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It's a big deal from the standpoint that tether stepped in, printed ~ a billion USDT over the past three days, and prevented further plunging. Someone should i

It's a big deal from the standpoint that tether stepped in, printed ~ a billion USDT over the past three days, and prevented further plunging. Someone should investigate that... Reminder, if you're invested in crypto long term, you'd better say a prayer every night that Tether is actually backed by ~$180B of liquidity.

scotty79 1y ago
Assuming it happened, if Tether didn't de-peg due to this then it was probably the right thing to do. If they printed it and bought BTC in the dip they are massively ahead since BTC already regained a third of what it lost in the wipe.
sidewndr46 1y ago
Does anyone actually believe that Tether is backed by anything? I know there are at least a few companies that have to pretend Tether is backed by something. But I can't really believe anyone saying it. It'd be sort of like if someone just declared Madoff never really ran Ponzi scheme. It was just a big misunderstanding. Furthermore does it even really matter if Tether is backed by anything? My understanding is they've always maintained an absolute veto on any redemption. So tehter could be backed by Trillions in assets and it'd be irrelevant.
- candiddevmike 1y ago
  Tether is the defacto central bank for Bitcoin. Since iFinex isn't a country, doesn't have a GDP, and doesn't have a military, MMT doesn't really apply to them. So yes, it's very important, especially during a significant Bitcoin contraction. Tether represents 8% of Bitcoin's (liquid) market cap, and BTC's market cap is already overly inflated due to wash trading.
- monerozcash 1y ago
  At this point there's no reason to pretend that Tether isn't likely fully backed, they're printing absurd amounts of money without any need for fraud. This is the most profitable business in the world by many metrics.
  - notimetorelax 1y ago
    What’s the mechanism through which they print money? I.e. if everyone decided to redeem all coins that have dollar to give.
    - wmf 1y ago
      They make 4% on treasury bonds (that's ~$4B) and they've also profited on Bitcoin and gold.
  - simmerup 1y ago
    So you're saying they buy their own Tether with profits they make elsewhere on the platform?
    - monerozcash 1y ago
      Tether holds closer to 200B USD reserves (customer money) and keeps all interest on that, it's a ridiculously good business. Jeopardizing that in any way would be absurd. Just assuming treasury returns they're making more than 7B USD profit a year with just a couple of employees.
      - simmerup 1y ago
        You're assuming that the 200bn is all customer money. This is very doubtful to me considering that many times Tether magically starts minting billions of new coins to buy Bitcoin whenever Bitcoin prices start falling You're also assuming that they make 7bn in profit per year just by keeping this rdiciulously large amount of money in a bank, but their own notation says that only 105bn is held as US treasury bills. The rest of the money is effectively invested, whether in gold or bitcoin or corporate bonds or loans. All subject to going down aswell as up. Luckily for the cryptocurrency sector, Tether makes it so ridiculously hard to turn Tether into money that their bullshit probably won't be discovered for a long time, so the make believe valuations of bitcoin can stay as they are
      - wat10000 1y ago
- delabay 1y ago
  A tether truther, in this day and and age? 2017 called... The passing of GENIUS act marks one of, possibly the largest banking regulatory changes in the US. The stablecoin industry is very legitimate, has very firmly established guardrails and rules, and tether is working fast to become fully compliant. This "TeTheR iS a SySTEmiC RiSK tO eVEryThiNG" mentality is fully dead. Tether is compliant in a regulated industry, tether is backed, and tether is quickly running away with the entire market.
  - wat10000 1y ago
    How does the GENIUS act apply to Tether, given they're not in the US and their product is not officially available in the US?
    - delabay 1y ago
      Tether will migrate to a US regulated structure
      - wat10000 1y ago
        When that happens then it'll be relevant, but I don't see how it means everything is fine now.
        delabay 1y ago
        A company actively navigating a huge regulatory change is not the same as a flagrant scam hiding in plain sight. I don't know why I'm bothering to reply. Tether truthers are modern day financial luddites, willingly blind and ignorant of the sea change taking place in plain sight after the passing of GENIUS.
        wat10000 1y ago
        I don't have a dog in this fight. I don't much care about crypto and know pretty much nothing about Tether beyond the fact that they have a USD-linked coin, plus what I just read on Wikipedia. "They're on the up-and-up because they say they're going to be complying with US law in the future" just isn't a very convincing argument.
- jawiggins 1y ago
