Its a pretty clever meme because pointing out how dumb it is makes it seem like that person doesnt believe there is anything else wrong with tether, immediate derailing their criticism of the latest rumor, allowing for literally any rumor to be masqueraded as truth.
I don't think Tether is in purely Evergrande bonds, but I do think Tether has a load of Chinese bonds/commercial paper, and if an Evergrande default causes a general reduction in the value of those, Tether will be in a very sticky position as they'll have a large hole in their reserves...
Why would anyone care? It's not like Tether has ever been audited and there is so much other shadiness that it's more than likely there is already a massive hole in the Tether reserves.
From what I've read, other paricipants in the US market have stated they don't see Tether partipating there, to that kind of volume.
Combine that with the fact that, until recently, China was a huge market for crypto both miners and traders, and it seems likely that the large chinese commercial paper market would be where Tether would have at least some of it's money.
I don't understand why anyone believes Tether when they say they own $30b of commercial paper. The fact that nobody in any of the commercial paper markets know who they are suggests that Tether is once again at least being misleading if not lying.
They have to own something for $30B+ [1]. It is unlikely it is anything in significant in the U.S, both because it is harder not to be noticed as you say and also greater risk of interference from regulators etc.
It is not unreasonable to think China has good chunk of those deposits, and in China real estate is a big component of the economy and growth in the recent years.
Chinese real estate market is both large enough and opaque to be able to ingest that kind of capital.
[1] It is possible they are issuing tokens out of thin air without actually taking in equivalent USD/fiat currency, but given it trading volume on crypto exchanges it seems unlikely say 90+% of their $73B + are tokens fake. Even 10% is $7.3B a very significant sum.
They dont need to respond to every rumor, its been a whole decade, they’ve weathered much greater crisis of confidence with far below $1 exchange rates. The people that do care would have said prove it, aka “disprove the random rumor”, and wouldn't be satisfied with any statement or attestation or anything greater that they’ve never done anyway. At this point whats the use of energy in that direction anymore. Even audited stablecoins are a systemic risk to the crypto ecosystem. So at this point your either in or out. Hot potato. Just like all the other markets where Lehman bros and Aig got such great audits and ratings. I’m not trying to squash conversation about it, just offering a perspective because really the standard being levied applies to USDC, GUSD, PAXOS and others who have grown to similarly large heights.
Even the earlier assumption that Tether wouldnt have US assets is made up on the spot, its weird! They were banking in Peurto Rico for years! Two US regulators didnt move to freeze their assets they just said “update your disclaimers”. Why dont we make a rumor that they hold Hertz bonds and Certificates of Deposit at Capital One Bank? Its arbitrary! They should prove they dont have Hertz bonds just so I can say “I …. dont believe you.”
this is the funniest meme, “we made it up” https://youtu.be/GM-e46xdcUo
Its a pretty clever meme because pointing out how dumb it is makes it seem like that person doesnt believe there is anything else wrong with tether, immediate derailing their criticism of the latest rumor, allowing for literally any rumor to be masqueraded as truth.