Tether

Tether (USDT) is the first and most widely used stablecoin in cryptocurrency, launched in July 2014 originally under the name 'Realcoin' and rebranded to Tether shortly afterward. It was co-founded by Brock Pierce, Reeve Collins, and Craig Sellars, and issued initially on the Omni Layer atop Bitcoin. Each USDT token is designed to maintain a 1:1 peg with the U.S. dollar, meaning one USDT should always be worth approximately one dollar. Tether achieves this peg by holding reserves of cash, cash equivalents, U.S. Treasury bills, and — to a smaller degree — secured loans, gold, Bitcoin, and other assets that back the total supply of USDT in circulation.

USDT is issued natively on more than a dozen blockchains including Ethereum (the largest chain by USDT supply), Tron (the largest by USDT transaction count, particularly for retail transfers in emerging markets), Solana, Avalanche, TON, Aptos, Cosmos, Algorand, and many others. This multi-chain issuance makes USDT one of the most accessible dollar-denominated tokens in the world. It consistently ranks as one of the most traded crypto assets by daily volume, often surpassing even Bitcoin, and moves more real-world payments and remittance value than any other single crypto asset. For many traders, USDT serves as a dollar-denominated safe haven within crypto markets — a place to park value during volatile periods without converting back to fiat currency and re-paying banking fees.

Tether has faced significant scrutiny over the years regarding the transparency of its reserves and its relationship with the Bitfinex exchange (both controlled by iFinex Inc.). In 2021, the CFTC fined Tether $41M for making misleading statements about being 'fully backed'; the New York Attorney General's office reached an $18.5M settlement covering separate reserve-disclosure issues. In response, Tether has significantly increased its attestation reporting — quarterly reports are now produced by BDO Italia and detail reserve composition to the asset class level. As of recent reports, U.S. Treasury bills make up the vast majority of Tether's reserves (over 80%), with a growing cash equivalent buffer, secured overnight repo positions, and small allocations to Bitcoin and gold. Tether has become one of the largest single holders of short-term U.S. Treasuries in the world.

Tether's business is enormously profitable due to the interest earned on Treasury holdings while USDT itself pays no yield to holders. In 2024 Tether reported over $13B in profit, funding investments across AI infrastructure, energy, agriculture, and Bitcoin mining. The company has also moved its official domicile to El Salvador and continues to operate primarily outside the U.S. regulatory perimeter, which is both a strength (fewer restrictions on issuance) and a risk (potential enforcement action if regulations tighten).