  A reasonably common belief among people who have studied the issue is that Tether was at one point unbacked (see NY AG report), and likely fudged their numbers a bit through the use of corperate paper which was plausibly worth $1 but practically could be bought for less than $1, but they have since made enough through various investments that they could now plausibly be fully backed.
  - 3abiton 1y ago
    This sounds like black magic, ie waiting for a "bank run" to test the validity of Tether.
    - jawiggins 1y ago
      Yes - a common criticism of tether is that many times they have claimed to have an audit coming "soon".
      - disgruntledphd2 1y ago
        And to be fair, given basically all of the fraudulent companies that managed to pass audits, the fact that they won't even bother is a pretty strong signal. But hey, ultimately it's just gonna blow up the economy at some point, but we'll be fine right? Right?
ptero 1y ago
> Reminder, if you're invested in crypto long term, you'd better say a prayer every night that Tether is actually backed by ~$180B of liquidity. As a long-term holder of Bitcoin I do not see why I should lose any sleep due to Tether risks. Why should I care even if it de-pegs? On the liquidation itself: leveraged bets gone wrong will get liquidated, whether the bets were on stocks, currencies, Treasuries, crypto or grain futures. BoJ, for example, regularly makes rapid large buys to shake out leveraged yen speculators. I do not see anything concerning or unusual with this week's crypto shakeout. My 2c.
- kasey_junk 1y ago
  Presumably you should care because tether is (per the OP argument) pushing the value of the entire crypto ecosystem up and the Bitcoin price is a primary beneficiary of that.
  - ptero 1y ago
    Fair, but there are so many things pushing the Bitcoin price up and down: approvals and rejections of various ETFs, tax law changes around the world, corporate adoption and lack thereof, successes and failures of L2 networks, etc. And each of those can cause comparable long-term movement in the BTC than tether's or altcoin's adoption or collapse. As a long-term BTC holder my primary reason is protection against debasement. It is a volatile asset, historically with 50-80% drawdowns from time to time. But as long as I think it still serves as a hedge against debasement I am happy to hold a portion of my net worth it in. Growing up, I have seen fiat go worthless twice in my life: once the government zeroed out previous money overnight, once it hyperinflated fiat by over 1000x in two years. An 80% temporary drop is peanuts compared to that.
exabrial 1y ago
> tether stepped in, printed ~ a billion USDT over the past three days, and prevented further plunging Being completely ignorant on all of these, where can I read about this?
- jawiggins 1y ago
  1. Bloomberg Businessweek — “Anyone Seen Tether’s Billions?” (Cover Story, Oct 2021) — a deep investigation into Tether’s backing, counterparties, and leadership. www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-10-07/crypto-mystery-where-s-the-69-billion-backing-the-stablecoin-tether 2. Wall Street Journal — “Cantor Fitzgerald Helps Oversee Tether’s Billions in Treasurys” — on who holds and manages a large chunk of Tether’s reserves. https://www.wsj.com/finance/currencies/wall-street-firm-oversees-billions-of-dollars-backing-tether-b56c68c1 https://www.wsj.com/finance/currencies/wall-street-firm-over... 3. CoinDesk — “Tether’s banking relationships & commercial paper exposure in newly released NYAG docs” — FOIL-sourced documents on what sat inside reserves. https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2023/06/16/tethers-banking-relationships-commercial-paper-exposure-detailed-in-newly-released-legal-documents https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2023/06/16/tethers-banking-r... 4. CFTC (primary source) — 2021 order fining Tether over reserve claims — official enforcement record on “fully backed” statements. https://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/8450-21 https://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/8450-21
  - exabrial 1y ago
    Apologies, I meant about them printing the money Friday. Trying to understand the relationship with them stabilizing bitcoin prices somehow but also why everyone is worried about USDT and it being "real"
    - ethbr1 1y ago
      https://www.coindesk.com/business/2025/09/30/tether-adds-usd1b-in-bitcoin-to-reserves-as-usdt-supply-nears-usd175b-blockchain-data-shows https://www.coindesk.com/business/2025/09/30/tether-adds-usd... Tether's backing / solvency become more important when it's a major provider of crypto liquidity. If liquidity is generated by many participants, the failure of one doesn't impact the underlying asset. If liquidity is concentrated in one participant, it increases the potential volatility of the asset, as that participant's failure can drastically limit liquidity and leave the asset open to bigger price swings. That said, even at $1B, Tether is a smaller portion of the BTC market than it was historically.

