Today in Crypto: MercadoLibre Launches Cryptocurrency in Brazil, Tether Changes Up Auditors

Tether has begun working with BDO Italia, the Italian member firm of the BDO global organization, to bolster its transparency, a press release said.

The company said it’s working more on accountability, and as it begins working with the BDO organization, it will release reports monthly as opposed to quarterly as it was prior. Stablecoin issuers publish attestations to assure the market that their coins are backed by real assets.

“We are committed to serving the fast-growing cryptocurrency market as the strongest stable asset in the Web3 economy,” said Paolo Ardoino, CTO of Tether. “The utility of Tether has grown beyond being just a tool for quickly moving in and out of trading positions, and therefore it is mission-critical for us to scale alongside the peer-to-peer and payments markets. Tether’s commitment to transparency is not something new. It aligns with its leadership’s responsibility as a market leader to educate the world about stablecoin technology.”

BDO is the fifth largest public accounting organization in terms of revenue.

In addition, the Korea Financial Intelligence Unit (KoFIU) has announced that it’s notified the authorities of 16 unregistered Virtual Asset Service Providers operating in the domestic market, a press release said.

The VASPs in question were KuCoin, MEXC, Phemex, XT.com, Bitrue, ZB.com, Bitglobal, CoinW, CoinEX, AAX, ZoomEX, Poloniex, BTCEX, BTCC, DigiFinex and Pionex.

The KoFIU said virtual asset users should be careful to avoid getting extra damages that might come with their transactions with unregistered companies, which could lead to hacking or data breaches.

The VASPs were reported to have been targeting domestic customers through Korean-language websites, having promotional events and providing payment options supporting virtual assets. Because the companies were targeting Koreans without getting registered, KoFIU decided to take action.

KoFIU has said there should be five years’ imprisonment for illegal business activities, and it has said the Korea Communications Commission and the Korea Communications Standards Commission should block domestic access to the websites of unregistered VASPs, while credit card companies will inspect and block card-based purchases of virtual assets from foreign VASPs.