Tether (USDT)

Providing

2024:75% of reserves invested in US government bonds worth more than $100 billion

In just 10 years since the creation of the USDT stablecine, Tether has captured about 80% of the stablecoin market, with a total issue of about $140 billion (+ $50 billion printed since the beginning of the year).

Tether is a major holder of U.S. Treasuries At least 75% of Tether's reserves are invested in. US government bonds The company owns more than $100 billion in Treasury securities - more than countries like, or Germany UAE. Australia

The CEO of Tether in December 2024 noted: "The Chinese are selling treasury securities, and we are buying them now."

Tether holds almost all of its investments in Treasury securities through broker Cantor Fitzgerald, one of the largest players in the Treasuries market, which operates under the direct supervision of the US Fed.

In November 2024, immediately after the US presidential election, which was won by Donald Trump, Cantor Fitzgerald acquired a 5% stake in Tether. The remaining owners remain unknown, and the company has never published audited accounts.

The majority of Cantor's shares are owned by its CEO Howard Lutnik, who is also the co-chairman of Donald Trump's transition team, and nominated for Secretary of Commerce in his new administration.

The growth in the volume of "printed" USDTs is closely associated with the growth in the capitalization of the crypto market. Liquidity will increase, as a large buyer of Treasury securities is beneficial to the new US Administration. This is confirmed by the words of CEO Tether: "If the United States wants to kill us, they can press a button and kill us anywhere. We're not going to fight the U.S. "

2023: Tether invests $53bn in US public debt

Tether, the issuer of the USDT stablecoin, has overtaken Thailand, the Philippines and Israel in the largest investment in US public debt - Mexico, Australia and the UAE are next.

In total, as of May 2023, Tether invested $53 billion in American public debt.

2022: Tether Holdings assets $82.4 billion equal to liabilities

As of March 31, 2022, Tether Holdings Ltd. had assets totaling at least $82.4 billion, as well as $82.2 billion in liabilities related to the digital tokens it issued, according to an audit by MHA Cayman.

Tether is the issuer of the USDT token, a stable coin that relies on a reserve in fiat dollars and dollar-equivalent assets to maintain a 1-to-1 peg to USD. The quality of these reserves has previously been questioned due to over-reliance on assets with limited liquidity, and Tether has been criticised for its lack of transparency on the matter.

The crypto company was in the spotlight in May 2022 after the collapse of the algorithmic stable coin Terra, which briefly destroyed the USDT's peg to the dollar at a time of mass market instability.

In a statement released on May 19, 2022, Tether noted a 17 percent reduction in its assets in commercial securities to $20.1 billion from the previous quarter and added that it had completed a further 20 percent reduction in that amount effective April 1, which will be included in its second-quarter report.

Conversely, Tether said it increased its investments in money market funds and U.S. Treasuries. Here, up more than 13% to $39.2 billion. The average rating of commercial paper and certificates of deposit available in the portfolio increased from A-2 to A-1, while secured loans decreased by $1 billion.

In February 2021, Tether and subsidiaries agreed to provide quarterly reports as part of settling charges of concealing loss of funds and lying about the state of reserves in previous years.

Paolo Ardoino, Tether's chief technology officer, said the firm had "never once refused to comply with a repayment request" from any customer trying to sell USDT. USDT fell to 95 cents on cryptocurrency exchanges on May 12, but Tether said it had continued to offer repayments on its own $1 website all along.

"This latest attestation underlines once again that Tether is fully backed and that the composition of its reserves is strong, conservative and liquid," Ardoino said in a blog post.

History

2024

Gold-backed aUSDT cryptocurrency launched

In late June 2024, Tether officially unveiled Alloy, a new platform to release the aUSDT cryptocurrency backed by Tether Gold Tokenized Gold (XAUT). This innovative asset is designed to combine the stability and recognition of dollar currency with the enduring value of gold.

