According to a Friday report by the Wall Street Journal, Tether, the flagship stablecoin issuer, is currently being investigated by the US government.
The probe is meant to determine whether or not Tether has violated anti-money-laundering rules and sanctions.
The report says that the stablecoin issuer has appeared in the crosshairs of the Treasury Department due to "widespread" sanctions violations. Americans could be potentially prohibited from doing business with Tether.
The Bitcoin price plunged sharply lower following the report, currently trading at $65,971 on the Bitstamp exchange. It is down more than 3% over the past 24 hours.
"Old noise"
That said, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino has denied that there is an ongoing federal probe into the company.
"As we told to WSJ there is no indication that Tether is under investigation. WSJ is regurgitating old noise. Full stop," he said.
Tether's USDT is, of course, the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. Its market cap currently stands at $120.1 billion, according to CoinGecko data.
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Godfrey Benjamin
Vladislav Sopov
Dan Burgin