Main stablecoin issuer Tether’s USDT not too long ago achieved a big milestone by reaching an all-time excessive market capitalization of $100 billion.
This improvement marks a 9% progress because the starting of the yr, considerably widening its lead over its closest competitor, USD Coin (USDC), issued by Circle. As of March 4, Tether’s market capitalization momentarily hit the $100 billion mark, per data from CoinGecko.
Comparatively, Tether’s market capitalization is greater than $71 billion forward of USDC, establishing its dominance within the stablecoin sector. This locations Tether in an analogous market cap vary as main companies such because the British oil and gasoline firm BP and the e-commerce platform Shopify.
Tether operates on 14 totally different blockchains and protocols and is the third-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, trailing solely behind Ether. It has develop into a pivotal option for traders in search of a steady asset amidst the risky crypto market. Tether’s issuer claims every USDT token is backed 1:1 with reserves, predominantly consisting of yield-bearing U.S. Treasury Payments (T-Payments). Within the final quarter of 2023, Tether reported a record quarterly profit of $2.85 billion, with $1 billion derived from its T-Payments investments.
The whole stablecoin sector has skilled important progress, with a $3.26 billion enhance in market cap over the previous eight days of the report, bringing its whole to $144.08 billion. This progress displays a 2.31% enhance, with Tether, USDC, DAI, and FDUSD among the many stablecoins seeing notable expansions in provide.
The broader cryptocurrency market has additionally proven signs of recovery, with the full market cap exceeding $2 trillion within the final month. This resurgence is additional highlighted by Bitcoin’s 50% surge in worth, reaching two-year highs.
Amid these developments, a lawsuit has emerged involving the cryptocurrency buying and selling platform FTX and its alleged misuse of Tether (USDT) in a profit-making scheme. The lawsuit, filed in a Florida court docket, implicates FTX and its sister agency, Alameda Analysis, in creating and promoting USDT for revenue by means of an unofficial credit score line with Deltec Financial institution & Belief Ltd. with out initially funding the purchases.
The criticism additionally accuses Deltec of facilitating the misappropriation of buyer funds by FTX and Alameda Analysis. Regardless of these allegations, Tether has not been named as a defendant within the lawsuit. Legal professionals for the victims have offered in depth proof, together with hundreds of pages of communications, to assist their case towards FTX and its associates.