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I am increasingly reading highly concerning analyses of Tether, saying that it is has not been audited, could cause crypto markets to crash, etc.

What do we actually know about this situation? Should we be listening to the Cassandras on this one?

So have you read an old article way back in 2019 - https://www.newsbtc.com/news/crypto-community-reacts-to-tether-admitting-usdt-not-fully-backed/? They admitted that they were not fully backed by USD assets at that time. And right now, we don't know the absolute truth if they are now 100% fully backed. Being no. 3 is quite a feat. But if you are not comfortable in holding USDT, better opt for BTC or other currencies like ETH or BNB.

Tether just recently released a breakdown of its reserves. Here is an article from Forbes detailing how Tether's funds are divided:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholasgans/2021/05/13/tether-releases-breakdown-of-its-reserves/?sh=393ea86a1109

It is up to you how you would perceive them based on the breakdown.

Tether is full of controversies over the years but still it remained as the most trusted, most traded, and most utilized stablecoin. But there are now other options. So if you think Tether is risky enough, then you may choose USDC or BUSD.

If SEC will do fully audited about USDT and find something suspicious, only USDT token will crash not entire cryptocurrency. Just like other shitcoins crash until -100% but the cryptocurrency market didn't got affect of it.

So, if you worried that's issue will be happen in the future you should convert ASAP your USDT to USDC or DAI since it's more safer.

But a crashing USDT will definitely has a larger impact to the entire crypto market if ever it gets stopped by the regulators. Shitcoins crash every now and then. Most of the time, they don't even affect the market. We cannot even hear many of them passing away. They just simply perish.

But this is definitely not the case with USDT. USDT, as we all know, is the most traded coin in the whole cryptocurrency market. USDT's 24-hour volume is even way higher than that of Bitcoin's. Bitcoin's volume is not even half of that of USDT's.

But whatever possibilities are with USDT, they are going to be temporary. Although a USDT crash may shake the whole market, it won't cause the market to crash as well.

They have already admitted that cash makes up only around 4% of their reserves. The remaining is locked up in various equities, bullion or fiduciary deposits. There is nothing to panic right now. But my question is what will happen, if the stock market crashes? Even if the total value of their backup goes down by 5% or 10%, that will create widespread panic in the market and will result in panic selling. And the users will not be able to see how much their reserves has gone down, since they are not very transparent with these figures.

Yes USDT is very known stablecoin especially for traders, since as you said the USDT's 24-hour volume is the highest rather than other cryptocurrency.

Back in the 5-6 months ago, when XRP still on top 5 AFAIK (it's mean XRP has quite amount holders) there's a FUD of SEC lawsuit against XRP. Many big centralized exchanges has announce to delist XRP (some already delisted) it make XRP got dumped from $0.6 to $0.2 or -66,67% but it doesn't to effect other crypto e.g. (BTC, ETH etc) instead of dump, the other crypto continuously pump.

The problem with tether is lack of transparency. It has one of the biggest market capitalisation and if Tether holding limited shuts shop the market will certainly crash. I have always avoided it in the past and have been trying it in present. It is far better to invest in other cryptocurrency than a stablecoin. In case of emergency like the market meltdown we are seeing now you can use USDC or BUSD.

It's quite a shame that the NYAG settled for $18.5 Million and allowed Bitfinex/Tether not to admit to any past wrongdoings. I don't blame them though because I know it's tough as hell to dig into those records and the amount paid is probably decent. They also won by forcing Tether become more transparent.

Part of their agreement with the NYAG is to publish a quarterly report of their reserves for the next two years.

Its not the most trusted stable coin. Its the most traded ... yes but its only because of its position, which was built years ago, when there were not yet so many alternatives. But it is visible that USDT is slowly losing battle. In fact USDT already lost on all platworms except centralized exchanges.

Biggest pool on uniswap is ETH/USDC not USDT. USDT/ETH volume is 4 times lower than USDC/ETH on DEX. It proofs that people are not holding USDT anymore. They are using it only to trade on CEX.

USDT somehow managed to stay afloat for all these years, but I don't trust it and never use it, even though having a stable coin could be useful in some situations. It's been known for a while that it's not fully backed by USD, and there's no transparency on how much it's truly backed by various financial assets. This means that there's a good chance it's not fully backed, and if something triggers panic selling of USDT, the price will collapse. Everyone knows that Bitcoin is volatile because it's not backed by anything, but USDT users believe that their coin is fully backed, and thus the price will always remain stable. I think it's largely a bubble that keeps going because enough people believe in it, but it can burst at any point.

