UPDATE (4:41 p.m. UTC): Tether has published its response to Bloomberg's article.
Tether, the largest stablecoin issuer, has appeared in the crosshairs of the U.S. Department of Justice, Bloomberg reports.
The DOJ is investigating whether the company's executives committed bank fraud by concealing the nature of their cryptocurrency activities, according to anonymous sources cited in the business outlet's article.
Alex DovbnyaThe offenses date back to the earliest days of the top stablecoin issuer and appear to be unrelated to long-standing conspiracies about USDT issuance having undue sway over the market.
This is not the first time that it has had a run-in with U.S. authorities.
In April 2019, New York Attorney General Letitia James took iFinex, the parent company of Tether and crypto exchange Bitfinex, to court for allegedly obfuscating an $850 million loss linked to the implosion of Panda-based firm Crypto Capital with the help of USDT. The court case ended up with an $18.5 million settlement in February.
Bulls remain unfazed
The Bloomberg report had little effect on the Bitcoin price. After initially dipping two percent on the bearish news, the largest cryptocurrency continues to trade above the $38,000 level. It is up more than 12 percent over the past 24 hours as bulls are seemingly determined not to let bears rain on their parade.
While Tether still plays a pivotal role in the industry and remains the most traded cryptocurrency overall, rival stablecoins have chipped away at its share of the market.
Circle's USD Coin (USDC), which boasts its regulatory cred, already has a market cap of $28 billion, but it still has plenty of catching up to do to reach Tether's $61 billion.
Vladislav Sopov
Dan Burgin