It IS a scam and it is backed by nothing. Only to pump the BTC price artificially.
The unveiling of this scam was seen and covered a mile away and was a long time coming.
To Downvoters: I'm sorry BTC maximalists, but this scandal was waiting to be cracked down and no, it is not FUD, or whatever denial spiral you are going through.
Just read: https://twitter.com/smdiehl/status/1393669812220465162
It is legitimate to raise the Tether concern yet he confidently drops into very binary conclusions driven by his pure hate for crypto.
For example, his claim that it's 100% a scam whilst this fact isn't established.
Or calling any trade in crypto "shady". This one shows his true colors. A huge amount of people just deposit dollars on a KYC exchange, then buy and sell whatever crypto they fancy.
None of this is shady. It's fully legal, taxes are paid, it's like stocks. Yet according to him, any trade in crypto is shady.
Or, the claim that the 800 billion market cap of Bitcoin is solely based on Tether. That's an absurd statement.
As said, maximalists can be extreme, but so can anti-maximalists. He deeply hates any and all crypto, has zero nuance, and is not open to any type of discussion.
> None of this is shady. It's fully legal, taxes are paid, it's like stocks. Yet according to him, any trade in crypto is shady.
True, there has been a lot of activity that was no worse than gambling. Let's tally up everything that's come out of the space, good and bad, and ask where it comes out on net. Somewhere in region of "a giant casino with a mad electricity bill on an island with no cops, teeming with scumbags who busy themselves with fleecing the innocent suckers in there desparate to come away with one of the lambos on stage". Yes, you pay tax on your winnings when you get back to the mainland.
> Or, the claim that the 800 billion market cap of Bitcoin is solely based on Tether. That's an absurd statement.
"800 billion market cap of Bitcoin" is already an absurd statement.
Again, a huge part of crypto is perfectly legitimate, just retail buying/selling crypto via KYC exchanges. It's not lawless, just a free market of assets.
Which any individual can use or ignore as they see fit. You can use an investment strategy (buy and hold), trading/speculation strategy (minority of day traders) or indeed go the gambling route: super high risk bets using leverage.
Calling this entire spectrum consisting of hundreds of millions of users "gambling" is simplistic, binary thinking. Most crypto holders have less than 10K USD worth of holdings and rarely trade on it.
"800 billion market cap of Bitcoin" is already an absurd statement."
How so? Because you think it's worth less, or perhaps zero? If you're so super confident about that, short it. You'll get filthy rich whilst proving you're right.
But you won't short it, because you have no idea.
The guy hates crypto. A normal person would declare that and move on. He makes it his life work to hate crypto. He's consumed by it. That's anti-crypto maximalism.
A source to distrust as much as a pro maximimalist. Both have agendas set in stone, are not open to reason and nuance.