This is the definition of FUD. There was not one single shred of evidence that Tether has substantively altered the price of BTC. The only FACT evident is they are opaque with audits. I can point to the fiat system for the same problem. So what problem other than audit are you talking about? Tether in aggregate has been an overall help to the ecosystem imo. Sorry guys, I just don't buy your story of worry.

Why do I feel the interviewer(the beanie) is not up to standard? and he was hired by RealVision as the president??

Prob. could use a further deep drive with names and evidence to bolster this and make it more investigative journalism.

guest rather useless USDT risk best laid out here: https://crypto-anonymous-2021.medium.com/the-bit-short-inside-cryptos-doomsday-machine-f8dcf78a64d3

Easy way to sort this, take a regulated, audited stablecoin like USDC and see if it has the same issuance characteristics compared to bitcoin price movements as Tether - waddya know, it does. I don't think people know the role of Tether on exchanges, the deregulation is actually a feature. Why is he in a hoodie like he's breaking some omerta - its just bizarre but then again I find nearly all of Travis's financial opinions grate on me endlessly.

"How has gold performed over the past couple of decades? Not great".......wow. Gold has gone from $260 usd per oz in 2001 to $1840 per oz today. As a stable store of value against inflation it has performed exactly as you would want it to. That being said I found the interview very interesting.

I appreciate your raising these issues. Thanks for the guest's perspective.

Glad to hear RV talking about Tether. I assumed USDT was simply a way to enable capital flight out of China. Along the same lines, can you do something on the other crypto "bad guy," XRP? Example questions: why is there all this litigation, does it go to zero if XRP is a share, why is it so widely hated (was it the pre-mine?) what are the possible applications if it survives all the regulatory heat, how is it more of a security than ETH?

Yikes! I actually beleive tether poses significant risk and went int looking for fresh perspectives. I could not finish the interview. If this interview reflects the judgement of its new leadership, may be this is the peak for RV.... Sorry: in the last 2 years, us subscribers have been conditioned by RV to much higher standards.

I finally got around to watching this. 1) Gold has outperformed US stock markets from 2001, even if you take the US stock markets from their crash lows. It destroys the credibility the people participating in the interview to state something so obviously wrong that gold has done nothing in the last 20 years. 2) Neither Travis or Hoodie seem to understand that economies are build out of capital, not out of debt. People build wealth and capital so their have the freedom to do things, not just build wealth and capital, but spend it. The most aggressive hoarding of wealth by the global neofeudal elites has occurred since 1971, when the last thread to any form of a gold standard was broken. The gini coefficient in the United States particularly has been increasing at an accelerated rate since then because of the Cantillon effect. 3) Building something from first principles is NOT fascist. The founding fathers who wrote the Declaration and the Constitution based on first principles were NOT fascist. 4) Hoodie never stated nor was asked what his qualificatioin are, nor whether he had any conflicts. To summarize the main point of the piece. Stablecoins needs to be regulated, so they can be audited. Nobody disputes that. That was obvious the first time I learned what a stable coin was. They have to be regulated so one know exactly where the reserves are and so they can be audited.

I am a scientist. To see how many people, likely bitcoiners, gave big, inflammatory, primitive and rudimentary comments that have no supporting theses is sad. These gentlemen have lots of specifics and are very measured. To debate with them, you have to know as much as they do as a minimum. The only specific criticism was about the style of the interview, not about the content. With this said, I do understand that people want to have Ponzi flesh cushions.

This video is a waste of time. You could have just made this a blog post. In the last minutes he give several “reasons off the top” of his head to “don’t trust but verify”. You could have opened with that and ended the interview because there was no journalistic integrity in this narrative. Just two dudes chatting about tether, except one dude is a shadowy figure wearing a hoody. What! Anyway I always appreciate conflicting views, evidence and narratives that are possibly non conforming to the current bias, but this was a bit overdone.

I’ve never heard so many words spoken with nothing of substance said. Do better.

Wow! Thank you guys. This is the most honest talk about cryptos. Please do more. You guys hardly said anything about ether. What is your unique views on that?

