I think it will work out. Tether's importance is beginning to fall, and we may get through the point where Tether can have a crisis without totally bringing everything down.

But more importantly, this sort of untrustworthy fractional reserve situation is precisely what Bitcoin was created to solve. Remember that a bitcoin is a bitcoin no matter what dodgy crap goes on with Tether or the exchanges. Bitcoin is your shelter in the storm.

If you have got your keys and you aren't doing anything weird with defi, you are SAFE. It's like having gold buried in the back yard. The financial winds can howl, bankers can dive out of their windows and entire countries can go bankrupt and suffer revolution, but your bitcoin will be NOT be the money that gets lost, confiscated, frozen, or seized. You will not suffer a haircut or watch helplessly as super special senior bondholders get paid before you do. You won't be swallowing dust in decades long lawsuits trying to recover your money or begging authority--ANY authority to help you get some tiny fraction of your wealth back.

You'll still have your money. The exchanges may go down with great wailing and gnashing of teeth and the world economy may slide into the abyss, but in the end the world governments will return to doing what they do best--printing money as fast as their computers can make zeroes. They'll never stop printing money and that will always be good for bitcoin.

A tether crisis may even make the value of Bitcoin go UP as people realize that it is one of the only true safe havens. I am not sure how much that protection extends to the other crypto currencies--my bet is only on Bitcoin. And gold, of course.

Never forget: Not your keys, not your coins!