Tether CEO: “If the U.S. Wanted to Kill Us, They Can Press a Button and Kill Us Anywhere"

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino: ‘If the U.S. Government Wanted to Kill Us, They Can Press a Button’

As crypto colossus Tether comes under renewed scrutiny, CEO Paolo Ardoino told CoinDesk that the company respects international sanctions and works closely with law enforcement, but acknowledged it is ultimately at the mercy of U.S. authorities.

“If the U.S. wanted to kill us, they can press a button and kill us anywhere,” Ardoino said. “We are not going to fight the U.S.”

“We may not be the best in presenting ourselves, but what matters is that we onboarded the FBI” to Tether’s compliance systems, he added. “We onboarded the U.S. Secret Service. We have thank-you letters from the DOJ … We think we are doing, you know, the best we can.”

Tether

But a fourth model is something like “Tether is a US dollar-denominated alternative to the US dollar financial system: It works a lot like dollars, except that, unlike the rest of the dollar system, it is not subject to the whims of the US government.” This model seems … interesting. This model, I think, describes a niche that could provide a lot of value, and that a lot of people want. We have talked recently about the demand (among Russia and other not-aligned-with-the-US countries) for an alternate payment system, and about Tether’s pitch to commodity trading firms as a way to finance global trade. I wrote that one “possible bet is ‘if the US government keeps weaponizing the dollar, someone will invent a better dollar, something that is fully interchangeable with the dollar but that is not subject to US government policy.’ What if it’s Tether?”

Obviously the problem with this model is that the US government likes having the dollar financial system subject to its whims. Also, like, I say “whims,” but some of the whims include “not financing terrorism”; you might like the whims….

US Crypto Regulation Needs a Hard Fork

With a change in administration forthcoming, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has an opportunity to institute a hard fork of its own with respect to its approach to crypto regulation. Although legislation is necessary to establish a fulsome legal framework for crypto, the SEC can abandon its regulation-by-enforcement playbook in favor of a pro-innovation regulatory framework that scales to accommodate novel markets.

We need a hard fork in crypto regulation to address four key pain points…

Convicted Ozy Media founder argues US judge conflicted due to hedge fund investments

Ozy Media and its founder Carlos Watson want a federal judge to step aside from their case and throw out their securities fraud convictions, saying the judge had a financial stake in four companies alleged to have been victims of their offenses through his investments in hedge funds managed by his former employer.

Watson, a former cable news anchor and investment banker, and Ozy in a motion filed on Friday, opens new tab pointed to U.S. District Judge Eric Komitee’s 2023 financial disclosure reports, which showed he had $6 million to $30 million invested in funds managed by Viking Global Investors.