A group of four men controlled 86% of stablecoin issuer Tether Holdings Limited in 2018, according to documents obtained by The Wall Street Journal in connection with investigations by US authorities.
Inquiries by the New York attorney general and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission into Tether in 2021 brought to light its previously unknown ownership structure. The company is the issuer of Tether (USDT), the world’s largest stablecoin, with $68 billion in circulation, according to CoinMarketCap.
According to the documents, Tether was built by the joint efforts of the former plastic surgeon Giancarlo Devasini and former child actor and crypto entrepreneur Brock Pierce. In September 2014, Tether Holdings was incorporated in the British Virgin Islands.
Four years later, Pierce had already left the company, and Devasini owned around 43% of Tether. Devasini also helped build the Bitfinex exchange, where he is currently CFO. Bitfinex CEO, Jean-Louis van Der Velde, and the chief counselor Stuart Hoegner they each owned roughly 15% of Tether in 2018, according to the documents.
Tether’s fourth-largest shareholder in 2018 was a man with dual nationality, known as Christopher Harborne in the UK and Chakrit Sakunkrit in Thailand, he owned 13%.
Through its own holdings and another related company, the four men controlled approximately 86% of Tether, according to the report.
Tether’s CTO, Paolo Ardoino, tweeted that the Journal article was a “clown article” What would drive the growth of the company?
The more clown articles the more tether grows. People understand that Tether is standing for freedom and inclusion. This is upsetting MSM.
Eventually holepunch will break media as well.— Paolo Ardoino (@paoloardoino) February 2, 2023
According to a Tether spokesperson, the Ardoino messages were the company’s official response to the article. In November 2022, another article claimed that Tether could be deemed “technically insolvent” if its assets fell by 0.3%. The company labeled the article as “false information.”
Tether to WSJ pic.twitter.com/ESGblkrO7b
— Paolo Ardoino (@paoloardoino) February 2, 2023
A settlement was reached between Tether and the New York attorney general’s office in 2021 after the company allegedly misrepresented the amount of fiat collateral backing its stablecoin. In addition to paying $18.5 million in damages to the state of New York, The company was required to submit regular information on its reserves, Cointelegraph reported.
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