Earlier quoted context omitted.
Real banks practice fractional-reserve banking, where they are required to hold a percentage of assets as cash or central bank deposits. It's well-regulated and diversified. It's audited. Individual account holders' deposits are insured (FDIC in the US). This is all well-known and understood and reliable. Runs can still happen, shady accounting practices can still happen, and sometimes banks fail. Sometimes they fail…
> They claim that 100% of the assets are backed by US dollar cash deposits. Still? (ie link?) All I see is: “All Tether tokens are pegged at 1-to-1 with a matching fiat currency and are backed 100% by Tether's reserves.” (link here: https://tether.to/en/transparency/ )
For further reading, see the CFTC settlement