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Tether reveals partnerships with Secret Service, FBI in letter to U.S. Senate
- Deborahluis 3y ago[dead]
- matthiascarl 3y ago[dead]
- sheenafreeman45 3y ago[dead]
- yeseniajimenez1 3y ago[dead]
- anabenson 3y ago[dead]
- Annagomez 3y ago[dead]
- Annagomez 3y ago[dead]
- Animats 3y agoEach disabled token is pure profit to Tether. They're not cashing them out to the US Treasury, as with Bitcoins recovered from criminal operations.
- crypt1d 3y agoNeither of those statements is true. Bitcoin seized by US government is often sold off in auctions[1]. Tether seized by the government could also be redeemed for fiat eventually, following due process. [1] - https://www.forbes.com/sites/brandonkochkodin/2023/03/31/us-government-sells-bitcoin-seized-from-silk-road-case-netting-over-215-million/?sh=57a90f032888 https://www.forbes.com/sites/brandonkochkodin/2023/03/31/us-... EDIT: I see now that you were actually comparing the case of USDT freeze against Bitcoin seizures. Nevertheless, Tether doesn't simply get to keep the USD value of the frozen tokens. US government would want to recover that.
- denlekke 3y ago"disable its tokens" "freezing 326 wallets" no indication from this article that the tether has been seized / transferred
- crypt1d 3y agoTokens are frozen "in-place" pending investigation. It differs from how it works with btc, because the government does not have control of the private keys that manage the addresses in question - so they go to Tether who controls the smart contract that manages the transactions of the tokens. This, in practice, means that the US government controls the mentioned tokens for the moment. What happens with them depends entirely on the outcome of the investigation.
- smsm42 3y agoUS govt could also create a govt wallet and force usdt to transfer the tokens there I imagine, if they want to proceed with seizure. They'd likely will need some legal framework for this but it's easily doable. Then us govt can auction it off as they like.
- gropo 3y agoUS govt could also require OFAC sanctions compliance on BTC via international framework as well. 30 warehouses or so, hundred websites, single code repository with a handful of developers. Developers recently closed an open issue an American miner raised with OFAC compliance and the software, and even being able to help write the patch. Beyond freezing, BTC can even be reissued via a module written expressly for such a purpose.
- wolverine876 3y agoIt's an interesting question: What does that mean? Maybe it's better to look at cryptocurrencies as financial securities, shares in an asset controlled by a private company (as has been said many times before). Could General Electric 'disable' the shares of a shareholder? What would that mean? The shareholder can't sell their shares, I suppose, but GE's equity would remain the same (not counting any market movement that would be caused by the sale). Imagine a monetary system where currency was profit to a private company. What will our once-proud industry think of next? Software to help landlords collude, take housing off the market, and jack up rents? Software that impersonates humans, as well as any form of truth? We are on a roll!
- smeej 3y agoThe SEC is arguing that most cryptocurrencies, especially the ones that enable this level of control, are securities.
- nostrademons 3y agoCompanies absolutely can "disable" trading by certain shareholders. This is what an IPO lock-up is, where insiders cannot sell their shares until 6-12 months after the conclusion of the IPO. It's also what a trading blackout is, where employees cannot trade shares between the end of the quarter and release of earnings. These are very common - almost everyone who works for a public company has encountered them. These cases are temporary, but I suspect there are also permanent trading bans that might be caused by legal action - if, for example, an employee is found guilty of a crime, or is under a wage garnishment order. Also, crypto has long had the phenomena of coins that get "locked" and can never be touched or transferred again, simply through holders that have died or lost the private key. For example, the original "Satoshi coins" - the roughly 1M Bitcoin (~$45B at today's prices, enough to make their holder the 27th richest person in the world) mined by Satoshi before Bitcoin became mainstream - have never been spent, and it's likely that their owner is dead. They simply drop out of circulation, and the price of all other Bitcoin rises to compensate.
- wolverine876 3y agoGood points about trading that's disabled. I just wonder what is the same and different about cryptocurrencies like Tether's. > They simply drop out of circulation, and the price of all other Bitcoin rises to compensate. Would that be different for Tether? Isn't Tether a 'private' blockchain that the company controls?
- ThrustVectoring 3y agoEach non-disabled token is also pure profit, they're not cashing them out in appreciable quantities to anyone.
- yieldcrv 3y agoThats because people use the cash in Tether USDT there like their brokerage account: its accumulated from deposit and trading and rarely withdrawn to a bank account. For example, if Charles Schwab created Schwab USD upon every fiat deposit, the growth and redemption distribution would be similar to Tether. People that can save and populate an investment account do that more than they ever actually withdraw to cause a redemption.
