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.

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

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/tether-loaned-usdt-investors-...

Reading wallet.tether.to/transparency shows they are issuing Tether tokens on more networks than just Bitcoin (Omni layer) now. This includes Ethereum, Tron, Eos, and Liquid (in order of volume). I find this rather interesting. Many blockchains support issuing tokens, but the security of their respective networks is more concerning as the networks get smaller.

I would only hold Tether issued on the BTC or ETH networks, and only for a short period of time in order to purchase the cryptocurrencies I wanted. Simply holding Tether is unwise.

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.

what metric would you suggest using, for getting an accurate estimate of real volume?

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.

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.

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?

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

notably tether doesn’t guarantee the right to redeem the tokens for dollars, so they can do whatever they want

Interestingly, Tether has "broken the buck" before, trading below (or sometimes above) $1 parity.

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