Tether cover-up allegations: Cryptocurrencies lose $10 bn, Bitcoin falls 6%

A loss of faith in the stablecoin would be a major blow to traders who rely on it for liquidity on many of the world's lightly regulated crypto exchanges

Cryptocurrencies tumbled, with Bitcoin heading for its first weekly loss in almost two months, after the New York attorney general cast fresh doubt on the stability of one the world’s most widely used virtual coins.

Bitcoin sank 6.4 per cent to $5,145.33 at 9:55 a.m. in Hong Kong, while the value of cryptocurrencies tracked by CoinMarketCap.com dropped by about $10 billion. Tether, the so-called stablecoin at the center of an investigation by New York’s top cop, declined 1.9 per cent to $0.99. It typically trades in a tight range around $1.

The companies behind Tether and Bitfinex, one of the world’s largest