Tether, the largest stablecoin issuer in the world, is addressing the fact that at one point in the past, the firm held Chinese securities.
Details of the firm’s disclosures were made public as part of the deal in its settlement with the New York Attorney General (NYAG), who accused Tether of not responsibly backing the reserves of its stablecoin USDT, among other allegations.
With reports of Tether’s exposure to Chinese securities circulating, the firm is clarifying that its holdings were mostly in the banking sector and were always liquid and from prominent companies.
The stablecoin issuer also highlights that it has wound down its exposure to Chinese commercial paper.
“Tether’s exposure to Chinese commercial paper was predominantly in the banking sector but all Chinese paper held was liquid and issued by large and well-known issuers in the international commercial paper market. All of these issuers were stable and much of this paper was and is held by some of the world’s largest investment managers within conservative portfolios. The Chinese banking-related commercial paper at issue was rated A1 or better.
Furthermore, it’s worth noting that Tether reduced its commercial paper holdings to zero last year. Tether did not lose a dime on any commercial paper, including the Chinese commercial paper.”
Tether says that it doesn’t want to share the full documents with the public due to privacy concerns and the possibility that its customers or clients could be doxed, or unfairly exposed to the public.
“We continue to believe that information in these disclosures could be used to dox present and/or future clients. Furthermore, our compliance policies might potentially be used to circumvent our controls and undermine our terms of service. We will not expose our customers to danger or ourselves to any legal claim by divulging this information.”
Tether’s USDT currently has a market cap of $83.54 billion.
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