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‘Only $250K?’ Jack Dorsey Prods Tether Over Donation to Support Bitcoin Devs

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In brief

  • Stablecoin behemoth Tether donated $250,000 to OpenSats this week, prompting Jack Dorsey to criticize the amount of the gift.
  • Dorsey highlighted his own $21 million donation and drew mixed reactions from the Bitcoin community.
  • Udi Wertheimer later called out Dorsey over his investment in Ocean, a Bitcoin mining pool that has attracted controversy.

Sometimes it can be easier to say nothing at all. 

This week, stablecoin giant Tether announced a $250,000 donation to OpenSats to support Bitcoin developers—only for one of the world’s best-known programmers (and Bitcoin maximalists) to publicly chastise the size of the gift. 

Twitter co-founder and Square CEO Jack Dorsey lampooned the donation Thursday on X, shortly after it was touted by Tether’s CEO, Paolo Ardoino.

“Why only $250K?” Dorsey replied curtly to Ardoino.

Tether is one of the crypto industry’s most profitable companies. The USDT issuer, which posted a $13 billion profit last year, is reportedly seeking a $500 billion valuation in talks with potential investors. 

Tether said its donation to OpenSats, which funds the development of free and open-source Bitcoin software, will support the nonprofit’s operations and grant-making efforts.

A representative for the company did not respond to Decrypt’s request for comment on Dorsey’s comment, which Ardoino did not respond publicly to.

Shortly after the comment was made, however, another X user pressed Dorsey on his own financial commitment to the cause of protecting Bitcoin developers, questioning how much he had donated.

The entrepreneur immediately shot back: “Over $21 million. You?”

Indeed, OpenSats received a $21 million donation from Dorsey’s Start Small initiative in 2024. The tech billionaire has been an outspoken advocate for decentralized technology and censorship resistance for years, and one of the most famous Bitcoin backers around.

But even Dorsey was not without his detractors. Udi Wertheimer, creator of popular Bitcoin Ordinals project Taproots Wizards, at first took Dorsey’s side in the scuffle—but then turned on the Twitter inventor.

“No one should go into a pissing match with Jack when it comes to funding open-source Bitcoin development,” Wertheimer said.

The Bitcoiner went on, though, to lambast Dorsey for his investments in Ocean, a Bitcoin mining pool that previously caught heat for discouraging the processing of non-financial transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain, including the creation of NFT-like Ordinals.

“You should subtract from that number whatever the size of your Ocean investment was,” Wertheimer said of Dorsey’s philanthropic contributions. “Sadly, that capital is being actively deployed to slow down development.”

Alas, on Crypto Twitter, nobody’s perfect.

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Tether froze $44m in crypto for the Bulgarian police. A Texas firm is suing to get it back – DL News
DeFi Innovations

Tether froze $44m in crypto for the Bulgarian police. A Texas firm is suing to get it back – DL News

by admin
written by admin

  • A Texas company is suing Tether for freezing $44 million USDT “improperly and unreasonably.”
  • Tether froze the tokens at the request of a local Bulgarian police department, the lawsuit alleges.

In April, stablecoin issuer Tether froze $44.7 million in USDT at the request of Bulgarian police.

Now, a company is suing to get it back.

Riverstone Consultancy Inc. a firm based in Houston, Texas, has accused Tether of illegally freezing the tokens. Riverstone has missed out on unnamed investment opportunities as a result, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit casts a spotlight on an issue facing centralized stablecoin issuers: how quickly should they honour law enforcement requests when crypto transactions settle near-instantaneously?

Move too slowly, and bad actors can make off with vast sums of money. Crypto transactions are irreversible, making it hard to retrieve stolen tokens.

Move too quickly, however, and legitimate actors can find their assets tied away improperly in the event law enforcement errs.

Tether’s eponymous stablecoin is the world’s largest, with tokens worth more than $180 billion in circulation.

Tether is the largest stablecoin issuer in the world.

