Are Hedge Funds Planning USDT Dump? Tether CTO Responds To Rumors

The Chief Technology Officer at Tether, Paolo Ardoino today addressed what he called “open and coordinated” attacks by some hedge funds on USDT. This, he explained, is being done in a bid to spread another wave of FUD following the collapse of TERRA/LUNA.

Ardoino says attackers will not succeed

USDT’s position as the number one stable coin pegged to the U.S. dollar has been tested lately. Recent happenings including a new preference for USDC and USDT’s continuous depeg have raised eyebrows within the crypto community.

In a long thread on twitter, Paolo Ardoino explains the dynamics behind the “open attacks” on USDT which he claimed is being perpetrated by hedge funds who have collaborated to cause harm to USDT’s liquidity by shorting heavily and then re-purchasing at a lower price.

Among the FUD that the hedge funds have spread, according to him are, firstly, tether is not or was not 100 percent backed and that tether has or previously had exposure to Evergrande and 85% exposure to Chinese CP.

He also noted that with all tether has done to show transparency and their “commitments to phase out CP exposure to move into U.S treasuries”, the attackers haven’t desisted in their attacks.

Ardoino went ahead to make it known that Tether’s commercial paper exposure has been reduced from $45 billion to $8.4 billion. He reiterated Tether’s 100 percent backing and threw a jab at hedge funds who had troubles recently saying they were considered “holy heroes” in the industry.

FTX’s bailout of crypto firms is good for the industry

Reeve Collins, co-founder of Tether and current CEO of BlockV, in an interview with CNBC discussed the nascent DeFi industry, saying problems are normal when an industry sprouts.

He went on to address FTX recent bailout of some troubled crypto firms,

It’s great that FTX is actually stepping up because they have the war chest to actually say okay you guys had a great audience, you had a great product for a while [but] it didn’t work out, let’s step in and take you to the next level.