Why does he say that Binance doesn't accept usd? Binance accepts USD, they even mint their own stablecoin BUSD or "binance USD" and that is audited every single month by Paxos a very trusted entity.

“Tether gets printed and the price of bitcoin goes up”. Yes, that could relate to something nefarious. However, what normally causes prices to go up? Money flooding into a market? In this case that happened via Tether. That is also a completely rational explanation.

I accept tether MIGHT have problems. However, to say that “we don’t know the price of Bitcoin in dollars” is ridiculous. Tether and dollars are CURRENTLY interchangeable even if there are problems with it. If Tether has been printed fraudulently then that will impact the price to some extent, but that doesn’t validate the argument at all.

No wonder this guy doesn’t show is face, this was horrible. I’m not going to accuse the guy of lying, but there were many times he didn’t seem too honest at all. I have a suspicion this new position Travis recently accepted will be vacant sooner than later.

Regarding China, Bitcoin's input cost is electricity. What you get out of it is an immutable unit of account that can be traded. What people can't get their head around is that you can't hold that unit of account in their hand. But in the digital age, that physical possession isn't necessary so long as there is a way to prove ownership that no one else can take away. That is the cryptography element. And why should we signal out Bitcoin as a means of obtaining dollars when China's entire economy is a means of generating goods and services to exchange for dollars? They aren't making Bitcoin for free, it requires servers and raw materials to make the electricity. Its input cost is oil and coal and/or infrastructure and hardware. There is time and energy spent making it which could go to other efforts. They aren't producing it for free, and their interests align with supporting the system, not doing harm to it. The simple act of trying to seize it would destroy its value. And Mike Green's non economic actor argument is hard to square. He talks as if he has a specific idea in mind that I haven't seen him elaborate on. Meanwhile, attacking our infrastructure would be a much better way to cause harm to us than trying to attack a 600 billion dollar asset. An asset that isnt US centric but rather a global asset in the first place. I get the arguments about tether, and having liquidity dry up due to tether being marked to market below a dollar would cause volatility. However, the reasons for that mark down are important. I personally don't care if tether is being used by Chinese to offshore assets away from the CCP. Only if over a long period, if the liquidity and interest of bitcoin dried up and no alternative stable coin exchange asset rose to take its place would I be concerned that tether volume was irreplaceable. Tether is just a means of exchange around the banking system. It is the demand that tether represents, and how much of that would find an alternative medium if tether became unavailable to that demand, that I am concerned with. And all I see is FUD pointing out potential pitfalls without having any better idea than anyone else if that underlying demand isn't real or not. Many exchanges are already known to spoof volume. But when looking at the reputable exchanges, the demand for a bearer asset in the form of Bitcoon is not zero. Time will tell who is right. It is this uncertainty and risk that makes the trade potentially profitable in the first place.

