Tether refutes “stale allegations” from Wall Street Journal

Tether calls Wall Street Journal’s claims “stale allegations from long ago.”
The USDT issuer noted in a recent blog post that it adheres to all regulatory and legal requirements around KYC, AML and Counter Terrorism Financing.
Tether says FUD will not distract it from its role as the leading stablecoin.

Tether, the company behind the world’s largest stablecoin Tether (USDT), has repudiated a recent report about it and Bitfinex as “wholly inaccurate and misleading.” Bitfinex is a leading crypto exchange with ties to the USDT issuer.

On Friday last week, The Wall Street Journal published a report that claimed Tether and Bitfinex had used phony documents and entities to gain and maintain access to bank accounts. 

Per the report, the fake documents allowed the cryptocurrency companies to access banking services that would otherwise have not been extended to them.

Tether says WSJ report is “misleading”

Tether dismissed the allegations by the Wall Street Journal in a blog post published on 3 March. Striking back at the media outlet, Tether said the report had brought out “stale allegations from long ago,” and noted the claims against it were misleading.

Accordin to Tether, just as Bitfinex, its operations are anchored on “world-class compliance programs.” 

Specifically, the two companies have and continue to adhere to all the applicable Know Your Customer (KYC), Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Counter-Terrorist Financing (CTF) requirements.

As well as adhering to the above legal requirements, both platforms have partnered with global law enforcement to further compliance and help the broader crypto ecosystem, Tether noted. This includes voluntarily working with the US Department of Justice and multiple other law enforcement agencies across the world to combat money laundering and terrorism.

As for the WSJ report, the team says it is yet another attempt at using FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) against it. However, this “unfair attack” won’t distract Tether from its role within the crypto industry – which is to continue being the most liquid and most reliable stablecoin.

Bitfinex and Tether CTO Paolo Ardoino slammed the WSJ as being obsessed with spreading FUD about the two crypto companies. He tweeted the sentiments while at the PlanB anniversary in Lugano, Switzerland.

Love the obsession for Tether. I hope WSJ will not start asking Tether a rent. So far we lived rent free in their minds. https://t.co/RprcySQDp1

— Paolo Ardoino 🍐 (@paoloardoino) March 3, 2023

The crypto market reacted sharply to the Tether news, with the price of Bitcoin plummeting further after another sell-off linked to another news development around the Silvergate Bank. BTC price nosedived to lows of $22,000 before seeing a minor bounce over the weekend.

Although the Tether team did not comment on the impact on markets, they noted that the company does not have exposure to Silvergate.