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Tether seeks Big Four firm for its first full financial audit — Report

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Stablecoin issuer Tether is reportedly engaging with a Big Four accounting firm to audit its assets reserve and verify that its USDT (USDT) stablecoin is backed at a 1:1 ratio.

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino reportedly said the audit process would be more straightforward under pro-crypto US President Donald Trump. It comes after rising industry concerns over a potential FTX-style liquidity crisis for Tether due to its lack of third-party audits.

Tether to produce first full audit after scrutiny

“If the President of the United States says this is top priority for the US, Big Four auditing firms will have to listen, so we are very happy with that,” Ardoino told Reuters on March 21.

“It’s our top priority,” Ardoino said. It was reported that Tether is currently subject to quarterly reports but not a full independent annual audit, which is much more extensive and provides more assurance to investors and regulators.

However, Ardoino did not specify which of the Big Four accounting firms — PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Ernst & Young (EY), Deloitte, or KPMG — he plans to engage.

Tether recorded a profit of $13.7 billion in 2024. Source: Paolo Ardoino

Tether’s USDT maintains its stable value by claiming to be pegged to the US dollar at a 1:1 ratio. This means each USDT token is backed by reserves equivalent to its circulating supply. 

These reserves include traditional currency, cash equivalents and other assets.

Earlier this month, Tether hired Simon McWilliams as chief financial officer in preparation for a full financial audit.

Industry concerns over Tether’s lack of audits

In September 2024, Cyber Capital founder Justin Bons was among those in the industry who voiced concerns about Tether’s lack of transparency.

“[Tether is] one of the biggest existential threats to crypto. As we have to trust they hold $118B in collateral without proof! Even after the CFTC fined Tether for lying about their reserves in 2021,” Bons said.

Related: Tether freezes $27M USDT on sanctioned Russian exchange Garantex

Around the same time, Consumers’ Research, a consumer protection group, published a report criticizing Tether for its lack of transparency.

Just three years prior, in 2021, the United States Commodities and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) fined Tether a $41 million civil monetary penalty for lying about USDT being fully backed by reserves.

Meanwhile, more recently, Tether has voiced disappointment over new European regulations that have forced exchanges like Crypto.com to delist USDT and nine other tokens to comply with MiCA.

“It is disappointing to see the rushed actions brought on by statements which do little to clarify the basis for such moves,” a spokesperson for Tether told Cointelegraph.

Cointelegraph reached out to Tether but did not receive a response by time of publication.

Magazine: Dummies guide to native rollups: L2s as secure as Ethereum itself

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Coin Market

Saylor hints at impending BTC purchase after latest capital raise

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Strategy co-founder Michael Saylor hinted at an impending Bitcoin (BTC) purchase after the company raised additional capital this week through its latest preferred stock offering.

The executive posted the Sunday Bitcoin chart on X that signals another BTC acquisition the next day — when traditional financial markets open — with the playful message “needs more orange.”

According to SaylorTracker, the company’s most recent BTC acquisition occurred on March 17, when Strategy purchased 130 BTC, valued at $10.7 million, bringing its total holdings to 499,226 BTC.

Strategy’s total Bitcoin purchases. Source: SaylorTracker

Strategy’s March 17 BTC acquisition represents one of its smallest purchases on record and came after a two-week break in buying.

On March 21, the company announced the pricing of its latest tranche of preferred stock. The preferred stock was sold at $85 per share and featured a 10% coupon. According to Strategy, the offering should bring the company approximately $711 million in revenue.

Michael Saylor continues evangelizing for the Bitcoin network, inspiring dozens of publicly traded companies to adopt BTC as a treasury asset and petitioning the US government to buy more of the scarce digital commodity.

Strategy’s BTC acquisitions in 2025. Source: SaylorTracker

Related: Michael Saylor’s Strategy to raise up to $21B to purchase more Bitcoin

Saylor pushes for the US government to purchase 25% of BTC’s total supply

Saylor wrote that the US government should acquire 25% of Bitcoin’s total supply by 2035 — when 99% of the total BTC supply has been mined.

