Tether, the world’s biggest stablecoin, has had its supremacy challenged for a brief period of time after holding its token creation on pause. Following numerous reports indicating the stablecoin issuer’s operational difficulties, Tether has eventually released 1 billion USDT on the Tron Network. This implies that the Tron Network holds the most USDT, accounting for 53.5% of the total 62.8 billion in existence.
Until now, 32 billion USDT have been released on the Tron Network. This is trailed by Ethereum, which has 30.9 billion USDT in the form of an ERC-20 token, accounting for 49% of the entire supply. The rest issued tokens are shared among the EOS, Algorand, Liquid, SLP, and Solana networks. Tether CTO Paolo Ardoino validated the release as legal, saying, “1B USDT inventory refilled on TRON Network. It is important to remember that this is an approved but uncirculated transaction, which means that this quantity will be utilized as stockpile for next period release demands and chain swaps.”
Tether has been under danger for a brief period of time related to legal scrutiny, outstanding service by rivals, and issues in its largest geographic region. China’s latest cryptocurrency clampdown had a major impact on USDT’s growth, with 1000 individuals jailed on money laundering accusations.
Rachel Lin, former Vice President and Founding Partner of Matrixport, a Singapore-based investment company, highlighted why the demand is lower for Tether. “Tether’s market in Asia is mostly through OTC merchants, and with less cash going into the market, there is less demand for tether.”
While USDT demand is plummeting, the Circle-backed stablecoin USDC is quickly developing as a substitute, with significant growth in Asia and across the world. According to Ryan Watkins, a market analyst at Messari, USDC is being utilized for on-chain and settlement use cases, which have experienced significant development.
This is in contrast to USDT, which is often used for inter-exchange clearance and credit for derivatives, both of which are less popular in the present market scenario. It is worth noting that, despite Tether’s 200% increase in liquidity in 2021 from 20.9 billion USDT, it has been surpassed by its top three competitors.
This year, the circulating supply of USDC increased by more than 600%, rising from 3.9 billion on January 1st to 27.6 billion, a historical high. Remarkably, the supply of BUSD increased by 1130%, to 12.3 billion tokens, from less than one billion token.
DAI, a decentralized stablecoin – the fourth-largest – increased its supply by 380% to 5.50 billion tokens, from 1.1 billion on the first day of this year. Tether’s market share decline has also been related to Ethereum’s high gas cost and concern over its court case.
Stuart Hoegner, the business’s general counsel, recently confirmed the likelihood of an investigation in the next few months. Though its holdings are claimed to be mostly guaranteed by the US dollar, they also contain bonds, secured loans, cash equivalents, crypto assets, and other investments.
