You’ve likely heard of USDT and wonder why you should use it. The answer might surprise you, and it all comes down to one big misconception – the misconception that USDT are US dollars held in some offshore bank account, waiting to be traded to whoever wants it most at the best possible price. Well, this isn’t what USDT are at all, so let’s clear things up and focus on how you can use USDT correctly to your benefit.
A Guide To Understanding Stable Coins
The cryptocurrency market is volatile and new coins are being introduced at a rapid pace, which leads to the devaluation of older coins. This is where stable coins come into play. Stable coins are cryptocurrencies that are pegged to fiat money or gold. One example is Tether, which has been pegged to the US Dollar 1:1. Another is TrueUSD, which has been pegged to the US Dollar 1:1, but can also be exchanged for other currencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum. Another advantage that stable coins have over fiat money is their security. Stable coins are backed by blockchain technology and distributed ledgers, which provide more transparency than paper money with corresponding costs. The user controls their own private key, instead of relying on a third party to keep track of transactions. Most importantly, blockchain technology offers protection from inflation because it’s decentralized meaning that no one person or group controls the supply (unlike the Federal Reserve). Blockchain provides financial inclusion as well because people without access to traditional banks will have access to banking services through an app or website. There is still room for improvement in terms of developing regulatory frameworks around stable coins, but they offer an alternative to current systems and are worth keeping your eye on.
What is Tether?
Tether is a cryptocurrency, meaning it is an entirely electronic form of money. It is not fiat money that can be printed by a government or banks. Tether was created by a Hong Kong company called Tether Limited and works on the blockchain, which means transactions are recorded in real-time on a public ledger. Anyone can access this ledger, but it cannot be edited or deleted once posted.
Tethers are issued to anyone who has dollars on deposit with Tether Limited, meaning they have converted their dollars into cryptocurrencies. For every tether issued, there is one US dollar sitting in the bank account ready to back up that tether if necessary. When you buy bitcoin from an exchange like Coinbase, you’re buying it from other people. These exchanges don’t issue the bitcoin themselves; instead, they act as brokers for individuals or businesses (the bitcoin sellers) who are selling bitcoins using various currencies including USDT. When you purchase bitcoins on Coinbase using your USD balance, Coinbase doesn’t actually send any USD anywhere; rather, it creates market pressure against BTC prices in order to make BTC look more attractive than other currencies (hence why you get charged fees). They then take these bitcoins off your hands so that you no longer own them. You now only possess IOUs. However, when you use USDT to buy Bitcoin on an exchange such as Bitfinex, you’re basically purchasing the coins outright because Bitfinex uses its reserves of USDTs to directly fund orders made by customers—creating demand for both USDTs and Bitcoin in the process. But what about price fluctuations? In theory, it shouldn’t matter too much because Bitfinex should always maintain 1:1 reserve ratio between USDTs and Bitcoin (i.e., 100% coverage). If anything were to happen to those reserves, users could trade out their IOUs for actual coins at any time—as long as someone would accept them at face value.
How Tether Works
Tether is a cryptocurrency with a value that is pegged to the US Dollar. It was created in order to facilitate the transfer of national currencies across borders. Tether Limited (the company behind the cryptocurrency) creates and issues tokens, or coins, that are backed by actual fiat money which it holds in reserve. This way, one USDT always equals one USD in terms of value. Tether also has an open blockchain so users can check for themselves that all tethers are fully backed by USD holdings. And there is no risk because each token will always be worth $1 as long as there are enough funds on hand to back it up; if not, their reserve ratio goes down until they have enough again. But there’s more than just their reserve; the company is audited regularly to ensure they’re operating legally. They work with law enforcement when necessary and publish audits every month.
As mentioned before, this isn’t anything new – many banks already offer stablecoin accounts that allow depositors to move cash from one country to another without being subject to foreign exchange rate fluctuations – but what sets Tether apart from these other solutions is that it’s open source software available on Github, meaning anyone can audit its code and create clones of the system should the need arise. In other words, it’s decentralized but regulated at the same time. With regulation, people know that there are checks and balances in place to keep things honest. So why do some say Tether doesn’t hold enough dollars? Well, it’s been reported that over half of the tethers issued were never backed by any dollars at all. What does this mean? One might say that fraudsters were able to exploit flaws in the project’s transparency to print counterfeit USDT out of thin air and use them for malicious purposes. There may be nothing shady going on here, though – someone could’ve simply held onto some real tethers while issuing more using the program’s built-in function – but we don’t know since we cannot audit those transactions since they happen off chain. We also don’t know how much of their reserves are actually backed by USD. So the true nature of Tether remains a mystery.
