<story><title>US Fed Official Calls Tether a ‘Challenge’ to Financial Stability</title><url>https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/us-fed-official-calls-tether-a-challenge-to-financial-stability-2021-06-25</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>onethought</author><text>How can you be “long BTC” - it’s a currency not a stock. You might say “I’m long USD” but then you are really saying you believe the US economy will grow, and the value of its currency will strengthen.&lt;p&gt;Given Bitcoin isn’t attached to anything… what does long mean?</text></item><item><author>oarsinsync</author><text>I remember a lot of people (including myself) saying the same thing a few years ago, and selling a bunch of BTC at ~$8000.&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;The market can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s a good thing I was simply closing positions instead of taking a short position, cuz boy oh boy was I wrong.&lt;p&gt;That was before institutional money started going into BTC. Will be interesting to see if the &amp;#x27;little guy&amp;#x27; individual investor will be enabled to take large amounts of early stage profits and saddling the &amp;#x27;big guy&amp;#x27; institutional investor (which is in a lot of cases, essentially just lots of &amp;#x27;little guys&amp;#x27; money pooled together while the managers skim the profits off the top) with the late stage losses.&lt;p&gt;(I am long BTC)</text></item><item><author>garyclarke27</author><text>Tether is bound to collapse soon and will likely take the whole crypto market with it.
There is no doubt in my mind that Tether is as scam, they blatantly lied that they had USD cash backing of 100% of Tethers, their recent amateurish pie chart reveal of assets was a farce, no doubt these bond assets were created out of thin air, just like the Billions of Tethers they regularly print whenever they feel like it.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Lazare</author><text>&amp;gt; How can you be “long BTC”&lt;p&gt;By owning BTC, or equivalent economic exposure to owning BTC, ie, you will profit if BTC becomes relatively more valuable, and lose if it becomes relatively less valuable.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt;  it’s a currency not a stock. You might say “I’m long USD”&lt;p&gt;People take long position in currencies &lt;i&gt;all the time&lt;/i&gt;. That is just a perfectly normal thing that people do, all the time. I have no idea why you think a currency is somehow different than any other financial asset here; it is not (except, perhaps in some cases, taxes).&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; but then you are really saying you believe the US economy will grow, and the value of its currency will strengthen.&lt;p&gt;No. That&amp;#x27;s not how exchange rates work. The US economy is growing all the time (...well, outside of recessions), but so is everyone&amp;#x27;s else. A thousand factors go into determining relative strength.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Given Bitcoin isn’t attached to anything… what does long mean?&lt;p&gt;It means you have a positive exposure to an increase in it&amp;#x27;s price, probably by owning some, or something that closely approximates that. Same as being long anything else. Why would it be different? What did &lt;i&gt;you&lt;/i&gt; think being long meant?</text></comment>
<story><title>US Fed Official Calls Tether a ‘Challenge’ to Financial Stability</title><url>https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/us-fed-official-calls-tether-a-challenge-to-financial-stability-2021-06-25</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>onethought</author><text>How can you be “long BTC” - it’s a currency not a stock. You might say “I’m long USD” but then you are really saying you believe the US economy will grow, and the value of its currency will strengthen.&lt;p&gt;Given Bitcoin isn’t attached to anything… what does long mean?</text></item><item><author>oarsinsync</author><text>I remember a lot of people (including myself) saying the same thing a few years ago, and selling a bunch of BTC at ~$8000.&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;The market can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s a good thing I was simply closing positions instead of taking a short position, cuz boy oh boy was I wrong.&lt;p&gt;That was before institutional money started going into BTC. Will be interesting to see if the &amp;#x27;little guy&amp;#x27; individual investor will be enabled to take large amounts of early stage profits and saddling the &amp;#x27;big guy&amp;#x27; institutional investor (which is in a lot of cases, essentially just lots of &amp;#x27;little guys&amp;#x27; money pooled together while the managers skim the profits off the top) with the late stage losses.&lt;p&gt;(I am long BTC)</text></item><item><author>garyclarke27</author><text>Tether is bound to collapse soon and will likely take the whole crypto market with it.
There is no doubt in my mind that Tether is as scam, they blatantly lied that they had USD cash backing of 100% of Tethers, their recent amateurish pie chart reveal of assets was a farce, no doubt these bond assets were created out of thin air, just like the Billions of Tethers they regularly print whenever they feel like it.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>foota</author><text>The US dollar isn&amp;#x27;t really tied to the strength of the economy either, it&amp;#x27;s about the supply and demand for dollars on the international market. Generally, dollars are in high demand as a result of their status as a worldwide reserve currency,  but otherwise the strength of the dollar should be tied to the trade deficit.  Having a trade deficit, all else the same,  exhibits downward pressure on the dollar because people buying foreign things in dollars give their money to people that need to then trade those dollars back to someone for their own currency.</text></comment>