The executive also petitioned for the US government to adopt a comprehensive framework for all digital assets in a proposal titled, A Digital Assets Strategy to Dominate the 21st Century Global Economy.

Saylor giving his 21 Truths of Bitcoin speech at the Blockworks Digital Asset Summit. Source: Cointelegraph

Speaking at the recent Blockworks Digital Asset Summit, the Strategy co-founder presented his 21 Truths of Bitcoin speech. The executive told the audience:

“Gold still underperforms the S&P Index by a factor of two or more, so there is only one commodity in the history of the human race that was not a garbage investment — the one commodity is Bitcoin — a digital commodity.”

Despite the recent market downturn, Strategy is still up over 28% on its BTC investment and is sitting on over $9.3 billion in unrealized gains.

Magazine: ‘China’s MicroStrategy’ Meitu sells all its Bitcoin and Ethereum: Asia Express

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Move aside, location — crypto fuels the talent revolution

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Opinion by: Nick Denisenko is the chief technology officer and co-founder of Brighty

You can’t fight it. Crypto investments and transactions are on the up. The technology is seamless in crossing borders and making international transactions convenient. Many people report this as a reason for choosing to receive payments in crypto. Using cryptocurrency to pay bills is becoming increasingly popular as digital currencies gain wider acceptance. And, with the number of digital nomads expected to exceed 60 million by 2030, the shift toward crypto has glaring consequences for businesses attracting talent in a global market. 

Crypto companies are multinational by default. Spread across the globe, they’re no stranger to paying salaries in crypto. But today, the traditional economy also leans toward crypto payments for a straightforward reason. 

Crypto promises to unlock talent from across the world. There are tricky compliance issues involved in hiring employees from abroad. By using crypto, companies will unlock the opportunity to pay — and work with — those who best fit their needs.

Foreign hires could even be cheaper and a better fit than locals. With border-crossing crypto fintech, the traditional economy will follow in the footsteps of crypto businesses, and location will no longer make up a competitive edge in hiring. 

The workforce becomes truly global

In the past, businesses tended to hire locally. Some contractors could be hired from abroad, but their scope was minimal. Although relocation was possible, the core staff was local. In some ways, this was easier — little cultural friction or language barriers — but it also cost businesses an arm and a leg.

Hiring and paying remote employees was expensive — or worse, outright tricky. In some locations, payments could be hit with commissions and sometimes even account suspension. Contemporary procedures are often no better — the regulations can be rigid and unforgiving. For example, employees from certain countries will struggle to open a bank account in USD. 

Recent: Tether USDt tops salary payments and savings in EU in 2024 — Brighty

That’s where the beauty of crypto lies. You can open up a stablecoin account in minutes, enabling you to receive your salary without problems. For example, Binance covers most local currencies, meaning that employees can also cash out on home ground. There is a strong demand for more businesses to accept crypto as a measure to grow crypto usage as a salary. People want to earn and spend this money. 

There’s been robust growth in salary payments in crypto, and it’s an emerging trend. The possibility of paying employees in crypto already is and will continue to shape businesses worldwide.

Crypto payments enhance global hiring

Crypto payments matter financially. Employers are becoming increasingly aware that specific roles can be easily outsourced, and crypto payments streamline this process. With potential savings to avoid paying for the company’s jurisdiction, the payout from crypto can be high. 

Another implication is the skills businesses are seeking. When employees are paid using crypto, it doesn’t really matter where they are from — and, with passport color brushed aside, employers are instead zeroing in on the skills of prospective hires. 

These have always been important, but are even more so now. When employers can browse internationally for talent, proving you’re a real pro in your field could be the difference between nailing that job offer and missing out. Continuous education will become the norm as the workforce sharpens its skills.