Who Created Tether?
Tether is a cryptocurrency with a value backed by the US Dollar. Tether is created and held digitally, which allows it to be sent quickly and securely across the globe, without the need for a financial intermediary. It is distinct from fiat currencies (such as US Dollars), which are issued by central banks and backed by governments. A share of Tethers can be converted into USD through the company’s website, in case you want to cash out your investments or send money to somebody else.
The price of Tethers reflects market conditions, like other cryptocurrencies; but unlike them, its value is pegged to that of one USD on a 1:1 ratio. That means that one Tether always equals $1.00 worth of global currencies no matter what happens to the market. Furthermore, when someone buys a Tether, they have access to $1.00 worth of global currencies since they now hold both dollars and tethers. When someone sells their Tether back to Tether Company, they receive $0.98 per tether because 98 cents on the dollar is what remains after covering all expenses incurred by using our services. The main reason why some people feel that this creates an unfair advantage is due to the fact that it appears as though we’re printing more tethers at any given time. In reality, each tether only exists in any quantity when there has been an explicit agreement between buyer and seller. Every transaction carries a fee that covers printing costs, network fees, and so forth–all of which will ultimately go toward maintaining a healthy ecosystem of decentralized global currencies. They do not generate revenue, pay dividends or interest. To maintain a reliable exchange rate and provide an elastic supply of tethers, Tether employs hedging strategies like selling jumbo bundles of tokens for national currencies on open exchanges around the world. But this process doesn’t result in even more tokens being created out of thin air! Instead, these large transactions are actually settled across multiple wallets and had previously been considered cryptographically inaccessible while they were locked away awaiting validation. As soon as the bundle was sold, Tether minted coins equal in value to the amount sold plus applicable fees.
Is Tether a Scam?
Tether is a cryptocurrency built on the same principles as Bitcoin, and it operates in a similar manner. But there are three key differences between Tether and most other cryptocurrencies. First, unlike most other digital currencies, Tether is backed by the US Dollar at a 1:1 ratio. Second, you can’t mine or buy more Tethers on exchanges; instead, you can only acquire new units through the company’s website. Third, every unit of Tether is pegged to an equal value in USD fiat currency. It’s worth noting that these properties make it much easier for companies to integrate with Tether than with other cryptocurrencies – which means more companies will use this platform over time. Companies like Bitfinex, Bitstamp, Poloniex, and Bittrex all currently allow users to trade USDT back and forth against BTC, ETH, LTC, XMR, XLM & DAI. In addition to trading pairs with other coins/tokens on various exchanges worldwide, Tether provides its own online exchange where you can also trade one type of cryptocurrency for another using tethers. For example: if I want to swap some BTC for LTC (or vice versa), I would need to purchase LTC from the exchange first before then swapping those funds into BTC on my desired exchange. Here’s an easy way to understand how this works: If I wanted to sell $1,000 USD worth of bitcoin, I could simply place an order on Kraken Exchange and wait for someone else to come along and match my offer. Similarly, if I wanted to sell £1000 GBP worth of bitcoin, I could place a matching order on the Kraken Exchange site for £1000 GBP and wait for someone else who wants bitcoins but not pounds sterling. When the transaction goes through successfully – in both directions – Kraken becomes the counterparty in either direction just like any other market maker when they quote bid/ask spreads.
As the current price is right now at $8200 USD per bitcoin, if I were selling $1,000 USD worth of bitcoin for GBP equivalent, then Kraken would give me about £977.45 per btc (£9771.76 after commission). Now what happens if I have a good relationship with Coinbase? Coinbase has many tokens available to buy and sell via their service – including bitcoin cash (BCH). What happens when we wish to convert our bitcoins back into BCH? Well…we have no problem doing so via our local coinbase account because we can instantly transfer them within their platform without having to go through any third parties! We send them the amount of btc we wish converted in our coinbase wallet and they do the conversion automatically. This is possible due to the recent Segwit update. I’m talking about the hard fork that happened in August of 2017 and created bitcoin cash – a separate token with identical blockchain except for a couple minor changes. This means you can now store your bitcoin on Coinbase and immediately trade it for bitcoin cash. Since Coinbase recently announced support for Tether USD, you can also convert BTC to USDT on the Kraken Exchange site and trade it for LTC, XLM, DAI, etc. These are the three main benefits of Tether
How Many Tethers Are There?
