I have struggled for years to parse Tether’s behavior. It is very difficult to determine which of their inexplicable actions are motivated by incompetence, by negligence, by desperation, or by malice. Were they unbacked because they were taking advantage of their users, because they thought they had no better option, or because they didn’t realize that their disclosure was inadequate? More recent reporting has started to bring it into focus for me, but this post is going to be much more speculative than is my usual ilk. Take statements of fact as that, but when I speculate on the intent of Tether or its executives be sure to keep the appropriate amount of salt handy.