Is bitcoin really un-tethered? this paper looks at the btc / tether connection; it examines if tether is not back by dollars and is printed to pump prices mainly btc

here is the paper, its quite long but a good read. below ive added some quotes. If you read this paper it will likely just confirm want most who have been in this space for a while think about tether, its centralised with no accountability and is likely not backed 1:1 and is likely an instrument to pump prices.

Is Bitcoin Really un-tethered?

some snippets from the paper:

flow of tether between exchanges, the main players:

Figure 1 plots the aggregate flow of Tether among major market participants on the Tether blockchain from its conception in October 6, 2014 until March 31, 2018. The size of the nodes is proportional to the sum of coin inflow and outflow to each node, the thickness of the lines is proportional to the size of flows, and all flow movements are clockwise. Tether is authorized, moved to Bitfinex, and then slowly distributed to other Tether-based exchanges, mainly Poloniex and Bittrex. The graph shows that almost no Tether returns to the Tether issuer to be redeemed, and the major exchange where Tether can be exchanged for USD, Kraken, accounts for only a small proportion of transactions. Tether also flows out to other exchanges and entities and becomes more widespread over time as a medium of exchange.

A similar analysis of the flow of coins on the much larger Bitcoin blockchain shows that the three main Tether exchanges for most of 2017 (Bitfinex, Poloniex, and Bittrex) also facilitate considerable cross-exchange Bitcoin flows among themselves.6 Additionally, we find that the cross-exchange Bitcoin flows on Bitcoin blockchain closely matches the Tether flows on Tether blockchain.

a large player is likely responsiblle for a lot of this:

we find that one large player is associated with more than half of the exchange of Tether for Bitcoin at Bitfinex, suggesting that the distribution of Tether into the market is from a large player and not many different investors bringing cash to Bitfinex to purchase Tether

people who worked on the inside even admit tether isnt backed 1:1

in response to legal motions, on April 30, 2019, Bitfinex’s former General Counsel admitted that Tether does not have cash reserves equal to 100% of the outstanding Tethers. In a May 15, 2019 court hearing, a Bitfinex attorney also admitted that Tether did invest in instruments beyond cash, including Bitcoin, something clearly at odds with Tether’s longstanding claims.

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source https://www.reddit.com/r/btc/comments/g3dkgm/is_bitcoin_really_untethered_this_paper_looks_at/