Assets · 57 / 127 · 2 min

An attestation

A letter about reserves is a letter. It is not the coins, and it is not a promise about tomorrow.

Attestation

A worked case

An issuer publishes a reserve letter and customers treat it as permission to ignore the terms. The letter does not mention a loan against the same assets. The loan is the part that mattered. The letter was silent because it was not asked.

The page

An issuer publishes a report that assets exist on a date. Read who wrote it, what they were allowed to see, and what they were not asked about.

The gap

A report can skip debts, related parties, and the day after it was signed. Customers who treat the PDF as cash are reading a snapshot as a guarantee.

Tether's letter was a genre

Tether's reserve claims have been the subject of years of argument, a New York Attorney General settlement, and a CFTC order. The point for a reader is narrower than the courtroom. A report that assets exist is a document with a date, an author, and a scope. It is not the same object as a dollar in your hand, and it is not a description of every debt.

Read the scope before the adjective. Fully backed, inside a paragraph that excludes half the question, is the paragraph.

Read it yourself

• Tether

These links are the record. They are not a recommendation, and they are not instructions. A news story or a court paper can still be wrong about a detail. The check does not change because a famous name is in the story.

Apply the check

Open a question. The line is about this topic. It is not a verdict that anything is safe.

Check yourself

Write it in your own words. The course's answer opens after that. Nothing is sent.