Tether is a cryptocurrency backed by the US Dollar, one of the few cryptocurrencies that is not a pyramid scheme. Tethers are pegged to the value of fiat currencies such as USD, EUR, and JPY. Each tether is worth $1 USD and each transaction requires you to pay $0.45 fee in addition to the conversion fee charged by Bitfinex. Tether does not trade on any major exchanges but instead runs through their own exchange called Bitfinex. There is no limit for how many Tether tokens can be printed at once, which has led to some speculation about the reliability of this system. As it currently stands, every time someone buys or sells BTC using tether tokens on Bitfinex, they create more tether tokens out of thin air (or delete them if they sell). It’s an interesting system and some speculate it could represent the first stablecoin on the market. However, there are also those who say tether tokens could quickly lose value if people lose faith in them due to uncertainty about whether there will ever be enough dollars backing up all those Tethers. Others argue that bitcoin investors should buy Tether instead of bitcoin because its price is much less volatile. Critics point out that there’s nothing stopping the company behind Tether from printing more tethers whenever they want to cash out without warning. If everyone woke up tomorrow morning to find $100 billion tether tokens floating around with no USD reserves backing them, then the token would instantly be worth close to zero.
As it currently stands, every time someone buys or sells BTC using tether tokens on Bitfinex, they create more tether tokens out of thin air (or delete them if they sell). It’s an interesting system and some speculate it could represent the first stablecoin on the market. However, there are also those who say tether tokens could quickly lose value if people lose faith in them due to uncertainty about whether there will ever be enough dollars backing up all those Tethers.
USDT is unique in that its price has remained fairly stable. Unlike bitcoin’s wild swings between $7,500 and $10,000 last year USDT has mostly maintained a value around $1 for months now. You can buy USDT with USD at Coinut’s platform which pairs other cryptocurrencies with USDT such as Litecoin (LTC) or Ethereum (ETH). Most investors buy USDT because they believe that it can hold its value compared to fiat currencies better than traditional cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum. There is some controversy over the validity of Tether’s claim that they have $2.5 billion in assets, so even though USDT may seem safer than other cryptocurrencies, it still bears a risk for investors.
Where Do I Buy/Sell Tether Tokens?
Tether is a cryptocurrency that is pegged to the value of the US Dollar. This means that one tether token is worth one US dollar. When you buy tether, you are essentially buying dollars, without having to go through the typical process of exchanging your dollars for fiat or vice versa. This makes it easier and quicker for people who want to transact in both crypto and fiat currencies. For this reason, Tether has become a popular way for people to purchase Bitcoin at times when exchanges experience liquidity problems.
To buy tether tokens on an exchange, first set up an account on the exchange where you want to purchase them and then deposit funds into your account. Once you have done so, navigate to the trading page of the coin whose market you want to trade on. Find the pair with USDT (e.g., BTC/USDT) and then click Buy (or whichever button corresponds). From there, enter how many USDT tokens you would like to purchase with either bitcoin or ether and then hit Buy. Your order will be filled immediately if there is enough supply for sale at that price point. If not, it will remain open until someone sells their coins for the price that you specified . You can also sell USDT tokens on the same page as long as you are signed into your account. Select the tab labeled Sell, enter the number of tethers that you want to sell, and then select how much money from that particular token type that you want to receive from selling those tethers. Note: It takes four hours for any changes made to your balance in a crypto wallet to take effect in other parts of your account such as real-time data feeds and trades.
If you make a transaction but do not confirm it, that transaction will still show up under Pending Deposits within your Balance page. Transactions require confirmation after being sent but before they are completed. Confirmation requires six blocks which typically takes about four hours. Once the transaction is confirmed, it will appear in the Transactions area of your Balance page, available for withdrawal. You may withdraw your tether tokens at anytime by navigating to the Withdrawal page and clicking on the link that says Withdrawal next to My Tokens. Enter the amount of USDT you would like to withdraw, plus the address of your crypto wallet, and then hit Submit Request. If you’re withdrawing from a Coinbase account, all you need is the address – no need for any additional information.
A list of transactions will show up with links next to each one for viewing details about each transaction including its date created, date executed, amount executed in US Dollars converted from cryptos (minus fees), current fee rate applied by Tether Limited as well as its code execution timestamp so that users can verify every action taken.
When Can I Redeem My Tether Tokens For Dollars?
