Tether won't be audited by Friedman
I've been writing about Tether lately (see here and here for background)
It's a cryptocurrency that's pegged one-to-one to the US dollar (or at least the USDT version is) and there are plenty of people on the internet who think it's a scam.
The easiest way to prove that it isn't would be to show there are $2.78 billion in cash in a bank account somewhere to back up the 2,278,090,824 in Tether supply outstanding.
If that isn't there, then it will get very ugly in crypto.
Months ago, Tether announced an audit by Friedman LLP with great fanfare. In the past week, people began to notice that mentions of Tether were being removed from Friedman's website. Now, Coindesk has confirmed that the audit has been scrapped.
This is the statement Tether sent them:
"We confirm that the relationship with Friedman is dissolved. Given the excruciatingly detailed procedures Friedman was undertaking for the relatively simple balance sheet of Tether, it became clear that an audit would be unattainable in a reasonable time frame. As Tether is the first company in the space to undergo this process and pursue this level of transparency, there is no precedent set to guide the process nor any benchmark against which to measure its success."
Crypto is strong to start the week (Bitcoin back to $11,664) because the NEM hack is being paid back by the exchange but this story should have everyone worried.
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