Breaking: Myanmar’s Shadow Government Makes Tether’s USDT an “Official” Currency

By Prashant Jha
Updated December 16, 2021
NUG

Myanmar’s parallel govenment called the National Unity Government (NGU), led by the supporters of Aung San Suu Kyi has declared Tether’s USDT as an official currency of use. In an official facebook post made by the Ministry of Planning, Finance and Investment – NUG declared they will use USDT for internal trade and payment transfer.

NUG
Source: Facebook

The decision comes as a part of its national fundraising program through which the NUG aims to raise $1 billion. NUG Finance Minister Tin Tun Naing said,

Tether will be a tool for “domestic use to make it easy and speed up the current trade, services and payment systems,”

The NUG has initiated a  “Spring Revolution Special Treasury Bonds” sale to raise funds and until now that have raised a total of $9.5 million in the first 24-hours. The bonds are being offered to Myanmanr disopera all around the globe. The NUG hopes to raise enough funds to topple the current military regime.

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NUG Aims to Use Tether to Undermine Current Regime

The central bank of Myanmar banned cryptocurrency in May last year and also threatened high penalty and jail term to those found using the nascent tech. However, NUG aims to undermine the ban to ensure higher transaction efficiency and faster payment. The NUG group will hope for more privacy through cryptocurrency use.

The decision to go for USDT wasn’t revealed in the official release, but many belive the stable nature of USDT with instant transaction facilities might have tilted the decision in the stablecoin’s favor. Howver, Tether’s USDT is quite a controversial digital asset especially constant questions surrounding the backing of the reserves.

At a time when the United States government is looking to impose strict stablecoin issuance policies, NUG’s decision could undermine its chances of getting recognized as the official government of the Myanmar by the U.S.

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Prashant Jha
An engineering graduate, Prashant focuses on UK and Indian markets. As a crypto-journalist, his interests lie in blockchain technology adoption across emerging economies.
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