1 USDT is meant to represent 1 USD in the bank in the custody of Tether.<p>In 2019 Tether was proven to be only 74% backed by fiat and fiat-equivalent assets: <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/tether-lawyer-confirms-stablecoin-74-percent-backed-by-cash-and-equivalents" rel="nofollow">https://www.coindesk.com/tether-lawyer-confirms-stablecoin-7...</a> This means it's not 74 literal cents per USDT but some proportion of a liquid asset and fiat.<p>Tether has long since refused to release any concrete of proof of reserve and even when they were heavily pressured to only admitted to a lack thereof (74% in 2019 and that 74% isn't even fiat-only).<p>Tether is nothing but bad for the crypto-space as when it eventually DOES collapse a lot of people are going to find themselves holding something, USDT, which isn't as backed as they thought it was. Would you give me a dollar right now if I gave you back 74 cents?<p>The only sensible stable crypto asset is DAI from the MakerDAO which has been battle tested and proven under the worst possible scenarios (2017/2018 bullmarket crash) where it still held it's peg.<p>I don't know how this extends to USDC etc but for USDT I wouldn't touch it with a 20 foot pole.
I was curious how this compared with USDC, the smaller but also more reputable tokenized US Dollar service affiliated with Coinbase. It looks like 65% of that was created in 2021.
Perhaps a controversial view, but why does this matter?<p>I was having this debate with a friend a few weeks back.<p>Tether was the first crypto coin pegged to a fiat currency, but now there are so many more: USDC, BUSD, TrueUSD, DAI, GUSD...and that's just a fraction of the ones pegged to $USD.<p>The entire market's _daily volume_ is 5+ times the entire Tether cap. Plus you have Automated Market Makers (Uniswap & co.) where you can trade directly between crypto pairs and even Binance/Crypto.com debit cards which ensure a closed circulation loop for stablecoins within the exchanges.<p>If it turns out that Tether is printing USDT without backing anymore how would this impact the crypto market?
I expect another USD stablecoin would just take its place and life would go on.<p>Crypto trading/hodling is just too irresistible at this point. The last _3 months_ saw $1Tn of new money poured into crypto from all sides.<p>I would be curious to know what does HN genuinely think about this USDT controversy, if possible without the shilling and emotion?
About 40% of all Dollars were created in 2020:<p><a href="https://www.federalreserve.gov/monetarypolicy/bst_recenttrends.htm" rel="nofollow">https://www.federalreserve.gov/monetarypolicy/bst_recenttren...</a>