Tether, the company responsible for the USDT stablecoin, has published letters to the U.S. Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee and the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services expressing its commitment to security and highlights its close cooperation with law enforcement authorities.
In a recent letter, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino, who recently took over the company’s leadership, highlighted the company’s decision to deactivate Tether tokens in wallets that are on the Office of Foreign Assets and Controls (OFAC) sanctions list .
Tether claims the Justice Department, the U.S. Secret Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to have assisted in freezing 326 wallets containing a total of 435 million USDT.
However, it appears that the most recently frozen wallets contain a smaller number of tokens than the above total.
Ardoino also shared that Tether recently added the US Secret Service to its platform and is in the process of doing the same with the FBI.
These partnerships underscore Tether’s commitment to working with law enforcement to ensure the integrity and security of the company.
The letters were specifically addressed to Senator Cynthia Lummis, a well-known cryptocurrency advocate in the Senate, and were also sent to the chairs and ranking members of the aforementioned committees.
Tether’s communications with lawmakers aim to provide transparency about its interactions with law enforcement and its efforts to comply with regulatory standards.
Tether freezes tokens of sanctioned individuals
Last week, Tether froze the wallets of people who were being held by the U.S. Office of Foreign Asset Controls (OFAC) were sanctioned. At the time, the company said it wanted to prevent potential misuse of its tokens and improve security measures by coordinating with global law enforcement and regulators. 161 Ethereum wallets have been frozen by Tether, according to Blockchain Datan, with 150 of those wallets currently containing no USDT tokens.
There are over 3.5 million USDT tokens in the remaining 11 wallets, with the majority of this concentrated in a single address with 3.4 million tokens. Of the wallets holding USDT tokens, two addresses contain around 20,000 tokens each, while another contains almost 60,000 tokens. The remaining wallets contain smaller amounts, with one wallet containing only 16 cents of frozen USDT.
Tether’s Bitcoin bet is starting to pay off
In May 2023, Tether announced its plans to permanently invest up to 15% of net realized profits in Bitcoin. By holding BTC and other assets, Tether aims to protect its reserves from loss of purchasing power during prolonged downturns in the cryptocurrency market. Thanks to the recent price surge, Tether’s Bitcoin holdings have increased by 85%, or $1.1 billion, since its acquisition.
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