The Last Bear Standing. I came across your twitter a little over a year ago form a friend and have been a avid reader since. I'm so grateful for these write ups, keep up the great work.
Thank you so much! I cannot tell you how much I appreciate reading a nuanced take on Tether. The "Tether is bust and is going to decimate the crypto markets next week" articles are a dime a dozen. I'm no fan of Tether, I don't think it's fully backed and in my ideal world crypto would slowly move away from Tether and it would fade into non-existence. And yet, it has been standing the test of time for quite a while. There is clearly more "there there" than many people give it credit for.
Also, one thing with Tether is that it's the world's biggest open secret that it's a shady operation. If Tether blows, any bag holders left holding USDT, well I wouldn't really feel sorry for them. As compared to people on FTX, that's just an unfortunate tragedy.
Masterful summary! My take is that Tether is being forced - against its will - to disclose and HAS improved their underlying asset base to less risky instruments.
HOWEVER, Tether remains essentially an opaque CRIMINAL enterprise and remains substantially unbacked. Tether DOES mint unbacked Tethers to boost prices in sporadic bursts.
The gut feeling is that Tether has multiple, siloed and discrete connections to International Organised Crime IOC which it regularly taps for ‘just in time’ funding. Why would IOC do this? Well, IOC has never found a better conduit than crypto for movement of their ill gotten gains. No more dealing with shady banks who take a sizeable haircut. As long as IOC sees Tether as an ‘honest broker’ (!) this support will continue.
Yet in the end, the web always gets more tangled than the various players can handle, then it all comes flooding out. Cf the Banco Ambrosiano scandal involving the Vatican Bank and mysterious deaths or murders. BTW Lugano Switzerland is an important social hub for these people. See their hilarious Plan B.
Master TLBS, thanks for your write ups!!
The Last Bear Standing. I came across your twitter a little over a year ago form a friend and have been a avid reader since. I'm so grateful for these write ups, keep up the great work.
Thank you so much! I cannot tell you how much I appreciate reading a nuanced take on Tether. The "Tether is bust and is going to decimate the crypto markets next week" articles are a dime a dozen. I'm no fan of Tether, I don't think it's fully backed and in my ideal world crypto would slowly move away from Tether and it would fade into non-existence. And yet, it has been standing the test of time for quite a while. There is clearly more "there there" than many people give it credit for.
Also, one thing with Tether is that it's the world's biggest open secret that it's a shady operation. If Tether blows, any bag holders left holding USDT, well I wouldn't really feel sorry for them. As compared to people on FTX, that's just an unfortunate tragedy.
Anyways, thanks for the fantastic article.
Masterful summary! My take is that Tether is being forced - against its will - to disclose and HAS improved their underlying asset base to less risky instruments.
HOWEVER, Tether remains essentially an opaque CRIMINAL enterprise and remains substantially unbacked. Tether DOES mint unbacked Tethers to boost prices in sporadic bursts.
The gut feeling is that Tether has multiple, siloed and discrete connections to International Organised Crime IOC which it regularly taps for ‘just in time’ funding. Why would IOC do this? Well, IOC has never found a better conduit than crypto for movement of their ill gotten gains. No more dealing with shady banks who take a sizeable haircut. As long as IOC sees Tether as an ‘honest broker’ (!) this support will continue.
Yet in the end, the web always gets more tangled than the various players can handle, then it all comes flooding out. Cf the Banco Ambrosiano scandal involving the Vatican Bank and mysterious deaths or murders. BTW Lugano Switzerland is an important social hub for these people. See their hilarious Plan B.
Amazing content. Thank you
Absolutely loving your content, would you be open to allowing us to share it with our 60k + audience as well?