Tether is exiting, and nobody noticed
Here’s a theory for you: Tether is exiting — and that’s a good thing. But before we dive in, here’s a quick summary of what happened so far.
The rumour mill starts grinding and the peg breaks
For the last month, negative sentiment about Tether and Bitfinex built up on social media. It started with Noble, Tether’s old banking partner. Rumours had been circulating for a while when, in their quarterly analysis, Bitmex research found that Tether had stopped banking with Noble and moved the funds out of Puerto Rico — destination unknown.
On October 6, some users noticed Bitfinex was now banking with HSBC. The next day Bitfinex responded to the rumours about their financial situation and said things were largely fine. On October 10, The Block broke the news that Bitfinex had paused USD deposits (not withdrawals) but expected the situation to normalise within a week.
This news spooked the market. Tether started trading at a premium against Bitcoin and other stablecoins as more and more people tried to get rid of their USDT. Sellers temporarily accepted as little as $0.92, but the price quickly recovered and has since been trading at a relatively stable 3–4% discount. Finally, on October 16, Bitfinex announced a new “improved and increasingly resilient system for depositing fiat currencies” and Tether found a new home in the Bahamas.
