Tether(USDT)

Launched in 2014, Tether (USDT) is a type of stablecoin whose price is pegged to U.S. Dollar, and is issued by a Hong Kong-based company of the same name. Summed up, it is a blockchain-based platform that aims to "modernize" money (fiat currencies) by issuing digital equivalents. 

Background and Development

Tether was originally launched as "Realcoin" in 2014 and later renamed Tether (USDT). It was first listed on the Bitfinex cryptocurrency exchange, which shares key executives with Tether. While the term Tether actually encompasses multiple tokens - USD (USDT), EUR (EURT), offshore Chinese Yuan (CNHT) and gold (XAUT) - it is commonly used to refer to USDT in particular. 

Tether’s core purpose is to help customers easily transact using conventional fiat currencies across the blockchain, without having to face the complexity and volatility normally associated with crypto assets. 

Being the first blockchain-powered platform to seamlessly facilitate digital usage of conventional fiat currencies, Tether has in a way effectively tapped into the blockchain tech for the democratization of cross-border transactions.

Tether is presently the largest stablecoin by market cap, and is regularly used by people as an inflation hedge. USDT tokens are minted on multiple leading blockchains, including Algorand, Avalanche, Bitcoin, Ethereum, EOS, Kava, Polkadot, Polygon, Solana, TRON, and Tezos.

Founding Team and Key Contributors

The founding team of Tether included Brock Pierce, Craig Sellars, and Reeve Collins. Over the years, the leadership has seen changes, with notable figures like Paolo Ardoino playing significant roles. As of October 2023, Ardoino, the chief technology officer for Tether, was promoted to CEO.

Historical Price Analysis

Despite being designed to maintain the $1 peg at all times, USDT price has witnessed fluctuations in the past. USDT price reached its all-time low of $0.57 in March 2015, and an all-time high of $1.32 on July 24, 2018. Such price swings normally occur whenever there are sudden changes in the demand for USDT. For example, whenever the broader crypto market is experiencing a bull run, market participants favor volatile crypto assets, whereas in bearish phases they turn to the safety of stablecoins.

Other fundamental factors like regulatory changes and lawsuits have also negatively impacted the value of USDT coins in the past. Nonetheless, barring a few exceptions of occasional lows and highs, USDT price has generally always stayed in the vicinity of $1. According to our USDT live price chart, there are minor $0.001 - $0.002 deviations sometimes, but they’re too short-lived to have any long-lasting impact on the Tether market. With the increasing adoption across multiple blockchain ecosystems, USDT coin’s market cap has also grown significantly over the past few years. From under $5 billion in January 2020, it crossed $80 billion in Q1, 2022.

In 2023, Tether (USDT) experienced a few instances of depegging from its usual 1:1 parity with the US dollar, indicating periods of instability. Notably, on June 15, 2023, USDT faced a depeg due to a liquidity imbalance in the Curve pool, causing its rate to drop to $0.996. 

In December 2023, Tether announced a wallet-freezing policy in collaboration with law enforcement agencies, leading to a temporary depegging of USDT on major exchanges such as Binance, Coinbase, and Kraken. Prices dipped as low as $0.985 following the announcement.

How USDT works

As mentioned earlier, Tether tokens are created on several blockchains that have their respective native protocols/layers which allow for easy issuance and redemption of the USDT coins. Tether claims that each USDT coin is 100% backed by their reserves, which include conventional fiat currency (US Dollar), its cash equivalents, other assets and receivables from loans extended by Tether to third parties.

As USDT coins are minted on different networks, users must carefully check the destination address and make sure that they’re interacting with the correct blockchain before processing any USDT transfers. For instance, USDT minted on Ethereum are based on the ERC-20 token standard, while the ones minted on Tron are created with the TRC-20 token standard.

Tether guarantees that the USDT value always remains pegged to the USD. The company claims that whenever new USDT tokens are issued, assets worth their equivalent are deposited into Tether’s reserves. USDT has no specific maximum supply. As USDT coins are issued by a private company, their issuance is theoretically determined by Tether’s policies. Since every USDT is claimed to be backed by a dollar worth of reserve, the total circulating supply is limited based on the actual cash/asset reserves held by the company.

New tokens are created only upon request and purchase by customers who have completed a strict Know Your Customer (KYC) procedure.

USDT coins are often burnt too, in order to reduce the existing number of outstanding tokens on a specific blockchain. Such outstanding USDT coins arise whenever customers redeem their tokens for fiat USD. They can even be held temporarily by Tether’s treasury, removed from circulating supply, and re-issued later in response to fresh market demand.

USDT News, Ecosystem, and Highlights

Controversies and Legal Scrutiny

Tether has been at the center of various controversies, particularly concerning its reserves. Initially, USDT was supposed to be backed exclusively by USD deposits, but later disclosures revealed the inclusion of other assets. This led to regulatory scrutiny and legal challenges, including a significant case with the New York Attorney General and fines from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

In major news for the USDT coin, New York Attorney General Letita James filed a lawsuit against Bitfinex and Tether, in April 2019, accusing them of unlawfully using Tether’s reserves, to cover the former’s losses to the tune of $850 million. The case went on for almost two years, before a settlement was reached in February 2021, penalizing the two companies with a fine of $18.5 million.

Frequently Asked Questions about USDT

1. Is it possible to mine or stake USDT?

While you cannot mine USDT, it is possible to stake or lend your USDT coins through various DeFi products and crypto platforms.

2. What are some of the best USDT wallets?

As USDT is issued on multiple blockchains, your choice of Tether wallet will depend greatly on the blockchain your USDT coins were minted on. Some of the most popular USDT wallets include Trezor, Exodus, Ledger and Atomic.

3. What can I do with  USDT coins?

You can use your USDT coins to buy or trade various crypto assets like BTC, ETH, XRP, ADA, SOL and more, on exchange platforms. Being the digital equivalent of the US Dollar, USDT is also actively used to pay for goods and services across the world. Besides these, many people use USDT as a value store to hedge against inflation.

4. What’s the best way to buy USDT?

You can easily buy USDT on most cryptocurrency exchanges, including Binance, OKX and others by exchanging your digital assets for USDT.