Topic: Tether Confirms Extensive Collaboration With DOJ, FBI and Secret Service (Read 501 times)

Invest was a poor word traded was better. It's incredible ppl choose tether so much because it's centralised. If ppl don't want to risk holding their $73k bitcoin because they're anxious it's going to drop to $67k they'll consider stable coins for fixed value as options. If they'd turn to other crypto there's a chance they'll lose value if bitcoin does. If USDT freeze your funds or it falls to Terra levels it'll wipe out your savings & investments.

JUST IN: Tether freezes $1.4m USDT linked to US tech scam
I was thinking before that Tether is only in cooperation with law enforcement agent within the US soil, but I was wrong as they are currently in Brazil, Singapore, Philippines, Germany, South Korea, Norway, Poland, Switzerland, Greece, Canada, Croatia, Italy, Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Cayman Islands, China, Netherlands, El Salvador, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Israel, Kyrgyzstan, New Zealand, Spain, Taiwan, the UK, Ukraine, Estonia, and the United States.

Thank you. I was talking about Bitfinex and the issue happened in 2021 if I am correct. Meanwhile, the accusation was true and the organization was penalized for it that's why they are providing public reserve information about Tether now just to show their transparency to the world. If you notice, you'll that Bitfinex market cap was low later.
Nevertheless, the problem DAI once had about devaluation has made some crypto enthusiasts not fully trust the stablecoin and I can understand because reputation is hard to build once tarnished in the crypto market.
Just like you said, if even a decentralized stablecoin everything is still the same if using a CEX.

People don't "invest" in something that has a fixed value, they use it for convenience and because they have no other option. For example when they want to transfer funds between exchanges without losing much Tether is a good option compared to others (fiat costs a ton of fees and has a lot of limitations; cryptocurrencies have medium fees but trading them on different exchanges would lose you a lot of money due to spread and price differences; Tether on the other hand has fixed value) or when there is a bear season specially when altcoins are dumping hard they can use Tether as an escape.

This is why despite all these serious risks, people still continue using this centralized shitcoin.

Because to lift Bitcoin price, new demand must exists, demand must be bigger than supply and to buy Bitcoin, people need stable coins and Tether is a biggest stable coin.

They have other options like cards, cash but stable coins are most favorite choices for Bitcoin investors. There are many stable coins but Tether is a biggest one and has a good ability to maintain its peg. At least USDT did not lose its peg in 2022 after Terra UST and FTX fiascos.

https://coinmarketcap.com/view/usd-stablecoin/

It's worrying investors that's why they haven't been on tether buying sprees. If they'll block holders from funds because of fraudulent or inaccurate requests it's going to cause investors to dump. Tether isn't a good option to invest in.

Governments most times don't need a reason to do something; they just create a reason and tag or confide in an address worthy of seizure, with the kind of legislative power and agreement they have with the government.
 
They seem not to even be the ones doing the sanctioning; rather, any address that the government agency has declared suspicious is hereby in danger, and they will take action immediately. It's now left for you, the wallet owner, to go and battle for your funds legally, and there is no guarantee that you will get any positive results from that.

Edit.  Thought the reply above made no sense but it was my brain instead who did not.  To remove.

The difference with stablecoins is that even after you have withdrawn it into your own wallet, it can still be frozen by the issuers, for example if you deposit Bitcoin into an exchange, it can be frozen by the exchange, but once you have withdrawn the coins into your own non-custodial wallet, it cannot be frozen by any entity. Having said that, if you want to avoid centralized exchanges and their compulsory KYC, trade in decentralized exchanges.

Every stablecoin can is controlled by a party which is working with government. Let me tell you one more thing, might surprise you. Your exchange is working regularly with your government and share all the data so doesn't it make every asset on the Exchange being tracked by government? It's impossible that you never sent any Crypto to exchange. KYC needs to go, it shouldn't exist in 2024.

