Tether Co-founder Launches Stablecoin Rival
19 Feb, 2025 ● Crypto people
Tether co-founder Reeve Collins is set to launch a decentralized stablecoin that will compete with the dollar-pegged token he originally helped create, intensifying competition in the stablecoin sector.
According to a Feb. 18 Bloomberg report, Collins is now leading Pi Protocol, a project that describes itself as decentralized and is expected to launch later this year on the Ethereum and Solana blockchains.
As Bloomberg detailed, Pi will utilize smart contracts to enable parties to mint the USP stablecoin in exchange for the yield-bearing USI token.
The stablecoin is expected to be backed by bonds and other real-world assets.
Although the name suggests it will be pegged to the US dollar, no specific details have been provided regarding the fiat currency or currencies it will represent.
Collins, along with his partners, originally developed Tether, the issuer of USDT, in 2014 before selling it to the operators of the crypto exchange Bitfinex a year later.
Since then, the market value of USDt has surged from under $1 billion to $142 billion.
Before unveiling Pi Protocol, Collins had already hinted at a stablecoin that offers yield, telling Cointelegraph that yield-bearing assets could attract more investors seeking to earn interest on fiat-pegged tokens.
Pi Protocol will enter an increasingly competitive stablecoin market that includes Tether, along with major players such as Circle’s USD Coin, Ethena’s USDe, and Dai.
According to DefiLlama, the total supply of stablecoins in circulation exceeds $225 billion.
While Tether’s USDT has long dominated the market, USDC’s growth outpaced it earlier this year, and Ethena’s USDe recently surpassed DAI to become the third-largest stable asset by market capitalization.
Stablecoins play a crucial role in the cryptocurrency market, providing liquidity and transactional efficiency for buying and selling digital assets.
They are also gaining traction as a preferred option for cross-border remittances, offering a more cost-effective and efficient means of transferring money internationally.
These use cases were highlighted in a recent ARK Invest report, which revealed that stablecoin transaction volume reached $15.6 trillion in 2024, surpassing both Visa and Mastercard.
Sources:
https://cointelegraph.com/news/tether-co-founder-launches-rival-stablecoin
