Tether-WSJ Fiasco Aftermath: Over $400 Million in Liquidations as BTC Dumped $3K in Minutes

Bitcoin and the altcoins went through massive volatility on Friday night after a controversial report from the Wall Street Journal, which was denied by Tether’s CEO immediately.

However, the damage was done, which harmed over-leveraged traders, as the liquidations skyrocketed to over $400 million on a daily scale.

CryptoPotato reported WSJ’s claims that the US federal government had launched an investigation into the company behind the world’s largest stablecoin for possible violations of anti-money laundering rules and sanctions.

It further asserted that prosecutors at the Manhattan US attorney’s office investigated whether USDT was used by bad actors to avoid sanctions and other US rules.

Minutes after the report went out, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino refuted the claims made by the WSJ, saying, “As we told to WSJ, there is no indication that Tether is under investigation. WSJ is regurgitating old noise. Full stop.”

Later on, he added that the stablecoin issuer, which has now expanded its presence into many other industries, including BTC mining, deals “regularly and directly with law enforcement officials to help prevent rogue nations, terrorists, and criminals from misusing USDT.”

At Tether, we deal regularly and directly with law enforcement officials to help prevent rogue nations, terrorists and criminals from misusing USDt. We would know if we are being investigated as the article falsely claimed. Based on that, we can confirm that the allegations in…

— Paolo Ardoino (@paoloardoino) October 25, 2024

Such news tends to have an immediate impact on prices in the cryptocurrency market, and this time was no exception. BTC stood close to $69,000 but dumped instantly by over three grand to $65,500. It recovered some ground and now trades at almost $67,000.

With most altcoins following suit, the total liquidations have skyrocketed to $405 million on a daily scale. Interestingly, alts were responsible for the lion’s share, which was more than $100 million, with BTC and ETH trailing at $68 million and $65 million, respectively.

Almost 150,000 over-leveraged traders have been wrecked in the past day, according to CoinGlass.