During the current market downturn, Tether (USDT), the largest stablecoin and third-largest digital currency by market capitalization continue to lose value dipping below $70B in the last 8 months.
USDT’s market cap fell below $70 billion for the first time since October 2021 on June 16. The slump came following a string of losses that began immediately after the USDT market value surpassed $80 billion for the first time in May.
According to CoinGecko data, Tether USDT’s market value is currently at $69.3 billion, up roughly $300 million from its multi-month low.
USDC, Tether’s main competitor, is the second-largest dollar-pegged stablecoin, supported by Circle, a peer-to-peer payments technology business. The stablecoin’s market valuation surpassed $50 billion in February, but it has never surpassed Tether’s.
While Tether has been losing market share in recent weeks, alternative stablecoins, such as the USD Coin (USDC), have been increasing in value. As a result, the market capitalization of USDC increased from around $48 billion in mid-May to $55 billion in mid-June.
Tether’s market value is declining amid continued market fear and uncertainty, with total cryptocurrency market capitalization falling below $1 trillion for the first time since February 2021.
The Tether corporation has been regularly issuing announcements to reassure investors that it is unaffected by the recent crypto loan problem. Tether announced on June 13 that concerns with the crypto lending platform Celsius had nothing to do with the company and will have no effect on USDT reserves.
Tether then declared on June 15 that the USDT stablecoin would no longer be backed by commercial paper.
