An anonymous Medium author who wrote a long essay on the risks of Tether and stablecoins to the crypto market.
HN links it as background on Tether's role in Bitcoin buying and the risk of an unwinding; commenters cite its claims on lacking audits.
From the article that caused the panic-
https://crypto-anonymous-2021.medium.com/the-bit-short-inside-cryptos-doomsday-machine-f8dcf78a64d3
The last nail in the coffin was when I found out about the lack of visible reserves. If Tether Ltd. really was taking in 1 USD for each Tether it issued, then it should have as many dollars in its bank account as there are issued Tethers. And it turns out we can check if that’s true! Tether Ltd.’s bank is Deltec bank in the Bahamas, and the Bahamas discloses how much foreign currency its domestic banks hold each month.
The answer was — at least up to the end of September 2020 — not nearly enough:
From January 2020 to September 2020, the amount of all foreign currencies held by all the domestic banks in the Bahamas increases by only $600 million — going from $4.7B to $5.3B. (The table is in Bahamian dollars, but the Bahamian dollar is pegged to the US dollar, so 1 BSD = 1 USD.)
But during the same period, total issued Tethers increased by almost $5.4 billion — going from $4.6B to $10B!
The issue is that Tether makes up not just a significant portion of but almost all of the trading volume of the entire cryptocurrency market. If something happens and Tether goes tits up the entire market goes with it since effectively all of the volume on nearly every exchange (excluding a few US exchanges) is done in USDT trading pairs.
Eventually the market will sort itself out but that initial bloodbath could cause serious financial issues and the recovery could take years.
https://crypto-anonymous-2021.medium.com/the-bit-short-inside-cryptos-doomsday-machine-f8dcf78a64d3
https://crypto-anonymous-2021.medium.com/the-bit-short-inside-cryptos-doomsday-machine-f8dcf78a64d3
Posted on HN a while back.
"To be crystal clear: every time you sell Tethers on Kraken, you are forcing Tether Ltd. to pay you in US dollars. If you can manage to sell enough Tethers for USD on Kraken, then Tether Ltd. will run out of dollars and this whole machine — which currently undergirds 70% of all crypto trading flows — will fall apart.
Well-capitalized hedge fund managers may wish to re-read the above paragraph, and ponder its implications."
People love using Tether to purchare BTC (and other cryptovalues).
> over two-thirds of all Bitcoin — $10 billion worth of it — that was bought in the previous 24 hours, was being purchased with Tethers. [0]
Thus, it is not unreasonable to say the 1 Tether = 1 USD change indirectly affects (read: inflates) the valuation of BTC, and that a depreciation of Tether may have an impact on BTC.
[0] https://crypto-anonymous-2021.medium.com/the-bit-short-inside-cryptos-doomsday-machine-f8dcf78a64d3
There is no audit. That's why they produced that bullshit attestation.
Tether has been saying they would produce an audit since July 2021, that's a year ago!
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/17/tether-usdt-redemptions-fuel-fears-about-stablecoins-backing.html
This is long but fascinating. Tether is a scam, it just hasn't fallen apart yet.
https://crypto-anonymous-2021.medium.com/the-bit-short-inside-cryptos-doomsday-machine-f8dcf78a64d3
It assumes that the fraudulent stablecoin created by Binance, and involved in the vast majority of trades, (more 70%, a few days ago) unwinds.
https://crypto-anonymous-2021.medium.com/the-bit-short-inside-cryptos-doomsday-machine-f8dcf78a64d3
https://bitfinexed.medium.com/tether-is-setting-a-new-standard-for-transparency-that-is-untethered-from-facts-deec42c473bb
USDC (the second largest stablecoin), isn't appreciably better.