Tether (USDT), the largest stablecoin by market capitalization, continues its growth by reaching a new milestone of $100 billion.
Data from CoinGecko shows that the stablecoin recorded a market cap of $100.24 billion on Monday at 9:15 UTC before returning to levels below $99.7 billion.
Tether’s new all-time high comes just two months after the digital asset surpassed the $90 billion mark. CryptoPotato reported in December that the surge past $90 billion indicated a consistent increase in the total stablecoin supply and a positive shift in the market.
USDT started 2023 with a market cap hovering around $66.24 billion and ended the year with a record of $91.69 billion, showing a year-to-year increase of more than 35%. With the asset crossing $100 billion within the first three months of 2024, there is enough room for more growth given the current market conditions, and USDT could record unprecedented highs by the end of the year.
When Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino spoke about the company’s achievements in 2023, he revealed that the firm added roughly $4 billion in excess to its USDT consolidated reserves to hedge against volatility. Tether looks to expand further in 2024, projecting USDT as more than a financial instrument.
With USDT’s latest milestone, the asset has strengthened its dominance in the stablecoin space, giving its closest rival, USD Coin (USDC), a market cap gap of roughly $71 billion. The market cap of USDC, which suffered a mass exodus in March 2023 during the U.S. banking crisis and has struggled to come up since then, hovers around $28.8 billion.
Tether is currently available on 14 blockchains and protocols, with a significant portion of its supply on the Tron network.
On the other hand, Circle, the company issuing USDC, recently ceased its support for the stablecoin on Tron as part of a business approach that involves compliance and organization. The minting of new USDC on Tron stopped last month, but support for the stablecoin on the network will continue till February 2025.
Meanwhile, stablecoin spot trading volumes have significantly risen in recent months, signifying their utility on centralized and decentralized platforms and investors’ growing interest in gaining exposure to crypto assets.