Reported by Cointelegraph, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino has hit back at Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse over his recent comments that the United States government is “going after” the world’s largest stablecoin issuer, Tether.
Ardoino took to social media platform X to clear the air around potential U.S. agency action against the firm and called out Garlinghouse for spreading “fear about USDT.”
Ardoino suggested that Garlinghouse’s comments were hypocritical, given that Ripple is being investigated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and is trying to launch a competing stablecoin to Tether’s.
The Tether CEO said that USDT is the largest stablecoin by market share, with millions of users across the world, and it has helped bank users in developing economies. He added:
“USDT proved over time to have strong price stability, highly liquid reserves, top tier custodians and profound compliance.”
Ardonio also listed several factors that make USDT compliant and one of the most widely used stablecoins. He said Tether has collaborated with 124 law enforcement agencies across 40+ countries and has blocked over $1.3 billion worth of assets linked to scams, hacks and money laundering since it launched. Of the $1.3 billion in blocked assets, Tether blocked more than $639 million by working with U.S. law enforcement.
Ardonio also revealed that in the last 12 months, Tether has voluntarily complied with 198 requests from law enforcement to block wallets, 90 of which came from U.S. law enforcement agencies. It has complied with 339 requests in the last three years, of which 158 were from U.S. law enforcement.
