If the lack of physical security of coins is the main thing that confuses you about the idea of cryptocurrency, then this is not about Tether USD. Each USDT coin is backed by the US dollar. Popularizers of this cryptocurrency say that it is a complete digital analogue of fiat money, which is backed by US currency and costs almost the same - one to one.
Where to buy Tether
The easiest way to buy Tether is on traditional cryptocurrency exchanges. List of the largest exchanges where USDT is traded: Binance, Huobi, Gate.io, Bittrex, KuCoin, FTX, and EXMO. The full rating of crypto exchanges with reviews can be found here. If you don’t want to trade, but just plan to replenish your wallet, then the easiest way is to make transactions through the exchanger, choosing the best rate and checking the reliability on Bestchange.
In practice, there were periods in the history of Tether when the coin “sagged” to 89 cents per USDT, at the risk of losing exchange rate connection with the base currency. But the rate leveling happened so quickly that the coin almost without loss of reputation returned to its place in the ranking of the Top 10 most capital-intensive crypto-coins. The Tether cryptocurrency is open on the smartphone screen.
What is Tether
The motto of Tether Limited, which issues the USDT currency, is "Digital Money for the Digital Age". This motto indirectly reflects the main task of the founders of the network - to combine the advantages of fiat money with the advantages of digital technologies. Among the main ones are the following.
Providing value. The means of payment of different countries are provided by a developed economy and political stability of the state - that is, the value of money is supported by other tangible and partially intangible values. Most cryptocurrencies cannot boast of such security. In this sense, it fundamentally and favorably differs from other coins in that these coins are fully backed by fiat currency. Especially for this, Tether Ltd has created a reserve fund. Real-time information about the state of funds in this fund can be tracked at wallet.tether.to/transparency.
Clear and stable conversion rate. The word "tether" in the name of the cryptocurrency can be transported as "peg". Due to this, in relation to USD, it should always be equal to one. In practice, usually (not counting force majeure) this happens with small deviations in hundredths or thousandths from unity. Therefore, it is always clear how much USDT is worth in relation to other currencies in each unit of time: it is assumed that it is the same as USD.
Working with the dollar equivalent is easier than with the dollars themselves: less strict reporting, more freedom in licensing and regulating operations. However, Tether's commercial activities are monitored by US and Taiwanese audit firms (eg TOPSUN CPAs & Co and Friedman LLP). Among the advantages of USDT as digital coins there are advantages common to cryptocurrencies and platform-specific advantages, tether is still popular in the gambling industry, players often look for tether casino sites to play in the casino.
- Decentralization, typical for any blockchain network.
- High speed and transparency of transactions.
- Cryptographic encryption that ensures the security of transfers.
- Round the clock access to money.
- No commission fees within the system when transferring between wallets of different participants.
- Low fees for depositing and withdrawing funds to a bank card (10 platform points, or 20 USD).
- Tether has implemented the Proof of Reserves algorithm in its crypto network.
Tokenomics
USDT is the third largest cryptocurrency in terms of capitalization, only BTC and ETH are ahead of it. Its cost is equal to one USD. A total of 62.55 billion coins were issued, the real capitalization of which is identical to this amount, but their total value is slightly higher than the number of USDT – 64,479,244,181 USD. There is no maximum limit on the supply of coins. You can buy a coin on any online exchange, it is an analogue of a physical dollar.
Why all cryptocurrencies are traded against USDT and not against the regular dollar (difference between USD and USDT)
The regular dollar, marked as USD, is an American fiat that completely imitates the US dollar and is used in almost half of the world's cryptocurrency trading. The USD is a centralized currency controlled by the US government. But Tether cannot be influenced by any organization or person due to complete decentralization.