While the dollar-pegged token has proven popular with cybercriminals, Tether has touted its eager cooperation with law enforcement. As of September 15, the company had frozen more than $3.2 billion in USDT, according to a company news release.

On April 4, Tether froze $44.72 million USDT spread across eight offline crypto wallets Riverstone controls, according to the lawsuit, filed Monday in the Southern District of New York.

The Texas company contends Tether did so “improperly and unreasonably” at the request of a local police department in Bulgaria.

“Tether did not follow the proper procedures to freeze the assets in the Wallets,” the lawsuit reads.

“Under Bulgarian treaties with foreign countries … any request of seizing or freezing assets in a foreign country should go through particular procedures requiring exchange and file information between Bulgarian central authority and the foreign affairs liaison.”

When Riverstone contacted Tether, it was directed to the police department, which ignored Riverstone’s inquiries, according to the lawsuit.

Tether did not respond to DL News’ request for comment.

Riverstone controls the crypto wallets in question on behalf of an unnamed client, according to the lawsuit.

The company’s attorney did not respond to questions about the nature of the frozen USDT or the allegations made by Bulgarian police.

But analysis from crypto forensic experts suggests the money is, in fact, tainted.

“It’s several hops onchain from ponzi investment scams like BETL, Pegasus Ride, LSSC,” pseudonymous analyst ZachXBT wrote on X.

“The Riverstone shell company from HK frequently chainhops back & forth from Tron, Polygon, Ethereum via Bridgers.”

Riverstone has accused Tether of breach of fiduciary duty, unjust enrichment — Tether continues to earn interest on the assets backing the frozen USDT — and “conversion,” the improper control of another’s property.

The company has asked a court to order Tether to release the funds, at least $44.72 million in damages, and interest.

Aleks Gilbert is DL News’ New York-based DeFi correspondent. You can reach him at aleks@dlnews.com.

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Tether Nominates Deputy Chief Investment Officer to Juventus FC Board
DeFi Innovations

Tether Nominates Deputy Chief Investment Officer to Juventus FC Board

by admin
written by admin

About two weeks after reports suggested that stablecoin issuer Tether would be pitching its own names to fill the board for Italian football club Juventus, the company announced two picks: its own deputy chief investment officer and a medical doctor.

In a Thursday notice, Tether said it had nominated its deputy CIO, Zachary Lyons, and an orthodontist and “lifelong Juventus supporter,” Francesco Garino, to the football club’s board of directors. The stablecoin company holds a 10.7% stake in Juventus after investments in February and April.

“Since announcing our investment in the Club, Tether has listened carefully to the voices of fans from Italy and across the whole world, receiving invaluable suggestions, feedback, and calls for deeper engagement,” Tether said in the announcement.

“We have made suggestions to be voted in the assembly in order to make certain changes to the by-laws and to adopt best-in-class corporate governance and representation of minorities.”

Source: Tether

As part of the announcement, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino reiterated a call to “Make Juventus Great Again,” a reference to US President Donald Trump’s campaign slogan. The CEO visited the White House in July to attend the GENIUS stablecoin bill signing ceremony.

Related: FIFA’s blockchain-based tickets face scrutiny from Swiss gambling regulator

The board nominations, expected to be decided at a Nov. 7 shareholder meeting, followed controversial moves and scandals from the football club’s leadership.

In November 2022, all the board members resigned amid allegations of financial fraud involving players’ salaries. In September, former Juventus board Chair Andrea Agnelli and two other Juventus executives accepted plea deals with Italian authorities to serve suspended sentences.

Tether’s investments extend further than football

The stablecoin company also invested $775 million in the video-sharing platform Rumble. In August, the two companies proposed jointly acquiring all shares of artificial intelligence infrastructure company Northern Data, worth $1.17 billion.

Despite being a stablecoin company, Tether also holds a significant amount of Bitcoin (BTC). As of September, it held about 100,000 BTC, worth more than $11 billion at the time of publication. Tether’s USDt (USDT) had a market capitalization of more than $181 billion as of Thursday.

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