Tether and Bitfinex subpoenaed by the CFTC as Bitcoin drops below $10K

The price of Bitcoin plummeted below $10,000 Tuesday morning as news broke that The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission had subpoenaed Tether and Bitfinex, a so-called stablecoin cryptocurrency and one of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchanges, respectively.

First reported by Bloomberg, news of the December 6 subpoenas follows allegations from critics of Tether that the digital currency may not in fact be backed on a one-to-one basis with U.S. dollars as its founders claim.

“We routinely receive legal process from law enforcement agents and regulators conducting investigations,” Bitfinex and Tether said in a statement published by Bloomberg. “It is our policy not to comment on any such requests.”

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

While the exact motivation behind the subpoena is unclear at this time, Tether skeptics have straight up called the digital token a "scam," and have predicted that its unraveling could bring the price of Bitcoin down by as much as 80 percent.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

We have reached out to Tether for comment, and will update this post when and if we hear back. In the meantime, however, the price of Bitcoin continues to fall. At the time of this writing it sits at $9,890.

This story has been updated to note the date the subpoenas were sent.