- KennyBlanken 3y agoNotably, this is a coin used by a lot of cryptominers, many of whom are Chinese who fled the ban in China on crypto mining and also to export their wealth in a way they can't otherwise because China doesn't allow transfer of currency out of the country. Example: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/25/technology/bitrush-bitcoin-cryptocurrency-china.html https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/25/technology/bitrush-bitcoi... ...so now gigawatts of electricity are being used here to generate more wealth for chinese billionaire playboys who are so stingy they can't even pay rural local electricians. Must be because of how expensive his tuition is...
- SV_BubbleTime 3y agoReal estate is how China allows their citizens to move money out of country. If the money is at all legitimate, there is a vehicle. I’ve been around the world, and I’ve been as much Chinese real estate as I’ve seen, makes me think there is very little legitimate money in crypto for this application.
- Supermancho 3y agoYou're not the only one to have seen the Chinese real estate, from the Alberta coast to Florida. If you want to move money, ofc you can[1]. There is commerce with China. If you want to avoid controls (including punitive ones), real estate is not a preferred choice. This "vehicle" took a huge hit around 2016ish[2], which is why Chinese transfers fell dramatically crashing a number of luxury markets (US locales) with it. This is still recent memory and taken into commensurate consideration. [1] https://hrone.com/blog/expats-can-get-earned-money-china-legally/ https://hrone.com/blog/expats-can-get-earned-money-china-leg... [2] https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-issuing-strict-controls-on-overseas-investment-1480071529 https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-issuing-strict-controls-o...
- tz18 3y agoThe Alberta coast??
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- Centigonal 3y ago[flagged]
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- SV_BubbleTime 3y agoCompletely unrelated to a previously unknown link to the US government… I am reminded that this is the cryptocurrency a lot of people were expecting a violent crash from.
- WhereIsTheTruth 3y ago[flagged]
- denlekke 3y agowould love to read more if you have a link [edit: re CIA connection]
- y8bj 3y agoGoogle USD digital currency and you’ll see all the usual media outlets propagating the idea in concept to normalize it
- lern_too_spel 3y agoThe letter reported here specifically mentions the FBI and doesn't mention the CIA. The press doesn't mention the CIA because it isn't in the letter the article is about. https://assets.ctfassets.net/vyse88cgwfbl/6KDtp7U4IcH03zPWnpG11n/1b052835c72f2c7be0bb5ec5bd5a89fc/Tether_Lummis_Hill_Follow_up_Letter.pdf https://assets.ctfassets.net/vyse88cgwfbl/6KDtp7U4IcH03zPWnp...
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- kristjank 3y agoThat might explain why it has not crashed completely yet. As a rule of thumb, never trust service providers that should, by all common sense, fail, but miraculously don't.
- codebolt 3y agoFor me the test is: What unethical action would optimize profits for company X? And what is the control mechanism that prevents them from doing so? If the answer to question 2 is None, there's a good possibility the answer to 1 is already happening.
- bilbo0s 3y agoThe thing is, a lot of people just assume they must simply be doing good business. The continued existence of the economically impossible entity is, to many, proof not only of its solvency, but also of it's quality as a financial partner. Most people don't look any further than that. Obviously, a large number do look further than that, and many, many people would never take the bait. But don't underestimate the number of people, even well resourced people, who would fall for this sort of scheme.
- hanniabu 3y agoYou're acting like people just have blind faith, ignoring they undergo routine audits
- agentgumshoe 3y agoTether has not completed a single audit yet
- hanniabu 3y agohttps://tether.to/en/transparency/#reports https://tether.to/en/transparency/#reports
- 3y ago
- charcircuit 3y agoI do not think this is surprising. DAI is a better alternative if you want a stablecoin that can't be frozen.
- phyalow 3y agoNot actually true, while MakerDAO (DAI's issuer) cant microtarget and freeze, DAI itself still has alot of systematic risk, i.e. it has a large part of its backing assets in USDC, Circle could freeze this part of their balance sheet VERY easily. They also have "RWA" i.e. more traditional financial products in the mainstream financial system to generate a yield, it would be easy enough for the service providers to be ordered to freeze these assets (on the back of a money laundering or kyc type of case bought by regulators).
- charcircuit 3y agoIt's the collateral that would be frozen. It's not your stablecoins.
- dannyw 3y agoWithout collateral, your stable coin would no longer be stable.
