We’ve clarified the actual data: today, the total capitalisation of the stabelcoin market stands at $132 billion, with Tether USDT accounting for 71.5 billion of that. This translates to 54 per cent, i.e. most of the market.

Despite this, Tether is constantly facing serious criticism and accusations both within and outside the digital asset industry. To create an in-depth understanding of what’s going on with the project, this video from a well-known internet crypto researcher under the pseudonym CofeeZilla will help.

In the 35-minute video he talks about the weakest points of the project. In particular, he mentions problems with inspections, transferring substantial amounts to the right bank accounts just before audits, close connection with the Bitfinex cryptocurrency exchange, problems with token collateral and much more.

If you want to understand the topic properly and have a good ear for English, we definitely recommend it.

What’s going on with Tether?

According to Decrypt’s sources, one piece of evidence from journalists was emails from Tether management to a large Chinese trader who was making various “grey transactions” for the company. For example, he tried to “circumvent the banking system by providing fake invoices and contracts for every deposit and withdrawal. Stephen Moore, one of the owners of Tether Holdings Ltd, was allegedly aware of the whole situation.

A little later in an email, Moore decided to drop the “services” and stated that it was “too risky”. However, he did leave his signature on some fake documents. That is, the WSJ has admitted that a high-ranking member of the management of the issuing company of the largest cryptocurrency staple was directly involved in the fraud.

According to the journalists, they also have copies of documents in their possession that confirm that Tether used “troubled third parties”.

One of Tether’s Turkish accounts, opened in the name of Denix Royal Dis Ticaret Limited Sirketi, had previously been used to launder funds by a terrorist group. According to the US Department of Justice, terrorists funneled more than $80 million through it for onward withdrawal into cash. The account was also allegedly linked to the Bitfinex crypto-exchange. The US Department of Justice is currently investigating Tether.

As a reminder, the USDT stabelcoin was launched by Tether Limited Inc. in 2014. Tether Limited is owned by Hong Kong-based iFinex Inc, which also owns the Bitfinex crypto exchange. The latter has featured several times in various kinds of scandals in recent years.

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WSJ journalists tried to contact Stephen Moore, but he refused to comment on the article. Other representatives of the company quite predictably undertook to deny all accusations in their direction. Moreover, Tether website has published a post denying the allegations mentioned by The Wall Street Journal.

The rebuttal itself is very short – just three paragraphs. Its gist can be displayed in the following quote.

The Wall Street Journal’s reporting of outdated allegations from a long time ago is completely inaccurate and misleading. Bitfinex and Tether have world-class regulatory compliance programs and adhere to anti-money laundering, customer identification and counter-terrorist financing requirements.

Bitfinex and Tether are partners with global law enforcement agencies. They also regularly and voluntarily assist the US Department of Justice and other law enforcement agencies around the world in preventing money laundering, terrorism and other crimes committed by unscrupulous actors.

Paolo Ardoino, Tether’s chief technology officer, also spoke out about the allegations to the WSJ. On Twitter, he ridiculed the journalists’ article altogether. Here’s the relevant rejoinder, cited by CryptoSlate.

I’m at the cryptoconference in Lugano. While I was speaking on stage, I kept hearing clown horns – I’m sure it was WSJ. As usual, heaps of misinformation and inaccuracies. Poor guys. It must be hard for them, but we need better media.

Note that the WSJ’s allegations concern the activities of Tether-affiliated companies back in 2018. The article itself really doesn’t provide solid evidence of the giant’s guilt, so it’s too early to claim any serious action by regulators or government agencies against the stablocoin issuer. In addition, USDT is criticized regularly and actively, but the project has not yet collapsed.


It is also important to note that criticism of cryptocurrency projects is sometimes unfounded, and it may come from journalists of well-known publications. A recent Forbes incident comes to mind here, where staff had shared a comparison between cryptocurrency exchange Binance and bankrupt platform FTX the previous day.

The journalists openly hinted that some of Binance's actions were reminiscent of FTX's situation. In particular, there was talk of allegedly securing trading positions of dubious trading companies like Alameda. However, it turned out that in this case, representatives of such companies simply withdrew their own crypto-assets from Binance, well, the head of the platform Changpen Zhao said that Forbes does not understand the principles of the cryptocurrency exchange. Read more about the story in a separate article.



It looks like the case is up to law enforcement authorities to deal with. However, it is important to note that criticism of Tether and the USDT token is published regularly, with no problems in the operation of the stablcoin yet. It is possible that the company has moved away from the old questionable practices described in the aforementioned video. In addition, serious problems of Tether will turn out to be a big collapse for the whole cryptocurrency market, as liquidity for trading with various coins is provided exactly in USDT. Therefore, the collapse of Stablecoin is best not to be hoped for.