Thanks RV for following up on a very important topic and presenting the more concerning side of this issue. However the fact that Cas Piancey is in silhouette either significantly diminishes his credibility or is a very sad indictment of the state of free debate in the crypto world. Or both. I am disappointed (if not surprised) at how reluctant the crypto supporters are to help get to the bottom of this and how high level and generic the dismissal of the systemic risk posed by Tether is. When you look at the daily volume of Tether vs other major cryptos like BTC and Ether it is in my view quite concerning. According to various sources like CoinGecko and Zero Block etc. the daily volume of Tether is in the $90-100bn range is which is c.4x it’s own market cap and multiples higher than all other major cryptos. When you look at the most traded pairs you can see that every day more than 70% of all Bitcoin and Ether are traded in Tether. According to CoinCap, in the last 24 hours, Bitcoin's biggest trading exchange pairs were $6bn collectively in Tether on Binance, Huobi, Bit-Z abd HitBTC vs $1bn in USD on Coinbase Pro, $282 in USD on Bitstamp and $198m in USD on Kraken (the three largest USD BTC trades). The data suggest that less than 30% of daily BTC trading is on the main regulated exchanges. I think it is legitimate to ask WHO is buying so much BTC in Tether and WHY are they using Tether vs mainstream fiat. It seems the narrative that BTC is currently being bought mainly by institutions starting to allocate to BTC and Greyscale trust etc. does not stack up because surely, they are purchasing on regulated exchanges using USD? I am pretty sure Michael Saylor did not use Tether to buy BTC when he was building MicroStrategy’s position but perhaps he can clarify this. As to why the majority of BTC is bought via Tether on non regulated exchanges I can only think of two reasons: 1. It is being bought by people who do not have access to regulated exchanges and/or are not comfortable with KYC/AML procedures. This could include both nefarious actors but also maybe people in countries with capital controls or who would not be able to open accounts with regulated exchanges due to their jurisdiction. Is there any analysis out there that could help quantify and justify this? 2. It is being bought by speculators making use of the huge leverage offered by off shore exchanges; typically enabled by Tether as the currency of the collateral i.e. users/exchanges are borrowing huge amounts of Tether from Tether (via their chosen exchange) in order to fund crypto purchases; turning crypto into a self fulfilling prophecy as long as there is an unlimited amount of Tether available... The second reason is especially concerning as it suggests the BTC volume and (hence price) is mainly driven by the very lose leverage available enabled by Tether and could also explain the huge increase in issued Tether because it suggest that Tethers are being issued as the credit for leveraged trading which in turn implies that a large part of Tether’s backing is customer/exchange credit presumably collateralised by other cryptos which were purchased with this credit. Given the Tether volumes relative to the total market volumes that is a house of cards and I think it is naïve to believe that a collapse in Tether (e.g. due to it being apparent that it is not at all cash backed) if that scenario was to be true, would not have very serious ramifications for the whole ecosystem in terms of both value and trading volumes. I am posing this as a genuine question and would appreciate genuine fact based replies. Not just “Tether is small and if it goes away people will just use a different stable coin” but a more fact based and rational explanation as to why >2/3 of the crypto trading market is currently enabled by Tether and why this should not be a concern. I am hoping there is a rational explanation which does not include the market being mostly an over-leveraged speculation built on Tether but as I have quite a big investment in BTC I won’t personally add further before I get comfortable with this.

Great interview it is just strange that he cannot show his face but he is saying his real name? Is he so good looking that we all will feel so ugly? Sorry for the joke I just wonder why not to show the face. I can understand one keeps the name and face in anonymity but tell the name and not show the face is kind of contradictory. On this note, I understand plan B not showing his identity, but this interviewee is showing his name but not his name? I hope my query makes sense...

Great interview. I think it will be good for Bitcoin once the mess behind tether is sorted out. Theres the US court case, questions about financial backing, potential for leveraged transactions, etc. All of those concerns are seen as risks to institutional investors, who will want a bit more transparency before they deploy significant capital.

absolute shocking interview RV. you had a bloke hiding under hood saying " ive been over to china and had a look round at what the CCP and the triads are doing over there like duuuude" Yeah really cos the CCP and Triads are really open about Americans popping over there....... SERIOUSLY ???? was there no journalistic inquisitiveness to say " hold on mate!! what the fuck are you talking about??? then lets get to Tether. usual tiresome Fud " dont do an audit, im not happy about it" " it lost the peg in 2018..... yeah for about a day and its spent 3 years rooted at 1:1 . its funny. this shitshow of an interview made all the more funny coming out on the day Bitfinex repays the Tether loan virtually a year ahead of schedule

Travis' IQ is lower than a room temperature during the winter season.

Thanks for providing balanced coverage of the crypto space, both bullish and bearish views.

Calling all crypto fascist is a bit like saying all people are fascist. In Polkadot the rules of the entire system are set by DOT owners alone so nothing is "fiat" about it. Tezos is pretty similar. Blanket generalisations and politically motivated statements detract from the discussion.

