Top stablecoins shed $7B in May as traders redeem tokens en masse
The big question with Tether has been, if they are holding commercial paper, <i>whose</i> commercial paper? Traders who deal in commercial paper of real companies that do real stuff don&#x27;t see Tether present in that market. The dollar amounts are too big to hide. The suspicion is that their &quot;commercial paper&quot; is high-interest loans to other cryptocurrency companies. With the whole crypto sector in decline, those loans are at risk.<p>This is how you get a 2008-type crash - loans which seem to be unrelated but are tied to a common market.<p>About 11% of Tether has been cashed out in the last month.<p>The real problem for Tether is simple. Why would anyone buy Tether at this point? There&#x27;s zero upside potential, after all. And the competition, USDC and GUSD, looks better backed. So a steady outflow is to be expected. We&#x27;re going to find out how strong their backing is.<p>Watch out for heavily promoted Tether-based &quot;staking&quot; schemes designed to prevent cash-out.