Most of the crypto traders would agree that USDT is the most actively traded stablecoin on the market. In fact, as of February 11, it also holds the title of having the highest daily trading volume (nearly US$150 billion), far ahead of second placed Bitcoin (US$82 billion) and third placed Ethereum (US$39 billion).
For stablecoin ranking, Binance USD comes in second at a “paltry” US$3.6 billion.
Has USDT become systemic to the cryptocurrency world? Although their market cap has surpassed US$30 billion recently and far lagging Bitcoin which is still the king of crypto at close to US$900 billion, their astronomical daily volume lends credence that USDT has become the “life force” of the crypto trading market.
Hence, the NewsFirstLine team felt that we should educate the public on more of what USDT is other than it being a stablecoin.
In an exclusive Question and Answer session with Paolo Ardoino, CTO at Tether Operations Limited, we present the answers to most of the questions which may exist for most of you.
NewsFirstLine: How does someone buy USDT directly from Tether?
Paolo: A person must first and foremost become a verified customer of Tether. This means that she must undertake our complete KYC process and establish her identity, business type, source of funds, and related items. We have a robust anti-money laundering (AML), countering the financing of terrorism (CFT), and sanctions compliance programme. We perform enhanced due diligence on every customer. Once verified, the user will first have to deposit fiat currency into Tether’s bank account. Tether will then credit the corresponding amount of Tether tokens (USDt) into the Tether wallet address provided by the user. All onboarding and transactions are subject to Tether’s terms of service, minimum thresholds, and fee schedule.
NewsFirstLine: How does someone convert USDT to cash?
Paolo: As to redemption by Tether, a verified user will deposit USDt into their Tether account for redemption into fiat currency. Tether will send the corresponding amount of fiat currency to the user’s verified bank account. USDt’s are pegged by Tether at 1 USDt equals 1 USD. All redemptions and other transactions are subject to Tether’s terms of service, minimum thresholds, and fee schedule. As the most liquid and popular stablecoin, stablecoin holders may also use USDt to purchase other assets and undertake other transactions outside of Tether.
NewsFirstLine: Is there any country based restrictions for (1) and/or (2)?
Paolo: Yes. All users are subject to Tether’s terms of service, which includes categories of prohibited persons.
NewsFirstLine: What are the limits for (1) and (2)?
Paolo: All onboarding and transactions are subject to Tether’s terms of service, minimum thresholds, and fee schedule. The minimum issuance amount and redemption amount is currently USDt 100,000.
NewsFirstLine: What kind of compliance process does Tether enforce for (1) and (2) in regards to KYC/AML?
Paolo: Tether has a compliance programme that is among the very best in the industry, built to meet or exceed the standards of the U.S. Bank Secrecy Act and the BVI Proceeds of Criminal Conduct Act.
We work hard to understand the identity, business type, source of funds, and related risks of each and every customer, and we conduct enhanced due diligence on all customers. We risk-rate every customer. We monitor all customers using World Check, and we deploy Chainalysis to detect potential crime related to our service and users.
We applying strict KYC, AML, CFT, and sanctions rulesets to all Tether customers as part of our compliance programme.
NewsFirstLine: Are (1) and (2) only limited to accredited investors and institutions?
Paolo: No. Both businesses (e.g., exchanges, wallets, payment processors, financial services, and ATMs, subject to full verification and risk rating) and individuals can cause USDts to be issued and can redeem USDts through Tether. Prohibited persons are not permitted to be customers. All onboarding and transactions are subject to Tether’s terms of service, minimum thresholds, and fee schedule.
The NewsFirstLine team would like to thank Mr Paolo Ardoino for the comments above.
[ Read more: Tether ]
[ Read more: USDT Market Cap Crosses US$30 Billion ]
