The world’s largest stablecoin by market cap is reportedly potentially seeing a rise in adoption amongst sanctioned nations.
Citing data from market intelligence platform Chainalysis, Bloomberg reports that stablecoin issuer Tether’s USDT is seeing increased usage at time zones correlated with major cities in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa, including sanctioned nations such as Russia and Iran.
According to the data, a trend emerges when examining first-time use of digital wallets containing USDT between January 1st and October 8th of this year – that trend indicates a possible uptick in usage during the late morning or early afternoon times in the cities of Moscow, Tehran, Kigali and Istanbul.
However, a spokesperson for the crypto analytics firm said that the results are not definitive, meaning that the uptick in usage during the mentioned time zone does not necessarily translate to increased USDT adoption in sanctioned countries. The spokesperson highlights that anyone can use a crypto wallet anytime and anywhere in the world.
The news comes amid reports that Tether is being investigated by US regulatory agencies for potential violations of anti-money laundering and sanctions laws. One report claimed that the Treasury Department is looking at possibly sanctioning Tether for the “widespread use” of USDT among entities sanctioned by the US.
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino squashed the rumors, saying that the mainstream media is repeating old narratives.
“At Tether, we deal regularly and directly with law enforcement officials to help prevent rogue nations, terrorists and criminals from misusing USDT.
We would know if we are being investigated as the article falsely claimed. Based on that, we can confirm that the allegations in the article are unequivocally false.”
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