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Here's an interesting graph comparing the price of Bitcoin (red), the market cap of Tether (blue) and Google Search interest in Bitcoin (green): https://imgur.

Here's an interesting graph comparing the price of Bitcoin (red), the market cap of Tether (blue) and Google Search interest in Bitcoin (green): https://imgur.com/zxFmFUs https://imgur.com/zxFmFUs During the 2018 spike, there was a massive surge in interest in Bitcoin, which has been notably absent this year. However, since COVID hit the issuance of stablecoin Tether has been through the roof, going from $4B to $18B and counting printed. Each Tether is supposed to represent $1 added to the crypto ecosystem. So here's the big question: if there's not much retail interest this time, where did that $14B come from? Or is it more likely that it didn't, and the Tether being used to buy BTC at ever-higher valuations isn't backed by anything?

arcticbull 6y ago
We know tether has neither the bank account nor the backing money, as the NYAG lawsuit tells us. Tether doesn’t even have a banking relationship let alone a mattress big enough to hide eighteen billion dollars under lol This is the classic emperor has no clothes situation. Nobody in crypto wants to expose them because the value of their own holdings will plummet to zero. And at $18B they’re basically too big to fail. As much as people pretend otherwise Tether and Bitfinex is defining the price of crypto, everything else is a rounding error. I believe this is the latest update on the suit. [1] [1] https://www.coindesk.com/nyag-bfx-letter-hearing https://www.coindesk.com/nyag-bfx-letter-hearing
- vizzah 6y ago
  ok, for anyone throwing this dated argument about USDT.. Have a look at a sound USDC then - market cap $450mil in march --> $3bil now. Same underlying story.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - howlgarnish 6y ago
    So enlighten us: where is that $14 billion and counting coming from?
- aent 6y ago
  They dropped the claim of being backed by cash and now openly admit it on their website that they are backed by "other assets", which is probably mostly bitcoin they buy with all that fake money they print, which in turn raises the price of bitcoin so their "reserves" go up on paper. >Nobody in crypto wants to expose them because the value of their own holdings will plummet to zero Gotta give it to them it's a pretty smart scheme. Print money out thin air and co-opt the whole crypto community to not question it as it'd crash everything. I do wonder how much longer that can continue.
  - arcticbull 6y ago
    It’s very smart! I have a lot of respect for the hustle haha. The movie is gonna be amazing.
kneel 6y ago
14 billion on record, 4% of all bitcoin being held by these companies. https://bitcointreasuries.org/ https://bitcointreasuries.org/
wcoenen 6y ago
Shouldn't the bitcoin price be higher on USDT shops like Bitfinex and Binance then, vs other exchanges? I'd expect USDT buying pressure to drive up the price, while elsewhere there would be selling pressure to get real USD out. Yet this doesn't seem to be the case.
- aent 6y ago
  Yeah, the risk premium is surprisingly low: http://www.untether.space/ http://www.untether.space/ My guess would be that the Usdt is somewhat backed, so you can exchange some amount of it for usd and as long as no one questions any of that arbitraging it across exchanges is basically free money. Once tether gets a bank run and it becomes obvious it's not fully backed, that spread will shoot up

arcticbull 6y ago

We know tether has neither the bank account nor the backing money, as the NYAG lawsuit tells us. Tether doesn’t even have a banking relationship let alone a mattress big enough to hide eighteen billion dollars under lol This is the classic emperor has no clothes situation. Nobody in crypto wants to expose them because the value of their own holdings will plummet to zero. And at $18B they’re basically too big to fail. As much as people pretend otherwise Tether and Bitfinex is defining the price of crypto, everything else is a rounding error. I believe this is the latest update on the suit. [1] [1] https://www.coindesk.com/nyag-bfx-letter-hearing https://www.coindesk.com/nyag-bfx-letter-hearing

vizzah 6y ago
ok, for anyone throwing this dated argument about USDT.. Have a look at a sound USDC then - market cap $450mil in march --> $3bil now. Same underlying story.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- howlgarnish 6y ago
  So enlighten us: where is that $14 billion and counting coming from?
aent 6y ago
They dropped the claim of being backed by cash and now openly admit it on their website that they are backed by "other assets", which is probably mostly bitcoin they buy with all that fake money they print, which in turn raises the price of bitcoin so their "reserves" go up on paper. >Nobody in crypto wants to expose them because the value of their own holdings will plummet to zero Gotta give it to them it's a pretty smart scheme. Print money out thin air and co-opt the whole crypto community to not question it as it'd crash everything. I do wonder how much longer that can continue.
- arcticbull 6y ago
  It’s very smart! I have a lot of respect for the hustle haha. The movie is gonna be amazing.

kneel 6y ago

14 billion on record, 4% of all bitcoin being held by these companies. https://bitcointreasuries.org/ https://bitcointreasuries.org/

wcoenen 6y ago

Shouldn't the bitcoin price be higher on USDT shops like Bitfinex and Binance then, vs other exchanges? I'd expect USDT buying pressure to drive up the price, while elsewhere there would be selling pressure to get real USD out. Yet this doesn't seem to be the case.

aent 6y ago
Yeah, the risk premium is surprisingly low: http://www.untether.space/ http://www.untether.space/ My guess would be that the Usdt is somewhat backed, so you can exchange some amount of it for usd and as long as no one questions any of that arbitraging it across exchanges is basically free money. Once tether gets a bank run and it becomes obvious it's not fully backed, that spread will shoot up