Ripple CEO denies accusations of attacks on Tether

What’s new? Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has denied accusations by Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino of trying to stir up panic around his company. Garlinghouse had previously said on the World Class podcast that there was a “clear” crackdown on Tether by the US authorities that could have serious implications for the entire crypto market. In a new response to Ardoino, he clarified that he was not attacking Tether, and considers the company an extremely important part of the crypto ecosystem.

What else is known?

“My point was that the US govt has clearly indicated they want more control over USD-backed stablecoin issuers, and thus, Tether, as the largest player, is in their line of sight,” Garlinghouse explained under Ardoino’s X post.

After the release of the podcast with Garlinghouse and the publication of news with his statement in the media, Ardoino said that the latter, being “uninformed,” is spreading panic around the USDT stablecoin issued by Tether, which is the largest in the crypto market and is second only to BTC and ETH in terms of capitalization with over $110,8 billion.

At the same time, Ardoino recalled that Garlinghouse-led Ripple is in a legal battle with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over allegations of regulatory violations in the distribution of XRP tokens, and is also preparing to issue a competing stablecoin.

Ardoino said that Tether is compliant in combating the financing of illicit activities. Since its inception, it has managed to engage with 124 law enforcement agencies in over forty countries and blocked over $1,3 billion in USDT related to hacking and fraudulent schemes.

In addition, Tether blocks addresses on the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control’s (OFAC) SDN sanctions list. Also, it has voluntarily processed 339 requests from law enforcement to freeze wallets over the past three years, 158 of which came from the US. Tether has also connected the FBI and the US Secret Service to its platform.

Ardoino recalled that the company monitors both the primary and secondary USDT market to combat illegal transactions.

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“USDt is the most used stablecoin in the world, with hundreds of millions of users across primarily emerging markets and developing countries. Entire communities across these regions are unbanked, left behind by the traditional banking system because they are too poor to be of interest, and are using USDt daily as their checking and saving account,” Ardoino said.

He emphasized that for widespread adoption, stablecoins must meet a number of requirements. USDT has proven over time to be price stable, with high liquidity of reserves and their safe custody in cooperation with the best companies in the segment, as well as compliance with legal requirements.

Ardoino also noted that in various interviews he has repeatedly talked about improvements to Tether’s compliance system, but “most mainstream media newspapers evidently refuse to report such data. Unfortunately the narrative that they are most interested in spreading is sensationalistic against the usage of stablecoins and cryptocurrencies across the world.” He suggested that this is done in order “to protect the old guard of the financial establishment.”