Bitfinex is Constantly Printing More Tether, None Of It Has Ever Been Burned

A report indicates that no Ethereum-based Tethers have ever been burned, though new ones are constantly being printed.

Listen to article A report from Flipside Crypto indicates that no Ethereum-based Tether tokens have ever been burned.

The report has also come to a conclusion that the stablecoin is mostly used by arbitrageurs on centralized exchanges.

"It's pretty clear that most of Tether is used on centralized exchanges, namely Huobi, Binance and Bitfinex. The constant movement back and forth between users and these exchanges reflects the fact that Tether is mostly used for arbitrage. Users can easily make a profit by buying from one exchange and selling on another for a higher price."

Another interesting observation is that these arbitrageurs do not send their tokens directly from an exchange to an exchange, but first withdraw them to their wallets.

In other words, this way the users can opt to pay higher Gas fees in order to expedite the transfer.

Despite Tether's recent rise to becoming the third biggest cryptocurrency by market cap, it remains a controversial project, with numerous questions about its reserve policies.

When it comes to the question of why none of its Ethereum-based tokens have ever been burned, there could be a simple explanation.

Perhaps the company finds it more efficient to just move the tokens in and out of the treasury instead of burning and reissuing new tokens.

Cointelegraph has reached out to Tether for comment, but has not received a response in time for publication.