Correct, but Tether influences the Bitcoin price more than anything else, at least that has been the case so far, it remains to be seen to what extent Bitcoin ETFs will eventually outstrip it. But the fact is that Tether has played a decisive role in every Bitcoin bull run, so it doesn't matter what happens to Tether. A confiscation of Tether could trigger a tsunami in the cryptouniverse.

It will be hard for people to completely stop using Tether, at least in the near future, because it's like one of the earliest Stablecoin pegged by Fiat, so it has the top of mine when people want to use Stablecoin, its like the OG. I preferred Bitcoin for my transaction as freelancer but some of my clients want to use USDT, some of them are not so familiar with crypto or they are still new to it, so they prefer to use Stablecoin, something that still close to Fiat. I believe there will be time when those people who use Tether will finally move on to Bitcoin when they know more about crypto and what's the benefit that it brings. But for now I think we need to accept (and keep warning people) that some of early newcomers of crypto still need to use Tether.

Tether isn't Bitcoin.

Tether is not a decentralized digital currency.

They have every right to work like fiat, they are stable coin and yes they are centralized, regulated? It's certain, because it's equivalent to dollars.

If you are complaining about this then you don't know what you are doing, find a decentralized stable coin and your problem is no more, to me I like how Tether is working, there is no other way than this.

I have always use Tether since many years already and they have never frozen my funds before, sounds like something a hacker or scammer should be complaining about, someone, something must always give the unclean criminals what they deserves, just because it's crypto space it doesn't mean all criminals should be unleashed in this space.

You might be referring to Bitfinex. If I'm not mistaken, both Tether and Bitfinex are owned by one company. There were suspicions, much stronger in the past, that the funds used by Tether as its reserves are also the same funds used by Bitfinex in declaring its own proof of reserves. There's an intermingling of funds by both companies to boost their reserve numbers.

Anyway, both USDT and USDC are centralized. DAI is the more reputable option. But everything's pointless if you are using a centralized exchange anyway. If you are avoiding USDT because it is collaborating with DOJ, FBI, and other secret services, but you are using the likes of Binance, then you are actually not safer. Centralized platforms are also working closely with government agencies.

There are alot of reasons why people should stop using Tether aka USDT even since the stablecoin had an issue with law years ago due to the fund they used to support a crypto exchange which I currently don't remember the name of the exchange.
Meanwhile, if all cryptocurrency enthusiasts wanted to prevent issues like USDT collaboration with the DOJ, FBI, etc they need to stop using both USDT, and USDC and introduce a decentralized stablecoin, or else as stablecoin is considered all of them are working with the FEDs.

Binance's on alert after SEC's case against CZ & FTX's controlled by administrators. They aren't scared to go after big players so why didn't they force Tether to own up to the truth. If they don't have enough reserves they can't pay to cover their crypto so why'r they allowed to trade?

I know it's not. But Tether has always been controversial. I remember there was a bugging question as to Tether's reserve, or capacity to mint tens of billions of coins, for many years. They then released an audit report. But the report somehow raised more questions than answers. It didn't satisfy the public. It didn't allay their suspicions and doubts. It even questioned the reputation of the auditing party. But succeeding audit reports were released since then. This one is the latest. I'm not sure if this is the same auditing firm that first made Tether's audit years ago.

They didn't give public reasons for freezing $952M USDT in 1275 addresses so they've explained nothing it means investors can't trust them. USDT isn't a good investment.

They have reasons to freeze those USDT in banned addresses but they did not public reasons for each banned address.

As user, we only need to know about that power of Tether with their smart contract and aware that they can freeze any USDT address includes our addresses.

Freeze is one risk and another big risk is depeg. Stable coins like USDT can be depeg if they don't have enough cash but over minting their stable coin.

Was it the first time they've released reports?

They've frozen $952M USDT so does it mean each 1275 addresses were used for crime? If they've frozen funds which aren't from crime they've stopped innocent ppl from using their USDT. Who'll hodl stable coins if they can't be sure their funds won't be frozen.

Some people will simply not learn their lesson.  It is their choice not to and after all we are all adults with our own brain we use.  In theory.

