That's the thing, though, Tether is supposed to be holding all these assets and individuals are able to redeem Tethers proportionally. Leaving aside the strict notion of 1 Tether = 1 Dollar convertibility, just closing up shop would mean all those actual real world assets now belong to... who exactly?

I'm confused as to what 'real world assets' you are referring to.

If Tether goes away, any value goes with it, like a gift card to Blockbuster's.

Fwiw, it's likely just the pretence of redemption that would go away - it may never have been really there. Tether is explicit that they only redeem Tethers at their discretion. While they also specify that they will only redeem them for high value, non-US parties, I suspect this is misdirection.

There is no evidence of any appreciable redemption going on, though they have announced the burning of $1.5 billion Tethers - all in the last six months. According to Tether, this is because they just 'keep them for later'.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/tether-explains-why-it-hasnt-... https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitfinex-is-constantly-printi...