Tether’s $69 Billion Mystery: Five Takeaways From Bloomberg Businessweek’s Cover Story
In addition to Chinese commercial paper and crypto-backed loans, there are a lot of colorful characters.
Tether is a stablecoin, a cryptocurrency that’s supposed to be worth $1 because it’s backed by real U.S. dollars. It’s central to the cryptocurrency economy, used by traders to move money from one exchange to another. This summer, because of its exponential growth, it caught the attention of traders on Wall Street and regulators in Washington, who say it’s a risk to the financial system. There are now 69 billion Tethers in circulation, which means the company that issues them should hold a corresponding $69 billion of assets to back them, enough to make it one of the top 50 banks in the U.S.—that is, if it were a U.S. bank and not an unregulated offshore company. But for years, despite the company’s assurances that the money is safe, exactly what’s behind Tether has been a mystery.
Here are five takeaways from Bloomberg Businessweek’s cover story “ The $69 Billion Crypto Mystery.”