USDT is in my opinion worse even than Fiat.  There is absolutely NO point in holding a Cryptocurrency that is SO Centralized and that offers sometimes even less advantages than using Fiat directly.  Besides being able to hold on to the Fiat value of your Portfolio, to me they are useless and sense lacking.

Too many Stablecoins became unstable all of a sudden in the past years.  This should have been a giant warning sign for any body who contemplates doing the same and trying to use Stablecoins because 'even if it happens, what are the chances it happens NOW'.

Imagine having to transfer 100 thousand Dollars through USDT and they decide to crack down on all Wallets containing more than 50 thousand Dollars by freezing them and initializing an investigation.  You are one of those in the exact middle of that with no idea what is about to happen.  So you all of a sudden wake up with your Dollars seized or frozen for no reason.

Why would I want to live under this constant fear.  I want safety, not fear.  Bitcoin offers that.

I would prefer holding my bitcoins rather than any stable coin because I know that my bitcoins cannot be frozen by any entity.
Almost all the stable coins out there can be controlled by an entity which gives them the power to freeze our coins in our wallet.
So why to hold such coins at first place. I know there might come a need to buy those stable coins but even in that case I would just hold it for few days.
It's better to avoid using stable coins.

One can not just keep printing "US dollar" and get away from US regime's retaliation. That is why Tether has been doing! They print dollar! At first US tried fighting it but the Tether guys cooperated and were allowed to continue to exist as long as that cooperation continued.

We already knew Tether is a centralized shitcoin and they could freeze anybody's account and seize their money. The rest of their scam will continued being revealed...

I guess this move was, in a way inevitable and people may have very well predicted a collaboration with some government agencies.
Being a stable coin, it is bound (as it did) to attract crypto enthusiasts who would only be too happy to hold USDT while diversifying their holdings. You wouldn’t have to fret about the value as it’s steady and perhaps due to that reason, it has become popular, widely used and over time, somewhat dependable.
Holding USDT was more or less the same as holding USD on your person. Now with this collaboration, your USDT  could be monitored, blocked and your funds seized.




They obviously would need a reason to seize peoples funds.  It may not be a reasonable one nor an outright just one, but they’ll state a reason and wouldn’t care much if you understood or find reasonable, their reasons.

I fear that a day will come when tether (USDT) blocks, freezes, or sends tokens from user wallets for tax purposes or even in response to a fraudulent request. Then it will turn to intermediary services like PayPal, which rely on bank accounts and comply with all legislation. tether (USDT) is more risky than using cash, as cash is more difficult to track and has a lower probability of freezing than USDT, which is highly centralized and its price can fall below $1.

They're the authorities and at the same time you've been using Tether for you crypto stuff which is a really bad idea which means that you're sort of consenting to the potential that they might freeze your account. You've said it yourself to not use those stuff for things and I think that if there's a reasonable doubt when it comes to things that involve something big like human trafficking, I don't think that it's any good that we let those money flow freely. As much as I hate that they're cooperating with these branches of the Federal Government, I think that it's not a bad thing that they're in it especially for things like this and we've all surrendered our privacy long ago already, didn't we dismissed what Snowden has exposed when he was working for NSA? So why are we still hesitant to this kind of things?

Tether is a centralized company and with smart contract of Tether USD (USDT), they can seize USDT in any address.

PSA: Most Stablecoins Can Be Frozen, Even in Your Own Wallets
Stable coin and black list.

There are many banned addresses from Tether. 1,275 banned addresses with total USDT in those banned addresses is 952,204,533 USDT
https://duneanalytics.com/phabc/usdt---banned-addresses

Tether has actually released audit reports. Just last month, it has released its 4th quarter report. They reported billions in profit. Accordingly, there is even an excess in cash reserves. This was done by an independent auditing firm. As to whether we trust it or not, it would be up to us.

Anyway, who would hodl USDT? USDT may be a good coin for traders as it provides them a stable option and it represents fiat, which is not available in many trading platforms, but it isn't a coin worth hodling. If you want to hodl USDT, you better hodl real USD. USD in cash is much better than USDT.

