Tether seeks Big Four firm for its first full financial audit: Report
Stablecoin issuer Tether is reportedly engaging with a Big Four accounting firm to audit its assets reserve and verify that its USDT (USDT) stablecoin is backed at a 1:1 ratio.
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino reportedly said the audit process would be more straightforward under pro-crypto US President Donald Trump. It comes after rising industry concerns over a potential FTX-style liquidity crisis for Tether due to its lack of third-party audits.
Tether to produce first full audit after scrutiny
“If the President of the United States says this is top priority for the US, Big Four auditing firms will have to listen, so we are very happy with that,” Ardoino told Reuters on March 21.
“It’s our top priority,” Ardoino said. It was reported that Tether is currently subject to quarterly reports but not a full independent annual audit, which is much more extensive and provides more assurance to investors and regulators.
However, Ardoino did not specify which of the Big Four accounting firms — PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Ernst & Young (EY), Deloitte, or KPMG — he plans to engage.
Tether recorded a profit of $13.7 billion in 2024. Source: Paolo Ardoino
Tether’s USDT maintains its stable value by claiming to be pegged to the US dollar at a 1:1 ratio. This means each USDT token is backed by reserves equivalent to its circulating supply.
These reserves include traditional currency, cash equivalents and other assets.
Earlier this month, Tether hired Simon McWilliams as chief financial officer in preparation for a full financial audit.
Industry concerns over Tether’s lack of audits
In September 2024, Cyber Capital founder Justin Bons was among those in the industry who voiced concerns about Tether’s lack of transparency.
“[Tether is] one of the biggest existential threats to crypto. As we have to trust they hold $118B in collateral without proof! Even after the CFTC fined Tether for lying about their reserves in 2021,” Bons said.
Related: Tether freezes $27M USDT on sanctioned Russian exchange Garantex
Around the same time, Consumers’ Research, a consumer protection group, published a report criticizing Tether for its lack of transparency.
Just three years prior, in 2021, the United States Commodities and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) fined Tether a $41 million civil monetary penalty for lying about USDT being fully backed by reserves.
Meanwhile, more recently, Tether has voiced disappointment over new European regulations that have forced exchanges like Crypto.com to delist USDT and nine other tokens to comply with MiCA.
“It is disappointing to see the rushed actions brought on by statements which do little to clarify the basis for such moves,” a spokesperson for Tether told Cointelegraph.
Cointelegraph reached out to Tether but did not receive a response by time of publication.
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Update March 22, 2025, 10:08 a.m. UTC: This article has been updated to include an embed of the Chainreaction episode.
The cryptocurrency industry may still be facing debanking-related issues in the United States, despite the recent wave of positive legislation, according to crypto regulatory experts and industry leaders.
The collapse of crypto-friendly banks in early 2023 sparked the first allegations of Operation Chokepoint 2.0. Critics, including venture capitalist Nic Carter, described it as a government effort to pressure banks into cutting ties with cryptocurrency firms.
Despite numerous crypto-positive decisions from US President Donald Trump, including the March 7 order to use Bitcoin (BTC) seized in government criminal cases to establish a national reserve, the industry may still be facing banking issues.
“It’s premature to say that debanking is over,” according to Caitlin Long, founder and CEO of Custodia Bank. Long said during Cointelegraph’s Chainreaction daily X show on March 21:
“There are two crypto-friendly banks under examination by the Fed right now and an army of examiners was sent into these banks, including the examiners from Washington, a literal army just smothering the banks.”
The Crypto Debanking Crisis: #CHAINREACTION https://t.co/nD4qkkzKnB
— Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) March 21, 2025
“The Fed is the outlier and the Fed is still controlled by democrats,” explained Long, adding:
“Trump won’t have the ability to appoint a new Fed governor until January. So therefore you can see the breadcrumbs leading up to a potentially big fight. Because if the OCC and FDIC overturn their anti-crypto guidance but the Fed does not, where does that leave us?”
Long’s Custodia Bank was repeatedly targeted by the US debanking efforts, which cost the firm months of work and “a couple of million dollars,” she explained.
Industry outrage over alleged debanking reached a crescendo when a June 2024 lawsuit spearheaded by Coinbase resulted in the release of letters showing US banking regulators asked certain financial institutions to “pause” crypto banking activities.
Related: FDIC chair, ‘architect of Operation Chokepoint 2.0’ Martin Gruenberg to resign Jan. 19
Crypto debanking is the biggest operational problem in EU: blockchain regulations adviser
Cryptocurrency debanking is also among the biggest challenges for European cryptocurrency firms, according to Anastasija Plotnikova, co-founder and CEO of blockchain regulatory firm Fideum.
“We’re living in 2025 and debanking is still one of the main operational issues for both small and large crypto firms,” said Plotnikova, adding:
“Crypto debanking is also a problem here in the EU. I had my accounts closed in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, and 2022, but 2024 was a good year. Operationally these problems exist for both users and crypto firms operating.”
