Indeed, the article is most certainly pro Tether/Bitfinex and handwaves the accusation of doubt from Bitfinex'ed (with the old "yeah but other people do it on other platforms (that are a little different...) so it's all legit!"

The best line is "Harborne said it was more a matter of bull-run optimism than cynical market manipulation"...except the transactions come first...

Hardly Bitfinex PR — the guy calls in rabid conspiracy theorist Bitfinex'ed to counter the guy's claims...

> ...except the transactions come first...

one need to buy a ticket _before_ boarding the train

here the ticket is Tether, and the train are exchanges (mostly Bitfinex)

Except the circular argument that their ticket is bought because of optimism, that is created by them buying the ticket... hence the chicken-egg statement in the article.

If having a currency seized in legal proceedings makes illegitimate to you then you better switch to seashells.

Also if you get most of your BTC seized you're doing it wrong.

1. Tether had their actual bank account contents seized. Cash - nothing to do with BTC holdings.

2. There's a big difference between "money gets seized sometimes" and "this shady bank that promises audits but never completes them had half its assets frozen".