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by Mithorium 2806 days ago
No tether has ever been destroyed. While tether in its terms maintains that Tethers are redeemable "provided that you are a fully verified customer of Tether" [1], there is no known case of this ever happening, in fact it is a running joke that the tether signup page [2] is permanently suspended. Nor does anyone know who is buying them (and causing their creation). For example, when $250m of them were printed in june [3], which customer was it that deposited $250m USD? Or did they print them out of thin air? Nobody knows for sure.

But if they are in fact backed 1:1 with USDs, then it raises the question: if the tether peg is slipping below $1, why doesn't Tether or one of these alleged "verified customers" buy them up at a discount, redeem and destroy them for USD, and bank the difference?

The answer to this question is left as an exercise for the reader.

[1] https://tether.to/legal/

[2] https://wallet.tether.to/app/#!/signup

[3] https://omniexplorer.info/tx/bd9520b9aea701e9606ad8a8f4d6852...
2 comments
A2017U1 2806 days ago
> No tether has ever been destroyed.

Here's 30 million being destroyed earlier this year:

https://omniexplorer.info/tx/24db40680654b8b505fda3e96be722c...

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makomk 2805 days ago
Yeah, and if I remember correctly a bunch more were returned to the issuer account, presumably in preparation for being destroyed, but ended up being reissued instead.
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FireBeyond 2806 days ago
Oh yes, to actually sign up with Tether, you had to be not affiliated with the US in any way, have a minimum of $10,000/$30,000 to give them, and wait for 90 days or more.

The moon also had to be in full eclipse while in Mercury retrograde.

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