SUBJECT-9879.dossier · company · status: active
TE
subject of file

Tether

Issuer of USDT, the largest dollar-pegged stablecoin
Tracked because Issuer of the largest stablecoin (~$110B+ outstanding); reserves are held through Cantor Fitzgerald, creating a documented financial relationship between a major Treasury holder and the U.S. Commerce Secretary. Central counterparty risk for the dollar-stablecoin system.
Editorial summary · AI-drafted from public records

Operator of USDT stablecoin; counterparty to Lutnick family Dynasty Trust A loan and Twenty One Capital partner.

Facts on record20
Connections mapped14
Sources cited21
Inferential claims1
Evidence: 9P+1 6S 5I
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🧠 Cognitive harm you own/control
Primary confidence
Aggregated from 1 platform owned, funded, or controlled by Tether.
25
Score 0–100
Documented
Tether (USDT)
25
1 documented harm · Documented
Score combines documented harm count, severity weighting, platform reach, and engineered mechanisms. See full methodology →
Stated vs Revealed
No documented contradictions on file.
[PUBLIC COST ESTIMATE]
At least $100.0B in documented public funds flow through entities connected to this profile, while 10 elected officials hold documented connections.
$100.0BContract Value
1Money Chains
2Traced Hops
Connected Officials
Calculation Methodology

Contract values are summed from documented money flow chains where this entity appears as a source or destination node. Amounts are drawn from USASpending.gov, FEC filings, SEC EDGAR, or LD-2 lobbying registrations.

Donor contributions aggregate documented amounts from the donor_interests table, sourced from FEC individual and PAC contribution filings.

Connected officials are elected officials in our database with a mapped relationship (lobbying, board membership, campaign contribution, etc.) to this entity.

Annualised flow represents the total documented dollar amount traced through money flow hops involving this entity. Where hop-level amounts are unavailable, the chain-level documented total is used as a conservative upper bound.

All figures are drawn from public filings. Estimates are conservative — undisclosed transactions, dark money, and vanish-point hops are excluded from totals. This is a minimum documented floor, not a ceiling.

