> "Tether printing is practically responsible for almost all the gains in Bitcoin"
It was a meme in the crypto community that when you see tether being printed, you long. Maybe it was true at some point that tether was propping up the market or maybe not fully backed[0], but AFAIK they are now doing audits[1] and transparency reports[2].
> "The day regulators finally ban tether"
I'm not sure how you would go about banning a cryptocurrency (it's been tried 100's of times) but, again, people have been saying something like this about tether forever. Every time someone tries and fails, it just gains more legitimacy (and is no longer the only stablecoin).
FYI I am in no way a BTC maxi/fanboi, but this kind of narrative has been the same since the beginning of tether and everyone so far has been wrong and the chance of a "spectacular crash" has become more and more unlikely
> I'm not sure how you would go about banning a cryptocurrency (it's been tried 100's of times)
The same way we ban heroine. Or murder. We just make trading cryptocurrencies illegal and prosecute people who are found doing it.
Many IT people are biased by their work into thinking that any solution to a problem is a failure if it does not solve 100% of the problem. But in practice, most solutions are good enough if they solve 99.9% of the problem.
Regarding cryptocurrency, making it illegal would mean that no sane company would touch it with a ten-foot pole, which would not just hamper legal usage of cryptocurrency, but also illegal usage. (For instance, ransomware would not be able to have their victims pay in bitcoin if the victims don't have a legal way of exchanging legal tender for bitcoin.)
Our attempt to ban heroin (war on drugs) has been a massive failure[1] only replaced/made worse by prescription opioids[2]. Not a good example.
Murder is not something that really needs "banning" to stop the vast majority of people from committing it. The amount of people willing to use crypto is not comparable to the amount of people willing to murder (illegal or not). Not a good example.
If you want a semi-comparable example, take the attempt to make torrenting/pirating illegal. Look how that turned out.
> We just make trading cryptocurrencies illegal and prosecute people who are found doing it
Good luck with that. No other country has made much of an impact and it would require an enormous amount of resources to persecute ordinary people.
> no sane company would touch it with a ten-foot pole
> if the victims don't have a legal way of exchanging legal tender for bitcoin
There will always be another country willing to host exchanges. VPN's exist. You will never get all governments to ban crypto. Again, you are just listing ideas that have been tried and failed.
> but also illegal usage.
You think making crypto illegal... would stop people already using it for illegal reasons? They would be ok with one illegal act, but not another less valid one?
> No, but it would add more friction if you did not have a choice of legal exchanges
"legal" in this sense means very little 1. because they are already doing something illegal so why would they care what interface they use? and 2. Making a site "illegal" in one country is very easy to get around - or else would you have to essentially advocate for a Great Firewall (which is still pretty easily circumvented)
> I'm not sure how you would go about banning a cryptocurrency (it's been tried 100's of times)
I don't think it's ever been tried in a western country.
The process is fairly simple. Pass a law banning it, if necessary with certain exemptions. Arrest and charge people who purchase, sell or even possess Bitcoin.
Most demand will disappear in that country. For the rest, handle it as we already handle similar financial crimes, like tax evasion and money laundering.
> Arrest and charge people who purchase, sell or even possess Bitcoin
Can you imagine the amount of resources required to accomplish this? The war on drugs was a massive failure and that was arguably a much easier sell than crypto. As if the US doesn't already imprison enough of it's population... talk about a victimless crime...
> Most demand will disappear in that country
Not when all you need is internet access. Supply might, but demand will not be effected much. There will also be exchanges hosted in other countries that can be easily accessed.
Crypto is made to be resilient and/or hard to trace. The normal avenues of tracking and enforcement (which already can be pretty ineffective) cannot compete. You can act like it's "fairly simple" but, as I have stated, it's been tried and continues to fail.
Just because they held appropriate balance at one point in time doesn't mean they are actually sitting on dollar reserves corresponding to tethers. They could have borrowed to reach these numbers for the report.
The current state is still that the majority of Bitcoin volume comes from tether, and these tethers aren't regulated and required to exist the same way dollars traded for stocks are required to exist. They already mixed tether reserves with other funds in the past, don't trust them to suddenly stop.
Again, you can have rational reasons for not trusting tether - and I don't necessarily disagree - but the fact is that people have been trying to "expose" it for years with no success.
The NYAG didn't find anything substantive, and neither has anyone before them. In the crypto sphere that builds trust and proves resiliency. With every piece of FUD about tether that comes and goes, the chance of it all coming crashing down gets smaller and smaller.
Nothing you have stated is a new accusation. They have been around as long as tether and the entire ecosystem has only gained more and more legitimacy.
It was a meme in the crypto community that when you see tether being printed, you long. Maybe it was true at some point that tether was propping up the market or maybe not fully backed[0], but AFAIK they are now doing audits[1] and transparency reports[2].
> "The day regulators finally ban tether"
I'm not sure how you would go about banning a cryptocurrency (it's been tried 100's of times) but, again, people have been saying something like this about tether forever. Every time someone tries and fails, it just gains more legitimacy (and is no longer the only stablecoin).
FYI I am in no way a BTC maxi/fanboi, but this kind of narrative has been the same since the beginning of tether and everyone so far has been wrong and the chance of a "spectacular crash" has become more and more unlikely
0. https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/23/tether-bitfinex-reach-settle...
1. https://www.coindesk.com/tether-first-attestation
2. https://wallet.tether.to/transparency