(https://www.trustnodes.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/tether-market-cap-may-2019.jpg)
Tether’s market cap has risen to circa $3.1 billion, up $300 million since last month. Sending it to the highest level it has ever been.
Tether now has $2.6 billion in circulation on the Omni blockchain and close to half a billion on ethereum with tokenized euros standing at $40 million. Making it more than $3.1 billion in total tokenized fiat.
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Tether stats, May 2019
Tether issued $300 million last month on Omni, but it looks like only $100 million of it has entered circulation. $200 million so waiting for demand.
On ethereum it is a bit more difficult to see issuance, but it looks like $200 million has entered in circulation as shown from data by etherscan.
(https://www.trustnodes.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/usdt-ethereum-1200x561.png)
Tether USDT issuance on ethereum, May 2019
The highest amount in circulation on eth previously was $350 million on April 25th, with that increasing to $515 million on May 24th.
Just under $200 million therefore has been issued on eth in the past few days as demand seemingly increases.
Why eth and not Omni is not very clear, but as an ERC20 token, eth based USDT can have access to any and all smart contracts.
That includes decentralized exchanges (dex) as well as other open finance dapps, which means most of this newly issued USDT might be going towards buying eth or other eth based token.
Tokenized bitcoin is also a thing with that growing to 258 WBTC, worth circa $2 million.
The way that works is basically similar to Tether, but with bitcoin as the underlying asset rather than dollars.
Meaning there’s usually questions as to whether those dollars do really exist 1 to 1 with USDT with recent suggestions being that 74% of them do.
That may have changed as Bitfinex recently had an IEO, raising $1 billion, so it may now be 100% backed with cash or its equivalent, as well as bitcoin and other cryptos.
Recent court documents indicate some of the Tether reserves were used to buy bitcoin and other cryptos.
We previously asked them just how much bitcoin was bought and whether it was from profits or from the amount that is meant to correspond 1 to 1. There has been no response.
Source (https://www.trustnodes.com/2019/05/26/200-million-usdt-issued-on-ethereum-tether-surpasses-3-billion)