Last night i read an article about how more and more people are storing funds in USDT, mostly in Countries like Argentina to protect themselves from hyperinflation, this is happening in many countries across the world.
People using USDT for this are likely to be the people whos lives would be ruined if something bad happened.
Most countries effected by hyperinflation or fiat currency uncertainty are also the countries that have far weaker crypto regulations or enforcement agencies that could recover funds.
If you use USDT for this or know somebody who does please share this with them.
The way USDT is run worries me daily, it worries me more with possible MICA fallout and because of US economic concerns( USDT claim 80% of their reserves are in US treasuries)
I am working on a larger story about this with another person, for my own safety and to not get sued there are some things i cant include here.
If you want to know more then google each one of these people, these are the shareholders and people running Tether, a $112 Billion company.(And Bitfinex)
You will find most have criminal links/Pasts or ties to criminal syndicates.
Note that many of them are also shareholders or directors of Bitfinex crypto exchange, including Jean-Louis der velde who is Bitfinex Ceo and Tether shareholder.
Most of them are Italian Citizens.
I wont go into great detail for my own safety, what i will point out is that Stuart Hoegner who is the general counsel for Tether and Bitfinex was head of compliance and security at a company called excapa prior to working for tether/bitfinex.
Excapa ran Ultimate bet which was a hugely popular online poker site.
Ultimate bet defrauded its clients of millions by allowing backdoors in the software that allowed certain(Insider)players to see other players cards, if you dont understand poker this is basically a free money cheat at the expense of regular players, the person who was responsible for client safety at ultimate bet was Stuart Hoegner, now General Councel at Tether/Bitfinex.
He does not seem like a great choice to be General councel for crypto companies worth hundreds of billions.
I could say a LOT about each of them, i might get banned if i do, if you have any concerns take the time to google them yourself, the rabbit hole gets very deep and very scary the deeper you go.
Tethers "Audits" 👇 (These are not audits, they are screenshots for 1 day)
PLEASE PLEASE READ THIS 👇(Copy and paste if you need translation)
Also please note ALL the BDO reports for the last 2 years were done by 1 person, Andrea Mezzadra.
The directors are mostly Italian, they are "audited" by BDO Italy and by 1 person, Andrea Mezzadra, who is also Italian, do you feel we might have a conflict of interest? (Tether is not run out of Italy, why is it "audited" there?)
I wanted to include screenshots of Tethers terms of service but i can get sued for sharing them, it says so in their terms.
Some key points
Tethers funds are not insured
By using Tether you waive the right to a Jury trial
By using Tether you waive the right to a class action lawsuit, each claim can only be on a person by person basis
Tether accepts nearly 0 responsibility for loss of funds
Tether accepts 0 responsibilty if the reserve report on their site is not accurate for any reason.
Basically their terms of service protects them from nearly everything, including insolvency for any reason, if you want to make a claim you need to do so on a person by person basis through courts in the British Virgin Isles.
If you want to read their terms of service in full go ahead, its on USDT site.
Also note that USDT, Bitfinex and many of the other companies run by Ifinex(Parent company)are all run through endless shelf companies across the world, most in tax havens that have far more lenient financial regulations.
Also note that USDT and Bitfinex settled out of court in America for moving huge amount of funds between companies, this was likely done to show funds in Bitfinex when they were "audited", it also meant at that time Tether did not have the funds to back the reserves.
This is also why they wont have a full audit most likely, they can move funds between companies for screenshots on the day of each companies "Audit"
USDT and Bitfinex paid a settlement fine for this, they were also required to give statements to the US securities board for a period of 2 years, that 2 years ended in December 2023.
USDT around this time also changed the wording on their site, it used to say that Tether was "backed 1-1 by the US dollar", without any Crypto community vote or any announcement prior to the fact they changed this to " backed by Tether reserves."
80% of these reserves are "shown" to be in 3 month US treasury bills(Treasury bills are US government debt)
Treasury bills are nearly risk free, they are backed by the US government.
The question you need to ask yourself,
Has the US government stopped scrutinizing Tether so closely because they are such a large holder of US debt.(US Treasury Bills)
Does the US goverment turn a blind eye as they can use Tether to see on chain transactions and catch other criminals(the use of tether has been linked to funding terrorism, human trafficking and more)
If 80% of Tethers funds are held in US treasuries then why do they not allow a top 4 auditing firm(Deloitte, KPMG, Ernst&Young) to do a FULL audit?, auditing treasury holdings is what these firms do all day, the remaining 20% of Tethers funds are held in BTC, Gold, Money market accounts and secured loans.(All very easy to audit)
Tether says top 4 auditing firms wont audit them, thats absolute garbage, it is 2024 and all top auditing firms are more than capable of auditing companies like tether.
Each day, around the world, crypto funds are tracked and seized by governments, many of these governments use auditing firms to help them, the fact Tether says no top 4 auditing firm will, or is capable of auditing them is absolute garbage and it is cause for huge alarm.
People use Tether all the time for futures trading, this concern is not my main concern.
My concern is for the people who are using USDT as a savings account, many might have most of their life saving invested in USDT if their local economy or currency is volatile.
Also because USDT is so large it would effect all of crypto liquidity
If you plan on holding Stable coins only for this reason i would strongly advise splitting your holding into other coins like USDC.
USDC is already MICA compliant, they are linked and backed by Black Rock and Coinbase, they are audited by Deloitte and are headquartered in Boston, America.
I would also recommend reading this book👇
I gain absolutely nothing from posting this so please dont start with the FUD comments.
I make these posts to help people understand risks, i mentioned in this post about the Ultimate bet poker scandal, i played poker for a living at this time, i was effected by this, i also had to wait nearly 4 years to get a huge part of my net worth out of Full Tilt poker when that scam happened, in 2018 i lost 5 BTC to a "APY" type scam.
My point is i have been scammed, i have lived through that sickening feeling of knowing you have been scammed, also how easy it is to trust something just because many others do.
I really hate scammers.
Peace.