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With the price of bitcoin down 10% and global crypto markets losing half a trillion dollars since the start of the year, investors are questioning the mainstream narrative that institutional demand would drive up the price of bitcoin. This year, giant companies like Tether, MicroStrategy, and Blackrock have been gobbling up tens of thousands of bitcoin, yet their efforts have not stopped its declining price. Once upon a time, tether (USDT) supposedly pumped the price of bitcoin. In years past, according to researchers like John Griffin and Amin Shams, the minting of the world’s most popular, intermittently backed, stablecoin empowered market manipulators to induce demand for bitcoin. Despite the uncertainty of this theory, the idea of Tether’s power has remained popular. Similarly, institutional demand was supposed to propel bitcoin to new heights . “The institutions are coming” meme dominated discussions among many bitcoin investors over the years who predict...

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino says USDT will help to successfully keep the US dollar on top of the global financial power structure. In a new post to the social media platform X, Ardoino makes his argument for why USDT is the “most successful tool” for the US dollar maintaining its hegemony. “Tether built, over the last decade, the widest physical and digital distribution network, spacing from thousands of kiosks in Africa and South America to digital remittances platforms, from payment backbones to institutional tools. Every single day our teams and portfolio companies are with their boots on the ground in countless areas within developing countries, helping communities and growing utilization, trust and education into USDT and by reflection into the US economy.” Ardoino notes that USDT is held by more than 400 million people, growing at a pace of 35 million new wallets per quarter, or 140 million new wallets per year. He also says USDT is doi...

Tether, the issuer of the leading stablecoin USDT and one of the largest Bitcoin (BTC) holders, could now be forced to dump part of its BTC reserves, according to JPMorgan analysts. This raises questions on potential market impacts for both Bitcoin and USDT in 2025. As The Block reported this morning, JPMorgan analysts are looking to Tether’s reserves and the recently introduced U.S. bills, regulating stablecoins in the country. According to estimations, only 66% and 83% of the issuer’s reserves comply to each proposed bill at its current state. Percentage of Tether’s reserves compliant with the STABLE and GENIUS Acts. Source: J.P. Morgan / The Block Currently, Tether holds around $8 billion worth of 83,758 BTC in its reserves. This represents approximately 5% of all the $142 billion circulating USDT, which the company claims is 1:1 reserves-backed. Picks for you ...

El Salvador’s cryptocurrency remittances, as a proportion of total remittances, have fallen to new lows, according to data from the Banco Central de Reserva de El Salvador compiled by JP Koning.  The peak period for these transactions was when the law making bitcoin (BTC) legal tender was originally passed in 2021 and has largely fallen since then, to less than 1% of the total remittances at this point.  For December, the total amount of family remittances from “cryptocurrency digital wallets” was $7.22 million. I charted El Salvador's cryptocurrency remittances from the passing of the "Bitcoin Law" in 2021, which granted bitcoin legal tender status, until its repeal this month. The data speaks for itself. [image or embed] — JP Koning (@jpkoning.bsky.social) January 31, 2025 at 8:23 AM Despite this lull in remittances, El Salvador has still attracted a variety of crypto firms, with executives of Tether and Bitfinex purchasing ...

The firm behind the largest US dollar-pegged stablecoin by market cap will soon be launching on another layer-1 blockchain. According to a new announcement from Tether, USDT will soon be available on Aptos (APT), a high-speed Ethereum (ETH) rival blockchain built for scalability. “Tether, the largest company in the digital assets industry, today announced that they will soon be launching U.S. dollar-pegged Tether tokens (‘USDT’) on the Aptos Network. This integration is part of Tether’s broader strategy to make digital currency more accessible and useful globally, capitalizing on Aptos’ advanced blockchain technology and exceptional speed and scalability… Recent data highlights significant ecosystem growth; average daily active users increased from 96K in January to 170K in July of 2024. Additionally, a record-breaking 157 million transactions were processed in a single day in May 2024.” Aptos utilizes a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensu...

Tether, the self-described “largest company in the cryptocurrency industry,” recently led a $25 million Series A investment round in Oobit. Tether was joined in this investment by Anatoly Yakovenko, the co-founder of Solana, as well as CMCC and 468 Capital.  Oobit is a Lithuania-registered firm that lists a contact address in Singapore, and is led by chief executive Amram Adar. Adar’s LinkedIn reveals that before his role at Oobit, he served in the Israeli navy special forces , and appears to still be based out of Tel Aviv. Adar also worked with Oobit chief operating officer Aharon Miller at WaveTech, which appears to have been an Israeli headquartered blockchain development firm.  Oobit chairman Moshe Schlisser is also a managing partner at Shefa Capital and was also an investor in Cross River Bank, which previously announced its transition to a ‘crypto-first’ strategy. Schlisser is also a director for Yourasset AG, a Swiss firm that enables you to ...

Tether has released its latest reserves attestation for USDT, with its excess reserves increasing to $3.3 billion. Tether continues to increase its treasury reserve holdings backing circulating USDT (USDT) tokens, according to its latest financial attestation for the second quarter of 2023. Tether Holdings published its Q2 attestation from accounting firm BDO, highlighting an $850 million increase in its excess reserves, which takes its total to $3.3 billion. Tether Excess Reserves increase by 850M to reach $3.3B as Leading Stablecoin Reveals $72.5B overall exposure in US T-Bills and Unveils Energy-Related Investments. Read more https://t.co/zoEHWMawEM pic.twitter.com/N4vk3EUQnw — Tether (@Tether_to) July 31, 2023 The report also serves as the first time the company has disclosed its indirect exposure to United States Treasurys held by money market funds as well as U.S. Treasurys collateralizing its overnight repo: “By aggregating them together, the amount of Treasuries back...

While on-chain stablecoins settlements are growing rapidly, many people pointed out that comparing stablecoin settlements to Visa transactions is not fair as they represent two different things. Stablecoins play a very critical role in the crypto economy today and despite the recent run-down in the broader market, stablecoin volumes continue to dominate most exchanges. According to Coinmetrics data, on-chain stablecoin settlements reached over $7 trillion in 2022 and are expected to end the year at around $8 trillion. While the largest card network, Visa, processes ~$12tn/yr. Peter Johnson, co-head of the venture at Brevan Howard Digital, said that stablecoin settlements had already surpassed MasterCard and American Express. Furthermore, he predicted that in 2023 on-chain stablecoin volumes will surpass the Visa transaction volumes. He also noted that stablecoins volume would not only surpass Visa but most likely surpass the aggregate volume of all four major card networks (Visa, ...