The largest stablecoin by market capitalization has gotten even larger, with Tether hitting a record $100 billion market cap.Tether (USDT), a prominent stablecoin, has reached a record-breaking market capitalization of $100 billion, marking a 9% year-to-date increase and widening the gap between itself and its closest competitor, USD Coin (USDC). Tether briefly reached the $100 billion milestone on March 4, with its market capitalization fluctuating based on the prevailing price and circulating supply, as reported by CoinGecko. Currently, Tether maintains a significant lead of over $71 billion in market capitalization compared to USDC, issued by Circle, which has also experienced growth in its market capitalization this year.On the other hand, Tether has yet to breach the $100 billion milestone on other data sources, such as CoinMarketCap.Tether’s market cap places it around par with the British oil and gas titan BP and a little above the e-commerce giant Shopify.Tether is a cryptocurrency pegged to the price of the United States dollar available on 14 blockchains and protocols, according to its website.In late 2022, Tether pledged that by the end of 2023, it would stop lending out funds from its reserves.Those plans never eventuated, with Tether having $4.8 billion of loans on its books at the end of 2023, although it’s about $1 billion less than it started the year with. It claims the loans are fully collateralized and promised to cut them to zero in 2024.Over half of the USDT currently issued is on the Tron blockchain, which a January United Nations report said “has become a preferred choice” for Southeast Asia-based cyber fraud and money launders.Tether has hit back at the report, claiming the UN failed to mention the company’s law enforcement collaboration and the token’s traceability.