scotty79 1y ago

Assuming it happened, if Tether didn't de-peg due to this then it was probably the right thing to do. If they printed it and bought BTC in the dip they are massively ahead since BTC already regained a third of what it lost in the wipe.

sidewndr46 1y ago

Does anyone actually believe that Tether is backed by anything? I know there are at least a few companies that have to pretend Tether is backed by something. But I can't really believe anyone saying it. It'd be sort of like if someone just declared Madoff never really ran Ponzi scheme. It was just a big misunderstanding. Furthermore does it even really matter if Tether is backed by anything? My understanding is they've always maintained an absolute veto on any redemption. So tehter could be backed by Trillions in assets and it'd be irrelevant.

candiddevmike 1y ago
Tether is the defacto central bank for Bitcoin. Since iFinex isn't a country, doesn't have a GDP, and doesn't have a military, MMT doesn't really apply to them. So yes, it's very important, especially during a significant Bitcoin contraction. Tether represents 8% of Bitcoin's (liquid) market cap, and BTC's market cap is already overly inflated due to wash trading.
monerozcash 1y ago
At this point there's no reason to pretend that Tether isn't likely fully backed, they're printing absurd amounts of money without any need for fraud. This is the most profitable business in the world by many metrics.
- notimetorelax 1y ago
  What’s the mechanism through which they print money? I.e. if everyone decided to redeem all coins that have dollar to give.
  - wmf 1y ago
    They make 4% on treasury bonds (that's ~$4B) and they've also profited on Bitcoin and gold.
- simmerup 1y ago
  So you're saying they buy their own Tether with profits they make elsewhere on the platform?
  - monerozcash 1y ago
    Tether holds closer to 200B USD reserves (customer money) and keeps all interest on that, it's a ridiculously good business. Jeopardizing that in any way would be absurd. Just assuming treasury returns they're making more than 7B USD profit a year with just a couple of employees.
    - simmerup 1y ago
      You're assuming that the 200bn is all customer money. This is very doubtful to me considering that many times Tether magically starts minting billions of new coins to buy Bitcoin whenever Bitcoin prices start falling You're also assuming that they make 7bn in profit per year just by keeping this rdiciulously large amount of money in a bank, but their own notation says that only 105bn is held as US treasury bills. The rest of the money is effectively invested, whether in gold or bitcoin or corporate bonds or loans. All subject to going down aswell as up. Luckily for the cryptocurrency sector, Tether makes it so ridiculously hard to turn Tether into money that their bullshit probably won't be discovered for a long time, so the make believe valuations of bitcoin can stay as they are
    - wat10000 1y ago
delabay 1y ago
A tether truther, in this day and and age? 2017 called... The passing of GENIUS act marks one of, possibly the largest banking regulatory changes in the US. The stablecoin industry is very legitimate, has very firmly established guardrails and rules, and tether is working fast to become fully compliant. This "TeTheR iS a SySTEmiC RiSK tO eVEryThiNG" mentality is fully dead. Tether is compliant in a regulated industry, tether is backed, and tether is quickly running away with the entire market.
- wat10000 1y ago
  How does the GENIUS act apply to Tether, given they're not in the US and their product is not officially available in the US?
  - delabay 1y ago
    Tether will migrate to a US regulated structure
    - wat10000 1y ago
      When that happens then it'll be relevant, but I don't see how it means everything is fine now.
      - delabay 1y ago
        A company actively navigating a huge regulatory change is not the same as a flagrant scam hiding in plain sight. I don't know why I'm bothering to reply. Tether truthers are modern day financial luddites, willingly blind and ignorant of the sea change taking place in plain sight after the passing of GENIUS.
        wat10000 1y ago
        I don't have a dog in this fight. I don't much care about crypto and know pretty much nothing about Tether beyond the fact that they have a USD-linked coin, plus what I just read on Wikipedia. "They're on the up-and-up because they say they're going to be complying with US law in the future" just isn't a very convincing argument.
jawiggins 1y ago
A reasonably common belief among people who have studied the issue is that Tether was at one point unbacked (see NY AG report), and likely fudged their numbers a bit through the use of corperate paper which was plausibly worth $1 but practically could be bought for less than $1, but they have since made enough through various investments that they could now plausibly be fully backed.
- 3abiton 1y ago
  This sounds like black magic, ie waiting for a "bank run" to test the validity of Tether.
  - jawiggins 1y ago
    Yes - a common criticism of tether is that many times they have claimed to have an audit coming "soon".
    - disgruntledphd2 1y ago
      And to be fair, given basically all of the fraudulent companies that managed to pass audits, the fact that they won't even bother is a pretty strong signal. But hey, ultimately it's just gonna blow up the economy at some point, but we'll be fine right? Right?