If you need a stable coin that you can count on then use DAI because it's decentralized atleast but I don't just know why I keep finding my way back to USDT, maybe it's because it's available on other blockchain that's not ETH only, very convincing to use

I am curious why despite this news spreading about Tether USD (USDT). But USDT is still the highest market cap stablecoin now. We already saw a lot of issues with Tether, like mentioned above, not 100% totally backed, why they are still the highest market cap, so this means that USDT is more popular? More people are using it?

Do not store all of your stablecoins in Tether.

Be sure to read this information
Stablecoins and Blacklists
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5247581.msg54407892#msg54407892
Tether's capitalization isn't big enough to crash the market. But they can guess huge problems.

I agree with you that it is best to see the news because the assets at Tether claim to have more than 75% of their reserves in cash and cash equivalents, mostly in the form of securities.

Please, read the new article instead of falling into the old article that is not yet relevant again. You should not listen to the anyone. Try to do your own research and when you will be getting interesting fact about tether and you can take it as your consideration whether tether can be trusted or not. I have been using tether since 2 years ago and i never face any problem with it.
Remember about that dude tether is the most reliable stable coin right now.

Yes. There are a lot of issues about Tether right now. Maybe the SEC hasn't checked whether Tether's developers have that much fiat. Since the value of Tether must be equivalent to USD, if the devs are not able to maintain that value, then Tether will have problems. This is seen from the addition of Tether supply every year.

AFAIK, that issue towards USDT was already solved and done. It can't just make the market crash but also cause to pump whenever there is a new Tether that has been printed.

As far as our concern, there's nothing that much to know unless you're involved with illegal deals. There's a likelihood that your address will be frozen just like what happened in some other addresses.

Once upon a time Tether team was faced by the authorities for fraud or sort but later they resolve the issue within themselves, one reason why I'm not that bothered about USDT is because they aren't decentralized, whatever happens USDT team can be apprehend by the law

If USDT is going to do an audit, it seems that only USDT will experience a price drop because investors and traders will try to exchange USDT for BTC or other coins, while the crypto market will not experience a price drop, if you have USDT and are hesitant to save it, it's better now you exchange it to BTC, ETH, etc.

Because the assets of this project are mostly in gold, the shares of many different companies, holding this currency is still risky.
If one day the gold or shares held by the USDT project lose value they may not be able to secure the USDT coin. If you are holding USDT please pay attention to this.

If the USDT market crashes it will be a huge blow to the crypto market. It is possible that the cryptocurrency market will not be able to crash but it will be affected and fall deeply.
And this is entirely possible when the amount of cash that the USDT project holds cannot cover the entire amount of USDT they issue.

You are right, it is very suspicious about USDT and it might not be completely backed by real USD.
Because imagine if anyone will set up a stablecoin but has no backing. It means, a stablecoin would have no value.

And experts arevery caution at USDT because it could not be completely backed by USD. If it gets exposed, many ppl will lose trust in stablecoins and it will give a big sell.

There should be other stablecoin that have been audited and safe to hold, between since 2019 till now is enough time for the usdt team to audit their project because millions of investors holding usdt and it won't be nice to stall with the process, it is definitely a thing of concern though despite it is the most used stablecoin.

That's just FUD and tether was never making the crypto market to crash. Tether is also fully audited right now and it looks like that you were taking the old news as a proof to support your assumption, right?




Who is cassandra? is that an author for the FUD article that already published in the past?

Cassandra is a prophet in ancient Greece, who foresaw the destruction of Troy and was given this gift by Apollo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassandra
Obviously, the OP would like to find an analyst whose gift for predicting the stability of USDT would be comparable to Cassandra prophecy.

One of the most known facts about Tether itself is the fact that they have less than 4% of their money in cash. Yes you read it right, less than 4% is in cash. That is why I never trust them and I will never own USDT more than few seconds in my life. That is the thing about crypto, you have to trust the project you put your money into or they could always crash and burn and you will be holding nothing. They have stocks, they have bonds, they have many other things but at the end of the day they do not own cash, they have "cash like" stuff that they can sell right away if they want to but that's it.

Even those "cash like" things were under 80% I think. That is why I do not trust tether, because they do not have the backing for 1 to 1 ratio and why would I give someone who doesn't even have what they claim they will have? There is no reason to trust them at all.