Tether: We've onboarded FBI, Secret Service to our platform

Quick Take

  • In a recent letter shared with U.S. legislators, Tether’s CEO has elaborated on his methods to prevent unsavory individuals from using the company’s USDT stablecoins, including by onboarding the Secret Service and FBI to the company’s platform. 
  • Tether froze wallets on the U.S. sanctions list last week, and claims to have frozen 435 million USDT so far. 

Tether, the company behind the USDT stablecoin, has published letters the company sent to the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs and the U.S. House Financial Services Committee outlining its "commitment to security and close working relationships with law enforcement."

In the more recent letter, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino, who recently took the helm of the company, emphasized Tether's recent decision to disable Tether's tokens in all wallets on the Office of Foreign Assets and Controls (OFAC) sanction list. Tether claims to have helped the Department of Justice, U.S. Secret Service, and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) freeze 326 wallets controlling 435 million USDT so far, though its latest frozen wallets seemingly contain far fewer tokens than that sum. 

Ardoino also announced that Tether "recently onboarded the United States Secret Service into our platform and is in the process of doing the same" for the FBI. 

The letters were addressed to Senator Cynthia Lummis, known as a friendly figure to crypto in the Senate, and was also sent to the chairs and ranking members of the aforementioned committees. 


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© 2024 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

About Author

Zack Abrams is a writer and editor based in Brooklyn, New York. Before coming to The Block, he was the Head Writer at Coinage, a Web3 media outlet covering the biggest stories in Web3. The story he co-reported on Do Kwon won a 2022 Best in Business Journalism award from SABEW. Other projects included a deep dive into SBF's defense based on exclusive documents and unveiling the identity of the hacker behind one of 2023's biggest crypto hacks — so far. He can be reached via X @zackdabrams or email, [email protected].

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