Do you know if any tethers have ever been destroyed? I have not seen it confirmed that this has occurred and if people were withdrawing to the dollar via USDT I would expect there to have been destructions.
But if they are in fact backed 1:1 with USDs, then it raises the question: if the tether peg is slipping below $1, why doesn't Tether or one of these alleged "verified customers" buy them up at a discount, redeem and destroy them for USD, and bank the difference?
The answer to this question is left as an exercise for the reader.
[2] https://wallet.tether.to/app/#!/signup
[3] https://omniexplorer.info/tx/bd9520b9aea701e9606ad8a8f4d6852...
Here's 30 million being destroyed earlier this year:
https://omniexplorer.info/tx/24db40680654b8b505fda3e96be722c...
The moon also had to be in full eclipse while in Mercury retrograde.
[1] https://cryptocoincharts.info/pair/usdt/usd/kraken/today
Redemption implies a non-market transaction to turn in an asset for a guaranteed face value. For example, you redeem bonds (and bond coupons) for the face amount with the original issuer, once the bond or coupon has matured