The idea behind Tether is simple, to create a stable cryptocurrency that can be used for day to day transactions and store value. Tethers are pegged to the USD, so they are worth as much as one dollar; they’re just easier to carry around.
The main question people have when it comes to Tether is whether or not you can redeem your Tether tokens for dollars. Unfortunately, the answer is no. You cannot redeem your tether tokens for dollars because Tether doesn’t actually have any dollars in their bank account. It’s just a token on the blockchain with no actual backing of assets. So how does Tether make money? They charge between 1% and 2% per transaction to convert USDT into fiat currencies like Euros and Yen. There are other companies that offer a similar service but at significantly cheaper rates (zero to .25%), including Paxos Standard Token (PAX) and Gemini Dollar (GUSD). In addition, there are other companies with lower transaction fees but these require proof of identification before being able to transfer funds from your wallet which may not work for some users. One company that seems to fill this gap is TrustToken. They provide tokenized securities backed by assets such as real estate, diamonds, gold bars and art. Another benefit of this type of system is that all investors have full visibility into the underlying asset values whereas with cryptoassets, only those who own coins on an exchange see where prices are going.
The real issue with trustless systems such as Tether is transparency and accountability since there is nobody overseeing what goes on behind the scenes. For example, Bitfinex has been accused by John Mathers III who said he lost $50 million in Tether due to ongoing fraud. He also claims Bitfinex threatened him after he notified them about the issue. What was his argument? If I report your fraudulent activities, then I am at risk of losing everything. What makes this story worse is that according to his LinkedIn profile he was once employed by J.P Morgan Chase & Co. which means he should know better than anyone what fraudulent activities look like!
The fact remains though, if you want the security and stability of a traditional bank account without the paperwork required for most institutions, then Tether might be worth looking into. However, if security concerns are paramount then it would be wise to use an alternative such as Ripple or Stellar Lumens (XLM). Both are decentralized payment networks that offer a variety of features, including remittances, fast transactions, and low costs. The downside is that they are more difficult to purchase compared to Tether and banks often don’t allow deposits of cryptos. This is slowly changing as more exchanges pop up and banking restrictions loosen up.
Why Does The Price Of Tether Drop?
Tether is a cryptocurrency that is pegged to the US Dollar. Its goal is to have one Tether unit equal one US Dollar. It was created by the company Tether Limited, which is based in Hong Kong. Tether’s market capitalization of more than $2 billion makes it the tenth most valuable cryptocurrency, and it trades at around $1 per USDT on exchanges such as Bitfinex and Poloniex.
Tether has been controversial since its launch in 2015 because many do not believe that it actually has enough reserves to match all issued tethers at 100%. In September 2017, Bloomberg wrote an investigative piece on the company and found some evidence that suggested otherwise. Tether, which had been claiming 1:1 parity for months, said that out of the 850 million tokens in circulation about 300 million were redeemed after being sent back to Tether’s corporate bank accounts. If this is true, it would mean there are only 550 million tokens still circulating with a value of less than $850 million. The majority opinion among those who cover cryptocurrency is that either this redemption never happened or something else is going on behind closed doors – like fractional reserve banking or outright fraud. And if there aren’t enough dollars backing up each token? Investors will be left holding nothing but air when the music stops playing.
As Bitcoin price hit record highs in December, speculation soared regarding whether Tether holders could cash in their digital coins without selling Bitcoin. If they did so they would potentially get the best of both worlds; selling their Bitcoins while benefiting from the surge in Bitcoin price without having to pay taxes on any gains. Recently two Canadian companies tried to withdraw over $100 million worth of tethers from Poloniex, and then withdrew them again after failing verification. Whether or not these events are connected, the result was a drop in Tether’s trading volume leading some people to speculate that investors were liquidating holdings for other cryptocurrencies. However, even though Tether went down with Bitcoin, it regained much of its lost ground within days. After briefly falling below $1 per coin in late December, the USDT regained its status as the 10th most valuable cryptocurrency coin and recovered quickly to near the top three position.
Should I Sell Bitcoin And Buy Tether Instead?
