- Bitcoin (BTC) experienced a decline of approximately 4% over the last 24 hours, reaching a low of $65K as the weekend approaches.
- This downturn followed a report indicating that Tether is facing scrutiny from the US government for alleged criminal activities.
Is Tether Facing Investigation by the US Government?
Bitcoin’s upward momentum was recently interrupted by a startling report from the Wall Street Journal. The New York publication revealed that the US Treasury Department is building a case against Tether, the issuer of USDT.
The investigation surfaced amid concerns regarding the company’s potential breaches of US sanctions and anti-money laundering regulations. The Manhattan US Attorney’s Office spearheaded the probe, which posited that the stablecoin might have been used by third parties to facilitate illegal transactions and finance criminal activities. Allegations include involvement in drug trafficking, terrorism support, cybercrime financing, and laundering proceeds from such illegal endeavors.
According to the WSJ, the US Treasury may revoke Tether’s operations in the US, including the use of its USDT stablecoin, if substantial evidence emerges.
Tether’s CEO, Paolo Ardoino, addressed the situation on X (formerly Twitter), stating that the firm consistently collaborates with law enforcement to “help prevent rogue states, terrorists, and criminals from misusing USDT.”
Recently, Tether assisted the government in freezing accounts associated with sanctions on Venezuelan oil. The company also collaborated with the US ally Israel through its National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing (NBCTF) to freeze accounts linked to Hamas last year.
Ardoino strongly refuted claims of an ongoing investigation by the US government, labeling the allegations in the WSJ article as “unequivocally false.”
Bitcoin Takes a Hit From Tether Controversy
In the last 24 hours leading into Saturday morning, Bitcoin’s price suffered a decline. The leading cryptocurrency asset fell around 4.66%, plummeting from a peak of $68,722.16 to a low of $65,521.79. Nonetheless, it showed resilience, bouncing back above $67K around 6:00 AM UTC, finding strong support near the one-day local bottom.
Alongside this price shift, Bitcoin’s trading volume surged by roughly 40%, with $42.63 billion of the digital asset being transacted across DeFi wallet addresses. Meanwhile, the market cap for its 19.77 million circulating supply remained steady at $1.33 trillion.
Despite a nearly 2% decline on the weekly chart, Bitcoin still maintained a gain of over 5% in the one-month and an impressive 94% in the one-year timeframes. At this juncture, it stood just 9% below its all-time high of $73,750.07 reached seven months ago.
Despite the setbacks attributed to Tether, Bitcoin may still be trending towards targets of $88K or $97K if the outcomes of the US elections favor the cryptocurrency sector.
