Tether Claims it Will Conduct an Audit in ‘a Matter of Months’

Tether General Counsel Stuart Hoegner said that an audit of Tether’s reserves could be released in a few month’s time.

Tether’s General Counsel Stuart Hoegner, in a Tech Check CNBC segment on July 21, said that the company would conduct an audit in months. Tether’s reserves have long been a talking point in the crypto market, with many incidents in the past throwing shade on its reputation.

As the world’s most used stablecoin, all eyes will be on Tether (USDT) when it does release this audit. The company recently crossed a market cap of $60 billion, which is more than double that of the next biggest stablecoin, USD Coin (USDC).

The last audit did not sit well with the crypto community, and Tether also low-key changed its reserve backing. In its most recent reserve report, Tether’s consolidated assets were shown to completely back its supply.

The announcement of an audit follows a transparency audit report published by Circle, the firm behind USD Coin (USDC). It revealed that over 60% of its USDC supply was backed by cash or cash equivalents. Of course, Circle has plans to go public, and this transparency plays a part in winning investors over.

Tether also finally put an end to its case with the New York Attorney General, settling it with a payment of $18.5 million. Tether and the Bitfinex exchange are also banned from “continuing illegal activities” in the region.

Will this audit finally appease the crypto crowd?

The calls for audits of Tether’s reserves stretch as far and back as 2017. Tether’s repeated minting of new USDT tokens has also been a particularly strong point of criticism within the community. On top of this, one Tether co-founder even said that it doesn’t matter if USDT is entirely backed by dollar reserves.

But as regulators dial their scrutiny of the market up a notch, Tether will want to be careful that it follows the rules. Circle did precisely this, preempting the need to be compliant as much as possible in its bid to be a “leader” in public transparency.

But Tether could finally put that skepticism to bed with the release of an audit. The USDT token is a major force in the crypto market, so it would do the market well as a whole when the report is published.

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