Ad hominem is not necessary. Trading volume plays a role, but for everyone trading Tether -> BTC there is someone else trading BTC -> Tether on the other side.
If the USDT/USD peg began to fail naturally, you'd need a massive amount of non Tether currency to prop it back up (ie buy Tether at peg).
It's not really so. You create Tethers out of thin air, buy BTCs from it, the price rises. Then you sell them for real dollars, while unbacked tethers remain on someone's accounts. Now, if USDT holders would want to withdraw it, they might run into some unexpected obstacle. So far it looks like nobody withdraws USDTs, so this fraudlently injected liquidity remains on the exchanges, powering the current bubble.
(and mind me, I'm a bitcoin maximalist, but I just don't see how bitcoin's price can be considered real at this point)
Yes..but that only works exactly once per tether they print. You seemed to think the USDT volume was much more important than the total supply.
> To get a clue, check daily trading volumes and compare them to market caps.
Why does daily trading volume matter? In order to pump BTC twice with the same Tether, they must buy it back from the market right? So the artificial pump is only the total supply, not volume traded.
If the USDT/USD peg began to fail naturally, you'd need a massive amount of non Tether currency to prop it back up (ie buy Tether at peg).