Through an exclusive Press Release, Ethereum World News was made privy of a newly released report from Freeh Sporkin & Sullivan LLP (FSS) confirming that all the Tethers (USDT) in circulation, are sufficiently backed by actual USD reserves. The FSS report was based on a random date balance inspection and a full review of relevant bank account information of Tether Limited. The report confirms that all the Tethers (USDT) in circulation are backed by existing USD reserves as of June 1st this year.

FSS is a Washington, DC-based law firm that conducted an independent review of Tether’s bank accounts. The firm was granted full access to all bank information and corresponding documentation. As of June 1st, FSS confirmed that the bank balances of Tether amount to $2,545,067,236.82. On the same date, the amount of Tethers in circulation was worth $2,538,090,823.52. The report would then conclude that Tether’s assets exceeded the balance of fully backed USDT in circulation as of June 1st.

Tether’s CEO, Jan Ludovicus van der Velde, would comment the following with respect to the new report:

Despite speculation, we have consistently stated that Tether is backed by USD reserves at or exceeding the Tethers in circulation at a given moment, and we’re glad to have independent verification of this to answer some of the questions posed by the public.

He would also add that the company would continue to increase transparency of its operations.

We are by no means done with our efforts to promote increased transparency at Tether. We are planning to build on this report moving forward and, despite the challenges of applying current accounting and assurance standards to cryptocurrency clients, we continue discuss these issues with potential audit partners

This is welcome news from Tether Limited. The digital asset has been under a lot of scrutiny lately due to a recent research paper by faculty from the department of finance at the University of Texas (Austin). The paper postulated that USDT was used to prop up the price of Bitcoin (BTC) during periods of BTC decline.

Professor John M. Griffin, who was part of the research team, would comment that:

I’ve looked at a lot of markets. If there’s fraud or manipulation in a market it can leave tracks in the data. The tracks in the data here are very consistent with a manipulation hypothesis.

The report by FSS now answers one part of the Tether equation that was the actual ‘hard cash’ to back its USDT in circulation. The other lingering questions will be answered with time as was mentioned by Tether’s CEO, Jan Ludovicus van der Velde.