More Hedge Funds Are Betting Against Tether as Crypto Melts Down

Short sellers have been ramping up their bets against tether, the world's largest stablecoin, amid a broad market selloff that has called into doubt the financial health of some crypto companies. From a report: In the past month, more traditional hedge funds have executed trades to short tether through Genesis Global Trading, one of the largest crypto brokerages for professional investors. These trades are worth "hundreds of millions" of dollars in notional value, said Leon Marshall, Genesis's head of institutional sales. He declined to be more specific. "There has been a real spike in the interest from traditional hedge funds who are taking a look at tether and looking to short it," Mr. Marshall said in an interview. Tether is a stablecoin, which are virtual currencies that are supposed to be pegged to the dollar or other national currencies, and it is the most widely traded in the world. Tether's market cap stood at about $67 billion on Friday, according to CoinMarketCap data. Genesis, which doesn't take a view on tether, said the short trades are almost exclusively put on by traditional hedge funds in the U.S. and Europe, while crypto firms -- especially those based in Asia -- have been happy to facilitate the other side of the transactions.

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