Need to send proof of funds (in crypto) to potential customer. What are the risks?

Hi everyone,

We have a manufacturing business and recently we got contacted by a potential customer.
As the company is an international company, they work with a middleman (they are the ones that contacted me) and earn a commission on the deal.

I've met with the middleman this weekend and they want to continue with this deal. They will arrange a payment up front by the end customer and after receiving the money on our bankaccount, only then the commission is paid.

They only asked us to pay the commission in any crypto (of any choice) and to send proof that there are funds available in crypto. So we have to put their commission in any form of crypto (could even be USDT) on any wallet (binance, coinbase, kraken, ...) and send them the proof. They want this because they have had troubles in the past that if the company still has to make a business account, put the funds on it, ... it sometimes takes too long.

What are the risks if I would do that and send them some kind of proof that we have funds (for example USDT) on Coinbase. What could they potentially do that would be a risk for us?

Thank you for your advice :)