A lot can be said for stablecoins at the moment, as despite market cap losses, they are still growing. This is demonstrated in particular by Tether (USDT), which has surpassed the $60 billion market capitalization mark. As well as USD Coin (USDC), which sits in the top 10 most valuable cryptocurrencies by market cap in tenth place.
Representatives at Tether confirmed on its official Twitter on May 24 that:
“Tether has just surpassed a $60B market cap! In May 2020, #Tether tokens’ market cap was $8B, now a year on we’ve seen an increase of 581% and demand for Tether token use higher than ever for both trading and retail adoption!”
This new figure ranks USDT as the third most valuable cryptocurrency by market cap, according to data, only behind market frontrunners bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH). CoinMarketCap lists USDT’s fellow stablecoin USDC in the top-10. With a current market cap of over $14 billion, USD Coin ranks tenth in the world’s most valuable cryptocurrencies.
The journey up for USDT
The milestone comes just four weeks on from their last, when they went over the $50 billion threshold in April. A week later, on May 4, crypto exchange Coinbase began listing USDT on its platform.
It also comes a week after Tether revealed their initiative to expand beyond the Ethereum blockchain. On May 18, reports stated that USDT would become available on the high-speed Avalanche blockchain. The ninth network option available to traders.
All the same, USDT’s position as the world’s most valuable stablecoin has not been easily won. It has faced doubt from investors, including high-profile players such as Michael Saylor, who dubbed the stablecoin “irrelevant” at the start of the year.
Going even further back, in 2020, USDT was the subject of a class-action lawsuit. The case, on allegations of price manipulation, was denounced by both Tether and its co-accused Bitfinex. The firms eventually settled in February, agreeing to pay an $18 million fine.
Stable by name, stable by nature
Both USDT and USDC came out relatively unaffected from the events of May 19, which saw a huge price collapse in several of the world’s leading cryptocurrencies. This is fairly obvious because this is the exact purpose of these types of assets.
USDT’s price zigzagged across both sides of the $1.00 threshold for seven hours but never fell by more than a full $0.01. According to data, from mid-afternoon on May 19, USDT’s price remained consistently above the $1.00 mark ever since. The fluctuation in USDC’s price was similarly mild.
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