Tether CTO’s $1B USDT Mint Sparks Controversy Among Ethereum Users

Key Points:

• Tether mints $1B in stablecoin on Ethereum network for chain swaps and inventory replenish, according to CTO Paolo Ardoino.
• Tether periodically works with various crypto platforms to rebalance USDT liquidity across blockchains.
• Tether has minted over $16B new USDT in 2023, with current market cap at more than $83B, dominating the stablecoin market as other issuers struggle due to regulatory and banking crises in the US.

On June 12, Tether announced the minting of a new batch of $1 billion worth of Tether stablecoin on the Ethereum blockchain.

This is the latest billion-dollar mint for the stablecoin issuer, coming only two months after its last mint on April 21. According to Tether’s Chief Technology Officer Paolo Ardoino, the latest USDT mint is part of what the company calls an “inventory replenish” on the Ethereum network. However, this latest issuance is not expected to impact the overall market cap of USDT since it is an “authorized but not issued transaction.”

What happens to the latest minted amount then? According to Ardoino, the amount will be used as inventory for the next period of issuance requests and chain swaps. Chain swapping is a process that traders use to transfer digital assets from one blockchain to another. This procedure allows traders to access other supporting blockchains for the cryptocurrency they hold, enabling them to utilize their digital assets on multiple blockchains.

Tether periodically works with different crypto platforms to help them rebalance the USDT liquidity across various blockchains. For instance, if a crypto exchange has a surplus of USDT liquidity on the Ethereum blockchain and a deficit on the Tron blockchain, where it needs to process withdrawals, the exchange will chain-swap its Ethereum-based USDT to the Tron blockchain. This helps to ensure that the USDT liquidity is balanced across different platforms.

Since the beginning of 2023, Tether has minted over $16 billion of new USDT, bringing its current market capitalization to more than $83 billion. As other stablecoin issuers struggled due to regulatory and banking crises in the United States, USDT’s market dominance touched new highs in 2023.

The Circle-issued USD Coin, the second-largest stablecoin by market cap, was on the verge of overtaking USDT as the largest stablecoin in 2022. However, the prolonged crypto winter and banking contagion in the United States significantly affected USDC’s market confidence in 2023. Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire blamed the crypto crackdown by the US regulators for the stablecoin’s declining market capitalization. Despite this, Tether remains the largest stablecoin in the market, and its influence is expected to continue growing in the coming years.

DISCLAIMER: The Information on this website is provided as general market commentary and does not constitute investment advice. We encourage you to do your own research before investing.

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