USDT Circulating Supply in TON Surpasses $1 Billion
17 Sep, 2024 ● Coin news
Tether's stablecoin, USDT, has exceeded $1 billion in circulating supply on The Open Network (TON), according to data from crypto researcher Token Terminal.
This growth highlights USDT's dominance among US dollar-backed stablecoins and the increasing popularity of the TON chain, despite setbacks to Telegram, the social media platform that created TON in 2018.
Telegram’s CEO, Pavel Durov, was arrested in August.
USDT is the preferred stablecoin on many Telegram Mini Apps, which are applications that run on Telegram's messaging platform and settle on the TON chain.
On September 13, the TON Foundation— which assumed control of TON from Telegram in 2022—announced a partnership with Tada, a ride-hailing app in Singapore.
This collaboration will allow users to book rides and pay with cryptocurrency. Singapore's Token2049 conference began on September 16.
Out of the $172 billion in US dollar-backed stablecoins currently circulating, approximately $118 billion is made up of USDT, according to CoinMarketCap.
Circle Internet Financial’s USD Coin (USDC), Tether's closest competitor, has a market capitalization of around $35 billion.
Stablecoin adoption has been accelerating, with the number of active wallets more than doubling from 2022 to over 20 million, as noted in a September report by investment managers Castle Island Ventures and Brevan Howard Digital.
The report also stated that stablecoins settled transactions worth roughly $2.5 trillion in the first half of 2024.
In 2023, Tether reported profits of $6.2 billion, surpassing the $5.5 billion earned by BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager.
Like Circle, Tether exchanges USDT for dollars and invests these dollars in low-risk, yield-bearing assets, profiting from the interest.
Tether has been using these profits to invest in various emerging technology companies.
In April, Tether acquired a $200 million stake in BlackRock Neurotech, becoming the largest shareholder in the brain implant company, as reported by Reuters.
The stablecoin issuer is also building a Bitcoin reserve.
In March, Tether purchased 8,888 Bitcoin, worth about $618 million at the time. Its total reserves now exceed 75,000 BTC.
Circle has been actively competing for market share.
On September 17, Circle announced it would expand USDC to Sui, a layer-1 blockchain network built using the Move programming language.
Sources:
https://cointelegraph.com/news/usdt-on-ton-chain-surpasses-1-billion-token-terminal
https://coinmarketcap.com/view/stablecoin/
https://castleisland.vc/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/stablecoins_the_emerging_market_story_091224.pdf
