Tether is Fully Backed, Has ‘Never Failed a Redemption,’ CTO Tells Short Sellers

cryptonews.com:

Hedge funds that are attempting to make money by shorting the stablecoin tether (USDT) believe in the anti-tether ‘FUD’ (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) that is being spread, despite efforts to increase transparency, Tether chief technology officer Paolo Ardoino has said.

In a lengthy Twitter thread on Monday, Ardoino said that some hedge funds have attempted to “cause further panic” in the market following the collapse of the Terra (LUNA) ecosystem, and that these funds have now targeted USDT.

Their goal, per the CTO, is to "create enough pressure, in the billions, causing ton of outflows to harm Tether liquidity and eventually buy back tokens at much lower price."

According to Ardoino, the hedge funds in question believe in all the FUD that has been spread about Tether for years, including accusations that the stablecoin issuer doesn’t have full backing for the circulating coins, and that it allegedly has exposure to risky Chinese debt securities.

“Despite all the public 3rd party attestations, our collaboration with regulators, our increased transparency efforts, our commitment to phase out [commercial paper] exposure and move into US Treasuries, our settlements, ... they kept thinking and suggesting that we, Tether, are the bad guys,” he wrote.

The comments from Ardoino came after a Wall Street Journal article yesterday said that short sellers are “ramping up their bets against tether.”

Commenting in the article, Leon Marshall, head of institutional sales at Genesis Global Trading, confirmed that traditional hedge funds have made bets worth “hundreds of millions” of US dollars against the stablecoin.

“There has been a real spike in the interest from traditional hedge funds who are taking a look at tether and looking to short