I have no clue, you'd have to ask people who sell below par.
If they are selling because they can't access the normal withdrawal mechanism (e.g. US customers or people in a rush relative to processing delays) then it is the former. If they are speculatively shorting it is more likely the latter.
It could be both: people who can't do normal withdrawal and think there is at least 2% chance of fraud.
I don't know the details. Multiple places seem to imply there is at least some planned mechanism, that's all I was referring to. E.g. from the white paper: "Tethers may be
redeemable/exchangeable for the underlying fiat currency pursuant to Tether Limited’s terms of service".
I don't have a position here and no axe to grind, but parting from your auditors is in many cases a significant red flag.
They have Web pages for buying tethers/selling them, but they're always closed and just say contact them if you're a $x million investor. So the claim is presumably that the billions of tethers printed are all backed by institutional investors. I just had a look at the site now and the registration system is apparently being rebuilt, so there's no path to buy/sell through them today.
If they are selling because they can't access the normal withdrawal mechanism (e.g. US customers or people in a rush relative to processing delays) then it is the former. If they are speculatively shorting it is more likely the latter.
It could be both: people who can't do normal withdrawal and think there is at least 2% chance of fraud.