>Tether being a vehicle to inflate the price of Bitcoin is odd

I'm not so sure.

I'm a great supporter of Bitcoin, but:

     a) Tether worries me a great deal, especially if you dig into the background of the folks behind it. Unless tether lets itself be properly audited and proves cash reserves, it can indeed, in a rater straightforward manner, be used to manipulate BTCUSD

     b) The current price action also worries me a great deal: it's IMO likely going to go through more 2018-like volatility events (i.e. a x5 haircut to shed speculators) through 2021 thereby lending temporary credibility to the nocoiners arguments.

I'd much prefer to see Bitcoin price be either stable in value or growing slowly.

But the nature of the beast makes that proposition a difficult one until it reaches its "natural" capitalization (whatever that may be - some say that of gold).