Tether (USDT), and USD Coin, (USDC), have had their share of disputes in recent years. Recently, USDC has reached a significant milestone by surpassing Tether in total supply on Ethereum.
Tether is the popular stablecoin and has been since 2016. After its market shares with BitUSD, NuBits (USNBT), this is why Tether has become the most popular stablecoin. Tether was first launched in 2014. It operated using Omni.
It was only later that BitUSD and NuBits were in the news after their dollar peg and shedding users disappeared, which plunged them into complete obscurity.
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USDC emerged as an attractive competitor to Tether in 2018. Tether appears to have some cover because of uncertainties surrounding its backing. USDC is more transparent and has a better regulation.
Current supply on Ethereum of USDC (and USDT) is 40.62 billion and 39.82 trillion, respectively. Tether is now ahead of USD Coin on the Ethereum network.
Tether, however, is the best-known stablecoin. It has a total supply 78.5 billion tokens. Tether also holds 38.7 million Tron tokens, almost half of the total supply. You can also purchase Tether tokens on Solana (BSC), Polygon, Huobi ECO Chains, Avalanche and the other 13 Chains.
Tether (USDT), Decline Contributory Factors
Over the years, the gradual decline of Tether’s public images is attributed to lots of doubts surrounding its backing. There have been many eyebrows raised about the collateralization and management strategies of Tether’s reserved funds.
To clear up the many doubts, two Consolidated Reserves were issued. Moore Caymon (an accounting firm) issued these reports on the Tether financial reserves in 2021.
In its most recent financial report, the stablecoin revealed that it holds $30.8 million in unclear commercial paper. These assets were in addition to those that support USDT.
USDC claims a total supply in excess of 45.7 Billion tokens across 21 Chains and L2 Solutions. USDC is also supported by two major issuers: Coinbase and Circle. China Everbright Bank, Bitmain and eight others back Circle.
While the Circle displays high transparency in its reserve reserves, some critics believe it to be less than expected. In August 2021, Emile Choi (the President of Coinbase) announced that the USDC reserve backing would be shifting to US Treasury bonds and cash.
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Grant Thornton provided a report by an Independent Accountant indicating that the implementation date for the shift was October 27, 2021.
Top three stablecoins on their centralized platforms are USDT and USDC. BUSD is third. There has been an increase of the number and variety of decentralized stablecoins.
Featured Image from Pixabay. Chart by TradingView.com