Tether’s stablecoin, USDT, has surpassed $100 billion in market capitalization. This milestone further widens the disparity between Tether USDT and USD Coin, its nearest competitor.
CoinGecko data indicates that USDT’s market capitalization fluctuates based on the current price and supply in circulation; on March 4, the cryptocurrency briefly surpassed $100 billion.
Compared to its nearest stablecoin competitor, USDC, issued by Circle, which has also experienced a market capitalization increase this year, it is $71 billion more valuable.
Conversely, Tether has not surpassed the $100 billion mark according to alternative data sources, including CoinMarketCap.
Tether’s market capitalization is comparable to the e-commerce behemoth Shopify and slightly more significant than that of the British energy and gas giant BP.
According to its website, Tether is a cryptocurrency pegged to the value of the U.S. dollar and accessible via fourteen blockchains and protocols.
With a market capitalization that ranks it third only to Ether, this cryptocurrency has emerged as a significant alternative for crypto speculators seeking a stable asset on the blockchain.
Bitcoin has experienced a price increase of 50% and reached two-year highs in value as the cryptocurrency market has returned to a market capitalization of over $2 trillion over the past month.
Tether, the token’s issuing company, asserts that it has independently audited reserves equivalent to one-to-one USDT tokens. These reserves are predominantly yield-bearing U.S. Treasury Bills (T-Bills), short-term loans provided to the U.S. government.
The corporation achieved an unprecedented quarterly profit of $2.85 billion in the fourth quarter of 2023, with $1 billion originating from T-Bills. It disclosed T-Bills holdings of over $80 billion in its fourth-quarter report and previously claimed to be one of the leading purchasers of U.S. government debt worldwide.
Tether has implemented measures to mitigate its exposure to certain assets considered higher risk, as the quality of the assets supporting USDT has been a subject of apprehension within the cryptocurrency industry.
Tether committed at the end of 2022 to cease the provision of funds from its reserves for lending purposes.
Tether’s loan portfolio stood at $4.8 billion as of the conclusion of 2023, representing a decrease of approximately $1 billion compared to the initial balance of the year. Those aspirations failed to materialize. It has pledged to reduce the loans to zero by 2024 and asserts they are entirely collateralized.
In January, the United Nations reported that the Tron blockchain, which presently stores more than half of the USDT in circulation, had “become a preferred choice” among cyber fraudsters and money launderers based in Southeast Asia.
In response to the report, Tether asserts that the United Nations neglected to mention the company’s collaboration with law enforcement and the traceability of the token.
