Stuart Hoegner expressed:  On Bitfinex’s and Tether_to’s settlement with the CFTC.

As we mentioned in our announcements, we have resolved outstanding matters with the CFTC and they have concluded their review.

I would encourage everyone to read the settlement and not just the press release. As part of the settlement, Tether and Bitfinex admit no wrongdoing.

Remember that all of the CFTC’s findings concern the period 2016 through February 2019. During that period, Tether at times relied on other entities (e.g., Bitfinex) for assistance in holding its funds because of banking issues.

The CFTC only credits backing in bank accounts in the name of Tether. The CFTC did _not_ find that tether tokens were not fully backed at all times — simply that the reserves were not all in cash and all in a bank account titled in Tether’s name at all times.

This is old news, and the CFTC’s order both recognizes that these issues were fully resolved when our disclosures were updated more than 2½ years ago and found no violations related to our current operations.

Tether is fully backed, as our assurance attestations prove definitively. Tether has never refused a redemption to a customer. And Tether is now moving forward with audited financials, which for a long period were not available to us.

With a market cap of just shy of $70B, we look forward to continuing to provide our customers with the most innovative, liquid, and popular stable coin.

Community response:  The CoinDesk headline on the settlement was very misleading. I assume purposely.

You assume correctly.

I hope you and Tether_io team reply; this is a real question: Q: thinking through scenarios about what happens next as crypto industry evolves it occurs to me Federal Reserve will need to buy and redeem all USDT to govern crypto liquidity. Do you agree? Does Tether anticipate this?

Meanwhile Gabor Gurbacs pointed to how he was tired of uninformed bankers and journalists pick on for supporting Tether. He stated how he understands the space well and have supported stable coins and financial innovation from the early days. Stable coins are a way to improve on predatory payments and banking practices.

Tether and other stablecoins have done a great job improving their disclosures as standards in the space emerged. These entities tried to do the right thing despite banks, accounting firms and other basic services denied support to Bitcoin companies for almost a decade.

Further the companies in the stablecoin industry are trying to do the right thing considering the ever-changing regulatory landscape. Regulators are also trying to do the right thing creating rules of engagement. Eventually we will have clear standards for the industry.