Tether Injects $1B USDT Into Crypto as Bitcoin Grapples With $51,000

On Tuesday, stablecoin issuer Tether injected a fresh $1 billion into the crypto market as Bitcoin struggles to hold $51,000. In typical fashion, Tether’s Chief Executive Officer, Paulo Ardoino, stated that it was a USDT replenishment on the Ethereum Network.

💵 💵 💵 💵 💵 💵 💵 💵 💵 💵 1,000,000,000 #USDT (999,677,500 USD) minted at Tether Treasuryhttps://t.co/fdVICrEMPF

— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) February 20, 2024

The $1 billion mint on Thursday is the second time Tether is injecting funds into the crypto market this year, after its first of the year on the Tron network last month. The mint also takes Tether close to the $100k market cap.

Explosive Activity on Ethereum

Tether’s $1 billion mint on Ethereum further solidifies the surge in activity on the network. Ethereum’s total value lock (TVL) hit $100 billion on Monday, with significant growth from its newly launched liquidity restating platform, Mania.

TVL on Ethereum’s Layer 2 projects also grew to $28 billion, posting over 95% growth in the last 90 days. These and rumors of a possible Ether spot exchange-traded fund (ETF) approval propelled ETH to $3,000 on Tuesday.

Tether Closes Down on $100k Market Cap.

The mint of Tuesday means that Tether needs $3 billion to get to a market cap of $100k. This rare achievement also shows how dominant the stablecoin issuer has been amongst competitors like USDC and TUSD.

At a current market cap of $67.8 billion, USDT controls over 70% of the stablecoin market. Although remarkable, J.P. Morgan alleged earlier this month that the increased dominance was bad for cryptocurrency.

With the bull run still early, Tether could surpass the $100 billion cap sooner than expected. Notably, stablecoin minting usually indicates increased demand from users, a factor that indicates growing liquidity.