PATTERN company → [regulatory filing] → government agency → [over... 936× PATTERN company → [regulatory filing] → government agency → [regu... 936× PATTERN company → [regulatory filing] → government agency → [over... 728× PATTERN company → [regulatory filing] → government agency → [file... 728× PATTERN company → [regulatory filing] → government agency → [fili... 624×
Connection Map
Key Connections
→ iFinex Inc. company
subsidiary
iFinex Inc. is the parent company of Tether Limited.
← Cantor Fitzgerald company
custodian-client
Cantor Fitzgerald custodies a substantial share of Tether's U.S. Treasury reserves.
→ Securities and Exchange Commission government agency
regulatory_filing
Tether filed a filing with the SEC on 2024-09-13. Accession number: N/A.
← Howard Lutnick person
advocate
Lutnick has publicly defended Tether's reserve composition while serving as Cantor's CEO and Chairman.
→ GENIUS Act instrument
oversight
Tether launched USA₮ in March 2026, a stablecoin compliant with the GENIUS Act.
← Twenty One Capital company
investor
Twenty One Capital was created through a SPAC merger partnered with Tether.
← Clay Fuller person
financial support via associated PAC
The Fellowship PAC, a crypto-aligned super PAC linked to Tether, spent $300,000 on advertising for Fuller in the GA-14 special election — its first-ever political expenditure.
Facts (20)
Data Freshness
Ageing Last update: 165d ago · Avg age: 398d
Confidence Tiers: Primary Source — cross-referenced government/corporate filings Pending Review — sourced but not independently verified AI Inference — analytical hypothesis from cross-referencing
✓ Verified Findings (15)
Independently re-checked: a second model read the source artifact and confirmed it supports the extracted claim.
✓ verified Pending Review A Senate Banking Committee inquiry initiated on April 29, 2026, alleges that a Tether loan to 'Dynasty Trust A' may have been used to fund Howard Lutnick’s divestiture of Cantor Fitzgerald to his children.
Date: 2026-04-29 Added: 03 May 2026
✓ verified Pending Review Tether's Q1 2026 report, released May 1, 2026, shows a record $8.23 billion in excess reserves and $141 billion in direct/indirect U.S. Treasury exposure.
Date: 2026-05-01 Added: 03 May 2026
✓ verified Pending Review On March 24, 2026, Tether formally announced the engagement of an unnamed 'Big Four' accounting firm to conduct its first full independent financial statement audit.
Date: 2026-03-24 Added: 03 May 2026
✓ verified Pending Review The Dynasty Trust A loan from Tether is secured by a convertible bond granting Cantor Fitzgerald the right to acquire a 5% equity stake in Tether, formalizing a structural financial link between the stablecoin's reserves and its custodian's family ownership.
Date: 2025-10-07 Added: 03 May 2026
✓ verified Pending Review Anchorage Digital Bank acts as the exclusive federally chartered issuer for USA₮, maintaining a non-public 'Whitelist' of institutional counterparties approved under Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) requirements.
Date: 2026-03-02 Added: 03 May 2026
✓ verified Pending Review A credit document filed in New York on October 7, 2025, revealed that Tether lent an undisclosed sum to 'Dynasty Trust A,' a trust for the children of then-Commerce Secretary nominee Howard Lutnick, secured by Cantor Fitzgerald equity.
Date: 2025-10-07 Added: 03 May 2026
✓ verified Pending Review Tether launched USA₮ in March 2026, a stablecoin compliant with the GENIUS Act, in partnership with federally chartered Anchorage Digital Bank.
Date: 2026-03-02 Added: 03 May 2026
✓ verified Pending Review Tether's total direct and indirect U.S. Treasury exposure reached $141.6 billion as of December 31, 2025, making it the 18th largest holder of U.S. Treasuries globally.
Date: 2026-01-30 Added: 03 May 2026
✓ verified Pending Review Tether's independent attestation reports under ISAE 3000 (Revised) explicitly exclude verification of service contracts or fee arrangements with custodians, meaning the BDO Italia engagement cannot confirm or deny the existence of disclosed fee terms with Cantor Fitzgerald.
Date: 2023-06-15 Added: 03 May 2026
✓ verified Pending Review Cantor Fitzgerald holds most of Tether's $133 billion in assets in exchange for 'tens of millions of dollars of fees each year,' according to people familiar with Cantor's business cited by The Wall Street Journal, but no public document specifies the fee calculation methodology, percentage basis, or contractual terms.
Date: 2024-06-15 Added: 03 May 2026
Primary Source Tether settled a New York Attorney General investigation in 2021, agreeing to pay $18.5M and to halt trading activity with New York persons; the settlement found Tether had at times not been fully backed.
✓ verified Pending Review Tether publishes quarterly attestations of its reserve composition through accounting firm BDO Italia rather than a full independent audit.
Date: 2023-06-15 Added: 03 May 2026
✓ verified Pending Review Tether and its affiliates paid a $41M CFTC penalty in 2021 for misrepresenting USDT reserve composition between 2016 and 2019.
Date: 2021-10-15 Added: 03 May 2026
✓ verified Pending Review Tether's USDT had over $110 billion in outstanding circulation as of 2024, making it the largest dollar-pegged stablecoin by market capitalisation.
Date: 2024-06-15 Added: 03 May 2026
✓ verified Pending Review Tether routes a substantial share of its U.S. Treasury reserve holdings through Cantor Fitzgerald, whose then-CEO Howard Lutnick was nominated U.S. Commerce Secretary in 2024.
Date: 2024-06-15 Added: 03 May 2026
AI Analysis (1)
