Tether has announced the successful completion of a System and Organization Controls 2 (SOC) audit — the highest level of security compliance that an organization can demonstrate. The audit was developed by the American Institute of Certified Accountants (AICPA).
The audit underscored Tether’s commitment to offering a secure user experience, according to Paolo Ardoino, the CEO of Tether, who wrote in an April 1 announcement:
Tether has committed to undergoing annual SOC 2 audits to ensure its security practices remain consistent with the standards.
The firm aims to achieve the SOC 2 Type II certification by the end of 2025, which assesses the effectiveness of Tether’s internal controls over a period of 12 months.
Tether issues the largest stablecoin, Tether (USDT), which has a current market capitalization of over $104 billion, according to CoinMarketCap data.
This makes Tether the third-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization behind Ether (ETH) and Bitcoin (BTC). Its closest competitor, Circle’s USD Coin (USDC), is the seventh-largest crypto, with a $32.5 billion market cap.
Tether is also expanding into new venues beyond stablecoins. The firm is planning to spend around $500 million on the construction of Bitcoin mining facilities in Uruguay, Paraguay and El Salvador.
The firm aims to grow its computing power to 1% of the Bitcoin mining network, Tether’s Ardoino told Bloomberg in an interview on Nov. 16, 2023.
The new sites would have a capacity of between 40 and 70 megawatts (MW) and include the $610 million debt financing facility extended to German miner Northern Data Group.
Tether also aims to amp up its direct mining operations to 450 MW by the end of 2025. The firm is also considering a 300 MW facility and is setting up its facilities inside containers that can be moved when electricity prices change, Ardoino said in the interview: