Tether’s market cap tops $50 billion, supply on Tron surpasses Ethereum

The market capitalization of Tether (USDT) stablecoin has crossed the $50 billion mark.

The development means there are now more than 50 billion USDT in circulation, each pegged to track one U.S. dollar.

This is an “incredibly important milestone,” said Tether’s CTO Paolo Ardoino. “Tether’s success is a blueprint for a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) and a banking system of the future,” he added.

In another interesting development, Tether’s issuance or supply on the Tron blockchain has surpassed that of Ethereum, according to The Block Research. The distribution on Tron stands at $26 billion, while on Ethereum, it is at $24.4 billion.

“Tether on Tron is preferred at the moment as a result of lower transaction fees and faster confirmation times,” Ardoino told The Block.

Most of the Tron-based Tether’s supply is on Binance, Huobi, and OKEx, according to The Block Research. That means users of these exchanges prefer trading in USDT.

USDT is cheaper compared to fiat wire transfers and faster compared to credit cards and traditional payment systems, according to Tether. Besides trading, other top use cases of USDT include payments, remittances, and usage in decentralized finance (DeFi), said the company.

Tether remains the largest stablecoin in the market, with about 66% market share, according to The Block Research. USDC and BUSD stablecoins follow next, with about 17% and 9% share, respectively.