Executives from Tether are potentially facing a criminal probe into bank fraud, Bloomberg reported Monday.
- The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating Tether for a possible offense conducted years ago, the outlet reported citing people with knowledge of the matter.
- The price of bitcoin dipped on the news, falling about $1,000 shortly after the report came out.
- A request for comment was not immediately returned by Tether.
- Tether, which administers USDT, the crypto market's largest stablecoin, has long been dogged by accusations of murky banking relationships.
- Tether and its sister exchange Bitfinex settled an investigation by the New York Attorney General's Office (NYAG) into whether the stablecoin issuer was covering up the loss of nearly $1 billion in customer funds earlier this year.
- In the settlement agreement, the NYAG said Tether used various banks, but was suspended from some, including Wells Fargo, for unspecified reasons.
- Bloomberg previously reported in 2018 that the DOJ was investigating whether Tether and Bitfinex were pumping bitcoin's price.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
UPDATE (July 26, 2021, 14:41 UTC): Updated with additional context.
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