
Tether exceeds Bitcoin in dollar trading volume - lalmachado
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-10-01/tether-not-bitcoin-likely-the-world-s-most-used-cryptocurrency
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abstractbarista
This is misleading because Tether isn't a _legitimate_ cryptocurrency. It is a
token that is issued and tracked by storing metadata on the Bitcoin network.

From Tether's whitepaper; "...Tether Limited is the only party who can issue
tethers into circulation (create them) or take them out of circulation
(destroy them). This is the main process by which the system solvency is
maintained." (Yikes!)

There has been much interest in whether "Tether Limited" actually holds enough
USD to back all tokens in circulation. I bet they don't. In any case, it's not
something I'd want to hold on to.

It is useful for imitating the value of USD in order to buy cryptocurrencies
on exchanges which have been shunned by the conventional banking system due to
various regulations or insecurities. That's about it.

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Qworg
Tether Limited does not, per the NYAG investigation and Tether's executives'
own admissions.

[https://finance.yahoo.com/news/tether-loaned-usdt-
investors-...](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/tether-loaned-usdt-investors-
illegally-104034530.html)

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ucha
They're using the volume reported by CoinMarketCap which is in turn based on
the volume reported by exchanges that fake their volumes. Real volumes are a
small fraction of what is reported on CoinMarketCap. This is just bad
reporting by a journalist far removed from the industry.

~~~
dajohnson89
what metric would you suggest using, for getting an accurate estimate of
_real_ volume?

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ucha
openmarketcap.com only shows reputable exchanges but there is still a lot of
legitimate volume on Chinese exchanges faking their volume such as Okex or
Huobi. The real volume is somewhat more than what is reported there on the
spot market but not more than double.

In addition to that, one could add the volume on the futures markets which
dwarfs the spot market.

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ubermon
Tether/USDT probably has the worst reputation as stable coin. Most people were
waiting for it to burst as they seem to be a shady in terms of auditing and
their claim of backed by usd dollar are highly questioned.

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zucker42
Why is trading volume the metric for "most used". Shouldn't we be measuring
the actual use of the cryptocurrency in exchange for real goods and services?

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iamasoftwaredev
I thought tether was pretty much accepted to be a massive scam?

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retpirato
I've never even heard of tether, & I doubt I'm the only one.

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k__
I only heard of it because I had the idea of Tether after Tether, so I found
it while Googling.

But it seems it wasn't that good of an idea, so no FOMO.

~~~
Kiro
You can't earn money on Tether (the value is always $1) so there's no ground
for FOMO.

~~~
david-gpu
The company that issues tether can invest the proceeds into a money market and
get some meager interest. If that float is large enough, they can make a
killing in absolute terms. Presumably that's what the grandparent means.

~~~
skookum
The company that issues Tether can issue it without receiving any USD. If that
issuance is large enough, they can make a killing in absolute terms.

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quotemstr
This title is clickbait. "World's Most-Used Cryptocurrency is Tether, not
Bitcoin" would be more informative.