Strong communication skills will be particularly in demand. This is perfectly understandable — remote teams from across the world could have quite varied communication styles. Some could be pushovers — some, fundamental authorities. Effectively adjusting to different working approaches will become fundamentally important. Even a surge in the number of intercultural mediation and communication coaches is expected in the coming years.

Crypto will narrow the competition in finding talent by allowing recruiters to hone in on desirable skills. It will also open up the geography of the potential workforce: Employees from Latin America and Asia will collaborate more and more with Europe and the US.

That’s not to say that the changes are without drawbacks. Labor markets in the US and Europe could be hit hard. These workforces are the most expensive because of compliance and regulations. With businesses increasingly able to look abroad for talent, domestic hires could see turbulent times.

Finally, there will be changes in the professions using crypto. Currently, most tech jobs are covered by crypto payments. But soon, the tech will go beyond the realm of the deep IT sector, as designers, tech writers, marketing managers, scriptwriters, operational managers and finance officers, among others, will use the technology. Another positive sign is that crypto transactions will change the creator economy and the industry of donations. These groups will begin to further accept payments from all over the world.

The growth of technology

Crypto is expanding. The tech is at the cutting edge of convenience and speed for international payments and investments. Crucially, this expansion is being met with shifts in the workforce — recruitment, skillset and location. Businesses that pay in crypto can afford to seek talent beyond their own borders. Let’s take borders out of the question and move location aside — talent can be found everywhere.

Opinion by: Nick Denisenko is the chief technology officer and co-founder of Brighty.

This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

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Ethereum eyes 65% gains from 'cycle bottom' as BlackRock ETH stash crosses $1B

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Ethereum’s native token, Ether (ETH), has lost half of its value in the past three months, crashing from $4,100 in December 2024 to as low as around $1,750 in March 2025. Nevertheless, it is now well-positioned for a sharp price rebound.

65% ETH price rebound in play by June

From a technical standpoint, Ether’s price is eyeing a potential breakout as it retests a long-term support zone. Historically, bounces from this multi-year support have led to explosive rallies — most notably gains of over 2,000% and 360% during past cycles.

ETH/USD two-week price chart. Source: TradingView

As of March 23, the ETH/USD pair was hovering near $2,000, close to the given support area. A bounce from this zone can lead the price toward $3400 by June—up 65% from current prices.

This level coincides with the lower boundary of Ether’s prevailing descending channel resistance.

Source: Ted Pillows

Conversely, a decline below the support zone could push the ETH price toward the 200-2W exponential moving average (200-2W EMA; the blue wave in the first chart) at around $1,560.

BlackRock’s crypto funds hold over $1B in ETH

Ether’s bullish outlook appears as institutional confidence in Ethereum grows stronger.

BlackRock’s BUIDL fund now holds approximately a record $1.145 billion worth of Ether, up from around $990 million a week ago, according to data from Token Terminal.

Capital deployed across BlackRock’s BUIDL fund. Source: Token Terminal

The fund primarily focuses on tokenized real-world assets (RWAs), with Ethereum remaining the dominant base layer. While the fund diversifies across chains like Avalanche, Polygon, Aptos, Arbitrum, and Optimism, Ethereum remains its core allocation.

BlackRock’s latest addition of ETH signals rising institutional confidence in Ethereum’s role as the leading platform for real-world asset tokenization.

Related: Ethereum open interest hits new all-time high — Will ETH price follow?

Ethereum’s bullish case also coincides with a sharp uptick in whale accumulation.

The latest onchain data from Nansen shows that since March 12, 2024, addresses holding 1,000–10,000 ETH have grown their holdings by 5.65%, while the 10,000–100,000 ETH cohort has risen by 28.73%.

Ethereum whale holdings. Source: Nansen

Though addresses holding more than 100,000 ETH remain relatively stable, this accumulation trend underscores rising conviction among large investors.

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

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