Tether’s shareholder capital cushion is full of contradictions

Tether has released a new assurance from BDO Italia, as required by its settlement with the New York Attorney General (NYAG), revealing an increase in Tether ‘Shareholder Capital Cushion’ to over $960 million.

Interestingly, this number seems quite different from what Tether had previously disclosed on its transparency page.

• An archive of the page from December 23 (with the last update listed as December 20) shows a shareholder capital cushion of approximately $250 million.
• An additional archive on January 4 (with the last update listed as December 20) shows an identical shareholder capital cushion of approximately $250 million.
• Finally, an archive on February 9 (with the last update listed as February 6) shows an identical shareholder capital cushion of approximately $250 million.

Tether’s transparency page maintains to this day that: “The value of our reserves is published daily and updated at least once per day.”

It’s not clear why Tether’s shareholder capital cushion on the transparency page is so stable, why it doesn’t match the consolidated reserves report, or why the page is not updated daily as described.

Protos has reached out to Tether for clarification and we’ll update if we hear back.

The challenge in accounting for Tether reserves

Read more: Tether Papers: This is exactly who acquired 70% of all USDT ever issued

As Protos has previously reported, the amount of Quarantined Tethers on Omni on the transparency page also does not seem to match the current state for that blockchain.

This most recent attestation also notes an increase in ongoing civil litigation involving Tether to three from two, and Tether continues to maintain no provision for these.

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