Tether, the world’s largest stablecoin, said on Thursday that it had hired accounting firm BDO Italia to confirm its asset reserves, and aims to publish its reports monthly rather than quarterly by the end of the year. Stablecoins are a type of cryptocurrency designed to maintain a constant value, such as a 1:1 peg to the US dollar. They are widely used to transfer money between different cryptocurrencies or in regular cash.
Tether maintains that its coin maintains its value by holding dollar-denominated reserves to match or exceed the value of the Tether coins in circulation. These reserves have long been the subject of scrutiny, which intensified following the selloff of crypto markets following the collapse of stablecoin TeraUSD in May.
Tether, operated by a British Virgin Islands company, has published reports in recent years in which accountancy firms attest to the size of their reserves. As of March 31, there were total reserves of $ 82.4 billion (about Rs 6,57,100 crore), of which $ 39 billion (about Rs 3,11,100 crore) was in the US treasury and $ 20 billion (about Rs 1,59,500 crore) was in commercial . paper.
The most recent two reports were by a Cayman Islands firm, MHA Cayman. Previously, Tether used another Cayman Islands firm, Moore Cayman, on its website. shows,
BDO Italia is an audit and assurance company based in Italy, an independent member firm of BDO International Limited. At least two Italian officials are involved in Tether management. Chief technology officer Paolo Ardoino told Reuters that most of the team members are based in Europe and the Bahamas, where most of the reserves are kept.
Tether said in a statement that it began working with BDO Italia in July, adding the relationship is “the next step towards a full audit of the company”.
“Our community asked over time to improve the auditing firm we’ve been using because they thought they wanted something bigger,” Ardoino said.
By the end of August, Tether will have reduced its holding of commercial paper to $200 million (about Rs 1,600 crore), Ardoino said, down from $8.4 billion (about Rs 67,000 crore) on July 1. He did not specify which asset it was, instead the fund was gone.
© Thomson Reuters 2022
