What If Tether Goes Belly-Up? Feat. Grant Gulovsen

Grant Gulovsen is fascinated by the story of Tether, and so are we. Tether is behind the $62 billion stablecoin powering much of the liquidity in the crypto markets. What would happen if that mammoth project went belly-up?

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ABOUT

This week, “Opinionated” hosts Ben Schiller, Anna Baydakova and Danny Nelson are talking to Grant Gulovsen, a private attorney specializing in the crypto space.

This episode is sponsored by Unique One Network.

Grant is fascinated by the story of Tether, and so are we. Tether is the project behind the $62 billion stablecoin powering much of the liquidity in the crypto markets. What would happen if that mammoth project went belly-up?

Grant has been watching Tether for years and has a few thoughts on the checkered history and unclear future of crypto’s favorite controversy. Why is tether’s backed/unbacked status so contentious? Why are so many in the crypto space skeptical of its centralized issuer? Why aren’t so many others?

Listen to Grant sharing his thoughts on Tether’s recent (and long awaited) treasury disclosure, how it looks compared to other stablecoins, rumors about bank fraud allegations, what actually can happen if USDT loses its peg to the U.S. dollar, and more.

Mentioned in this episode:

CoinDesk: Tether’s First Reserve Breakdown Shows Token 49% Backed by Unspecified Commercial Paper

CoinDesk: Tether Executives Facing Criminal Bank Fraud Charges: Report

Unchained podcast: Is Tether a Fraud? Its Bank Says It's Not

CoinDesk: Tether Confirms Its Relationship With Auditor Has 'Dissolved'

Image credit: ayo888/iStock/Getty Images Plus, modified by Coindesk

HOSTS

Dan Ilett

Dan Ilett writes on tech, money and energy. He advises business on digital strategy and technology messaging for large deals. He is founder of Erbut - an advisory company - and Greenbang - a smart technology research company.

Anna Baydakova

Anna writes about blockchain projects and regulation with a special focus on Eastern Europe and Russia. She is especially excited about stories on privacy, cybercrime, sanctions policies and censorship resistance of decentralized technologies.
She graduated from the Saint Petersburg State University and the Higher School of Economics in Russia and got her Master's degree at Columbia Journalism School in New York City.
She joined CoinDesk after years of writing for various Russian media, including the leading political outlet Novaya Gazeta.
Anna owns BTC and an NFT of sentimental value.

Danny Nelson

Danny is CoinDesk's managing editor for Data & Tokens. He formerly ran investigations for the Tufts Daily. At CoinDesk, his beats include (but are not limited to): federal policy, regulation, securities law, exchanges, the Solana ecosystem, smart money doing dumb things, dumb money doing smart things and tungsten cubes. He owns BTC, ETH and SOL tokens, as well as the LinksDAO NFT.

Benjamin Schiller

Benjamin Schiller is CoinDesk's managing editor for features and opinion. Previously, he was editor-in-chief at BREAKER Magazine and a staff writer at Fast Company. He holds some ETH, BTC and LINK.

Danny Bradbury

Danny Bradbury has been a professional writer since 1989, and has worked freelance since 1994. He covers technology for publications such as the Guardian.

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