Brock Pierce, 41, is the former child actor who starred in the Mighty Ducks movies before he reinvented himself as a cryptocurrency cult leader. In 2014, he invented the very controversial Tether coin, which experts fear could collapse the digital currency system, he says he has not been affiliated with the company since 2015
It’s been described by experts as the great ‘crypto winter.’ In a matter of six months during the early half of 2022, carnage thrashed through the crypto market, wiping out $2 trillion in value, plunging retail investors into financial ruin, causiung companies to lay-off thousands of employees, and bankrupting some of the industry’s biggest heavyweights.
Amid mounting fear over the future of digital currency, scrutiny is being placed on a new weak point in the cryptosphere: Tether.
Even in crypto’s freakish world of joke coins, overnight billionaires and scam artists, Tether has a curious origin.
It’s not the scheme of a savvy financial expert but rather the brainchild of an eccentric Disney child actor turned Bitcoin billionaire who loves EDM music and Pokemon, snorts Peruvian psychadelics — and — as one person described, ‘looks like Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean and speaks in riddles, like Johnny Depp in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.’
His name is Brock Pierce. By the time he was in his 20s, the former kid star, now 41, had reinvented himself multiple times over and emerged as a crypto cult leader in the gonzo world of digital currency.
In the process, he’s played footsie with a wide range of unsavory characters, convicted felons, and D-list celebrities including Jeffrey Epstein, Steve Bannon, the rapper Akon, as well as the current Mayor of New York, Eric Adams (who controversially flew on Pierce’s private jet at the beginning of his term).
He launched ‘Tether’ in 2014 — a digital money intended to mock the US dollar, and provide quick transaction times and easability on crypto exchanges.
However, the coin is now facing intense scrutiny after a recent death spiral in Bitcoin that experts fear could spill into non-crypto markets.
Tether is a very specific type of cryptocurrency known as a ‘stablecoin.’ Unlike other volatile cryptocurrencies that fluctuate in value (like Bitcoin and Ethereum), stablecoins are designed to maintain the constant price of $1.
In theory, Tether Limited Inc is supposed to hold onto the dollars so that customers can easily trade in their digital tokens back for greenbacks.
But what happens if they are not backed by cash reserves? The company has been historically cagey when it comes to revealing their financial statements.
A recent report shows that only $4.1billion is on hand in ‘cash and cash deposits’ out of $66billion Tether coins currently in circulation. The other remaining $61.9 billion is tied up in various financial instruments, some more volatile than others.
Critics say a doomsday scenario could spark a bank run if there’s a sudden stampede among traders to exchange all their Tethers for dollars, only to discover that Tether would be unable to fulfill those orders. .
Today Tether is run by two elusive executives with dubious pasts. One is an Italian former plastic surgeon who was once sued by Microsoft for selling counterfeit software. The other is a Hong Kong based …….