Tether, the pioneering company behind the USDT stablecoin, has recently announced a remarkable milestone, surpassing 350 million users within just a decade of its inception in 2014. This achievement reflects a substantial 24% increase in user count over the past year, with Tether's user base expanding from approximately 282 million in October 2023 to around 141 million users in 2022.
This growth trajectory showcases Tether's ability to capture the burgeoning market of cryptocurrency users effectively. Although Tether is not the first stablecoin, its significance in the crypto space cannot be overstated. Competing stablecoins like BitUSD and NuBits may hold the title of the first, but Tether currently boasts the highest market capitalization among its peers.
As per data from CoinMarketCap, Tether's market capitalization stands at an impressive $119.6 billion, highlighting its dominance in the stablecoin sector. One of the driving factors behind Tether's success is its extensive holdings of U.S. Treasuries, which serve to further bolster the dollar's global influence.
Tether has positioned itself as a reliable digital representation of the world’s reserve currency, USD₮. As evidenced in its Q2 2024 Attestation, Tether has direct and indirect exposure to over $97 billion in U.S. Treasuries. This positions Tether among the top 20 largest purchasers of U.S. Treasury bills, even outpacing nations such as Germany, the United Arab Emirates, and Australia. In celebration of its 10th anniversary, Tether plans to launch a documentary that chronicles its extensive journey over the years.
The film will include interviews with individuals whose lives have been impacted by the stablecoin, further emphasizing Tether's ubiquitous reach within the cryptocurrency ecosystem. A significant observation is that a large proportion of Tether's user base has joined the platform within recent years, signifying an accelerating rate of adoption.
Contextualizing Tether's user milestone, a study conducted by AAA in 2024 estimated over 560 million cryptocurrency users globally. This statistic aligns closely with data from the 2023 AAA report, which recorded approximately 420 million users worldwide, indicating a rapidly expanding market that Tether has adeptly navigated..