Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by otoburb 2943 days ago
>>If a bank handles U.S. dollars, they are under U.S. jurisdiction.

I've always thought of Tether as the loose cryptocurrency equivalent of a eurodollar[1] facility. If the eurodollar was Bitfinex's original inspiration, then Bitfinex probably thought that keeping their USD deposits (which allegedly back Tethers 1:1) in custody of foreign banks (i.e. non-US domiciled banks) would place them outside of US jurisdiction.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurodollar