Tether Fined $41 Million by CFTC for Lying About Dollar Reserves Backing Stablecoin

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission ordered Tether Holdings Limited to pay a $41 million civil penalty for making untrue and misleading statements about the reserves backing its USDT stablecoin, the world’s largest stablecoin with over $69 billion in circulation. The CFTC found that from June 1, 2016 to February 25, 2019, Tether repeatedly claimed USDT was “100% backed by U.S. dollars” in bank accounts, but held sufficient fiat reserves for only 27.6% of the days in a 26-month sample period. For example, from June to September 2017, Tether never had more than $61.5 million in reserves even as over 442 million tokens were circulating. Instead of holding reserves in U.S. dollars as represented, Tether relied on unregulated entities to hold funds, comingled reserves with sister company Bitfinex’s operational and customer funds, and held reserves in non-fiat financial products. The order revealed Tether failed to complete routine professional audits during the entire period, instead conducting a single one-day review on a pre-selected date after Bitfinex transferred $382 million to Tether’s account in advance. CFTC Commissioner Dawn Stump issued a blistering concurring statement warning the settlement created “a false sense of security” because “we do not regulate stablecoins and we do not have daily insight into the businesses of those who issue such.” She questioned whether the CFTC was misleading the public by suggesting it was the “cop on the beat” for stablecoins when it lacked regulatory authority. The case exposed catastrophic regulatory gaps: stablecoins operated in a jurisdictional void between the SEC (securities) and CFTC (commodities) with neither agency having clear oversight authority. Despite Tether being critical infrastructure for the crypto market—facilitating hundreds of billions in daily trading volume—it operated without banking regulation, deposit insurance, or audit requirements. The $41 million fine represented a tiny fraction of the billions Tether earned from its fraud, and the settlement allowed Tether to continue operating without completing an audit or proving it held adequate reserves. The regulatory failure enabled Tether’s business model where an unregulated offshore entity issued billions in dollar-pegged tokens without banking oversight, transparency, or consumer protection—creating systemic risk that threatened the entire crypto market. As of 2025, Tether still has never completed a full audit despite controlling over $120 billion in claimed reserves.