(Reuters) -The U.S. Department of Justice is probing whether executives behind the Tether digital token committed bank fraud during the nascent stages of its cryptocurrency business, Bloomberg News reported on Monday.
The probe is focusing on events from several years ago when Tether, a stablecoin launched in 2014, was in its early stages, the report said. (https://bloom.bg/3eWnraR)
The agency is examining whether Tether concealed from banks that transactions were linked to crypto, the report added, citing three people with direct knowledge of the matter.
“Tether routinely has open dialogue with law enforcement agencies, including the U.S. Department of Justice,” the company said in response to the report.
“It is business as usual at Tether, and we remain focused on how to best serve the needs of our customers.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Justice declined to comment.
The stablecoin universe is so far dominated by two main tokens, Tether and USD Coin. Tether accounts for more than 60% of the total stablecoins issued, worth about $100 billion.
(Reporting by Niket Nishant in Bengaluru and Chris Prentice in Washington; Editing by Shailesh Kuber and Shinjini Ganguli)
