There are almost 70 Billion tethers in existence, so their balance sheet should be similar in size. They practically operate as an unlicensed bank, I think that is the government's issue with them, not the crypto usage.
They do, and they are always "fully transparent" about it. I guess it's just a simple oversight that their assets aren't broken down too much. https://wallet.tether.to/transparency
Now that they said they are fully transparent, all is good. they forgot to mention they were a bit less transparent when they lied for years that 1USDT = 1 USD.
I imagine that we need a general equity market crash of some sort where people run for the hills, trying to get their money out, and then we will see what happens to USDT. If March of 2020 didn't do it though, I don't know what will. Honestly though, I would love a crash so that some of these coins can come down to earth and I could load up for cheap. Its sad to see so much good stuff that I've learned about now having gone up 10x just since January. For some reason, this is when the market really took off.
There is a reason for this 10x. Most tethers were printed during that period. Billions upon billions of fake money that control 70% of daily crypto volume. Printing press went into overtime after March 2020 at both Fed and Tethers. Fed at least is back by the whole might of USA. Tethers are just few guys who made this ponzi.
Could very well be possible. There are lots of other stablecoins though, although none as big as Tether. Have you also seen how much money you can make just by lending out USDT? Saw a bunch of videos on this. Right now you can get 40%, but it was as high as 50% just yesterday. Its apparently tied to the rising market and the rates are higher when its going up. This is at the Kucoin exchange. They even have insurance for what happens if there is a default. But of course in the case of a severe crash, I doubt the insurance will cover enough people. For other stablecoins, you can get 20% at other places, and these are apparently not as shady as USDT.