Tether CEO Refutes WSJ’s Claims of Federal Investigation

The U.S. federal authorities are probing Tether – the issuer of the largest stablecoin globally, USDT – over potential breaches of anti-money laundering regulations and sanctions, as reported by the Wall Street Journal on Friday.

• In the wake of this news, Bitcoin’s value declined from $68,600 to $66,589 at the time of writing.
  Prosecutors from the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office are examining whether the USDT cryptocurrency is being utilized by external parties to circumvent legal statutes.
• Tether’s CEO, Paolo Ardoino, countered the report by stating that there is no active investigation occurring.
• “As we communicated to WSJ, there is no indication that Tether is under investigation,” Ardoino posted on Twitter. “WSJ is simply recycling outdated information. Full stop.”
• Tether has been one of the oldest stablecoins in the market and has consistently met redemption demands while maintaining its peg until now.
• There have been ongoing suspicions regarding the ability to account for its $100 billion reserves, but Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick has asserted that his company manages the U.S. Treasury bills that underlie Tether’s tokens.
• Tether has faced scrutiny from both Coinbase and Circle for purportedly enabling terrorist financing. “I hope that they’re seriously investigating this, considering Tether’s reputation, along with the data we’ve encountered indicating that they’re involved in terrorist financing and other illicit activities,” a Circle spokesperson mentioned to Congress in February.