As Bloomberg reported on Oct 31, the US Department of Justice is set to conduct an investigation into the largest stablecoin in the crypto market, Tether (USDT). US officials last year tried to accuse Tether of deceiving the banks with which they conducted their crypto transactions. However, due to the lack of evidence, the case was temporarily forgotten.
Now, Tether is said to be under investigation again. The US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York will be handling the investigation, according to Bloomberg. It is one of the most active prosecutors’ offices in pursuing crypto-related cases in the US.
Tether CTO Paolo Ardoino, on Twitter, stated that Bloomberg is recycling old news from 2018 again. Ardoino confirmed the investigation was conducted in 2018 and since then, the company has actively worked with authorities to handle the matter and Bloomberg seems to be deliberately confusing public opinion.
Tether is one of the most controversial companies in the crypto space. Because, despite owning USDT, the largest stablecoin in the market with the current market cap of more than 69 billion USD, Tether has long been plagued by accusations of murky banking relationships and opaque accounting practices.
In 2021, Tether and its sister company, Bitfinex, paid $18.5 million to settle a nearly two-year-long investigation with the New York Attorney General’s office into whether it covered up the loss of nearly $1 billion in customer funds. Since then, Tether has been active in cutting its risky assets. In early October, the company cut its commercial paper holding from $8.5 billion at the end of June to just $50 million. Tether has poured money into US government bonds, which are considered safer; however, the company has yet to released report attesting to its reserves
Bitcoin price fell slightly after the latest news on Tether was published.
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