Today in crypto, Stablecoin issuer Tether said it would hire one of the “Big Four” accounting firms to conduct a full audit of its reserves for the first time, European Central Bank Executive Board member Piero Cipollone said private digital money cannot scale Europe’s tokenized markets on its own, and Bitmine chairman Tom Lee has tipped an end to the “mini-crypto winter” impacting Ether.
Stablecoin issuer Tether said it would hire one of the “Big Four” accounting firms to conduct a full audit of its reserves for the first time.
In a Tuesday notice, Tether said that the accounting firm — which it did not disclose — would complete a “full independent financial statement audit” for the stablecoin issuer, including for its US dollar-pegged USDt (USDT)..
Tether said the firm was “selected through a competitive process,” according to chief financial officer Simon McWilliams. Cointelegraph reached out to the company for comment but had not received a response at the time of publication.
The audit will include a review of its assets, reserves, and tokenised liabilities, as well as an “assessment of Tether’s systems, internal controls, and financial reporting.”
“For the hundreds of millions of people and businesses who rely on USDT every day, this audit is not just a compliance exercise; it is about accountability, resilience, and confidence in the infrastructure they depend on,” said Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino.
Tokenized deposits and stablecoins need tokenized central bank money as a public settlement anchor if Europe’s tokenized financial markets are to scale, Piero Cipollone, a member of the European Central Bank’s Executive Board, said on Monday.
Cipollone pointed to Pontes, the Eurosystem’s distributed ledger technology (DLT) settlement initiative, which is designed to connect market DLT platforms with the Eurosystem’s TARGET Services and provide settlement in central bank money.
“Without tokenised central bank money, a seller of a tokenised security may receive payment in an asset they are not comfortable holding – one exposed to price volatility or credit risk – which limits the market’s ability to scale,” Cipollone said in a speech at the House of the Euro in Brussels on Monday.
The ECB said Pontes is due for an initial launch in the third quarter of 2026, allowing market participants to settle DLT-based transactions in central bank money. The comments build on the ECB’s broader Appia initiative, published on March 11, which is intended to produce a blueprint for a future European tokenized financial ecosystem by 2028.
Bitmine Immersion Technologies chairman Tom Lee has tipped an end to the “mini-crypto winter” impacting Ether, as the company bought another $139 million in ETH last week.
Lee said in a statement on Monday that Bitmine has maintained a higher buying pace over the last three weeks as it expects the end to a several-month-long Ether slump in its “base case.”
The crypto markets crashed in October last year, with Bitcoin falling from its all-time peak above $126,000 during the month, while Ether declined from its August high of $4,946. Analysts have been debating when the crypto markets will see a meaningful rebound.
Lee pointed to positive catalysts, such as the CLARITY Act advancing in Congress and crypto’s relative stability despite recent turmoil in Iran, as signs that winter is starting to thaw.
Lee’s statements came as Bitmine disclosed it had purchased an additional 65,341 Ether in the past week (worth $139 million), bringing total holdings to more than 4.6 million tokens.