> The total addressable market — every emerging-market saver who would prefer dollars to their local currency, every cross-border worker sending remittances home, every small-business operator outside the conventional banking perimeter — is, by any honest estimate, several trillion.
Emergent market savers are already buying dollars. Nobody in Argentina saves money in pesos, for instance, so there is no much demand there left (and Argentina is the country that holds the largest amount of physical dollars after the US).
It is a fantasy to suggest that there is a magic, hidden demand of dollars that can be measured in trillions (coming from emergent countries, of all the places). At least, not one that would not be controlled by local authorities, just like they do today. Governments can control who tries to buy some random crypto with the local currency. Not when it's done in small amounts, but anything sizable will be noticed. The idea that crypto or stablecoins can somehow enable capital flight measured in trillions without governments being able to do anything does not make much sense.
I could imagine it being promoted as a tool to launder money in some way, though. Just buy this stablecoin via some tax haven, we will make it equivalent to holding US debt, and we won't ask where the money comes from. I would bet that's where the tether/usdt money comes from. Drugs, arms trafficking, perhaps that could provide some of the liquidity that the US Treasury needs.
JojoFatsani•44m ago
It's just a scam to allow sharps to pump-and-dump and exploit podcast listeners.
diegocg•59m ago
Emergent market savers are already buying dollars. Nobody in Argentina saves money in pesos, for instance, so there is no much demand there left (and Argentina is the country that holds the largest amount of physical dollars after the US).
It is a fantasy to suggest that there is a magic, hidden demand of dollars that can be measured in trillions (coming from emergent countries, of all the places). At least, not one that would not be controlled by local authorities, just like they do today. Governments can control who tries to buy some random crypto with the local currency. Not when it's done in small amounts, but anything sizable will be noticed. The idea that crypto or stablecoins can somehow enable capital flight measured in trillions without governments being able to do anything does not make much sense.
I could imagine it being promoted as a tool to launder money in some way, though. Just buy this stablecoin via some tax haven, we will make it equivalent to holding US debt, and we won't ask where the money comes from. I would bet that's where the tether/usdt money comes from. Drugs, arms trafficking, perhaps that could provide some of the liquidity that the US Treasury needs.