Share this article
Tether Executives Facing Criminal Bank Fraud Charges: Report
The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating Tether for a possible offense conducted years ago, Bloomberg reported Monday.
Updated Sep 14, 2021, 1:30 p.m. Published Jul 26, 2021, 1:24 p.m.
Make us preferred on Google
Executives from Tether are potentially facing a criminal probe into bank fraud, Bloomberg reported Monday.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
- The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating Tether for a possible offense conducted years ago, the outlet reported citing people with knowledge of the matter.
- The price of bitcoin dipped on the news, falling about $1,000 shortly after the report came out.
- Tether, which administers USDT, the crypto market's largest stablecoin, has long been dogged by accusations of murky banking relationships.
- Tether and its sister exchange Bitfinex settled an investigation by the New York Attorney General's Office (NYAG) into whether the stablecoin issuer was covering up the loss of nearly $1 billion in customer funds earlier this year.
- In the settlement agreement, the NYAG said Tether used various banks, but was suspended from some, including Wells Fargo, for unspecified reasons.
- Bloomberg previously reported in 2018 that the DOJ was investigating whether Tether and Bitfinex were pumping bitcoin's price.
- Tether did not immediately answer CoinDesk's request for comment, but in a blog post after this article was published, seemingly implied the Bloomberg story was wrong without quite saying so.
- "Tether routinely has open dialogue with law enforcement agencies, including the U.S. Department of Justice, as part of our commitment to cooperation, transparency, and accountability," the statement said.
UPDATE (July 26, 2021, 16:31 UTC): Updated with additional context and a statement from Tether.
More For You
Pudgy Penguins is building a multi-vertical consumer IP platform — combining phygital products, games, NFTs and PENGU to monetize culture at scale.
What to know:
Pudgy Penguins is emerging as one of the strongest NFT-native brands of this cycle, shifting from speculative “digital luxury goods” into a multi-vertical consumer IP platform. Its strategy is to acquire users through mainstream channels first; toys, retail partnerships and viral media, then onboard them into Web3 through games, NFTs and the PENGU token.
The ecosystem now spans phygital products (> $13M retail sales and >1M units sold), games and experiences (Pudgy Party surpassed 500k downloads in two weeks), and a widely distributed token (airdropped to 6M+ wallets). While the market is currently pricing Pudgy at a premium relative to traditional IP peers, sustained success depends on execution across retail expansion, gaming adoption and deeper token utility.
More For You
Crypto faces fork in the road as Clarity Act support wavers, Bitwise says
The asset manager argued that without federal legislation, the industry has three years to become indispensable before political winds potentially shift.
What to know:
- Bitwise said in a blog post Monday that Polymarket odds for the Clarity Act have fallen from 80% to 50% following industry pushback.
- If the bill fails, Bitwise believes crypto must achieve mass adoption in stablecoins and tokenization to force a regulatory hand.
- The firm anticipates a sharp rally upon the bill's passage, while a failure would likely lead to a "slower ascent" tied to proven utility.
Top Stories
