I think the main trouble is centered directly on Bitfinex, the exchange that mints Tether. According to Bitcointy's charts[0], Bitfinex trading volume over the

I think the main trouble is centered directly on Bitfinex, the exchange that mints Tether. According to Bitcointy's charts[0], Bitfinex trading volume over the past 30 days is roughly 1.59M BTC as of this post – that equates to over 30% of the BTC trading market. As I understand it, despite this massive volume Bitfinex will not convert to/issue any fiat in the form of withdrawals. This is why they created Tether (USDT) with 1:1 parity to USD. (I'm sure you know all of this, but I am much less knowledgable about modern crypto markets so I have to explain it to myself as I type – sorry if I am coming off as patronizing.) If Tether is not legitimate, and the price suddenly crashes, I think the effects would be hard to predict. My assumption is that Bitfinex is not liquid enough in any coin to cover the losses of a crashed Tether as trust in their entire exchange is tied to that particular coin. But at this point I have no idea what would happen, I don't think anyone really does. If there was a run on Bitfinex, the world's largest BTC exchange, I think the effects would be pretty dramatic. 0. https://data.bitcoinity.org/markets/volume/30d?c=e&t=b https://data.bitcoinity.org/markets/volume/30d?c=e&t=b