Tether representatives note that the company intends to provide users with a reliable and universal digital currency for the daily use of funds as part of a modern approach to managing digital assets. The aUSDT token is a stable unit of account that is backed by Tether Gold stablecoin, in turn pegged to the value of an ounce of gold and backed by gold ingots held in Switzerland.

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Unsplash

The aUSDT token is oversubscribed by Tether Gold, meaning gold is used as collateral for more value than the value of the aUSDT tokens issued. This mechanism acts as a security network, absorbing potential fluctuations in the value of the collateral asset, and thereby ensures the stability and reliability of the cryptocurrency. The release and exchange of aUSDT is carried out through smart contracts compatible with Ethereum. These contracts ensure transparency and security of operations, allowing you to track all collateral and issued tokens.

The company says Alloy Tether is an open platform that will allow the creation of various linked assets with a carefully designed support system. The stated flexibility allows the platform to satisfy customers from various areas, complying with regulatory requirements. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino noted that Alloy will soon become an element of Tether's new digital asset tokenization platform, which will launch later in 2024.^[1]

Trademark Applications in Russia

In January 2024, Tether filed applications for trademark registration in Russia. The issuer of the largest by capitalization of stablecoin USDT intends to formalize four names of its products. The company registers trademarks:

• ALLOY BY TETHER (application 2024701810),
• AUSDT (2024701812),
• TETHER ALLOY (2024701813) и
• TETHER USDT (2024701814).

2023

Operations with USDT cryptocurrency equaled in volume with Visa cards

In 2023, the Tether cryptocurrency (USDT) in terms of transactions on a global scale caught up with Visa cards. A parallel economy is formed on the basis of the USDT, which functions outside the reach of US law enforcement agencies. This is stated in the materials of The Wall Street Journal, published on September 10, 2024.

The Tether cryptocurrency, as noted, has become a crucial element of the global financial system. As of September 2024, USDT assets are estimated at $120 billion, the bulk of which are US risk-free treasury bills, as well as bitcoins and gold. In 2023, Tether Holdings Limited, registered in the British Virgin Islands, made a profit of $6.2 billion. This is $700 million more than the result of BlackRock, one of the world's largest investment companies and the largest in terms of assets under management.

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Bloomberg

Tether's influence extends to various financial markets, raising concerns about regulation and oversight in the cryptocurrency sector. It is noted that the ease of use of Tether can lead to potential price manipulation in cryptocurrency markets. In addition, USDT is increasingly used outside the United States, having a global impact on the financial sector. For example, people in high countries like inflation Argentina and Turkey use Tether to protect their assets.

Tether Holdings claims to fight illegal transactions. At the same time, oligarchs, fraudsters and arms dealers use this cryptocurrency to transfer money abroad in order to purchase real estate and pay for goods subject to sanctions. In addition, USDT can be used in various criminal transactions.^[2]

Continued blocking of wallets of users who fell under US sanctions

On December 10, 2023, Tether unveiled its new initiative. Formally, Tether representatives decided to fight for the security of their platform. And as expected, they began by blocking the wallets of persons included by Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in the SDN-list of especially dangerous citizens. Blocking their wallets is voluntary (from Tether) and continues the policy of freezing wallets, which began on December 1, 2023.

The company plans to extend the sanctions imposed on wallets to the R2R market. Moreover, the work will be carried out "together with financial regulators and law enforcement agencies."

The process of consolidating the crypto market and putting all significant projects under the control of the Federal Reserve and the US special services has been actively going on for about two years. For 2023 alone, large projects such as FTX and Binance were brought under the control of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

At this time, Tether is actually taking over some of the Fed and SEC functions. Tether's current management decision will have very serious implications for the crypt market. The fact is that it is Tether that is actually the main monetary unit in Argentina, Brazil, Nigeria and other countries, whose economy was actually destroyed by large investment funds together with the IMF.