They didn't show balance sheets so we shouldn't believe it. I don't know if they're saying the truth but it's gambling to hodl USDT if they're able to freeze your money which's in your wallet that doesn't make centralised coins target for investment.

 

Tether might claim that every issued USDT coin is backed 1:1 to the U.S. dollar, but the thing is, how true can that be; that is the big risk with stable coins, after the possibility of them being frozen in your own wallet. The companies that issue these coins can print so many of them basically out of thin air, not backed by anything, is there a way to prove for a fact that Tether has reserves to cover all circulating USDT coins. If you are hodling USDT because you believe what their issuing company says, then you have to think again on the risk you are undertaking.

Well they probably traders who eanted to use usdt to trade other altcoins on exchange. Apparently the fact that they traded it means they are aware of it. No big guys who has a lot of stablecoin isnt aware about the news here about stablecoin and if chances that they dont really know it is quite near to impossible. They are probably risking it seeing that usdt can work well on their end.

I don't think so, after all, it is about something that is in the altcoins zone, but to some extent it makes sense for beginners to be warned and familiarized with some things when it comes to stablecoins.

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I have written several times on the forum that this stablecoin (as well as most others) have meaning and fulfill their purpose for all those who are active crypto traders, but on the other hand I would describe them as a perfect Trojan horse that the authorities can at any moment activate and freeze the so-called stablecoins and thus cause a panic of unprecedented proportions.

It is clearly visible from everything that can be read over the years that the authorities (especially in the EU) see a far greater threat in stablecoins than in Bitcoin. Due to everything I have already written and the fact that there are always doubts whether stablecoins are really backed in a 1:1 ratio with fiat currencies, I believe that there is a huge room for manipulation and that a significant percentage of all stablecoins are actually not backed by anything.

I kind of hate to say this but as a price stable cryptocurrency the reason why we have many people still making use of Tether USDT despite it been centralized is by virtue of it's custodian trust the users have on it when compared to other pegged cryptocurrency (decentralized or centralized) and being pegged to the US dollar a fiat currency that is strong in strength to other fiats and serving as reserve currency of many countries globally.

But centralized institutions will forever behave as centralized institutions breaking you when you least expected it in as much as their interest has to be intact by whatever means necessary.

It is not every cryptocurrency that is decentralized, so many of us believe that Bitcoin is the only true decentralized cryptocurrency. USDT is a centralized stable coin issued by the company Tether, it is not decentralized.
USDT is pegged to the dollar, and it is controlled by the issuing company, it is a centralized coin and if you use it you have to understand that this was always possible, the only thing is that they are now in full cooperation with law enforcement agencies.

That's a total disaster and against the number one feature of crypto and that's decentralization. They could have partnered or collaborated with other companies or agencies but definitely not the law enforcement agencies or any organization directly partnering with the government because these people don't like the whole idea of decentralization in crypto and all they want is either to gain control of crypto or bring it down if they can't.

I know that Tether is somehow tied to US Dollar but it's still  crypto and shouldn't be controlled or regulated by anyone, especially not the government. Well then let's see what comes out of this alliance.

I didn't know about this news, but I can't say that I am surprised at all.
It was probably either that or shutdown for them, and they decide to bend and allow full access and tracking.
Maybe this is perfect time to work more on some alternative stable coin solution that has private transactions, something like blockstream confidential transactions but better.
Another option is bitcoin based project on lightning network called stablesats.com.
 
This is outdated list and most of this coins are worthless junk with zero volume, so they are unusable.

Surprise, I guess? Tether is a centralized company — it's pretty much guaranteed for them to partner with 3-letter agencies. In fact, it's also guaranteed for these 3-letter agencies to be working with them even if they like it or not.

Many people come to crypto with the full belief that everything that's called cryptocurrency is entirely decentralised and privacy protected, which is where they all got it wrong. This is the reason why most people still find it shocking to fall into the trap of their token being frozen in their own wallet and all of that.
 
