Is this because everyone is buying it to get out USDC?
Exchanges that offer true "USD" trading pairs ultimately have to store that cash [at a bank] somewhere. But at which bank? Before this week, most people probably wouldn't have paid attention.
Some like Coinbase offer passthrough FDIC insurance [1], but again, if you have more than $250k you're potentially s-o-l just like an SVB depositor.
So weirdly, 1 USDT ("definitely sketchy but somehow has never broken peg") all of a sudden may seem less risky than 1 "USD" at [which bank again?].
But all past stablecoins never broken the peg before they did.
One that has adequate risk management controls, attempts to comply with Basel 3 etc.
that's not it. there are far better gauges of dissatisfaction in US banking, share price in banks is a far better gauge. if you want a metric for USD then swiss franc is better.
USDC and other "stable coins" are risky, noisy and generally bad medium to long term investments. Unlike domestic currency they have such small trading volumes that they are easy to manipulate.
Thats great if you're the one doing the manipulation. At best they perform better than cash, but without any of the protection, at worst they go bust. Emerging markets have less fraud than generic crypto backed devices.
Also the trading volume of stablecoins and of the largest cryptocurrencies is close on most day to NASDAQ's listed equities trading volume.
until they run out of capital/credit.
How are you supposed to manipulate a currency pegged to the USD? It'll fluctuate a bit above or below, but not by much except in extreme cases. And even in those extreme cases, it seems like the peg gets restored eventually. Talking mainly about USDC, USDT and DAI here, as those have all been "depegged" and subsequently restored their peg afterwards.
To keep a peg you have to "defend" the value of said pegged monetry instrument.
That means when the value drops below the peg, the "owner" has to buy back the "currency" at a high enough value to keep in within the peg. They have to crash liquidate possibly long term investments, or use a credit facility. This is expensive.
As you know, the value of traded things is defined by the current buy/sell price. If you are only trading a few thousand times a day, those people who trade have much more power. All it takes is a few million, and you can trade between a few accounts effectively setting the price of the market.
Wut? How would we know, they don't really share specifics. Last I know they have a lot of money in Chinese corporate bonds that will fare worse when growth slows a tad more but maybe that's outdated.
https://assets.ctfassets.net/vyse88cgwfbl/1Xfu4398CIoMiuKjPh...
(Whether you should believe this claim is, of course, another story entirely.)
Edit: how do they claim bying them? I thought they had no us banking access?
https://tether.to/en/transparency/#reports
Disclaimer that I'm a bit of a Tether skeptic, but if I'm wrong and they either were in, or have been able to get to, a fully-collateralized position of mostly treasuries and are earning 5% interest while paying 0% on USDT, good for them and good for regular people who won't be left holding bags.
I'll always consider Tether in the context of their July 2021 CNBC interview with Deirdre Bosa. Timestamps are relative to the copy at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBEqyiO35cQ
I don't think they've said who the commercial paper counterparties were and claim it was an important trade secret. Traders in the US commercial paper market say they had never heard of the Tether folks which was odd given their attestations would have given them a top 10 global holding (17:20). Explanation, they use intermediaries. Will they give names or details on the intermediaries? Can't, trade secret.
Did they hold Chinese commercial paper? Dodged the question twice (6:30 and re-ask 7:35).
Where are the CEO and CFO of this company that holds $60B of assets? Why don't they talk to media? (24:40)
But hopefully we'll get assurance regarding the reserves soon. They were excited to promise a formal audit in "months not years" during that interview (27:42)... looking forward to this spring so the audit can be released before we hit two years.
(edit: trying to shorten)
What proof verified by third parties is there that any of their assertions are true? There never has been one and there never will be.
Tether are an obvious fraud run by fraudsters, caught several times committing fraud and already banned in many jurisdictions. They deserve zero trust and when this ecosystem collapses they will go to 0.
No, I don’t recommend using USDT. But with the regulated coins being operated much more poorly than USDT, it may be the best option in certain situations.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/crypto-companies-behind-tether-...
Over the years Tether has claimed many things. The sum total of their claims that turned out to be true is 0.
Why all the Tether hate? Is it because a US company doesn't own it, or is there more to it?
This has nothing to do with the validity of their Tether
> Why all the Tether hate? Is it because a US company doesn't own it, or is there more to it?
Or is it because they are fraudulent scammers that reneged on any claim or promise they ever made with regards to the source of their funds?
Do you work for Tether by any chance? Only a person living in the cave for the past five years wouldn't know the history of Tether at least in part.
Relevant links:
- https://amycastor.com/2019/01/17/the-curious-case-of-tether-...
- https://bitfinexed.medium.com/tether-is-setting-a-new-standa...
To quote NY Attorney General, "Tether’s claims that its virtual currency was fully backed by U.S. dollars at all times was a lie"
They don't buy long dated treasury bonds or deposit in banks because they don't have any reserves backing their "100% reserve backed" token.