Yes, that's another problem and probably the more likely one. Buying and selling bonds and other stuff also requires arrangements with banks and so on, but might be easier from capital control perspective, or actually work as a money laundering mechanism, but I'm not really sure.
Re:Tether Withdrawals Top $10B
by sudosysgen on Tuesday May 24, 2022 @06:02PM
(#31498004)
What prevents you from only selling the coins to US citizens with full KYC? Wouldn't that be enough?
Because the very purpose of a stablecoin is that one person buys the stablecoins with real USD; okay, you can KYC with them. But then once they have those stablecoins they go off and use them - to pay someone else for something - like some Bitcoin or something. Possibly something illegal.
This is not someone you have a direct relationship with. And now those stablecoins ‘belong’ to that new person.
Then that person uses the stablecoins to pay another person for something else, and eventually a completely different person can now come along and go through your KYC process and cash out the coins.
All above board and legitimate.
Except in the middle there’s a part where you might actually be acting as a bank for an international drug cartel or a sanctioned Russian oligarch. You just can’t be sure.
Re:Tether Withdrawals Top $10B
by sudosysgen on Tuesday May 24, 2022 @08:08PM
(#31499069)
Agreed, but as long as the people you interact with are above board, it's on them if they use it wrong, no? You could make the same argument for physical treasury bonds, or gift card codes, or generally any interaction with crypto currency, but I don't see any bank having an issue with that.
But such a bank, when you show up with your $80bn, in order to protect their ability to reliably offer those kinds of terms, will want to ask you a few questions about where you came by that cash.
And if you can only say ‘I have no idea’, and when they then ask ‘how much of it belongs to sanctioned individuals or is criminal proceeds?’ Your best guess is ‘not none of it’, then the legitimate banks are going to walk away from that conversation.
So then, yes: where are you going to keep that $80bn?