I don't disagree that Tether is likely a big fraud, but my point is that even the regulated financial system is full of questionable accounting and long-running, undiscovered fraud. Remember Bernie Madoff? His fraud lasted 17 years before falling apart.
It would be nice if Tether eventually falls apart too, but the world will never run out of fraudsters and hucksters.
Bernie Madoff's fraud was big and awful, but, if the allegations about Tether are true, then (edit: for the purposes of this particular discussion) comparing the two is a category error. Madoff's fraud never raised any questions about whether the exchange rate between USD and some other currency was legitimate.
The innovation of Bitcoin is that it is a decentralized Ponzi scheme.
Bernie Madoff's scheme fell apart because it was centralized, and so, once you arrested Madoff, it was over. The end.
There's no one at the center of Bitcoin. There are big players, sure, but they are all replaceable. It's happened before and it will happen again. And each time one exchange or big player is arrested, shut down, or slinks away having stolen enough money to sate themselves, someone new can seamlessly slip in and start hyping Bitcoin and taking a percentage from the new rubes without missing a beat.
I honestly don't think it will ever go away, completely, for good, no matter how often it booms and busts. When I'm in a nursing home I'm going to be getting calls from boiler rooms trying to convince me to move my retirement savings into Bitcoin, I'm convinced.
It would be nice if Tether eventually falls apart too, but the world will never run out of fraudsters and hucksters.