This sounds impressive until you compare it with the compliance work done by conventional financial institutions. A major bank such as HSBC employs thousands of compliance officers, a total several times larger than Tether’s entire workforce. Tether brings in 40m new customers every quarter, and there is simply no way that 20 or 30 investigators could check all these customers’ bona fides. “Tether talks a good game,” said one crypto analyst. “But their actions don’t mirror that in my experience. The vast majority of illicit activity and crypto assets have switched to Tether in recent years.”