Every time Tether “prints” another billion USDT, the crypto world shrugs as if this were a normal transaction. But let’s call things by their real name: this is the largest legalized financial fraud in modern history. And it has real owners, real lawyers, and real backers.
1. Who actually owns Tether
- Giancarlo Devasini — CFO of Bitfinex, the mastermind behind Tether. A former plastic surgeon with zero financial background, now controlling the world’s largest shadow dollar printer.
- Philip Potter — ex-CSO of Bitfinex, one of the early architects of USDT, previously tied to shady Wall Street deals back in the 1990s.
- iFinex Inc. (the parent company of Bitfinex and Tether Holdings) — the offshore umbrella that shields the true beneficiaries.
Tether Holdings is incorporated in the British Virgin Islands, a perfect jurisdiction for hiding beneficial ownership and evading strict oversight.
2. The legal shield
- Tether operates through iFinex Inc., registered in Hong Kong and the BVI.
- Legal protection is provided by offshore law firms and consultants, some of the same networks exposed in the Panama Papers.
- This structure ensures that the real owners remain insulated from investor lawsuits and direct regulatory crackdowns.
3. The backers and stakeholders
Tether could not survive without powerful protectors:
- U.S. regulators (CFTC, Treasury) — they fined Tether $41M but never shut it down. Why? Because USDT has become a convenient tool to monitor and control global crypto flows.
- Wall Street and funds — Tether’s “reserves” include commercial paper and debt instruments often offloaded by major banks. Effectively, Tether buys toxic paper from financial giants, and in return, prints billions in USDT.
- Chinese traders and elites — USDT is heavily used in China as a shadow dollar to bypass capital controls, making Tether valuable to powerful networks in Asia.
4. The mechanism
- Tether and Bitfinex mint billions in USDT with little to no real backing.
- These tokens flow to exchanges, pumping BTC and ETH markets.
- In return, Tether collects real assets: fiat currency, gold, real estate, BTC.
- When the bubble bursts, Tether’s owners will sit on tangible wealth, while USDT holders are left with worthless promises.
5. Why it isn’t shut down
- Collapsing Tether today would trigger a systemic meltdown of the entire crypto market — trillions in value could vanish overnight.
- Banks, funds, and even governments with indirect exposure would suffer.
- That’s why Tether remains a pyramid scheme with international protection, tolerated because it’s still useful to those in power.
Conclusion
Tether is not a stablecoin. It’s a private Federal Reserve in an offshore haven, run by figures like Giancarlo Devasini, with protection from Wall Street and silent approval from regulators.
Every new billion USDT minted is not backed by dollars — it’s backed by a promise. A promise that will one day collapse, unleashing the largest financial disaster in crypto history. Until then, the elite cash out in real gold, fiat, and BTC, while the world accepts Tether’s illusion as reality.
