Our stance is - just do the audit and put all this to rest already, and the longer they go without it, the more suspicious they look. For that reason, Tether has largely brought this upon themselves.
But now with the news today of the the DOJ officially investigating them, and having already covered the accusations against them to death - let's examine another angle.
What if they're innocent?
Whether the accusations turn out to be true or not the fact is it took a year of non-stop bad press before an investigation was even launched. Frankly, the reason for that is - it just isn't totally clear anything even happened.
On that note, here's a few factors worth considering:
Bitfinex isn't even in the top 3 exchanges that hold the most Tether.
Binance, Huobi, Poloniex, then Bitfinex in 4th place when it comes to who holds the most USDT.
The upside to these exchanges listing a USDT pairing option is obviously the more trades they get people to execute, the more trading fees they get to claim. But there's no way the profits from these fees justify risking their entire business by working with Tether.
There's no doubt these exchanges looked into Tether as soon as the accusations against it surfaced - yet a year later, they're still using it.
The 'risk VS reward' for these exchanges just doesn't add up.
One of those exchanges is Binance, the world's top exchange.
Binance and specifically it's CEO are known for having very little tolerance for nonsense, and on the topic of Tether, CEO Changpeng Zhao (aka "CZ" in the crypto world) says:
“I haven’t personally seen their bank accounts but from a logical point of view they have so many profits from their regular exchange business, they don’t need to do anything crazy about the Tethering. I think the reason they cannot release their bank account details is because if they release whichever bank they’re using, then the bank account gets shut down”
Could the explanation really be this simple?
Binance is also known for de-listing coins, and doing it fast - at the first sign of trouble. Yet Tether is still there.
Anonymous accusers.
At the root of the accusations against Tether are tweets and posts on Medium (a blog site anyone can post on) that then went viral.
Why not add validity to the claims by telling everyone who's making them? There's no fear of legal repercussions against someone making truthful claims.
Did the price of Bitcoin REALLY need to be artificially pumped up?
Think back to when things got crazy beginning late 2017. Among the people in my life who contacted me to say they just bought, or wanted help buying cryptocurrency were college friends I hadn't talked to in years, a friend of mine who's a radio DJ, another friend who's a professional swimming coach, another one who teaches 2nd grade elementary school - the list goes on.
Point is - everyone actually was buying Bitcoin, that wasn't in our imagination.
So in closing , sure, the accusations very well may be true and i'd even say there's a 'good chance' they are.
But... there's also a 'good chance' they aren't.
Author: Mark Pippen
London News Desk
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