Reminder, if you're invested in crypto long term, you'd better say a prayer every night that Tether is actually backed by ~$180B of liquidity.
Furthermore does it even really matter if Tether is backed by anything? My understanding is they've always maintained an absolute veto on any redemption. So tehter could be backed by Trillions in assets and it'd be irrelevant.
This is the most profitable business in the world by many metrics.
Just assuming treasury returns they're making more than 7B USD profit a year with just a couple of employees.
You're also assuming that they make 7bn in profit per year just by keeping this rdiciulously large amount of money in a bank, but their own notation says that only 105bn is held as US treasury bills. The rest of the money is effectively invested, whether in gold or bitcoin or corporate bonds or loans. All subject to going down aswell as up.
Luckily for the cryptocurrency sector, Tether makes it so ridiculously hard to turn Tether into money that their bullshit probably won't be discovered for a long time, so the make believe valuations of bitcoin can stay as they are
The passing of GENIUS act marks one of, possibly the largest banking regulatory changes in the US. The stablecoin industry is very legitimate, has very firmly established guardrails and rules, and tether is working fast to become fully compliant.
This "TeTheR iS a SySTEmiC RiSK tO eVEryThiNG" mentality is fully dead. Tether is compliant in a regulated industry, tether is backed, and tether is quickly running away with the entire market.
I don't know why I'm bothering to reply. Tether truthers are modern day financial luddites, willingly blind and ignorant of the sea change taking place in plain sight after the passing of GENIUS.
Well they must be regulated somewhere, right? Where are the reports from regulators that all is OK, or at the very least an audit.
And if you can't get one of the Big 4 to sign off on your finances, then you have big big problems. Even Wirecard and Enron managed that.
But hey, ultimately it's just gonna blow up the economy at some point, but we'll be fine right? Right?
Being completely ignorant on all of these, where can I read about this?
2. Wall Street Journal — “Cantor Fitzgerald Helps Oversee Tether’s Billions in Treasurys” — on who holds and manages a large chunk of Tether’s reserves. https://www.wsj.com/finance/currencies/wall-street-firm-over...
3. CoinDesk — “Tether’s banking relationships & commercial paper exposure in newly released NYAG docs” — FOIL-sourced documents on what sat inside reserves. https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2023/06/16/tethers-banking-r...
4. CFTC (primary source) — 2021 order fining Tether over reserve claims — official enforcement record on “fully backed” statements. https://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/8450-21
Tether's backing / solvency become more important when it's a major provider of crypto liquidity.
If liquidity is generated by many participants, the failure of one doesn't impact the underlying asset.
If liquidity is concentrated in one participant, it increases the potential volatility of the asset, as that participant's failure can drastically limit liquidity and leave the asset open to bigger price swings.
That said, even at $1B, Tether is a smaller portion of the BTC market than it was historically.
As a long-term holder of Bitcoin I do not see why I should lose any sleep due to Tether risks. Why should I care even if it de-pegs?
On the liquidation itself: leveraged bets gone wrong will get liquidated, whether the bets were on stocks, currencies, Treasuries, crypto or grain futures. BoJ, for example, regularly makes rapid large buys to shake out leveraged yen speculators. I do not see anything concerning or unusual with this week's crypto shakeout. My 2c.
As a long-term BTC holder my primary reason is protection against debasement. It is a volatile asset, historically with 50-80% drawdowns from time to time. But as long as I think it still serves as a hedge against debasement I am happy to hold a portion of my net worth it in.
Growing up, I have seen fiat go worthless twice in my life: once the government zeroed out previous money overnight, once it hyperinflated fiat by over 1000x in two years. An 80% temporary drop is peanuts compared to that.