related entities in this space.
Since they do not have an appropriate rebuttal for it, they resort to their second-best option, which is attempting to silence it through slander, defamation or other character assassination attempts.
This is something that I have fought against vigorously throughout my tenure in the crypto space and I will continue to combat it with factual information and hardlined research.
I will also continue to ensure that my name is exonerated of any and all wrongdoing in the cryptospace regardless of how many rumors and false allegations are created to make me seem like a nefarious entity.
But, above all else, my calling and fidelity will remain with the truth. Integrity. And transparency.