Tether’s Ardoino says ‘uninformed CEO’ spreads FUD about USDT

Tether boss Paolo Ardoino said in a recent post on X that an “uninformed CEO” is allegedly spreading a FUD about the firm’s stablecoin, USDT, in a bid to shake the company’s dominance in the stablecoin market.

In an X post on May 13, Ardoino did not reveal the identity of the rumormonger, but noted that the individual is leading a company that is “being investigated by the SEC,” adding that the same firm is launching a “competitive stablecoin,” without elaborating on the matter. The identity of the individual to whom Ardoino is referring remains unclear.

In the post, Ardoino addressed concerns regarding the safety of the USDT ecosystem, emphasizing Tether’s commitment “to ensure that our entire community can benefit from a safe global financial ecosystem.”

In an effort to counter what Ardoino perceives as a biased narrative propagated by mainstream news outlets, he disclosed key statistics and initiatives related to Tether’s global compliance efforts. Particularly, the Tether CEO highlighted the firm’s commitment to adhere to the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions list, collaborations with law enforcement agencies worldwide, and utilization of monitoring tools provided by Chainalysis, a blockchain forensics firm.

According to Ardoino, Tether has blocked over $1.3 billion in suspicious transactions so far, including those associated with scams, hacks, and money laundering, with $1.6 million linked to terrorist financing. Moreover, the firm has cooperated with numerous law enforcement requests, both domestically and internationally, resulting in the prevention of illicit fund transfers amounting to over $639 million in collaboration with U.S. authorities alone, he added.

Ardoino’s statement comes shortly after Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said in an interview for YouTube channel “World Class” that he thinks there will be more so-called back swan events, saying that “the U.S. government is going after Tether. That is clear to me.”

In early April, Ripple also announced it’s launching a U.S. dollar stablecoin on the XRPL and Ethereum, marking an entry into the multi-billion stablecoin market. The firm’s product is expected to be backed 1:1 by an equivalent sum of assets, including U.S. dollar deposits, U.S. government bonds and cash equivalents.