“Tether has been ahead of the curve,” Bitcoiner Brad Mills says; it looks like Ethereum (ETH) founder agrees with him for first time ever
As all mainstream cryptocurrencies were bleeding in the past few days, many crypto users decided to increase the share of stablecoins in their portfolios. As such, the fall of FTX/Alameda exacerbated all the flaws in this very important segment of Web3.
Tether (USDT) exceeded Vitalik’s expectations
For many crypto holders, U.S. Dollar Tether (USDT), the largest stablecoin by market capitalization, was a “safe haven.” Users started aggressively buying USDT on centralized and decentralized exchanges. Ethereum (ETH) co-founder Vitalik Buterin appreciated the way Tether (USDT) has gone through recent cataclysms.
He acknowledged that the transparency of USDT leaves something to be desired, but that the coin and its issuers “exceed” the expectations of deep decentralization advocates.
It should be added that on Nov. 10, 2022, amid the market bloodbath, Tether (USDT) representatives released their periodic attestation.
As reported by Paolo Ardoino, CTO of Tether and Bitfinex, Tether Ltd increased its holding of cash and its equivalents to an all-time high of 82%.
Think twice before “shorting” Tether
Another Ethereum (ETH) veteran, Mikko Ohtamaa, CEO and co-founder of Trading Strategy and former LocalBitcoins CTO, admitted that it would take a massive amount of money to put Tether (USDT) in an FTX-style liquidity crunch.
He stressed that in 2022, there is no market in which whales can short USDT to demolish their issuers. A balanced portfolio of reserves makes the entire system sustainable.
Regarding this pesky issue of transparency of Tether (USDT), its resources and operations, Mr. Ohtamaa highlighted that it increases over time:
It’s getting harder to lie.
However, Tether (USDT) is still vulnerable when it comes to hypothetical regulatory attacks (“police shutdown”) or potential deals between Wall Street investment banks.
“USDT Is Preferred By The Market”: Bitcoin OG Brad Mills
Bitcoiner and crypto educator Brad Mills agrees with Etherians: Tether (USDT) looks so durable to them that long-term de-pegging from the USD value is next to impossible.
Tether (USDT) can de-peg only briefly, being targeted by coordinated attacks. As covered by U.Today yesterday, on Nov. 10, 2022, an Alameda-tied address allegedly started to “short” Tether (USDT) through Curve and Aave pools.
However, USDT immediately returned to its “normal” level of $1. In contrast, more notable losses occurred in the algorithmic stablecoins FRAX, MIM and, in particular, Tron’s USDD, as well as the low-cap euro-pegged stablecoin Eurocoin (EUROC).
Mr. Mills appreciate the proactive work by Tether Limited and the Q4, 2022, structure of their rebalanced portfolio of reserves:
Through this extreme transition in both the macro and crypto markets, Tether has been ahead of the curve, reducing its commercial paper and increasing its US bonds.
As such, Tether’s (USDT) operations during the ongoing market insanity are recognized by opposing groups of Web3 actors.
