Media: Tether signs partnership with Bahamian bank

The issuer of the stablecoin USDT, Tether, has signed an agreement with the private Bahamian bank Britannia Bank & Trust to process dollar transfers, according to Bloomberg.

According to a source from the publication, in recent months the issuer of the stablecoin has been asking its clients to send funds to the accounts of the new partner. It is not publicly known when their collaboration began.

Journalists also noted that Tether works with two other Bahamian banks — Capital Union Bank and Deltec Bank. The latter began working with the company in 2018 after terminating its agreement with Noble Bank.

According to CoinGecko, at the time of writing USDT dominates the stablecoin market with a 66.5% share and a market capitalization of $82.9 billion.

However, Tether rarely publicly discloses information about its banking relationships. This approach to business raises questions about the reliability of the collateral held by the community and experts.

“This secrecy remains the main impediment to the development of the cryptocurrency industry, hampering regulatory approvals on other issues and hindering traditional asset managers who face regulatory risk due to active participation in the industry,” said Patrick Tang, Chief Legal Counsel at ChainArgos.

Earlier, Tether reported net profit of $850 million in the second quarter. According to the report, 85% of USDT’s collateral is cash and cash equivalents. The company invested $72.5 billion in US Treasury securities.

In May, the company’s chief technology officer Paolo Ardoino said that high profitability of the issuer provides the opportunity to explore new lines of business.

Subsequently, it emerged that Tether invested $1 billion in a Bitcoin mining project in El Salvador.