Things Got Weird for Stablecoin Tether
Although I agree with the author's position that an awful lot of sketchy things are happening, and I'm sure happy I don't own any of this so-called stable coin, this line bothers me:<p>> If everyone redeemed their Tethers today, it is not clear how Tether would come up with the money<p>This is true of banks, too. In fact, if everyone took out all of their money from all of the banks, there isn't enough real money in existence to cover it.<p>With Tether, it is at least plausible that the money still exists and is simply frozen due to some terrible business decisions. With banks, the money doesn't exist.<p>I'm sure this isn't news to anyone on HN. The pros and cons of Fractional Reserve Banking are well known. But it seems unfair to hold Tether up to a higher standard than even our most established banks.<p>UPDATE: This is one of those can of worms things. A lot of you are making similar arguments, and rather than answer one by one, let me just say:<p>1) Comparing a run on Tether to a run on ALL of the banks was a poor comparison on my part.<p>2) Y'all might be right that it wasn't UNFAIR of the author to make the claim above. Tether did make that promise to their customers.<p>3) Y'all have way more faith in fiat currencies and fractional reserve banking than I do.<p>Cheers.