Who is this rando? I could've given a better interview drunk off my ass. Between the halting speech and his endless "I don't know" verbal tic, I'm not even sure what he DOES know. As for the content of the interview, I see Mike Green's statist views infects this piece. RV must be a clubhouse where they all pat each other on the back and lift material from each other, because it was quoted verbatim in this one. Funny thing is - China doesn't give a damn about Bitcoin. Proof? https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/swift-sets-joint-venture-china-central-bank-ahead-imminent-digital-yuan-launch Digital Yuan under China central bank control. Its rolling out this year, if not in the next month. Teaming up with SWIFT, another of the old-guard of the legacy financial system. This is what they want, microscopic control of a currency that they can route through the recently nationalized services provided by Jack Ma's companies. Also, this "guest" spews the most ridiculous garbage that I've ever heard -- "Debt and inflation make sense to me" and "First order principles are fascist (Implying Bitcoin is? WTF?)" Guys, you better get a grip on your content pipeline or cut your prices, because this is absolute freshman-effort crap that I'm seeing here. I had more to say about Tether, but you know what? You guys are so low-effort in this piece that I'm not going to bother correcting all the stupidity in this one.

The video lacks an actual explanation if there is an issue with Tether. So when you bring an "expert" that does not know anything, it is a bit useless. I heard 1 Assumption: "Most of the trades happen in USDT. All of crypto rely on TETHER." Answer: One does not need TUSD to buy any crypto and if it goes to 0 it would not be very impactful systemically . Many crypto have seized to exit and tether would be no different. Pretty much no exchange would be affected because many stable coins exist. The problem would be with people holding TUSD. And there would be some crazy short term swing and damage to the ecosystem because of the market cap of it and corresponding destruction of value. But it is not a structural risk or systemic risk. Tether does not really matter that much, its just that lots of people hold value in it. Personally I do not trust Tether and would never hold it, but next time you make a video like this, please make sure u have some real facts vs someone that does not know anything about it. The rest of the video was very unfocused ramblings and had little to do with Tether.

What if Bitcoin and tether are a team. What if it is in the best interest of the world that this issue stays publicly unresolved for a while. Could it be that tether is a tool?

"Or whatever..."

"I don't look at Sonic the Hedgehog on my Sega Genesis and say 'nothings ever gunna be better than that' cos it's clearly just not true" I'm sorry but I couldn't listen past this nonsense statement. Unless he's just talking about Sonic 2 and 3 being better, which is arguable.

Was open to hearing opposing view points but this was f*****g terrible. Lots of bold allegations with little to no evidence offered. Some absolutely horribly inaccurate statements (gold has performed poorly over the last 2 decades!). Bu what really got me was when chuckling Travis trotted out how inflation is basically essential. Also arguing for the continuation for the existing system that has destroyed the middle classes and is clearly ripping America apart is tone deaf and plain dumb. The red flags on Tether are noteworthy but you’ve got to give a bit more detail on how this brings down Bitcoin. This deserves the ratings it has so far (more down votes than up). That said, you can’t accuse RV of being one sided. They’re giving airtime to both sides and are doing an absolutely fantastic job overall. Even though I found this somewhat infuriating and about as deep as a puddle, it was worth a listen to just hear the counter arguments. If this is the best they’ve got then that just makes me all the more bullish.

This interview is the reason i subscripted Real Vision for many years. Keep the work up, and question everything that look fishy.

Who this guy is? First time the quality is really low on RV. This guy « don't know » much.

A seminal interview which requires second, and even third time viewing. There are some fundamental, deep set manipulation issues surrounding USDT that need to be addressed and resolved if we want to move further. If we don't the whole ecosystem, which was born out of a vision of a more unified universal playing field, will just disappear down a sink hole.

Quote, "how has gold performed over the last couple of decades, not great" (16:15 time) How about gold has out performed most asset classes since 2000 including S&P and Dow Ind.

This is a parody video, right? Got 18 minutes in and realized it was a joke.

Is this some kind of psychological FUD test for the Real Vision population?

Wow! This was so bad. Definitely not RV standard. Last time I checked Binance had almost 20 fiat deposit options! I can deposit and withdraw fiat (AUD) directly to my bank account. Tether may be a fraud but no one outside the FUDsters care. We have much better alternatives. Someone got burnt in 2017/18 and is now reliving the trauma as he sees the phenomenal growth in the space. It still not too late to add some crypto to your portfolio bro.

The Tether FUD is so tiresome. I listened to the interview to see if there were any new or compelling arguments against Tether. Nothing new. All the old arguments have been debunked (I.e., faulty data sets). In fact, I am going to continue accumulating Bitcoin because this is “the best” FUD argument available (which is weak).

