Discussing Tether's impact

What’s everyone’s take on Tether’s actions lately? Are they actually helping out the world or just looking out for themselves? I can’t help but think about those seized funds what’s their plan with that money? They’re not a government, so can we really trust them not to pull the same moves we've seen from governments, like seizing funds just to keep them?

I had a post about this on a similar topic that dkbit98 posted two days ago about it which are about the reasons Tether can freeze USDT tokens. They are doing it for their personal gain in a way that they want the government to know that they are following regulations but know that those coins that are freezed are well known to the world and governments and it will likely be taken by the government or taken back by a platform that got hacked in case of security incidents.

They are doing the government a favour. Tether is simply helping the government to steal money from people under the guise that it is linked to criminal activities. This is thesame strategy they are using to accumulate Bitcoin for a strategic reserve. Seized funds are supposed to be returned to those who are victims of the fraudulent actions. But this is not always the case. The government simply confiscates them and resume wnership. Keeping any stablecoins is high risk, since they could be frozen at will.

As high risk as keeping funds in a bank or any financial entity. In the end, everything involves risk, including keeping 100% of your funds in Bitcoin in cold storage. We shouldn't be surprised by news like this. Tether is a centralized entity subject to government oversight and acts as such.

But I have never heard where someone USDT was frozen for no reason, it is always the guilty ones I guess.

This is true, but not all everyone the coin is stolen from can be known. That is the reason the coin become the government properties. I think using it for charity will be good. Also keeping fiat in banks is very risky, but people do not have options. Those living in Africa, Asia and other countries that their government turn inflation to work may see stable coin as an opportunity to hedge against their local currencies. It is not even anything new at all, as tether is seizing many of the coins, there are news about it.

I think we should be on a neutral position. To be gin with, Tether was just following an order by the government. Sometimes, they're also banning the stable coin linked to the hacking or money laundering activities. So they're not doing it wrong when it's about to save people money. In so many cases they were recovering the funds by reissuing it back, then distributed it to victim of a hacked case like what happened at dusting attack at 2024. They were not keeping it by themselves. Unless, that fund tied to the criminal or money laundering cases. You can hate tether, but they're not 100% wrong. Their centralized power to freeze, blacklist, or reissue sometimes are annoying, but it's helping a lot when there was a hacked case to save people money.

Tether is one of the most stupid projects I have ever seen. It is centralized so they government can ask them to freeze your Tether balance in your wallet and you will not be able to send it out. That is the power of using and holding a coin the government can control at their own pleasure. Sorry mate for knowing about this now when a lot of damages had been made before now. We all should stick to Bitcoin because it is the only cryptocurrency the government can not control. It is decentralized so you have all full access to your Bitcoin and no one can freezes it in your wallet. I am always thankful to Satoshi Nakamoto everytime I wake up from bed. Life has been good with Bitcoin!

This is the problem with centralisation and even though it may look morally right to fight crime, what they are doing is wrong and should make everyone holding their money in tether to be worried. If things like these are allow to go, they might tag anyone's money as illicit and seize them. We know they are not going to return the money to wherever they came from, they might even claim they sent them to a burner account.

Is there still an issue with Tether? Like the transparency issues way before? I remember it depegging and losing it's 1=1 value to the dollar because of it. Maybe it has something to do with it as well? I would choose USDC over USDT because it is more compliant and more transparent than USDT. If USDT were more compliant, it wouldn't be a problem anymore. I also think that it has something to do with regulation.

If I had to store stablecoins in my own wallet, I'd also prefer USDC. Because USDT has started being frozen even for very small amounts in private wallets, like 300 USDT. I don't think people freeze coins because they don't have enough people to handle everything. That's why bots freeze coins. But a bot can't unfreeze them. Only a human can, after reviewing the situation. That's why I think USDT is impossible to unfreeze. The number of banned USDT coins by Dune - https://dune.com/phabc/usdt---banned-addresses

That's true. But it can't be removed that they might play a trick on it or trip someone who they know who's the owner of that address. So far, there's none that they had played with and just did a trip. However, with that feature they have, it cannot be denied that they have the ability to freeze someone's USDT.

The world a favor?, no they're not doing that. No centralized organization with so much power and ability to take decisions at anytime, will ever do that. They call it policing and way of keep their money system clean, but the truth is, it only reveals the level of centralization and  so much power that lies in the hands of a very few, when a lot population decides to trust them 100%. And as for the seized funds, it clearly belongs to them. You just don't want to follow the path of having all your assets in the so called 'stablecoins'.

What do you think about storing Binance-pegged USDT on the BSC network in a cold wallet instead of the original Tether USDT? Do they freeze them too, or...?

Tether can burn coins belonging to a blacklisted address and then mint new coins that are sent to the person they were stolen from. If the coins are not stolen and were earned through some other illegal activity, the USDT can be forfeited to the government. As far as I know there isn’t always a public announcement of every action they take, so they could be freezing people’s tokens and keeping the cash for themselves, but that seems like a legally risky move that is unnecessary for a company as profitable as Tether.

Not just keeping the cash but print new USDT backed by that cash. Since it is more profitable.

This is why anything centralized is prone to manipulation since the government would be involved and anything that the government is involved in, they will always take full control of it. Tether freezes when they government asks them to do so and connect the coins to illicit activities. Tether will freeze to favor the government and keep them in the game. Avoid investing in a centralized token because you're gambling with your funds.

Stablecoins changed a lot of things for people who live in emerging countries. In Brazil , we need to pay about 2-3% (at least) in taxes and fees to buy a dolar. To spend in a credit card to travel abroad, these costs goes to about 8-10% in taxes and fees. But now with USDT and USDC this cost is now zero. There are many crypto cards here which allow us to send money abroad without fees or taxes and spend in credit card. Stablecoins are so big because they are useful, specially when transferring money. And here in Latin America we need to send our money abroad, because our fiat memecoin cannot be trusted. It is way worse than dollar. I wouldn't hold tether as well, but to spend and transfer it is very good for people in poor countries, even with those risks of freezing.

Indeed, USDT can be frozen for clear reasons where the wallet owner commits criminal acts and other crimes, it is impossible for the government to freeze without clear reasons. It's just that it's still risky to keep money in USDT, right? The government can open it at any time because we don't know what happens in the future --- this stablecoin is centralized the government can still control it.

I recall there being some really significant transparency debates surrounding Tether in the past. However, both stablecoins carry different risks regulatory risk, reserve structure risk, and counterparty risk. I would primarily prefer USDC its transparency and regulatory aspects give me more confidence. But to diversify risks, I would also prefer not to be tied to just one stablecoin.