ptero 1y ago

> Reminder, if you're invested in crypto long term, you'd better say a prayer every night that Tether is actually backed by ~$180B of liquidity. As a long-term holder of Bitcoin I do not see why I should lose any sleep due to Tether risks. Why should I care even if it de-pegs? On the liquidation itself: leveraged bets gone wrong will get liquidated, whether the bets were on stocks, currencies, Treasuries, crypto or grain futures. BoJ, for example, regularly makes rapid large buys to shake out leveraged yen speculators. I do not see anything concerning or unusual with this week's crypto shakeout. My 2c.

kasey_junk 1y ago
Presumably you should care because tether is (per the OP argument) pushing the value of the entire crypto ecosystem up and the Bitcoin price is a primary beneficiary of that.
- ptero 1y ago
  Fair, but there are so many things pushing the Bitcoin price up and down: approvals and rejections of various ETFs, tax law changes around the world, corporate adoption and lack thereof, successes and failures of L2 networks, etc. And each of those can cause comparable long-term movement in the BTC than tether's or altcoin's adoption or collapse. As a long-term BTC holder my primary reason is protection against debasement. It is a volatile asset, historically with 50-80% drawdowns from time to time. But as long as I think it still serves as a hedge against debasement I am happy to hold a portion of my net worth it in. Growing up, I have seen fiat go worthless twice in my life: once the government zeroed out previous money overnight, once it hyperinflated fiat by over 1000x in two years. An 80% temporary drop is peanuts compared to that.

exabrial 1y ago

> tether stepped in, printed ~ a billion USDT over the past three days, and prevented further plunging Being completely ignorant on all of these, where can I read about this?

jawiggins 1y ago
1. Bloomberg Businessweek — “Anyone Seen Tether’s Billions?” (Cover Story, Oct 2021) — a deep investigation into Tether’s backing, counterparties, and leadership. www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-10-07/crypto-mystery-where-s-the-69-billion-backing-the-stablecoin-tether 2. Wall Street Journal — “Cantor Fitzgerald Helps Oversee Tether’s Billions in Treasurys” — on who holds and manages a large chunk of Tether’s reserves. https://www.wsj.com/finance/currencies/wall-street-firm-oversees-billions-of-dollars-backing-tether-b56c68c1 https://www.wsj.com/finance/currencies/wall-street-firm-over... 3. CoinDesk — “Tether’s banking relationships & commercial paper exposure in newly released NYAG docs” — FOIL-sourced documents on what sat inside reserves. https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2023/06/16/tethers-banking-relationships-commercial-paper-exposure-detailed-in-newly-released-legal-documents https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2023/06/16/tethers-banking-r... 4. CFTC (primary source) — 2021 order fining Tether over reserve claims — official enforcement record on “fully backed” statements. https://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/8450-21 https://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/8450-21
- exabrial 1y ago
  Apologies, I meant about them printing the money Friday. Trying to understand the relationship with them stabilizing bitcoin prices somehow but also why everyone is worried about USDT and it being "real"
  - ethbr1 1y ago
    https://www.coindesk.com/business/2025/09/30/tether-adds-usd1b-in-bitcoin-to-reserves-as-usdt-supply-nears-usd175b-blockchain-data-shows https://www.coindesk.com/business/2025/09/30/tether-adds-usd... Tether's backing / solvency become more important when it's a major provider of crypto liquidity. If liquidity is generated by many participants, the failure of one doesn't impact the underlying asset. If liquidity is concentrated in one participant, it increases the potential volatility of the asset, as that participant's failure can drastically limit liquidity and leave the asset open to bigger price swings. That said, even at $1B, Tether is a smaller portion of the BTC market than it was historically.