Of course. You can short tether on every crypto exchange, both centralized and decentralized (DEXes, DeFi apps)

The only counterparty risk is the collateral that you use. Ether, BTC, usdc, etc. Some exchanges also support fiat currencies (eur, usd)

Some hedge funds have been running tether shorts for a long time, maybe they cashed out when the rates spiked, if not they're just losing money.

There's nothing new in this report. Tether/Finex's founders are well known for many years

Also FYI, tether has been able to redeem > 20 billion$ in a few days, something that I am not aware of ANY other company, not even banks, being able to do - and def without CB/govt support