• When stable coins go wobbly

    As an esteemed blockchain developer said to me this morning, "you can only have a bank run if you're operating as a bank".

    The blockchain industry, particularly DeFi, basically abandoned its own tech (after finding out that their bold ambitions were impossible to do in a cryptographically pure way) to chase the $$$ and the average investor did not understand the implications enough to steer clear.

    That said, Tether might be ok. They're probably in better shape that a lot of retail banks.

  • They're probably in better shape that a lot of retail banks

    I really doubt that is the case. By their own numbers (which aren't audited) they have something like $200k of capital versus $70 bn of assets. Average retail bank would have more like $5 bn on a balance sheet that size. Their ability to absorb losses on their portfolio of venture bets / crypto-backed lending is virtually non-existent.

    Of course, the advantage they have versus a retail bank is that they can just decline to pick up the phone if one of their customers wants to make a withdrawal ;-)

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