This question is often asked by people who are new to cryptocurrency. Basically, the answer is No. Tether is not a true cryptocurrency and does not produce any new coins. It’s just a quasi-crypto asset that has its value pegged to the US Dollar. This means it’s more like a proxy for the USD than anything else, so you might as well just trade USD in an exchange if that’s what you’re looking for. The market isn’t going to be stable because there will be plenty of times when Bitcoin crashes but USDT stays high or goes higher. That being said, some investors do prefer Tether over other options because it can’t be hacked. When funds are stolen from an account on Coinbase or another centralised service, they take your funds hostage and only return them after lengthy investigations – sometimes never. But with Tether, once your money is gone, it’s gone for good. So if you want something to store your wealth with 100% security and no volatility risk then Tether might be right for you. However, if you’re interested in crypto investing and want to diversify your portfolio then maybe this is not the best choice. If you find yourself asking Should I Sell Bitcoin And Buy Tether Instead? the answer is simple: absolutely not. There are several reasons why this is not a good idea: firstly, tethers have no way of earning interest unlike bitcoin which pays out miners rewards daily.
Secondly, tether doesn’t generate coins which make it unstable due to low volume. Thirdly, the assets aren’t safe because hackers can steal funds at will. Fourthly, there’s still a lot of speculation surrounding Tether and their relationship with Bitfinex where most of their funding comes from. Fifthly, traditional fiat currencies are much safer than cryptocurrencies due to their relative stability in comparison to those currencies. Finally, the nature of using fiat backed assets versus scarce metals such as gold and silver prevents traders from participating in a bull market since capital flows away from assets into more secure investments when prices start rising too fast – which could lead to big losses when considering future investment opportunities. All these factors combined prove that trading USDT would be detrimental to your trading portfolio. If you find yourself wondering should I sell my BTC and buy USDT instead? The answer is NO! If you need to speculate, then do it with bitcoin rather than tethers. One strategy for making money through the use of cryptocurrency is to invest in altcoins (cryptocurrencies other than bitcoin) and wait until they rise in price before selling them back to USD. Even though this might seem like a great strategy, it could backfire horribly if you don’t know what you’re doing. An alternative strategy for making money off cryptocurrencies would be to invest in companies that create applications using blockchain technology. This allows you to earn returns while waiting patiently for things to go up in value.
Conclusion & Final Words
The concept of a cryptocurrency backed by the US Dollar was first introduced in 2014, and the term Tether was coined by the team at Bitfinex. Investors could purchase USDT to hedge against volatility in Bitcoin. Tether has since expanded their services to include EUR, GBP and JPY, as well as different fiat currencies. This has helped investors avoid some of the disadvantages associated with traditional money – namely hyperinflation or devaluation from central banks. As for the disadvantages faced by cryptocurrencies – namely lack of regulation, fraud and hacking – Tether is subject to these same risks. For instance, there are reports of 850 million USDT disappearing after an attack on its treasury wallet. In addition, there are suspicions that tether may have been used to manipulate the price of bitcoin. For example, it’s believed that tether has been used to buy bitcoin when prices are low; this should cause an increase in demand for bitcoin which pushes up its price. Once the desired price is reached, sellers will then unload their holdings onto the market (or do another round of purchases) causing a subsequent drop in demand and therefore lowering prices back down again.
A few months ago a $2 billion coin swap took place on many exchanges without notice from authorities or even traders who were negatively impacted by this event . Also, if you don’t use your tether coins in 90 days they’re liable to be taken out of circulation. You can now trade USDT for various other cryptos like Litecoin, Ethereum, Monero and XRP – so if someone knows you’re trading in tethers they might try to get rid of them before 90 days is up because they know those coins will become useless. Furthermore, recent updates to Tether’s Terms of Service dictate that fiat deposits into the company’s accounts can only be made via wire transfer (with checks being available on special request). But what does all this mean? Well, most people believe that crypto is still just too volatile to invest heavily in and you’ll need to keep switching coins often enough anyway. On top of this, there are more than 200 tokens right now worth more than $1 each – meaning it would take over 694 dollars’ worth of bitcoin (currently valued at around 15000 dollars per coin) just to break even. It’s hard enough keeping track of one type of virtual currency let alone several! But there are a lot of pros and cons to owning cryptocurrencies. Tether is not the best choice for everyone, but it’s certainly not a bad option to explore. Like any investment, you should always consult a financial advisor before making any decisions.
A few months ago a $2 billion coin swap took place on many exchanges without notice from authorities or even traders who were negatively impacted by this event. If you don’t use your tether coins in 90 days they’re liable to be taken out of circulation. You can now trade USDT for various other cryptos like Litecoin, Ethereum, Monero and XRP – so if someone knows you’re trading in tethers they might try to get rid of them before 90 days is up because they know those coins will become useless.