Related: Paolo Ardoino: Competitors and politicians intend to ‘kill Tether’
The comments come two weeks after the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) eased its stance on how banks can engage with crypto just hours after US President Donald Trump vowed to end the prolonged crackdown restricting crypto firms’ access to banking services.
Trump’s remarks were made during the White House Crypto Summit, where he told industry leaders he was “ending Operation Chokepoint 2.0.”
Source: Elon Musk
At least 30 tech and crypto founders were “secretly debanked” in the US during Operation Chokepoint 2.0, Cointelegraph reported in November 2024.
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The government of Nigeria is still open to crypto businesses operating in the country despite the ongoing lawsuit against crypto exchange Binance and the high-profile detention of Binance executive Tigran Gambaryan.
Nigerian Information Minister Mohammed Idris told Semafor that many crypto businesses operate inside the country that are not facing litigation or criminal prosecution.
“This is part of the effort to strengthen our laws, not to cripple anybody. We are ensuring that no one comes and operates without regulation,” Idris told the outlet.
Nigeria filed an $81.5 billion lawsuit against Binance in February, claiming the exchange crashed Nigeria’s local currency, the naira, and said that Binance owed $2 billion in back taxes as the Nigerian government continues to grapple with sensible crypto policy.
The naira M2 money supply has been rapidly increasing since March 2024. Source: Trading Economics
Related: Nigeria’s crypto future: Striking a balance between innovation and regulation
Nigerian regulations don’t give crypto investors hope
The Nigerian Securities and Exchange Commission overhauled its crypto regulations in December 2024, tightening laws around crypto marketing and advertising.
More specifically, the updated law requires digital asset providers operating in the country to obtain permission before third-party marketing firms can run advertisements on behalf of the firms.
In February, Nigerian regulators also announced a plan to tax crypto transactions for revenue generation.
According to Chainalysis “2024 Global Adoption Index” report, Nigeria ranks second globally for crypto adoption, while India claimed the top spot.
Nigeria ranks second globally for crypto adoption. Source: Chainalysis
Chainalysis also found that the African country received $59 billion in cryptocurrencies between July 2023 and June 2024.
Despite these impressive figures, taxing crypto transactions may not bring in the revenue desired by the Nigerian government.
Nigeria leads African countries in terms of cryptocurrency value received. Source: Chainalysis
Coin Bureau founder and market analyst Nic Puckrin said Nigeria has a robust over-the-counter market for retail crypto trading, which evades centralized exchanges and is difficult to track or tax.
Puckrin added that importers use crypto to circumvent the high volatility of the Nigerian naira and escape foreign exchange risk.
The rapidly depreciating value of the fiat currency makes it unlikely that the importers will stop using crypto, and these importers will be hard-pressed to report their crypto transactions, which can be conducted peer-to-peer, to the Nigerian government.
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Coinbase is in advanced talks to buy Deribit, a cryptocurrency derivatives exchange, according to a March 21 report by Bloomberg.
Acquiring Deribit — the world’s largest venue for trading Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) options — would bolster Coinbase’s existing derivatives platform, which currently focuses on futures.
Coinbase and Deribit have reportedly alerted regulators in Dubai to the deal talks. Deribit holds a license in Dubai, which would need to be transferred to Coinbase if a deal goes through, according to Bloomberg, which cited unnamed sources.
In January, Bloomberg reported that a deal with Coinbase could value Deribit at between $4 billion and $5 billion.
Deribit lists options, futures and spot cryptocurrencies. Its total trading volumes last year were around $1.2 trillion, Bloomberg said.
On March 20, Kraken, a rival crypto exchange, announced plans to acquire derivatives trading platform NinjaTrader for around $1.5 billion.
Deribit is a popular crypto derivatives exchange. Source: Deribit
Related: Kraken to acquire NinjaTrader for $1.5B to offer US crypto futures
Red-hot market
Cryptocurrency derivatives, such as futures are options, are surging in popularity in the US.
Futures are standardized contracts allowing traders to buy or sell assets at a future date, often with leverage. Options are contracts granting the right to buy or sell — “call” or “put,” in trader parlance — an underlying asset at a certain price.
Both types of financial derivatives are popular among both retail and institutional investors for hedging and speculation.
In December, Coinbase said derivatives trading volumes soared roughly 10,950% in 2024, Coinbase said.
Coinbase lists derivatives tied to some 92 different assets on its international exchange and a smaller number in the US, according to its 2024 annual report.
In January, Robinhood rolled out cryptocurrency futures as the popular online brokerage redoubled its efforts to compete with Coinbase.
In February, CME Group, the world’s largest derivatives exchange, said it clocked an average daily trading volume of approximately $10 billion for crypto derivatives in the fourth quarter of 2024 — a more than 300% increase from the year prior.
Coinbase launched the US’ first Commodity Futures Trading Commission-regulated Solana (SOL) futures in February. CME launched its own SOL futures contracts the following month.
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