You mean like this insane set of requirements that makes it basically impossible for the average retail investor to redeem their USDT for USD? [1]
- $150 for KYC + verification, minimum transaction amount is $100,000
- U.S. citizens must be classified as Eligible Contract Participant to redeem USDT via the website (ECP = individual investors with more than $10 million, individuals with $1 million net worth, businesses, etc)
- 0.1% fee for withdrawals up to a maximum of $1,000, which means Tether is redeemable at $0.99 for up to $1 million
- Any individual who is a U.S. Person and any entity that is a U.S. Person is prohibited from using the Site or any Services, [...] Exceptions to this policy may be made by Tether, in its sole discretion, for Eligible Contract Participants only, which shall be customers solely of TLTD.
- There's more, but those are the highlights
[1] https://cryptoslate.com/you-can-redeem-tether-usdt-11-on-tet...
Whether someone always will be able to is the critical question, and there are certainly enough red flags that I wouldn't touch tether personally.
I care because I don't require an intermediary to withdraw my USD "IOUs" from a normal bank.
In the case of Tether these intermediaries that decide whether or not I get my USD (Alameda, FTX, etc) are located on the opposite ends of the earth stockpiling cash by playing trading games and have a vested interest in ensuring I don't get my USD, especially when they don't have the full capital to redeem. You know this will eventually end up in a redemption crisis that will be magnified by shady loans/guarantees that attempt to stave off a de-peg but eventually blows up.
That's really the problem with Tether, they want to be a bank without the regulation, backing, or standard courtesies provided by banks. Everyone will eventually learn their 1920s banking lessons all over again.
So any trader is going to have a limit on how much cash they're willing and able to put at risk, based on Tether's promises. This limit may be lowered if things look iffy.
They do profit if they can buy at a lower price. It's only competition that keeps them from doing that.
Also, even if you follow that premise, that someone should at least be independent of Tether. With so much of the classification "at their sole discretion", this seems questionable.
No, there are hundreds of great use cases for cryptocurrency. The idea that every currency should do everything is ridiculous. Tether was specifically designed to be a tool for "middlemen" to avoid the overhead of dealing with the archaic US financial infrastructure.
If you want to be able to redeem a stablecoin directly to USD in a bank account at a moment's notice, use USDC and a Coinbase account or something. Those extra benefits come with extra risks, where certain organizations can seize your USDC at a moment's notice. If you need to move dollars between crypto exchanges, use Tether. US bank accounts and crypto exchanges are like cesium and water. They do not mix, and tend to explode violently.
The reason that multiple things exist is that there are multiple use cases, even for things that seem to an outsider like they are very similar. Tether, USDC, and DAI all have very different use cases, even though they all represent a dollar. This is fine. This is the way things are supposed to work.
A dozen other websites will let you trade it for other types of crypto, which is the entire reason for its existence.
I find it amusing why people get so hung up on this. They aren't a retailer where you can pointlessly spend your USD to buy USDT and vice versa, the people who first offered a similar thing spent years in jail.[2]
Not going to jail is a strong motivator to let others deal with consumers. They are a b2b service for exchanges to provide an dollar equivalent.