Phil Potter

Potter worked in finance in various positions from 1994 and joined Bitfinex in 2013.⁠[1]

From around 2013, Potter served as Chief Strategy Officer of cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex and its affiliated stablecoin issuer Tether, two companies that shared a management team. He was also one of Tether’s beneficial owners: the Paradise Papers showed that two leading executives of Bitfinex, Giancarlo Devasini and Potter, were also beneficial owners of Tether; Kyle Roche, the plaintiffs’ lawyer who later sued the two companies, argued that this overlapping ownership structure was hidden until November 2017.⁠[2][3][4][4][4]

The two companies later said that a filing they had submitted to a federal court in California in April 2017, when suing Wells Fargo, already listed Devasini and Potter among the owners of both companies, and that their shared ownership had been disclosed before the Paradise Papers.⁠[4][4]

On June 22, 2018, news of Potter’s departure from Bitfinex became public; his role was taken over in the interim by CEO Jean-Louis van der Velde, and the departure was a mutual parting of ways. Potter said that as Bitfinex pivoted to other strategic international markets, it was a natural time for him to depart the executive team, and that he was looking forward to new opportunities. In later litigation, Potter’s side said he served as Chief Strategy Officer until around the end of February 2018.⁠[5][5][3][3][2]

On February 5, 2019, Potter joined the advisory board of Stablehouse.io, a stablecoin clearing house project being developed by crypto finance company XBTO; the project planned to act as a central clearing counterparty, charging a fixed fee for exchanges between stablecoins such as USDT, GUSD, PAX, TUSD, USDC, and DAI. Also joining the advisory board were Blockstream CSO Samson Mow and David Namdar.⁠[6][6][6][6]

In October 2019, a group of crypto asset investors filed a class action in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against Bitfinex and Tether companies and individuals including Devasini, Ludovicus Jan van der Velde, and Potter (In re Tether and Bitfinex Crypto Asset Litigation, 19 Civ. 9236), alleging that the defendants used fraudulently issued USDT to make large, carefully timed purchases of crypto assets, signaling strong demand to the market and thereby driving up prices, and bringing claims under the Sherman Act, the Commodities Exchange Act, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), and other laws. The plaintiffs specifically alleged that Potter, Devasini, and van der Velde concealed their simultaneous control over Bitfinex, Tether, and DigFinex, and that Potter made multiple public statements about Tether’s intent to evade banking laws and anti-money laundering regulations. Bitfinex and Tether maintain that the lawsuit is meritless.⁠[2][2][2][2][2][2][2][2][2][2][4]

On February 23, 2021, the New York State Attorney General’s office announced a settlement with iFinex, BFXNA, BFXWW, and four Tether entities including Tether Holdings, finding that Bitfinex and Tether had overstated reserves and hidden approximately $850 million in losses, in violation of New York’s Martin Act and related provisions of the Executive Law; the companies were required to pay an $18.5 million penalty and end trading activity with New Yorkers, and neither admitted nor denied the findings.⁠[7][8][7][8][8][7][8]

On September 28, 2021, Judge Katherine Polk Failla ruled on the motions to dismiss filed by defendants including Potter, granting them in part and denying them in part: some counts were dismissed and the remaining claims proceeded; the court found that the plaintiffs had adequately alleged Sherman Act claims against individual defendants including Potter at the pleading stage. At that stage the court only examined whether the plaintiffs’ allegations were sufficient to proceed and made no findings of fact.⁠[2][2][2][2][9]

On October 15, 2021, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) issued settlement orders finding that from June 1, 2016 to February 25, 2019, Tether misrepresented that it maintained sufficient U.S. dollar reserves to back USDT, and imposing a $41 million penalty; it also found that Bitfinex engaged in illegal, off-exchange retail commodity transactions with U.S. persons, imposing a $1.5 million penalty. The two orders were directed at Tether and Bitfinex companies respectively, and the Tether entities consented to the order without admitting or denying the findings.⁠[10][10][10][10][10][11][10][10]

After several rounds of motion practice, the plaintiffs were left with claims under the Commodities Exchange Act and the Sherman Act. After the plaintiffs filed the second amended complaint on July 12, 2024, Potter answered on September 13 of that year and joined the two motions by the Bitfinex and Tether defendants opposing class certification and seeking to exclude the plaintiffs’ expert testimony. On February 23, 2026, Judge Failla granted class certification with adjustments to the class definitions, certifying two classes: persons who purchased Bitcoin and seven other crypto assets with fiat currency or stablecoins in the United States from March 31, 2017 through February 25, 2019, and persons who during the same period purchased futures on these assets with fiat currency or stablecoins on qualifying exchanges; the ruling was made public on March 6, 2026. As of that ruling, the case was still pending and the court had made no finding on the defendants’ liability.⁠[9][9][9][9][9][9][9][9][9][9][9][9][9][9][9]

In March 2026, Brooklyn-based fintech company Tare closed a $13.25 million seed round led by Blockchain Capital; Potter participated as an individual backer alongside Aave CEO Stani Kulechov and Privy CEO Henri Stern. Tare announced the round on September 16, 2026, and plans to use the funding to build software on the Avalanche blockchain that creates digital records of loans and automates the administrative work of managing them.⁠[12][12][12][12][12][12]