It is only allowed for verified customers --- those with $100,000 or more to redeem. This severely limits any exposure to a bank run.
If Tether was minting unbacked USDT, then Tether would eventually be shown to be insolvent.
By whom? Lots of people think it's always been insolvent. Can you prove it's not?
executing a pump and dump scheme is a lot of work and very risky for very little reward with such expensive, highly traded asset like BTC.
When you have control and influence over both the pump and the dump, it's easy. And price is pretty irrelevant when you can just mint money and "loan" it to select others (aka "whales") so they can participate.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/rising-tether-loans-add-risk-to...
The company behind the tether stablecoin has increasingly been lending its
own coins to customers rather than selling them for hard currency upfront.