Again, the volumes there mean nothing for all the reasons I said - it's not about trusted or untrusted. Binance has 17,000,000,000 USDT. [1] It is in their interests to support the peg, even if they have to go to Kraken to do it. And arbitrage bots participate, too.

Remember, the most trusted crypto exchange, Coinbase, wash traded 99% of all global Litecoin volume for a few months in 2016/2017. [2] And again, "exchanging" means nothing, because it's not a redemption. And the volume likely means nothing because it's probably just arb trades and wash trades.

95% of all crypto trading volume is fake. [3]

Nothing here is regulated. Take everything you see in crypto with a giant lump of salt.

Tether is a criminal enterprise [4], the fact that USDT is trading at 1:1 is an indication the market is completely untrustworthy, irrational or both - not that Tether is trustworthy. Be careful out there!

[1] https://wallet.tether.to/richlist

[2] https://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/8369-21

[3] https://www.technologyreview.com/2019/03/26/1206/nearly-all-...

[4] https://ag.ny.gov/sites/default/files/2021.02.17_-_settlemen...

I think it's a pretty bold stance that one of the largest US exchanges would be wash trading millions a day in Tether. Need evidence for that. Binance and Bitfinex are a whole different animal.

I'm fully aware (and agree with) all your criticisms of Tether, my point is that if I had tens of millions in USDT (as many real people who aren't affiliated with Tether do) I could easily exchange it for USD.

FWIW I didn't mean to say that Kraken was wash trading USDT per se, but that likely other actors are 'holding the peg' at Kraken too by trading back and forth. Maybe aggressive arbitrage would be a better definition?

I agree you could probably clear 10s of millions via USDT:USD pair, but I'm almost 100% confident you could not actually redeem them.

Sorry if I came across harsh btw, I appreciate your thoughts! Tone doesn't always carry well online and I'm actually a pretty positive person haha.

That would be extremely expensive no? They not only have to buy Tether (using currency they can't print at will) to keep the price up, but also pay significant transaction fees.

Totally agree you wouldn't be able to redeem it, I'm just saying the market seems to think 1 USDT = 1 USD. I honestly can't imagine they could keep that peg through manipulation..it would be astronomically expensive.