With a critical increase in the share of settlements in Tether, the economy of entire regions will in fact come under the control of American regulators. Moreover, unlike classical banking, the costs of developing the banking infrastructure were minimal, and the degree of penetration of the service is limited only by the presence of the Internet.

In a letter dated December 15, 2023, the world's largest issuer of stablecoins froze 326 wallets containing Tether (USDT) worth $435 million for the US authorities. The assets were frozen to assist law enforcement Aktivs, including the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), the Federal Bureau FBI of Investigation (), and the Secret Service.

Also recently, a correspondence between Senator Cynthia M. Lummis and Congressman J. French Hill with Tether was published, in which representatives of the company responded to concerns about the use of stablecoins for illegal activities such as money laundering and terrorist financing.

Unveiling the letters, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino noted that the company aims to become a 'world-class partner' for the US to 'expand the hegemony of the dollar globally'.

Charge of using forged documents to open accounts

Tether in March 2023 was accused of using forged documents to open bank accounts in 2018, writes The Wall Street Journal. Journalists found documents saying that Tether tried to bypass the banking system with fake accounts and contracts.

WSJ journalists said that one of Tether's Turkish accounts opened for Denix Royal Dis Ticaret Limited Sirketi was previously used to launder funds by the terrorist group. According to the US Department of Justice, the terrorists spent $80 million through it for further cashing. This account was also allegedly associated with Bitfinex crypto exchanges.

2022

Tether payment network for the first time bypassed Visa and Mastercard in terms of transaction volume

Stablecoin USDT (Tether) at the end of 2022 for the first time bypassed Visa and Mastercard in terms of transactions. The stablecoin payment network processed payments of $18.2 trillion for the year. This is more than Mastercard, which processed $14.1 trillion and Visa with an annual volume of $7.7 trillion.

Decrease in operations with USDT to $3.7 trillion

The volume of operations with the leading stablecoin USDT in 2022 decreased from $3.7 trillion to $3.5 trillion. And its main competitor USDC showed a result twice as much as in 2021 - $2.9 trillion.

Blocking 810 addresses at the request of government agencies in the amount of $435 million

By the end of 2022, Tether (the creators of the USDT stablecoin) had already blocked 810 addresses at the request of government agencies for a total of $435.5 million. The first lockdown was in 2017.

Circle's rival USDC has much more modest blocking data (151 addresses for $7.3 million), and the stable from Binance (BUSD) has only 2 addresses banned.

2021: In Moscow, a bag with $1 million was taken from the stablecoin seller Tether during the transaction

In mid-December 2021, in Moscow, a bag with $1 million was taken from a stablecoin seller during a transaction. The victim turned to the police, and she began a pre-investigation check.

According TASS to a law enforcement source, a man, who, according to him, is a seller, made a statement. cryptocurrencies During the sale transaction, the buyer handed him a bag with $1 million, after which two men broke into the room, snatched the bag from him and handed it back to the buyer. At the same time, they threatened the seller with the use of firearms, the agency's interlocutor said.

In Moscow, a bag with $1 million was taken from the stablecoin seller Tether during the transaction

According to the source of Channel Five, the miner handed over to his friend a bag containing more than a million dollars packed in 50 thousand cubes..

According to the applicant, he sold Tether cryptocurrency tokens, the cost of which is $1 per unit (by mid-December 2021). Later, the seller managed to contact the buyer by phone and he explained that the armed men were his security service. The buyer promised to return the money, but stopped communicating.

There are more and more cases of theft of cryptocurrency from individuals in Russia. In September 2021, it became known about the detention of more than 34 million rubles suspected of theft, for which bitcoins and Cardano were bought. And in the summer of the same year, suspects in the theft of mining equipment worth more than 6 million rubles went to jail.

In November 2021, a Russian court rejected the first claim for the return of cryptocurrency. According to the proceedings, the plaintiff of the individual gave to the trust of another individual 16.6 bitcoins (more than 78 million rubles at the exchange rate), which were allegedly lost to them and now cannot be returned.^[3]

Notes