Dive Brief:

• Stablecoin issuer Tether Holdings appointed Simon McWilliams, a finance executive with over two decades of experience, to its CFO role as the company “takes a historic step toward a full financial audit,” according to a Monday announcement.
• The appointment comes as Tether “is making a firm commitment to completing a full audit, a crucial step in raising industry standards and strengthening regulatory engagement,” the El Salvador-based company said. As CFO, McWilliams will “spearhead Tether’s further commitment to transparency and regulatory readiness,” Tether said.
• McWilliams will replace long-time CFO Giancarlo Devasini — the “visionary behind USTD,” the company’s stablecoin, also called tether — who will transition to the role of Tether’s Chairman, according to the Monday announcement. Devasini, who also serves as CFO for fellow cryptocurrency firm Bitfinex, is Tether’s controlling shareholder with a net worth of approximately $8.2 billion, according to a Bloomberg profile.

Dive Insight:

McWilliams’ “expertise in financial audits makes him the perfect CFO to lead Tether into this new era of transparency,” Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether said in a statement included in the release.

Prior to joining Tether, McWilliams most recently served as senior business advisor for fintech WizzFinancial, according to his LinkedIn profile. His previous roles include serving as CFO for investment management company LetterOne and as Chief Operating Officer for hedge fund Quantmetrics Capital Management.

The CFO swap comes as Tether looks to expand its offerings and services across the “institutional financial system,” with the full audit representing a “crucial step” in that strategy, the stablecoin issuer said Monday. Its bid to create transparency follows as the issuer looks to leave behind a somewhat checkered history with U.S. regulators and other governing bodies and as President Donald Trump in his second term in the White House widens the spotlight on stablecoins and other digital assets.

One of the largest players in the cryptocurrency space, Tether’s USDT stablecoin currently has a market capitalization of approximately $142 billion — coming narrowly in fourth place as the largest crypto asset by market cap behind Bitcoin, Ethereum and Ripple’s XRP.

While the company has grown rapidly, it has historically struggled to convince its investors of the strength of its reserves, in part because while the company issues attestation reports of its profits and assets, it has yet to issue audited reports. According to its latest attestation report, Tether saw net profits of over $13 billion for its full-year 2024, according to its latest attestation report published in January and conducted by accounting firm BDO. For its Q4, Tether also saw an “all-time high” in its direct and indirect holdings related to the U.S. Treasury, which reached $113 billion, according to the report.

Tether has also come under regulatory scrutiny regarding its stablecoin; in 2021, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission issued a $41 million civil monetary penalty to Tether for misleading claims that its USDT token was fully backed by fiat currencies including the U.S. dollar and the euro, alongside orders for Bitfinex to pay a $1.5 million such penalty in association with illegal retail commodity transactions, according to a press release at the time.  

In October, the Wall Street Journal reported the federal government was probing the company regarding possible sanctions and anti-money laundering regulations, citing people familiar with the matter. The probe followed after other reports that the USDT stablecoin had been utilized as a funding tool for several illegal undertakings representing a threat to national security, including use by drug cartels, terrorist groups and arms dealers, according to the WSJ.

Tether condemned the WSJ report, stating it was “based on pure rank speculation despite Tether confirming that it has no knowledge of any such investigations into the company” in a short statement published on the website.

The issuer’s plan to conduct a full audit, however, could represent a bid for Tether to burnish its reputation as President Trump’s new administration cultivates a friendlier relationship with the cryptocurrency industry. Under the new administration, government bodies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission have eased aggressive enforcement actions on the industry — dropping investigations into crypto-related platforms included Robinhood and Coinbase in recent weeks.

In a January executive order shortly after taking office, Trump also created a presidential crypto working group with the aim of creating “regulatory clarity” for the space, potentially including a clear definition of stablecoins, experts previously told CFO Dive. While the working definition of such a token is an asset tied one-to-one with the value of another asset and is typically issued by private entities, rather than central banks, that definition is not an adopted regulatory standard and can be murky, experts said.

“As policymakers and institutions assess the evolving role of stablecoins, Tether is positioning itself as a trusted partner in strengthening the global reach of the U.S. dollar,” Tether said Monday.

Tether did not immediately respond to requests for comment.