Tether: Senator's investigation misses positive work that's led to lower Iran volumes
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino is defending the company against a U.S. Senate report that accused the stablecoin issuer of failing to prevent illicit finance. Ardoino claims Tether proactively freezes suspicious wallets, contributing to a 94% decline in Iran-linked stablecoin volumes.
Why it matters
The debate highlights the ongoing tension between cryptocurrency regulation and the efforts of private issuers to combat money laundering and terrorism financing.
Senator Richard Blumenthal, the subcommittee's top Democrat, led the effort, which further highlighted Democratic lawmakers' concerns that crypto is used to support illicit finance. But Ardoino contends that Tether freezes suspicious transactions well before entities such as the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control and Israel's National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing formally flag them.
"Senator Blumenthal's 'analysis' of Tether's sanctions report misses that, since 2023, Tether froze on average 4 weeks prior to OFAC & NBCTF official sanction designation and for 99% of the times Tether froze the reported addresses before Chainalysis labelled them," Ardoino wrote in a post on social media site X .
Ardoino went on to argue that the company's actions "led to Iran-linked stablecoin volumes declining by 94%."
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