The integrity of omni-based USDT has been questioned by the community along with its rising supply. On a recent weibo, Zhaodong, an early adopter of Bitcoin and a“whale”, claimed that the USD balance of Bitfinex and Tether was over 3 billion after Giancarlo, CFO of Tether and Bitfinex, showed them the bank accounts in Tokyo. Giancarlo explained that the lack of third-party audition of USDT was due to the pressure of US banking industry. Tether’s vision is to fight the monopoly of traditional financial system. Lao Mao, CEO of Big.one, was also invited to personally verify the authenticity of such accounts. Later he expressed that USDT was trustworthy and would be added to the exchange, along with Bitcny. The Chinese community had mixed reaction to the news.

Zhao Dong, an early bitcoin adopter and now a heavyweight celebrity among Chinese bitcoiners, posted a weibo on 21 January backing Tether along with group photos with Giancarlo, CFO of Tether, and Lao Mao, CEO of Bigone. The weibo reads:

“Lao Mao (and I) just have a look at the USD account of Tether and Bitfinex in Giancarlo’s(Boss of BFX,CFO) room, in which Tether’s account holds 1.8x billion USD and Bitfinex holds 1.1x billion USD. The total number of the two accounts is around 3 billion USD, which is beyond the current circulated supply of USDT. This debunks all rumors around USDT. ”

Lao Mao, CEO of Big.one, later released a blog explaining the meeting in detail. Giancarlo told them about the Tether team and their vision:

1. The team of Bitfinex has around 50 people with the customer service team increased to 20 ppl or so. A decentralized management has been applied to team members across the globe.

2. Tether team does not work for money. As an early bitcoin investor, the team has a sense of responsibility and mission. Tether also believes that the industry should unite to jointly fight the monopoly of the traditional financial forces on resources.

3. US banking industry is blocking Tether by various means. They also look for opportunities for cooperation around the world. In order to ease the stress on their beneficiary banks, Tether may no longer anchor to US dollar anchor in the future but use Euro, Japan Yuan or other fiats instead. South Korea’s policey has been unstable so the possibility of anchoring South Korea’s won is very small.

4. Most of the bankers they come into contact with are mostly old men, who are totally unable to understand what is happening in the world. In Tether’s view, there are only two kinds of banks in the future, one is the dead bank and the other are those who work with blockchain industry.

When asked the relations between Tether and Bitfinex, Giancarlo said:

“Bitfinex is holding less than 10% of Tether’s share, which have been acquired by various companies. Therefore Tether doesn’t belong to any single platform. It’s an independent company.”

He also explained why the third-party audit was missing:

“Due to the pressure from US banking industry, we are not in a position to fully disclose our bank accounts. Therefore if possible, I hope you can help us deliver the right message to everyone and I will invite you to review our accounts, you will be able to witness our truthfulness and safety.”

After checking Bitfinex’s and Tether’s bank account, Zhao Dong posted the above-mentioned weibo and the community expressed their concerns. One of the most upvoted one reads:

“You need to present a audit report from a third party accounting firm or lawyer. Your word doesn’t count.”

And the comment below is from Jiang Zhuoer. He believes that anchoring to fiats is doomed.

“Anchoring itself is an act of anti-marketing. Even the mighty powers such as the British Empire (£ 1 = 7.32 gram of gold in 1821) and the American Empire ($ 35 = 19 ounces of gold in 1944) inevitably failed. Tether (and the USDT attempting to anchor USD) will perish in two ways: ① died of implosion like MT.Gox. ② died in the hands of United States government like the Liberty Reserve. The U.S. government will not allow any company to actually issue USD.”

As indicated by Coinmarketcap, the circulating supply of USDT is 1,618,090,823 as of 22 January 2018. The supply curve has been ramping up sharply since November 2017. As the most widely accepted tokenized fiats in the crypto world, USDT has been questioned a lot, including Lao Mao himself. He posted a blog in November 2017, claming “USDT, a fortress built on dune?”

The meeting seemed to greatly reinforce the foundation of the fortress. At the end of the blog, Lao Mao said the USDT would be listed on Big.one ASAP:

“So, we can trust Tether and USDT. BigONE will also list USDT as soon as possible.”

Zhao Dong is a shareholder of Bitfinex and he was happy to said that the ROI of bitfinex was quite amazing not long ago. His backing of Bitfinex seems to be in conflict of interest. For those who are unable to witness the balance of Bitfinex and Tether bank accounts, the third-party audit of USDT may never be realized.