According to documents reviewed by the Wall Street Journal, four people control 86% of Tether Holdings. Giancarlo Devasini is the company's controlling shareholder with a 43% stake, and he also founded the cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex. The CEO of both Tether and Bitfinex is Jean-Louis van der Velde, and the general counsel of both companies is Stuart Hoegner. The two each hold 15% of Tether. Christopher Harborne, a British and Thai businessman, owns about 13%. The documents are dated 2018, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Tether, the largest issuer of the $USDT stablecoin, has a business model similar to traditional financial institutions that requires customer trust, but it has been criticized for a lack of transparency and previous misstatements.
Tether discloses accounting reports of its reserve assets on a quarterly basis. Over the past few quarters, $USDT’s backing assets have improved, with 82% of $USDT currently backed by cash and cash equivalents and other short-term deposits and commercial paper.