Discussion on USDT Tether Crypto Currency: Rumors and The Potential to Crash Bitcoin(BTC)

I just recently started using USDT (Tether) https://tether.to/ for trading, then an unsubstantiated rumor comes out last night with advise to dump Tether. see: https://cointelegraph.com/news/somethings-fishy-tether-auditor-dissolve-relationship-according-to-rumors

The article itself seams inflammatory discussing an unconfirmed alleged severed relationship between an auditor hired last fall and Tether. It seams every month there is someone pushing against Tether with no evidence that there is any problem. Is this just this months conjecture? The thing is that the relationship with the "auditor" was only a temporary one from the beginning, so if this relationship is severed it doesn't necessarily mean anything nefarious is going on. This rumor is being used to support the longer running rumor that Tether is underfunded and that if everyone tried to pull out at once all the markets would crash.

If the rumors are true and Tether is underfunded then Tether reminds me of the US dollar, a currency that is only backed by the confidence of it's users. If all the users think Tether is fine, then there's no massive cash out and trading continues unaffected. If confidence drops and the masses think Tether is underfunded and start dumping quick then it will effect the markets and the usable value of Tether.

If Tether is truly fully funded and can return to their creator's proposed open model of verification this would stop the speculation and slight dips we start seeing when rumors surface should stop. So then why haven't the Tether creators followed through with their disclosures and verification procedures? This alone is decreasing confidence and fueling the rumors.

One possibility is that the funds are not being held in their own bank but they have contracts in place to support the 2.2Bil currently on the market. This would make Tether fully funded, but potentially less securely. Still a mass panic could effect the perceived and usable value of Tether creating a trading opportunity to cash in on lower Tether values by buying Tether when it dips which people are doing right now. So it seams people are actively cashing in on the rumors and perhaps there is motivation to keep these rumors going.

I'd like to see Tether fully verifiable at all times like they suggested would be possible which would add great stablitiy to the market. Otherwise I'd like to see it replaced on the exchanges by some other USD equivalent currency like: UNUM https://unum.one/#!/learn

Additional References:
https://themerkle.com/top-3-stable-cryptocurrencies-based-on-usd-value/

I'm looking for additional opinions to help determine weather I should continue to use Tether for trading in larger numbers:
Do you utilize Tether?
How do you utilize Tether?
Do use Tether and mitigate your Risk?
Do you utilize a Tether alternative and how?
Do you think Tether is legit?
Do you think Tether will Crash?
Do you think Tether will Crash Bitcoin or the entire market?

P.S. This is my first post, constructive criticism would also be greatly appreciated.