In 2019, Sam Bankman-Fried founded the crypto exchange FTX. FTX
In a Bloomberg report, Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO of FTX, revealed that he had bought billions in tether.
He said that banks would be nervous about working with crypto companies.
Bloomberg spoke to other crypto traders, who described tether's use as an intermediary currency and industry standard.
According to Bloomberg Businessweek's feature on the stablecoin, Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO of FTX, recently disclosed that he had bought billions in tethers to aid in trading in other cryptocurrencies.
Bankman-Fried, who was interviewed at a bitcoin conference in Miami, told Bloomberg that transacting using tether, which is the largest stablecoin dollar-pegged, has one advantage over using dollars.
He said that banks would be nervous about working with crypto companies.
Bankman-Fried pointed out that Tether's greatest advantage in crypto exchanges is its ease-of-use. It is not possible to convert crypto to dollars, which could raise suspicions at banks that facilitate money laundering. Instead, holding a stablecoin such as tether preserves the same value and makes it easier to return to crypto.
Bloomberg spoke to other crypto traders, who described tether as an intermediary currency that is used in the industry. However, there are deep doubts about whether the stablecoin really backs dollars. Some tether users harbored conspiracy theories, such as that it is a CIA backchannel to dirty money or a government scheme for criminal tracking.
With the DOJ launching a bank fraud investigation against tether execs, Bankman-Fried has remained firm in listing tether on FTX. He stated that the stablecoin would be treated no differently by his exchange in August.
He explained to CNBC that Tether can be used on FTX like any other cryptocurrency. It's not exactly a dollar on FTX. It is a free-floating cryptocurrency.
It's not a crucial part of our USD basket. This means that the exchange doesn’t treat it as one-to-one in USD dollars. Bankman-Fried stated that this is up to the market and users.
The interview with CNBC was followed by a CNBC interview in which the crypto billionaire, aged 29, expressed frustration at the media's attention to tether's legal problems.
He tweeted, "Eh only 20% interview was USDT, I'll accept that as a win."
