blockster.com
Tether (USDT) has been the most dominant stablecoin in the cryptocurrency industry for years. It is the project that made stablecoins popular after showing their capability to remain immune to volatility, even during the crypto winter. However, Tether has always had major transparency issues, which is why a number of other stablecoin projects emerged.
For some reason, however, Tether remained the community’s favorite, even though it did not allow third parties to audit its bank accounts and confirm that it can back the coins that it offers. However, it appears that the project is starting to lose its dominance in the market, as Circle’s USD Coin (USDC) just managed to surpass Tether’s total supply on Ethereum’s network.
Right now, USDC has a current supply of over 40 billion tokens, while USDT is still below this milestone, sitting at 39.82 billion. USDC did not go too far above Tether, but it is in the lead, which is a big development for the crypto industry.
Those who have been in the industry for a while likely know that Tether has held the mantle of the most popular stablecoin since at least 2016. Originally, it shared the market with two other stablecoins — NuBits and BitUSD. Back then, Tether used to run on Omni, but over time, the other two stablecoins fell into obscurity.
Then, in 2018, USDC emerged. As mentioned, it was far more transparent and regulatory-friendlier than Tether, which immediately attracted people. Of course, USDC is still below USDT when it comes to the total supply. USDT currently has a total supply of 78.5 billion tokens, with almost half of it (38.7 billion) being on Tron’s network. USDT also expanded to a number of other blockchains, including Huobi ECO Chain, Binance Smart Chain, Polygon, Solana, Avalanche, and 13 others.
On the other hand, USDC has a total supply of 45.7 billion tokens across 21 chains.
The fact that Tether has been less than transparent regarding its backing has caused its public image to decline as years went by. The company has been involved in controversies over how its reserve funds are managed, how the stablecoin is collateralized, and even whether or not it was involved in manipulating bitcoin price.
In its latest financial report, Tether claimed that it held $30.8 billion in unspecific commercial paper, in addition to other assets that are already backing its token.
Circle, on the other hand, has been a lot more transparent about its own stablecoin, although not as much as some have wanted it to be. Last year, the president of Coinbase, Emilie Choi, stated that reserves backing USDC would shift completely to cash and US Treasury bonds, which happened in late October 2021.
Circle is quite close with Coinbase, and it was backed by a number of major entities, including China Everbright Bank, Bitmain, and others.