Prominent USDT stablecoin issuer Tether has continued to mint staggering billion-dollar sums recently, sparking more bullish enthusiasm ahead of the halving event. Tether has recently minted $1 billion USDT on the Ethereum blockchain, increasing the liquidity in the market, which might act as a catalyst in sending the market prices toward new highs ahead of halving event.
USDT Mint Pumps The Market
Tether Treasury has recently minted an additional 1 billion USDT on the Ethereum blockchain. This latest issuance is part of an ongoing trend that has seen the Treasury print a staggering total of 5 billion USDT over the past 30 days, underscoring a surge in liquidity across major crypto networks.
The newly minted billion USDT on Ethereum adds to a month of hefty production, with 2 billion USDT allocated to the Ethereum chain and another 3 billion to the TRON network. Of the 2 billion USDT minted on the Ethereum network, approximately 788 million USDT have been transferred to various centralized exchanges (CEX). Leading exchanges such as Coinbase, Binance, Kraken, and OKX have been significant recipients of these funds.
Coinbase topped the list with an influx of 330 million USDT, closely followed by Binance with 307 million USDT. Kraken and OKX received 79.2 million and 71.7 million USDT, respectively. The transfers were primarily conducted through two wallets, identified as 0x1db and 0x0fb, which are believed to be associated with Cumberland, a major trading firm.
This development has ignited discussions regarding its potential influence on Bitcoin’s market price. Historically, Tether’s issuance of new tokens has correlated with notable increases in Bitcoin’s value. For instance, in January, a release of 2 billion USDT over ten days coincided with a significant uptick in Bitcoin’s price, a rise also boosted by expectations of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) approvals. This pattern has led some observers to speculate about potential future volatility in Bitcoin prices.
In response to the market’s speculation, Paolo Ardoino, Tether’s CEO, sought to provide clarity. He stated that the newly minted $1 billion USDT is intended for future issuance requests and chain swaps, implying it is not set for immediate market introduction.
Earlier this week, Tether drew attention when it appeared to mint $1 billion in USDT without the corresponding reserves. To address the concerns, CEO Paolo Ardoino clarified that this was an “authorized but not issued” transaction. This term refers to tokens that have been created on a blockchain—specifically TRON in this instance—but not yet released to the public.
Tether explained that these tokens do not contribute to the total market capitalization of USDT, as they haven’t been issued. For instance, while TRON’s records show $57.8 billion in authorized USDT, $1 billion of this is unissued, bringing the actual total to $56.8 billion. This practice is standard across the 15 blockchains hosting the stablecoin, with $5.4 billion in USDT currently authorized but not issued.
Ardoino added that the recently authorized funds are set aside as inventory for future issuance requests and chain swaps.
Tether Strengthens Ties With Telegram
Along with minting billion dollar worth of USDT on several blockchain, Tether is expanding its stablecoin dominance. Recently, Tether announced that it is expanding its collaboration with Telegram’s Web3 ecosystem by introducing its stablecoins on The Open Network (TON). On April 19, Tether Operations launched both its US dollar-pegged stablecoin, Tether USDT, and its gold-pegged stablecoin, Tether Gold (XAUT), on the TON blockchain.
This development was announced during the Token2049 crypto event in Dubai, featuring keynote speeches from Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino and Telegram founder Pavel Durov.
In addition to the launch, Tether revealed a significant restructuring at the same event, introducing four new business divisions: Tether Data, Tether Finance, Tether Power, and Tether Edu.
