On Sunday, Tether, the issuing company behind the largest and most widely used stablecoin on the market USDT, marked a major turning point by celebrating its existence. 10th anniversary.
In a recent one interview Joining FOX Business, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino expressed widespread criticism of the company’s perceived lack of transparency regarding its reserves and recent performance and plans.
Tether’s surveillance task force
Ardoino, who stepped into the CEO role in 2023, after serving six years as the company’s Chief Technology Officer, Tether’s outlined strategies to revitalize its brand in the coming months.
These efforts include forming partnerships with U.S. law enforcement agencies and enhancing collaboration with broker-dealer Cantor Fitzgerald and its CEO, Howard Lutnick.
Ardoino highlighted that Tether now works with more than 180 law enforcement agencies in 45 jurisdictions, including the FBI and the Department of Justice (DOJ).
This cooperation with law enforcement was significant, with the Department of Justice acknowledging Tether’s assistance in this regard freezing illegal funds. Recently, Tether partnered with other crypto companies, including Tron and TRM Labs, to create a surveillance task force to combat financial crime related to USDT.
Ardoino noted that Tether has a few 350 million users worldwide, many of whom live in developing countries where they use USDT as a hedge against “weak monetary systems and unstable currencies”:
People are tired of being subjected to bad monetary policy decisions by their governments. We must ensure that our ecosystem remains safe so that we can continue to help them.
Allegations of illegal financing and corruption
Despite this, Tether has faced continued criticism from regulators over its alleged involvement in illegal financing money laundering and ransomware payments. Allegations suggest the company has allowed sanctioned countries, such as North Korea, Russia and Iran, to avoid traditional financial systems, contributing to crime and terrorism.
This summer, Tether became the target of a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign by the nonprofit Consumers Research, which accused the company of corruption through digital billboards in Times Square and television advertising.
In response to these criticisms, Ardoino acknowledged that Tether “has been naive in the past,” and failed to adequately respond to concerns, noting that the company did not establish a PR team until 2022. “I feel sad because it’s a misrepresentation of a technology and a company that helps hundreds of millions of people,” he said.
As part of its efforts to combat illegal activities, so has Tether blocked more than $1.8 billion in USDT from over 1,850 crypto wallets, working closely with US agencies on 636 of these actions.
Hopeful for a changing attitude towards digital assets
During the interview, Ardoino also expressed his openness to an audit by one of the “Big Four” accounting firms in the US, but pointed to the current regulatory environment as a barrier.
The CEO highlighted the challenges faced by anti-crypto lawmakers, specifically mentioning Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who has challenged auditors’ ability to deal with crypto companiesespecially those outside the US.
Looking ahead, Ardoino is hopeful that the outcome of the upcoming US elections in November will change regulators’ attitudes towards the digital asset market:
When I was a kid, I remember how the US was king of every new technology and discovery. For the first time in history, the US has dropped the ball on probably one of the most revolutionary technologies of our time.
Featured image of DALL-E, chart from TradingView.com