Cryptocurrency’s most valuable companies are getting bigger. Tether, the company issuing the USDT stablecoin, increased its share of global stablecoin supply from 50% to 71% during 2023, according to data from The Block.
Moreover, the company recently surpassed 95 billion stablecoins in circulation, which is larger than the GDP of countries such as Guatemala and Bulgaria. Currently, its biggest competitor, Circle’s USD Coin (USDC), only has 27 billion tokens in circulation, after having issued over 48 billion tokens starting in 2023.
Tether recently faced a change in leadership, with longtime CTO Paolo Ardoino taking over the reins in December from former CEO Jean-Louis van der Velde, who was described as “secretive.” Ardoino has been trying to cozy up to law enforcement and regulators in recent months by freezing USDT held in wallets approved by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and “onboarding” law enforcement agencies to its platform.
Correction: USDT’s circulating supply has been corrected to reflect 95 billion tokens.
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