Tether, a stablecoin backed mostly by U.S. Treasurys, is one of the first effective products to emerge from the cryptocurrency uprising. While Tether has become a success, it has also created numerous obstacles for the U.S. in combating illegal financial activities. Although Tether can track the identities of its direct customers, its secondary market goes undocumented and unnoticed. Tether also has the ability to freeze wallets – between 2018 and this June, Tether blacklisted 2,713 wallets on its most popular blockchains that had received a total of about $153 billion. But Tether could only freeze $1.4 billion of these funds because the rest had already been sent on. Tether provides crucial support to people living in unstable economies that are isolated by sanctions, and runaway inflation, such as Venezuela and Argentina. On the other hand, Tether is considered the preferred choice for some money launderers and helps facilitate illicit transactions for countries under U.S. sanctions such as Russia and Iran. While Tether continues to expand into other emerging markets, regulators lack the tools to interdict in terrorist financing and sanctions evasion. https://www.wsj.com/finance/currencies/tether-crypto-us-dollar-sanctions-52f85459?mod=Searchresults_pos2&page=1
The Cryptocurrency That’s Fueling the Financial Underworld
