Tether Surpasses 4 Billion USDT Minted in a Month, Signaling Growing Trend
Over the past month, Tether has minted a substantial 4 billion USDT, constituting nearly 18% of the total USDT issuance in 2023. The prominent stablecoin issuer has demonstrated an increasing trend in generating new USDT tokens, with the latest issuance of 1 billion USDT on the Tron blockchain reported on Nov. 10, according to blockchain data provider Whale Alert. This follows the issuance of another 1 billion USDT on Ethereum on Nov. 9, along with 2 billion USDT in two separate transactions on the Tron blockchain on Nov. 3 and Oct. 19.
Paolo Ardoino, Tether's Chief Technology Officer and newly appointed CEO, commented on the recent Tron transaction, describing it as a "USDT inventory replenish." He clarified that it was an authorized but not yet issued transaction, intended to serve as inventory for forthcoming issuance requests and chain swaps.
The freshly minted USDT accounts for a significant portion of the total issued this year, as per Whale Alert data. Tether's cumulative issuance in 2023 is estimated at 22.75 billion USDT, with 57% (13 billion USDT) on the Tron blockchain and the remaining 9.75 billion USDT on the Ethereum blockchain.
Tether has been actively engaged in minting new USDT stablecoins over the past year, including a substantial issuance of 9 billion USDT in March 2023 and 3.75 billion USDT between June 12 and July 12. Concurrently, Tether has implemented coin burns, such as the burning of 1.2 billion USDT on the Tron blockchain on Aug. 22. Previous burn activities include 3.1 billion Tron USDT in June and 2 billion Ethereum USDT in February, according to Whale Alert.
The cryptocurrency community has reacted swiftly to the recent USDT minting, with observations on the potential market impact. Some have drawn parallels to past events, recalling that a significant Tether issuance coincided with the closure of banks like Silicon Valley Bank, Silvergate, and Signature Bank in March 2023. Tether refuted allegations of exposure to these banks, emphasizing its lack of connection to their operations.
In addition to its active issuance and burning of coins, Tether is gearing up to integrate major ecosystem components. Ardoino announced on Twitter that the firm is set to unveil five new projects in 2024, suggesting potential disruption to popular Web2 centralized services.