> whenever the price of Tethers drops to $0.99, they buy tethers until the price is back up to $1.
Buy Tethers with what? If the money is in fact saved in regulated banks or other such instruments, there's nothing liquid left to defend the peg on the exchange.
Instead, the standard "backed stablecoin" approach is to make money with a small spread on redemptions/creation, while allowing others to do that hard work. Tether takes (https://tether.to/es/fees) a 0.1% spread on redemptions, so if you hand them $1mUSDT you'll get back $999k USD.
> But they should be solid as long as they have made more money on those investments than they've spent in salaries and yachts and what-not, and Tether was already huge back when BTC was below $2k.
One possible "bank run" scenario is that their backing is in fact stable, but it is illiquid. Suppose Tether invested part of its reserve in long-term loans to another company (like Binance). If Tether ever faces a crisis of confidence, it would face large-scale redemption requests, but it may be unable to call in its loans to fund those requests. That would leave Tether unable to redeem its currency, and a public suspension of redemptions would drive a further exodus.
In theory, every single USDT in circulation could be redeemed at a moment's notice. Unwinding some $73 billion in investments would be a Herculean feat even if everything is fully legitimate.
> In theory, every single USDT in circulation could be redeemed at a moment's notice
The easy way to protect against this is to not contractually promise instant redemption. I think this is what tether actually does, but I could not find a source. Regular savings account banks do typically do this, for example the bank has the right to ask for 7 days to honor a withdrawal.
If you are tether and your asserts are in bonds that mature in under N days, then you could just promise redemption within N days to eliminate bank run risk. You would still of course have counter party risk that when the bond matures it is not paid back.
> Advance Notice of Withdrawal: Under federal law, we must reserve the right to require you to give us at least 7 days written notice before you take money out of your 360 Savings. (This hardly ever happens but legally we have to say it!)
Sure, I understand the general principle of locking up your investment for longer and [perhaps] getting better conditions, but the notice periods on those accounts aren't government-mandated, though?
Sort of - to the FDIC, the difference between a savings account and a checking account is that a checking account is a "demand deposit" account that historically didn't pay interest and a savings account is a "time deposit" that does. Capital One is telling you that this savings account is a time deposit to legally categorize it as different from a demand deposit so the FDIC treats them as two separate categories and gives them both the $250,000 deposit insurance. It's federal law that requires them to delineate the two.
Of course. A depositor might walk in and ask to withdraw more money than the bank has cash on hand. The seven days gives the bank time to get the requisite notes (or call the appropriate law enforcement agency).
> A depositor might walk in and ask to withdraw more money than the bank has cash on hand.
I'm sure you didn't mean it that way, but that sounds rather like an excuse for a bank to hold on to someone's money. Withdrawals don't have to be in cash, banks can issue cheques or money orders (always assuming they still exist in your jurisdiction!) If not the bank can simply pay out your balance by electronic transfer to an account you specify.
I was referring specifically to those rare cases where someone exercises their right to withdraw coins and Federal Reserve notes despite it being virtually always imprudent. For example here[1] is a story about a man who asked for $600,000 in cash. The bank didn't have that many coins and bills on hand and actually took considerably longer than seven days to acquire it.
> If you are tether and your asserts are in bonds that mature in under N days, then you could just promise redemption within N days to eliminate bank run risk.
I don't think that's reasonable for Tether, at least not with a bulletproof N. I can't quickly find any specific redemption guarantee, but their March reserves report notes that their US Treasuries (the largest single claimed category) can have maturities up to 120 days. The commercial paper category claims an average duration of 44 days.
Agreed, I think N would have to be too high to depend on this entirely, and high N looks a lot like insolvency. But it could still buffer against a partial bank run.
A Tether is an IOU for a dollar right? So long as you have one USD per Tether issued you can always redeem your outstanding IOUs.
I acknowledge the complexities of investing that collateral in more or less liquid instruments, but in principle the notion appears sound. I'd be happy to give you an interest free IOU in any amount you like if you provide me cash money for that nominal value in exchange.
Buy Tethers with what? If the money is in fact saved in regulated banks or other such instruments, there's nothing liquid left to defend the peg on the exchange.
Instead, the standard "backed stablecoin" approach is to make money with a small spread on redemptions/creation, while allowing others to do that hard work. Tether takes (https://tether.to/es/fees) a 0.1% spread on redemptions, so if you hand them $1mUSDT you'll get back $999k USD.
> But they should be solid as long as they have made more money on those investments than they've spent in salaries and yachts and what-not, and Tether was already huge back when BTC was below $2k.
One possible "bank run" scenario is that their backing is in fact stable, but it is illiquid. Suppose Tether invested part of its reserve in long-term loans to another company (like Binance). If Tether ever faces a crisis of confidence, it would face large-scale redemption requests, but it may be unable to call in its loans to fund those requests. That would leave Tether unable to redeem its currency, and a public suspension of redemptions would drive a further exodus.
In theory, every single USDT in circulation could be redeemed at a moment's notice. Unwinding some $73 billion in investments would be a Herculean feat even if everything is fully legitimate.