Tether finally dropped its opposition to the FOIL requests issued by crypto media outlets: on June 15, 2023, they received all documents regarding Tether (USDT) operations in 2020-2021 via the New York Attorney General's Office. In a blog post, the Tether team explained its motivation behind this bold move and addressed some recent allegations.
Tether finally discloses data about its operations in previous bull run to media
Today, on June 16, 2023, Tether Limited unveiled that the New York Attorney General's Office (NYAG) provided documents about its operations to CoinDesk and others. This became possible once Tether dropped the process of appeal against media requests.
Tether decided not to perfect the appeal thanks to a combination of factors. First, the sensitivity of the information regarding 2020-2021 events dropped. Then, it decided to reaffirm its commitment to the maximum transparency of its operations as the largest stablecoin.
Despite not having endorsed the process of sharing data with journalists, Tether refuses to admit that it was "forced" to disclose the data:
We could have proceeded with the appeal, however, our ongoing and demonstrable commitment to transparency means that we must prioritize openness over further time-consuming and unproductive American litigation that distracts from the real issues facing our community.
At the same time, Tether has no intention of making the mentioned documents public in order to avoid all risks for its customers. Also, its team stressed that some data (including the structure of USDT backing) might be irrelevant as it changed in 2022-2023.
Tether on being exposed to Chinese commercial paper: "We did not lose a dime"
For instance, Tether made the basket of assets backing USDT more conservative. It reduced the share of commercial paper as value migrated to U.S. Treasury holdings.
Also, it addressed the accusation of holding the stocks of collapsed Chinese companies. The Tether team admitted that it used to have Chinese commercial paper in its portfolio, but it only included the stocks of "large and well known issuers in the international Commercial paper market."
Before the share of commercial paper dropped to zero, Tether only held A1-rated stocks, the statement says. That is why, despite the ongoing recession, it did not lose a "dime" on holding stocks.