Tether (USDT), cryptocurrency’s most popular stablecoin and the 9th-ranked cryptocurrency by market cap, announced today that they will be hiring former AML Quality Control Manager at Bank of Montreal, Leonardo Real, as the company’s new Chief Compliance Officer.

Real is considered to be an experienced professional in the field of traditional finance and funds compliance. Prior to working for Bank of Montreal, Real worked for one of Canada’s leading managing general agents, Bridgeforce Capital. Before that, he worked as a day trader.

Tether’s interest in Real was likely piqued due to Real’s recent work within the blockchain community. Real won the 2016 ACAMS Today Article of the Year award for a piece he co-wrote focusing on money laundering risks associated with cryptocurrencies. He also held a cryptocurrency event in Toronto, Canada that same year focusing on responsible use of cryptocurrency. The event was a success—bringing together regulators, bankers, law enforcement professionals and blockchain companies for a series of fruitful discussions.

Real described his excitement for his new position at Tether in a blog post published this morning:

“Joining Tether as CCO is an an incredibly exciting move for me personally, and I am particularly impressed by the motivation, dedication, and talent of the Tether team. I look forward to helping showcase Tether’s commitment to transparency and regulatory compliance within the blockchain and cryptocurrency space. As a longtime advocate of blockchain technology and the integration of cryptocurrencies into the mainstream, I am looking forward to putting my experience in AML and regulatory compliance in traditional financial institutions to use, to ensure that the Tether project can continue its work disrupting traditional industries.”

Following its launch in 2014, Tether garnered a great deal of attention from the cryptocurrency community due to the coin’s claims that each USDT is backed 1:1 to the US dollar.

Despite the company’s initial success, Tether has recently come under heavy speculation following a series of scandals including a published study suggesting that Tether was being used to manipulate the price of Bitcoin during Bitcoin’s price boom of late 2017.

The hire of Real no doubt serves in part as a means for Tether to improve the coin’s public image.

The post Tether Hires Former Anti-Money Laundering Manager as New CCO appeared first on UNHASHED.

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