Before this recent happening with Tether and other stable coins, there have already been numerous altcoins that people buy and hold on to their wallets without knowing that they are not completely in control of the token. The developers wake up someday and reduce the amount they hold, freeze the wallet they want to freeze, and all of that.
 
Anyone who wants full privacy should go for coins like bitcoin and monero, which are the two that I know for now for their high privacy rates. And what's the point of holding USDT, by the way, when you can just better hold your fiat currency in your local bank account?. 
 
Stablecoins are one of the highest scams we have in the crypto industry. The pegging is why they use it to deceive investors when they don't know what's truly behind the wheel. It can be depegged anytime if anything positive happens to the company. Let's take a good look at UST (the Luna Lab stable coin). It's now one of the meme coins being traded on Binance, and such can happen to any of the stablecoins any day.

The collaboration with the United states 3 lettered agencies is really paying off as an approximate of 326 wallets with 435 million dollars have been frozen so far. This is a massive seizure from the government but it's doesn't come to me as a surprise because Tether is centralized and they can easily track and freeze one's fund. This is another reason to reconsider when hodling a centralized stablecoin and I'd rather opt for the decentralized ones like DAI and the likes that are not under any form of censorship.

It has always been possible for stable coin issuers to freeze your coins, now quite a lot of people think this can only happen when your stable coin is held in a centralized exchange, but mind you that your stable coins can be frozen even if your own wallet.

Tether collaborating with the DOJ, secret service and the FBI should not come as a surprise to anyone, they are a centralized service and centralized services cooperate with law enforcement, they have also never presented themselves as a privacy coin or anything of that sort, thus it is up to users to decide what they want for themselves.

Who would have thought, no?

I find it concerning how some people transfer significant amounts of money through Stable Coins and they do not even know their funds can be frozen.  But at the end of the day the real Bitcoiners will not even contemplate holding Stable Coins at all ever in their Cryptocurrency timeline.  So if you care about being non custodial and having complete control over your assets, please do not use Stable Coins.  They are a continuous risk.

Anybody using centralised platforms has decided to give away their privacy, security and custody of their funds. The government can give any reason to freeze your funds and you might do little or nothing to get back your funds. Apart from government intervention in the operations of the activities of these stablecoin, some of these stablecoin issuers are not trustworthy. The claim that these coins are backed by fiat, cryptocurrencies or commodities cannot be verified because their audit reports are doctored or some vital information is kept secret. So users of stablecoins are also risking losing their funds bankruptcy caused by the unhealthy practices of these stablecoin issuers.

Not only Tether, all other smart contract stable coins are centralized and they can be seized even you hold it in your own wallets.

PSA: Most Stablecoins Can Be Frozen, Even in Your Own Wallets
Stable coins and banned addresses

Tether banned addresses.
https://dune.com/phabc/usdt---banned-addresses
1237 banned addresses with total value is $849M.

USDC banned addresses.
https://dune.com/phabc/usdc-banned-addresses
211 banned addresses with total value is $75.6M.

Is this the right place for this?

Another reason people should stop using tether (USDT), which is among the most stable coins we have in the crypto market right now, and it ranks in the top 3 according to coin . marketcap  
 
I just happened to stumble upon this news.

Just a quick reminder for those making use of Tether for large transactions. Just so you know, there is nothing much different between it and using normal fiat, as your funds can be frozen and you can't do anything. The blacklisting mapping gives them access to freeze the funds of anyone whom they think is not worthy of whatever they are holding in that wallet.
 
just a few weeks ago: Tether Freezes $225M Linked to Human Trafficking Syndicate Amid DOJ Investigatio
 
But does the Fed even need a reason to freeze anyone's wallet nowadays? To me, they don't; they just make a reason and pronounce anything they want illegal, and that's it.
 
For security reasons and for asset safety I will advice if we must use stable coins which should consider those ones which we have total control over them and not just the ones that have frozen feature enabled on them.

Made a quick search and I came across this:  List of decentralized Stablecoins by d5000 , the Op is very much active but the thread was last updated same year if it’s creation {May 30, 2018}