Tether’s USDT sets new record market cap above $160 billion in ‘mind-blowing milestone,’ CEO Paolo Ardoino says

USDT's market cap has hit a new record high, surpassing $160 billion for the first time, according to Tether's latest transparency page update.

The achievement caps a strong run for the veteran stablecoin issuer, fueled by hefty profits from its U.S. Treasury holdings. Tether posted more than $1 billion in operating profit in Q1, extending the growth streak it began in late 2022.

Posting to X on Wednesday, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino described it as a "mind-blowing milestone and testament to USDT's utility as the digital dollar for billions of people living in developing countries. USDT previously crossed $150 billion in May.

In April, Tron surpassed Ethereum once again to become the blockchain with the highest USDT supply, according to The Block's data dashboard. Tron currently accounts for around $81 billion worth of USDT, compared to approximately $65 billion on Ethereum. USDT on Tron has become especially popular in emerging markets, where its low fees and fast transactions make it a more accessible alternative to Ethereum for cross-border payments and dollar savings. 

Issuance on other networks is far lower, with USDT on BNB Chain, Solana, and Polygon at $6.8 billion, $2.3 billion, and $1.1 billion, respectively.

Cash and cash equivalents, like short-dated U.S. Treasurys, make up the majority of USDT's backing reserves, accounting for 81.5%, while bitcoin represents 5.1% of the reserves, according to Tether's attestations.

Earlier this year, Ardoino claimed USDT is used by more than 400 million people worldwide, growing at a pace of 35 million wallets per quarter, focused on developing countries while strengthening the U.S. dollar. Tether holds over $127 billion in U.S. Treasurys as of Q2, making it the 18th largest holder, comparable with sovereign nations like South Korea, the UAE, and Germany, according to U.S. Treasury Department statistics.

Becoming the money rail of the internet

Analysts at Bernstein recently said they expect stablecoins to evolve from the money rail of crypto markets to the money rail of the internet, with total stablecoin market cap growing 16x to $4 trillion over the next decade from $249 billion today. This would be driven by "transformative growth" in crypto and tokenized capital markets, payments, and stablecoin-native financial services, they said.

Circle's USDC is set to become the largest regulated stablecoin under the GENIUS Act, recently passed by the U.S.Senate, and a topic of heated debate in the House amid "Crypto Week" this week. This gives USDC a "regulatory headstart" and positions it as the preferred partner for internet platforms beyond just crypto exchanges, the analysts argue.

However, Bernstein predicts Circle will capture around a 30% share of this potential $4 trillion market, just 5% higher than its 25% share today, while Tether's USDT continues to dominate with an approximate 65% market share. Tether previously said it may create a new U.S. subsidiary to manage compliance with any new stablecoin legislation in the United States.

Expanding beyond stablecoins

Tether, whose team of less than 200 generated a profit of approximately $13 billion in 2024 and currently holds more than 100,000 BTC ($11.8 billion), has been aggressively deploying capital into a variety of projects beyond stablecoins in recent years across sectors including artificial intelligence, telecommunications, data centers, energy infrastructure, and bitcoin mining.

In a recent episode of The Block's Big Brain podcast, Ardoino said the firm "will become the biggest bitcoin miner" by the end of 2025. He also predicted that one trillion AI agents will use Bitcoin and USDT for transactions within 15 years, and claimed that a Tether-backed brain-computer interface is already "much more advanced" than Elon Musk's Neuralink.

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