Amid FTX Rumors Tether's USDT Peg Of $1 Wobbles

The crypto market is still seems to be in the grasps of FTX and Alameda. Currently, rumors are circulating that Tether’s stablecoin USDT might be more affected by the downfall of FTX than it would like to admit.

Moreover, there currently seems to be an attack on USDT as a result of which Tether (USDT) briefly lost its usual peg to $1. The largest stablecoin by market cap was trading at $0.9915 temporarily, down 0.68%.

Sam Bankman-Fried company Alameda, which borrowed $250,000 USDT from Aave and exchanged it on Curve this morning, may be behind the attack. The address is clearly attributable to Alameda.

Speculation on Twitter has it that Alameda is trying to initiate a USDT depeg with his on-chain visible transaction to trigger fear. He could sell USDT short, though it is not clear at this time what the company’s total trading position is.

Some voices in the crypto community suspect that the strategy is multi-layered and a huge attempt to get everything back in a single trading attempt. Anonymous trader “Hsaka” provided the following thesis on Twitter:

the 250k usdt short is not the most important move imo, more about the second order effect re usdt perps and related positioning around that

especially assuming it is the ~$300m ftx withdrawal entity that still holds $100m+ usdt. I still don’t know anything about CEX activity.

alameda trying to initiate a usdt depeg with a smol 250k onchain visible tx that will generate fear

usdt pairs start rising
solusdt perps that had been giga shorted squeeze
alameda owns a lot of sol
sell post squeeze, usdt recovers, profit?

ALL SPECULATION. I AM A CLUELESS WOLF https://t.co/tNoocbUnzO

— Hsaka (@HsakaTrades) November 10, 2022

FUD Is Nothing New For Tether

At the same time, voices are increasing that the aggressor specifically wants to spread FUD in order to trigger a similar run on Tether (USDT) as on FTX and its FTT tokens. However, a short-term decoupling from the dollar peg is nothing new for Tether and has been almost always a reason for spreading rumors.

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino was quick to dismiss any rumors. Already yesterday, Tether released a statement in which it assured that it had no exposure to FTX.