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airza | 4 months ago

People give tether their USD so they can bypass currency controls when buying and selling crypto online. There are a lot of them to put it mildly.

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hyghjiyhu|4 months ago

Can people holding tether for a day or two while entering of exiting crypto really explain these large amounts?

delabay|4 months ago

I don't think it has dawned on the HN crowd how insatiable the demand for dollars across the world is. This stuff is being used in all corners of the world, and accelerating.

rattlesnakedave|4 months ago

There are plenty of people in jurisdictions where it is difficult to get dollars that use them for other things. Normal transactions, gambling, saving in USD. Not uncommon.

yieldcrv|4 months ago

people don't exit

its just like your brokerage account, imagine if Schwab issued a stablecoin for every deposit someone made and only delete some of that stablecoin when they redeem

you'll find that people deposit and trade, they keep their balances there their entire life and beyond. when they trade, they are selling the stablecoin to someone else, someone else could redeem but they aren't either. stablecoins are liquid and useful, they have passive income capabilities while holding your principle value

so for Schwab's reporting, the balances always increase as people deposit more whenever they get their paycheck

this is what you're seeing with Tether, and all other leading stablecoins, as they grow at the same pace as they capture the same market

when actual traditional finance brokerage firms start issuing stablecoins, you'll see the same thing, the stablecoin just offers transparent real time behavior into their customer deposits

the only time stablecoin balances go down, and subsequently treasuries are offloaded behind the scenes, is when someone redeems a stablecoin for fiat currency. this isn't necessary, people don't want fiat or don't need to get fiat by redeeming it

sunshine-o|4 months ago

I think the the market for those stablecoins is now broader than criminal and traders.

There is a huge demand for dollars by individuals outside of the US. Countries where people do not really trust their banks and currencies.

Even in the Euro zone, most saving accounts will give you about 1% after taxes. So why not going with USDT, USDC or EURC and get about 5% on a relatively safe lending platform.

gomox|4 months ago

Why for a day or two?