[lmm]

> 1. You can easily sell BTC for 100K actual USD and ACH it out on a regulated exchange like Gemini. 2. You can easily sell USDT for actual USD on (IIRC) Kraken.

You can until you can't. As long as people think 1 "USDT" is worth $1, and as long as the amounts you're selling aren't too big, it stays afloat.

> 3. Technically you can short USDT via various means but you won't be able to collect any profits.

How? If my thesis is that USDT is going to collapse and bring down the whole cryptocurrency ecosystem, what can I buy to express that and profit on it?

[wmf]

I'm going to be deliberately vague because I really really discourage shorting Tether but you can investigate perpetual swaps and defi lending.

[lmm]

But those are things that only exist in the crypto ecosystem. The counterparty risk is all wrong-way. Like yes, I can sign a contract with Coinbase that says they will owe me a lot of money when Tether collapses. But when Tether collapses it's probably going to take Coinbase down with it.

[wmf]

That's what I'm saying. You can't collect the profits.