There are tons of people using it for its apolitical and censorship resistant nature. Afghanistan/Ukraine/Lebanon/Argentina/Venezuela/Nigeria/Turkey/Belarus/Mexico to name a few countries where it is very relevant and useful

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-60715707

https://www.financialinclusion.tech/

What percentage range (total value, transactions, etc) would you say counts as "tons"?

Its really hard to get a good gauge on that. There is a lot of data but its all very piecemeal and hard to aggregate. Could spend a week trying to get an idea of it and still not be sure. Here is my couple minute version though.

For 2020 in Mexico alone from Bitso: "Frida Vargas, head of business sevelopment at Bitso, told CoinDesk the company processed about $1.2 billion in remittances between the U.S. to Mexico in 2020. “Our main users are remittance companies, who use crypto technology to improve and make the remittance sending and collecting process easier,” she said."[1]

In Argentina: "Cryptocurrency penetration was at 12% in Argentina, vs. 29% credit card penetration, indicating impressive crypto uptake in that country"[2]

"There is high interest in receiving crypto remittances in various LatAm markets, such as Peru (33%), Argentina (19%), Mexico (15%), and Brazil (8%)"[2]

There is also chainalysis[3] data for small transfers in LatAm showing 1.5M monthly transfers at a total value of 300M monthly volume. https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FPCfq-LWUAEctzT?format=jpg&name=...

[1] https://www.yahoo.com/video/mexican-remittances-continent-la... [2] https://americasmi.com/pdfs_landings/220211_The_cryptocurren... [3] Page 42: https://go.chainalysis.com/rs/503-FAP-074/images/Geography-o...

I'd guess it is around 1%? Maybe less? Certainly not more than 5%

>There are tons of people using it for its apolitical and censorship resistant nature.

bahahaha. the story never changes but bitcoin is always the proletariat fighting against the powers that be. Don't worry, El Salvador is accepting it as legal tender!

Also if the "purpose" of something is payments and that thing is an investment for you, then you're betting on a deflationary future which means that thing will be less useful as a payment.

I'm receiving part of my salary in USDT, and find it valuable. Traditional banking system doesn't work well for everyone.

That is the case with stablecoins. Stablecoins are the most boring thing in crypto and few people really use it for payments.

What do you use the USDT for? Any type of spending?

I use it to receive money from another country and exchange for USD in a local exchange point. It may sound like a boring case, but if you find yourself in a foreign country without working bank cards, it might save your ass