- charcircuit 3y agoWith your stable coin frozen it is worth $0.
- fallingfrog 3y ago“Tether seeks to be a world class partner to the U.S. as we continue to assist law enforcement and expand dollar hegemony globally." Well that’s an interesting statement, saying the quiet part loud (About dollar hegemony)
- wolverine876 3y agoAre they sophisticated enough in public communication to try, in passing, to spread the gospel of cryptocurrency: the dollar's market power is 'hegemony'. (I know the expression is already used, but not by the government and its partners, afaik, and not as an explicit goal.)
- alexb_ 3y agoIt's not exactly a secret. The US dollar's proliferation is an extremely good thing to happen in the world - our modern banking system is one of our greatest inventions.
- yterdy 3y agoFor whom?
- fragmede 3y agoeveryone with a lot of them
- halJordan 3y agoFor everyone. The answer would be the same if the yuan was the world's reserve currency. Having a single reserve currency is just good. Please don't conflate your distaste for a country's politics as somehow obviating the unbridled success of the global economy.
- yterdy 3y agoI can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not.
- delabay 3y agoTo those who think tether is a massive fraud: time to get caught up. The crypto dollar market is extremely large, the product market fit is extremely real and tether is king. https://t.co/caUMlsufXA https://t.co/caUMlsufXA
- RustyRussell 3y agoThis could well be true! But remember, the crypto exchange market is also extremely large and profitable, and yet exchanges keep turning out to be massive frauds. The number of people who promised to keep your money safe and had long term incentive to do so and yet failed miserably used to astonish me. Now I assume it's the norm.
- woodruffw 3y agoWeird phrasing. It isn't clear that responding to OFAC listings makes one a "partner" of the FBI or Secret Service; to my knowledge, entities that do business in the US (or anywhere the US's financial limbs can reach) have to respond to OFAC listings. Am I missing something here?
- mteam88 3y agoI think it relates to this quote from the article: "Tether is grateful for the opportunity to address the concerns raised by U.S. lawmakers, and we are committed to continuing Tether’s close work with law enforcement in the U.S. and globally. Tether seeks to be a world class partner to the U.S. as we continue to assist law enforcement and expand dollar hegemony globally." ~ a dedication to working together in the future
- duskwuff 3y agoWhich is itself a weird phrasing. OFAC compliance is an obligation, not an "opportunity".
- s1artibartfast 3y agoPerhaps "the opportunity to address the concerns" is in contrast to being shut down with no opportunity for corrective action. Kinda like someone released on parole is happy for an opportunity to work and obey the law.
- agentgumshoe 3y agoStill not a partnership. Tether spin.
- s1artibartfast 3y agoobviously spin, but "partnership" doesn't bother me much. Partnership doesnt mean equal partners. Someone might have a business "partnership" with a warlord, that lets them live as long as you prive payments.
- s5300 3y ago[dead]
- agentgumshoe 3y agoSo... Half the appeal of crypto and Tether & co has been a separation from the current financial system and 'deep state,' yet here we are embracing both with hugs. The cryptoverse is no place for making sense.
- MacsHeadroom 3y agoThe appeal is in having a choice; having an option to use an alternative (crypto) monetary system, a hybrid, or fiat.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- Podgajski 3y ago“Fascist governments encouraged the pursuit of private profit and offered many benefits to large businesses, but they demanded in return that all economic activity should serve the national interest.” https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economics_of_fascism https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economics_of_fascism
- xtracto 3y agoPax Americana
- Lerc 3y agoI think there were some early adopters with libertarian or just simple "stick it to the man" ideals that believed that, it was never the original position and those who wanted it to be that ended up up disillusioned. Bitcoin was created with the notion of decentralized control in mind. It was all about having the option to go elsewhere. I'm not sure if the early developers stated a position on secrecy. I find it hard to reconcile the public ledger with any goal of avoiding scrutiny.
- kube-system 3y agoThat was always a hopeful lie that anti-government types were telling themselves. If you use cryptocurrency while you're in a country, you are subject to that country's laws. The 'cryptoverse' is learning that math is not stronger than guns and prison bars. https://xkcd.com/538/ https://xkcd.com/538/
- ptek 3y agoTether has a market cap of $91,767,545,339 on coingecko.com at the moment, I don't know how many of that holdings is in BTC, ETH or FIAT. But if these guys can create Tether out of thin air (If it's not fixed like BTC) and syphon it off to personal created wallets..
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- Martinpow69 3y ago[dead]
- sarahwoods 3y ago[dead]