New York Judge Orders Tether to Document $USDT Backing

The judge for the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, Katherine Polk Failla, ordered Tether to prove 1-to-1 backing of its eponymous stablecoin, Tether (USDT). The company is required to provide "general ledgers, balance sheets, income statements, cash-flow statements, and profit and loss statements" and other documents to the court. The order was published on Tuesday as a part of a case that started back in 2019 — the initial complaint by a group of investors against iFinex, Tether and Bitfinex's parent company, alleged that the firm manipulated the crypto market by issuing unbacked Tether with an intention to inflate the price of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. Judge Polk Failla dismissed the iFinex requests to block the order on the grounds that the company has earlier produced the documents sufficient enough for the CFTC and the New York Attorney General. She found that the Plaintiffs’ demand for "undoubtedly important" documents is well-established as they "appear to go to one of the Plaintiffs’ core allegations."