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Fact check

Is it true: Tether (USDT) reserve-composition concealment (2017-present)?

Partially True4% confidence

Partly — it's more complicated than the claim suggests.

NYAG Feb 2021 settlement ($18.5M) and CFTC Oct 2021 order ($41M) confirmed Tether misrepresented reserve composition — backing was not purely cash for extended periods including 2016-19, when full backing existed only 27.6% of sampled days. Current reserves attested but never fully audited by a Big Four firm. Past misrepresentation: confirmed. Current status: unverified.

The claim

Tether Limited, issuer of the USDT stablecoin, claimed for years that each USDT was backed 1:1 by US dollars held in reserve. Investigations by the New York Attorney General (settled February 2021, $1

Key evidence

Tether's original TOS claimed 100% fiat backing

CFTC: Tether fully backed only 27.6% of sampled days 2016-19

Read the full evidence file

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