Today, the market capitalization of Tether’s USDT stablecoin surpassed the $35 billion, further helping it cement its position as the world’s largest stablecoin.
Tether, which is closely affiliated with crypto exchange Bitfinex, works across a diversity of different blockchains, including Algorand, Bitcoin Cash’s SLP, Ethereum, EOS, Liquid Network, Omni and Tron.
Tether, which is also ranked the 5th biggest cryptocurrency by market cap, has been rising rapidly in the last two months amid growing institutional and corporate demand. Year-to-date, the token added $14 billion, which is greater than the combined market capitalization of all rival stablecoins.
For comparison, the market cap of this dollar-pegged coin stood at $20 billion as of January 1, then soared to $26 a month later. Tether has seen roughly half of its aggregate market cap achieved in the last three months.
🎉 Tether now has a $35B market cap!
🚀 #Tether added an additional $14B to its market cap since January 2021. This is more than all other stablecoins current market caps combined.
Stay up to date on our official Telegram channel ⬇️https://t.co/137b5oOauU pic.twitter.com/XGa2LPiRkt
— Tether (@Tether_to) February 25, 2021
February’s rally was also supported by the news that Bitfinex allegedly paid back another $550 million to Tether, now covering more than 100 percent of its $750 million loan facility they took out two years ago.
Bitfinex, who shares a parent company with Tether, has agreed yesterday to pay $18.5 million to settle New York’s attorney general’s allegations they lied about their reserves.
Demand for USDT in the e-commerce and payments space has been surging as the token allows relevant users to avoid volatility. Online retailers and payment gateways also benefited from faster, cheaper transactions as compared to credit cards and traditional payment systems.
This fantastic milestone was also driven by growing interest in decentralised finance (DeFi) and OTC desks that use the token to settle block trades over-the-counter.
Commenting on the news, Paolo Ardoino, CTO at Tether, said: “The market has once again spoken: people like using Tether. Our growth reflects the utility of Tether in the overall digital token ecosystem, with the market capitalization of bitcoin recently surpassing the US$1 trillion mark. The cryptocurrency space is disrupting the legacy financial system and Tether is playing an important role in this regard, powering myriad projects in the space. Together we are overcoming challenges once thought of as insurmountable as we build an alternative financial system.”
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