Tether prints another $250 million worth of new USDT tokens on May 18th.
Tether is behind the USDT token, which is backed at a 1:1 ratio to the US dollar. They have earlier been accused of not having sufficient fiat reserves to actually back the USDT token at a 1:1 ratio. However, Tether published a proof of funds report on their website that states the total amount of USD holdings that should bring some transparency.
The total supply of USDT tokens are now 2.5 billion and the proof of the newly minted coins can be found at Omni Explorer.
Bitfinex, the third largest exchange for cryptocurrencies ranked by the 24-hour volume on Coinmarketcap is very closely related to Tehter, in fact, the two are sister companies.
Critics are questioning the relationship between Bifinex and Tether due to the lack of transparency with the anonymous blogger ‘‘Bitinex’ed‘ in the lead.
Bitfinex has hired law firms to challenge critics and says “To date, every claim made by these bad actors has been patently false and made simply to agitate the cryptocurrency ecosystem. As a result, Bitfinex has decided to assert all of its legal rights and remedies against this agitator and his associates.”
Regardless of whose side you’re on, Tether says that their currency is not real money. Under their Legal section on their website, they say ” Tether Tokens are fully backed by the currency or property used to purchase them at issuance. Tether Tokens are denominated in a range of currencies. For example, if you purchase EURT, your Tethers are fully backed by Euros. If you cause to be issued EURT 100.00, Tether holds €100.00 to back those Tether Tokens. The range of currencies available to denominate Tether Tokens is within the sole control and at the sole and absolute discretion of Tether. Tether Tokens are backed by money, but they are not money themselves.”
