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Why pump assets if you can't cash them out?

• notahacker 9y ago
  (1) There's more demand for swapping BTC for cash or occasionally even goods/services than USDT period, and even more so when the price of BTC goes up. Offloading $2bn USDT is hard work because it's not a speculator-friendly asset (2) They already had BTC and a belief in its future. Making it worth more, easier to exchange for cash and having more of it looks like a win all round if you don't mind committing fraud. (3) Leverage, provided the BTC price holds up for long enough to cash out. Even if you're printing fake money, you can only print as much of it as people believe you actually have. (4) BTC price rise income looks like it might be a legitimate income stream when auditors ask about it. Income from selling stuff that's supposed to be backed by a dollar for a dollar is obviously the proceeds of fraud. (5) BTC holdings can likely continue to be bought and sold even if nobody wants USDT, bank accounts connected to Bitfinex and Tether end up frozen and a rapid change of address and identity is required Money laundering is often very convoluted and usually costs money, but it's big business.