Tether minted 4B USDT in 4 weeks

Tether, a leading stablecoin issuer, has significantly ramped up its USDT minting activities, creating 4 billion USDT in the past month alone.

On November 10, Tether added 1 billion USDT to the Tron blockchain, as reported by blockchain data provider Whale Alert. This followed closely on the heels of another 1 billion USDT issuance on the Ethereum blockchain on November 9. Earlier, on November 3 and October 19, Tether had also issued 2 billion USDT in two separate transactions on the Tron blockchain, as per Whale Alert's data.

Paolo Ardoino, Tether's Chief Technology Officer and newly appointed CEO, addressed these minting activities on social media. He clarified that the recent 1-billion-USDT transaction on the Tron network was intended to replenish USDT inventory. Ardoino explained:

 "Note this is an authorized but not issued transaction, meaning that this amount will be used as inventory for next period issuance requests and chain swaps."

This flurry of USDT issuance represents a significant portion of Tether's total issuance for the year. Data from Whale Alert indicates that Tether has minted 22.75 billion USDT in 2023, with 13 billion, or 57%, on the Tron blockchain and the remaining 9.75 billion on the Ethereum blockchain.

Tether market capitalization over the past year. (Source: CoinGecko)

Over the past year, Tether's market capitalization has seen considerable growth, as shown by CoinGecko data. In March 2023 alone, Tether minted an impressive 9 billion USDT, following the 3 billion minted in the preceding month. Additionally, between June 12 and July 12, Tether issued 3.75 billion USDT.

Alongside its minting operations, Tether has also been engaging in coin burning. On August 22, the company burned 1.2 billion USDT on the Tron blockchain. Earlier, in June and February, Tether had burned 3.1 billion Tron USDT and 2 billion Ethereum USDT, respectively.

The cryptocurrency community has been actively discussing Tether's latest USDT minting transactions. One enthusiast noted on social media a correlation between Tether's substantial USDT issuance and major market events, such as the shutdown of banks like Silicon Valley Bank, Silvergate, and Signature Bank in March 2023.

Following these bank closures, there were speculations about Tether's involvement with Signature Bank. However, Tether firmly denied these claims, stating unequivocally that it had no exposure to Silvergate, Silicon Valley Bank, or Signature Bank.

In a recent development, Tether is also focusing on expanding its ecosystem. Ardoino, Tether's CEO, announced on social media that the company is gearing up to unveil five new projects in 2024. He stated:

"Couple of these could obliterate some popular Web2 centralized services for good"