Tether is a US dollar substitute token, issued by Tether Inc., an associate of cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex. Tether is a favourite of the crypto trading markets \u2014 it moves at the speed of crypto, without all that tedious regulation and monitoring that actual dollars attract. Also, exchanges that are too dodgy to get dollar banking can use tethers instead.<\/p>\n
Bryce Weiner has written a good overview of how Tether works in relation to the cryptocurrency industry. His piece says nothing that any regular reader of this blog won’t already know, but he says it quite well. [Medium<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n Weiner’s thesis: the whole crypto industry depends on Tether staying up. Tether is Too Big To Fail.<\/p>\n The purpose of the crypto industry, and all its little service sub-industries, is to generate a narrative that will maintain and enhance the flow of actual dollars from suckers, and keep the party going.<\/p>\n Increasing quantities of tethers are required to make this happen. We just topped twenty billion<\/i> alleged dollars’ worth of tethers, sixteen billion of those just since March 2020. If you think this is sustainable, you’re a fool.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Bitcoin-Tether volumes are now magnitudes greater than Bitcoin-Dollar volumes. #BTC<\/a> #USDT<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/ZiZUEItKwR<\/a><\/p>\n — Kaiko (@KaikoData) December 4, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n