It is effectively an unregulated, offshore bank that’s become a tent pole of the $3 trillion crypto industry. The tether token is known as a stablecoin, a kind of crypto that was created to hold its value steady while others, like bitcoin and ether, swing wildly minute to minute. The company is now one of the biggest players in crypto, with a daily trading volume that eclipses even bitcoin, the world’s most popular token. Tether told the WSJ in a statement that any suggestion it was involved in criminal activity was “outrageous” and that the company works actively with law enforcement to combat illicit activity. But Lutnick, a Bitcoin enthusiast whose Wall Street firm manages Tether’s stockpile of Treasury bills, has eagerly defended the stablecoin issuer.

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Persons: New York CNN — Howard Lutnick, Cantor Fitzgerald, who’s, they’re, Brock Pierce, “, Giancarlo Devasini, “ There’s, we’ve, ” Lutnick, Donald Trump’s, —, didn’t, Lutnick, Gary Gensler, ” Faryar Shirzad, “ It’s, ” Organizations: New, New York CNN, US Commerce Department, Ducks, Street, Manhattan US, Treasury Department, Bloomberg, Economic, Commerce Department —, Treasury, Securities and Exchange Locations: New York, Russian, Davos, United States, bitcoin