It’s different because Tether claims to hold 1 USD for each Tether. A claim that should be verifiable.

The value of sh*tcoins is just a function of their future resale value.

They claim to hold assets with values equivalent to 1 USD / Tether. Different than holding the USD directly.

They provide a more detailed breakdown here: https://tether.to/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/tether_assuranc...

About half in commercial paper and CODs. A quarter in t-bills. 2B in unspecified "digital tokens".

Yes, now that they've been caught claiming to hold 1 USD per Tether without doing so, they claim it's only stuff worth (in their estimation!) 1 USD per Tether. And still refuse to provide any evidence that they are doing so.

Please stop defending them.

I generally agree, not sure why anyone would choose to use Tether when their are alternatives like USDC. However I still think it is important to properly represent Tether's current claims.

Drug/arms/human trafficking operations can have easier time cashing hundreds of millions via shady Tether than US-based audited and KYCed USDC.

Of course it does. Fraud is a crime for a reason.

It’s almost certain now that Tether doesn’t have fiat currency to back up its claimed value. But it’s a convenient fiction for everyone to keep believing as long as you’re not the one holding the Tethers when everyone suddenly decides to stop believing.

Given that 70% of all crypto transactions involve Tethers, the market cap of everything in crypto is more realistically denominated in Tethers than dollars.

Yes because if they're saying they have tons of USD-equivalent and buying other coins with it then they've been artificially inflating the other coins with bogus funds