What people here don't seem to understand is that the people who actually hold significant amounts of Tether basically all know each other. It really is more of

What people here don't seem to understand is that the people who actually hold significant amounts of Tether basically all know each other. It really is more of a social contract than anything else. It was an early stablecoin, and it only exists so major exchanges could interoperate without having to rely on banks. This is what killed MtGox, their over-reliance on banks to hold the collateral needed to make them solvent. Carl Mark Force IV was a DEA agent who was basically blackmailing MagicalTux, forcing him to invest in fake crypto projects, and if he didn't play along, Karl would use his DEA powers to freeze MtGox's bank accounts. This prevented people from cashing out, which was a problem. Major exchanges learned that touching actual US dollars in bank accounts is poison, and something that major exchanges can't really do without devoting massive (crippling amounts) of resources to legal and compliance teams. Better stablecoins exist now, from a US regulatory standpoint (USDC) and from an algorithmic pegging standpoint (DAI), but the people who run exchanges still like using Tether between themselves for historical reasons, which is fine. I will never hold Tether, and probably every person who reads this should never hold Tether, but not because it's necessarily bad, but because it's not for you. It has a very specific utility to certain crowds, and IMO that's fine.