Tether Freezes Accounts
Posted on 10/16/2023
Tether is the most well known stablecoin. It comes from the company Tether Limited Inc. Tether Limited has minted the USDT stablecoin on ten protocols and blockchains. Tether is pegged to the dollar at US $1.00 per token. Tether Limited is owned by the Hong Kong-based company iFinex Inc., which also owns the Bitfinex cryptocurrency exchange. Tether Limited maintains the services of Britannia Bank & Trust, a privately-held Bahamas bank, to process its dollar transfers.
Tether is now going on the offensive, politically speaking. Assets held in Tether are now frozen inside cryptocurrency wallets in some accounts due to “terrorism and warfare.” The move comes after the latest fighting in the Middle East. Tether is keeping the identities of the account holders private for now.
This indicates that certain crypto assets are not necessarily free from interference. In the same way that the U.S. froze, and may ultimately spend, Russia’s assets, the forces behind a cryptocurrency apparently will take away access if they choose to do so. Various crypto holders will be cheered that money potentially meant for fighting will be frozen, but it also sets a precedent for a top-down hierarchy, something the crypto space was theoretically opposed to.
