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Comment by winslett | Hacker News Reader

Tether is a fiat currency supported by the crypto oligarchs. It doesn't have to be backed. It just has to avoid taxes, avoid governments, and avoid sequestration.

You can't take a tether and redeem it for a dollar, so it doesn't really even have a price. Tether is just a placeholder for a dollar in the crypto-world.

Furthermore, Bitcoins aren't really priced in United States Dollars anymore, they are priced in Tether Dollars. The price reported on CNBC is tether dollars.

It's so synthetic, even that chart doesn't really matter. So, where can we find real dollars being exchanged for Bitcoin? We can find that in the GBTC trust. I would argue the actual price of a Tether is equal to the GBTC discount, which currently sits at 37%. So, a tether dollar is actually about 0.62 dollars.

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Tether is definitely shady, but everything you stated is wrong.

You can redeem tether for a dollar anytime on their website [1].

Bitcoin has multiple markets on multiple exchanges. Some markets are between BTC and USD, some are between BTC and USDT, some are between BTC and BUSD (Binance's coin that is pegged to USD etc.). The reported price is a weighted average of these markets. It is never just USDT.

There are 7 exchanges on the first page of CoinMarketCap where you can buy Bitcoin with dollars directly [2]. Look for BTC/USD pair.

[1] https://tether.to/en/

̌[2] https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/bitcoin/markets/

You cannot redeem a tether for a dollar. You can allegedly redeem $101,000USDT for $100,000, once you've paid the $150 initial club fee. https://tether.to/en/fees/

> You can redeem tether for a dollar anytime on their website [1].

You could also withdraw your money from Bernie Madoff up until the day the Ponzi scheme collapsed because the money ran out.

So the question is whether the money could run out, or whether they have 1:1 reserves.

That's not so accurate. The real pegging is by exchanges which deposit real dollars back into your bank account. You know the real mayhem starts when the exchanges start stopping withdrawals.

Are exchanges obligated to conduct a trade? Ie. Are they like a bank, holding your deposit? Or are they like a third party FX booth at an airport?

If the latter, how is this not the most perilous currency to hold?

Thether is not Dollar. Nobody is obliged to give you Dollars for Thether. Until you make the deal.

Banks are not obliged to exhange currencies for you either, by the way. Many do, at a rate favorable to them.

Right. So it’s definitely an “exchange” and not a “we’re giving you your deposits back.”

Thanks.

> So, where can we find real dollars being exchanged for Bitcoin?

At an over-the-counter exchange? You can literally give paper money and receive crypto and vice versa.

The vice-versa bit seems quite tricky at times, especially times like this.

Away from Tethers for second, given the enormous GBTC discount to quoted BTC price is there any reason to purchase BTC with USD rather than buying GBTC with USD?

Discounts that aren’t instantly arbitraged away usually have a reason.

I don’t know in this case but it sounds like people don’t trust GBTC.

ETFs are not your friends.

No redemption or creation allowed in GBTC while you get crushed by fees

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