This is like asking two janitors how long it should take to land a rocket on a moon.

This video is not real vision quality. Black hooded man coming up with a story to make himself feel better for buying at the top in 2017 and selling at the bottom.

I will not be spending my time watching interviews with someone who actively prevents attaching their reputation to their face.

this guy bring close to nothing new, he seems to know very little about blockchain

Finally! Can’t wait for it to blow up

Funny they keep saying that everyone relies on Tether. I've been in the crypto space for about 4 years, and I never and never will use Tether.... It's meanly used in asia, and we already have more transparent alternative like USDC. This conversation participate to the FUD in my opinion.

not the usual quality RV represents...

Very important and fascinating discussion, thank you for bringing this to Real Vision! I have a few reflections, when it comes to audit solving this tether intransparency issue I find that to be a fantasy and in that audits will verify where the money comes from. Think Wirecard, 2B missing and the company claims that it is on a Philippine bank account, Ernst & Young Germany says ok audit done. Had they made an simple check like calling the bank they would have found out there is nothing there. Only after EY HQ feeling the pressure when the fraud is obvious do they put pressure EY Germany to check and find out... My take, there is widespread fraud everywhere and if you want to be 99% safe stay away from cryptos but lose out on massive opportunities and be screwed elsewhere. Fiat will be replaced with CBDC at one point after they destroy people purchasing power of those who stay in it and then afterwards the powers will have to anchor their new CBDC to something tangible or a set of rules to “temporarily” restore confidence. Thus I am happy to take my chances with Cryptos and other hard asses as escape routes while the fiat currency wars, generational wealth transfer fraud, Bank transfer fraud, Mainstreet to Wall Street frauds goes towards a “nuclear” meltdown and need to be cooled with more fiat spread out as inflation and other taxes on the average guy.

Not a fan of internet Twitter researchers with no skin in the game getting interviewed as experts. Please have someone who has been in the industry and has experience trading, using, converting USDT and managed a crypto fund or trading desk and ask them about this.

Neither of them is an expert in economics or technology and it shows! This is the kind of conversation I would have at a bar after having one too many. I am quite disappointed because I had hoped this interview would tell the Tether story in a compelling way. It's a story that should be told. Unfortunately, there is very little meat here. What a horrible interview.

This guy doesn't talk about decentralized exchanges. It does not matter if these chinese exchanges wont take USDC

If I hear the word "unpacked" one more time, I'm going to toss. Sheesh.

https://crypto-anonymous-2021.medium.com/the-bit-short-inside-cryptos-doomsday-machine-f8dcf78a64d3

These conversations are necessary and simply dismissing them as FUD without a willingness to go through the detail doesn’t help IMO the credibility of the space. It’s certainly a valuable contribution to the crypto content.

If Tether just dropped people would just trade from coin to coin. Personally I dont even bother buying tether. Im on Voyager BYW

Hello, thank you for the information. Would love answers to a few questions. Why is tether more popular than fiat for purchasing crypto? Is it traders driving this for some benefit to them or is it the exchanges driving that and why? Also, is there a trend in the relative volume of crypto buying with fiat vs. with tether? Is fiat gaining any ground over time? How is it possible to even gauge these trends? Thank you

The hooded, anonymous kiddo, with "friends" trying to expose "tether" - poor guest choice. Tether definitely needs scrutiny and the day its delisted from the exchanges or finally "audited" will be good for crypto. I wish RV would pick a more credible guest that can talk with authority and insight. This was unnecessary airtime in my opinion not much offered.

Impressed by Cas's balanced and nuanced criticism. Travis continues to be somewhat lazy and hand wavy. Am no bitcoin devotee but the idea that bitcoin thinking is "closed source" when there are so many actual debates with prominent critics out in the last weeks is weird. I've only listened to a couple, both with Nic Carter (vs Mike Green and vs Frances Coppola), and they answered many of my questions. Did he not think they were good? Did he not listen to them? Maybe Travis needs to broaden his information diet beyond the rude twitter idiots that clearly get to him?