Is it? Commercial paper is short term (<9mo), and tether is a long term project. So, unless the composition of tether's backing has changed substantially in the last few years (and I remember them stating years ago that it was mostly these "cash equivalents"), then I'm not really worried because it sounds like their borrowers* have been paying them back.
It feels like people don't understand Tether. Tether was originally created to be an intermediary between exchanges and anyone that wanted to move large amounts of USD without paying price spreads to buy / sell on either end.
Tethers are essentially IOUs pegged to USD. While the Tether organization may have originally waited for the Tether purchaser to transfer the money into their accounts before issuing the Tether, by 2018 at the latest, this has to have changed when Tether was forced to cease dealing with US citizens. If not from the start, their model of trust must have allowed their large clients (the exchanges, etc.) to hold onto the USD and instead issue "Commerical Paper" to back the Tethers issued.
Tether obviously isn't going to reveal the exact arrangements here, and from the outset, their claims of having bank accounts with billions of dollars was suspect... but this revelation has been nothing new, and if anything, things look positive now. Tether doesn't appear to just be printing Tether with absolutely no backing.
>Tether doesn't appear to just be printing Tether with absolutely no backing.
Is there a difference between just printing them for the exchange you also own and just printing them for the exchange you also own in exchange for an IOU from that exchange that you call Commercial Paper?