During the UST implosion, stablecoin USDT also came under "coordinated" pressure from short sellers

Strong short sales of USDT were recorded

He confirmed Tether's technical director Paolo Ardoino said that the main goal was trading a pair of perpetual USDT / USD futures.

Ardoino himself supports the hypothesis that circulated from the outset that what triggered Tether's short-term loss of dollar parity was a coordinated attack, which some hedge funds tried to cause further panic in the crypto markets after the collapse of the Moon, through a new wave of FUD. 

This new wave was directed against the USDT. Taking the UST / USD and USDT / USD trading pairs as a reference, it is clear that the real UST implosion began on May 9 and ended on May 13, when the bond with the dollar was irreversibly broken.

In contrast, USDT fixation problems began on May 11, reaching the most acute phase on May 12, but by 13 May had been completely resolved.

Ardoino says the hedge funds that attacked the USDT trusted and supported all the different possibilities of spreading FUD on Tether in recent years, namely the assumption that 100% was not secured, had exposure to Evergrande and Chinese CP, and issued tokens out of nothing or provided loans. without security. He also claims that these stories were created by some competitors, who disseminated them through coordinated networks of trolls.

CTO comments on USDT solidity

Until proven otherwise, the USDT is 100 % covered in US dollars or equivalent, and all redemptions are repaid at the same level as the dollar.

Ardoino stated:

"In 48 hours, Tether processed 7 billion repurchases, an average of 10 % of our total assets, which is almost impossible for banking institutions.

In more than a month, Tether has processed 16 billion repurchases (~ 19 % of our total reserves), again proving that our operations, portfolio, banking infrastructure and team are solid and tested under pressure. ”

He also points out that while the FUD has focused on Tether, over the last 2 months it has been found that:

"Many lenders and hedge funds considered promising and elevated projects in our sector have, in fact, taken a risk that Tether has never come close to."

The reference is, of course, to Celsius, 3AC and other similar operators, who were considered solid and found to be so weak that they failed in the market. Tether thus survived an attack that was able to shut down the UST and other entities collapsed simply due to difficult market conditions.