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“This latest milestone reflects the trust and growing popularity of Tether,” Paolo Ardoino, the CTO of Tether, shared with Crypto Briefing as the stablecoin surpassed the $25 billion benchmark.

Tether’s Unprecedented Growth

In January 2021, USDT supply grew from 21.07 billion to 25 billion, a 3.8 billion increase, second only to the monthly issuance in September last year. USDT supply increased by 5.5 billion during September 2020 as printing began on Aug. 30, 2020, with a total supply close to $10 billion. 

Despite the pending lawsuit, which incited fear of a crypto market sell-off at the beginning of the month, the company continues to issue new tokens. 

Tether’s supply at the beginning of 2020 was 4.1 billion. Its issuance accelerated in March after the global market plummeted due to the liquidity crisis sparked by COVID-19 lockdowns. 

The stablecoin has grown steadily at a rate of 1.6 billion every month since the COVID-19 crash.

DeFi Back in Trend

The close cyclic relationship between the DeFi markets and the USDT supply on smart contracts was also evident with increased inflows this month.

The percentage of USDT in smart contracts plunged from over 10% to 6% after the DeFi market cool down in September 2020. DeFi token prices have rebounded since Nov. 6, 2020, but USDT’s rise in DeFi did not come until the start of this month.

Its share in DeFi surged during January, mimicking the rise in July and September last year. Out of the 3.8 billion printed in January, 1.34 billion (or 35% of the newly printed supply) has found its way back to DeFi. 

Last but not least, the exchange reserves have grown from 3.1 billion USDT to 4.12 billion USDT, an all-time high for the stablecoin. A Tether spokesperson shared with Crypto Briefing the following: 

“Many digital token spot exchanges now denominate in USDT pairs rather than Bitcoin. USDT is also increasingly being used in remittances and innovative projects in the digital token ecosystem, including those in the nascent space of decentralised finance (DeFi).”

Part of the reserve growth is coming from a broader sell-off in cryptocurrencies. Nevertheless, it indicates that more money is sitting on the sidelines waiting to buy the dip. 

The author held Bitcoin at the time of publication. 

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