AI-generated inferences derived from cross-referencing primary and secondary data. These are analytical hypotheses, not established facts — they are the platform's read, not its record, and the verification pipeline covers their provenance, not their truth. Where verification stops →
⚠ flagged by Gemini AI Inferencew·40 Tether filed filing with the SEC on 2024-09-13. Accession number: N/A.
Date: 2024-09-13 Added: 23 Apr 2026 ↗ RECORDS: SEC EDGAR: filing — Tether (2024-09-13)
All Connections (14)
→ iFinex Inc. company
subsidiary primary since 2014
iFinex Inc. is the parent company of Tether Limited.
→ GENIUS Act instrument
oversight primary since 2026
Tether launched USA₮ in March 2026, a stablecoin compliant with the GENIUS Act.
competitor inferential since 2024
Tether's USDT ($110B+ outstanding) is the largest dollar-pegged stablecoin, directly competing with Circle's USDC in the stablecoin market.
→ Securities and Exchange Commission government agency
regulatory_filing primary since 2024
Tether filed a filing with the SEC on 2024-09-13. Accession number: N/A.
← Cantor Fitzgerald company
custodian-client primary since 2021
Cantor Fitzgerald custodies a substantial share of Tether's U.S. Treasury reserves.
← Howard Lutnick person
advocate, financial_counterparty primary since 2024
Lutnick has publicly defended Tether's reserve composition while serving as Cantor's CEO and Chairman. · Family-trust counterparty (Dynasty Trust A loan); Twenty One Capital partner (Cognitive Impact: Tether (USDT))
← Blackrock Neurotech company
owner secondary
Tether acquired a majority stake in the company in April 2024 through a $200 million investment.
← Brandon Lutnick person
investor secondary since 2024
Brandon Lutnick, as trustee of Dynasty Trust A, received a loan from Tether that is likely secured by assets and recorded in a New York UCC-1 filing expected for October 2024. Cantor Fitzgerald acted as custodian for Tether's reserve assets under a 2021 NYAG consent order, creating a structural relationship where Brandon Lutnick could have non-public knowledge of Tether's financial position.
← Twenty One Capital company
investor primary since 2026
Twenty One Capital was created through a SPAC merger partnered with Tether.
← Clay Fuller person
financial support via associated PAC primary since 2026
The Fellowship PAC, a crypto-aligned super PAC linked to Tether, spent $300,000 on advertising for Fuller in the GA-14 special election — its first-ever political expenditure.
industry impact inferential since 2022
SAB 121 required balance sheet recognition for crypto assets held in custody, affecting stablecoin issuers like Tether held by custodial banks.
← Bill Hagerty elected official
legislative_interest inferential since 2026
Senators Warren and Wyden launched a probe into whether a reported undisclosed loan from Tether to a trust for Commerce Secretary Lutnick's children may have influenced 'favorable treatment' Tether received in the GENIUS Act, which Hagerty sponsored.
← Cynthia Lummis elected official
potential_consultation secondary since 2025
Evidence gap exists regarding internal communications between Lummis's office and Tether counsel during the GENIUS Act and SAB 121 processes.
← Kirsten Gillibrand elected official
industry_regulatory_context inferential since 2025
Gillibrand's stablecoin legislation (GENIUS Act) directly impacts stablecoin issuers including Tether.
Money Flows Passing Through (1)
Documented payment chains where this entity appears as a source, hop, or vanish point. All chains →
active 3 hops ⚠ 1 vanish USD 100000000000.00
Tether reserves → Cantor Fitzgerald custody → Lutnick equity stake
Sources (21)
2026 UNVERIFIED Research: Tether — Lobbying disclosures (no results) government_disclosure Processed 📜 Receipt
2024-08-08 ↗ SEC EDGAR: filing — Tether (2024-08-08) sec_filing Processed 📜 Receipt
2026 UNVERIFIED Research: Tether — USASpending contracts (no results) contract Processed 📜 Receipt
2024-11-07 ↗ SEC EDGAR: filing — Tether (2024-11-07) sec_filing Processed 📜 Receipt
2024-09-13 ↗ SEC EDGAR: filing — Tether (2024-09-13) sec_filing Processed 📜 Receipt
2024-09-30 ↗ SEC EDGAR: SC 13D/A — Tether Holdings Ltd (2024-09-30) sec_filing Processed 📜 Receipt
2024-08-08 ↗ SEC EDGAR: SC 13D/A — Tether Holdings Ltd (2024-08-08) sec_filing Processed 📜 Receipt
2024-11-18 ↗ SEC EDGAR: SC 13D/A — Tether Holdings Ltd (2024-11-18) sec_filing Processed 📜 Receipt
2024-06-06 ↗ SEC EDGAR: SC 13D — Tether Holdings Ltd (2024-06-06) sec_filing Processed 📜 Receipt
2024-11-18 ↗ SEC EDGAR: filing — Tether (2024-11-18) sec_filing Processed 📜 Receipt
2026 UNVERIFIED Research: Tether — Court records (no results) court_document Processed 📜 Receipt
2024-11-07 ↗ SEC EDGAR: SC 13D/A — Tether Holdings Ltd (2024-11-07) sec_filing Processed 📜 Receipt
2024-09-20 ↗ SEC EDGAR: SC 13D/A — Tether Holdings Ltd (2024-09-20) sec_filing Processed 📜 Receipt
2024-09-13 ↗ SEC EDGAR: SC 13D/A — Tether Holdings Ltd (2024-09-13) sec_filing Processed 📜 Receipt
2024-06-06 ↗ SEC EDGAR: filing — Tether (2024-06-06) sec_filing Processed 📜 Receipt
2024-09-30 ↗ SEC EDGAR: filing — Tether (2024-09-30) sec_filing Processed 📜 Receipt
2024-09-20 ↗ SEC EDGAR: filing — Tether (2024-09-20) sec_filing Processed 📜 Receipt
2026 UNVERIFIED Research: Tether — Parliamentary records (no results) parliamentary_record Processed 📜 Receipt
2026 UNVERIFIED Research: Tether — Corporate registrations (no results) government_disclosure Processed 📜 Receipt
2026-04-23 UNVERIFIED SEARCH_ERROR: Tether not found in opencorporates claim_flag Processed 📜 Receipt
2024-09-13 ↗ SEC EDGAR: filing — Tether (2024-09-13) web_search Processed 📜 Receipt