USDT

Tether's core business is the issuance and management of the stablecoin USDT (pegged to the US dollar at a 1:1 ratio), while also expanding into a diversified financial ecosystem: Stablecoin issuance: The market value of USDT has surpassed $160 billion (July 2025), covering over 400 million users, primarily serving the cross-border payment and dollar substitution needs in emerging markets. Multi-chain deployment: USDT is deployed on more than 12 blockchains, with the Tron chain ($81 billion) and Ethereum ($65 billion) dominating, while emerging public chains like Solana are experiencing significant growth at 1310. Business Expansion: Tokenization of physical assets (such as gold-backed token XAUt) 6; Acquisition of physical enterprises (such as investing $600 million to acquire a controlling stake in the agricultural company Adecoagro, exploring commodity trade settlement) 7; Investing in Bitcoin mining, AI, energy infrastructure 57.

Profit mainly relies on "interest-free liabilities + high-yield assets" arbitrage and strategic investment 14: U.S. Treasury interest: 81.5% of reserves ($127 billion) are in short-term U.S. Treasuries, with interest income of $1 billion in Q1 2025, and the high interest rate environment strengthens the interest margin benefit of 25. Bitcoin Appreciation: Holding over 100,000 BTC (current value $11.8 billion), accounting for 5.1% of reserves, unrealized gains of 17 obtained through the price increase of BTC. Cash flow from physical business: Investments in agriculture and energy (such as Adecoagro) contribute stable income, with profits from physical business exceeding $1 billion in 2024. Transaction fees and scale effects: A 0.1% fee is charged for minting/redeeming USDT, with a new minting volume of 4 billion USDT in a single week, allowing low-cost operations to amplify profit margins.

This model directly supports the stability and institutionalization of the cryptocurrency ecosystem: Enhancing market trust: $127 billion in U.S. Treasury reserves (the 18th largest holder globally) reduces the de-pegging risk of USDT to below 0.3%, becoming the cornerstone of trust for 73% of stablecoin trading volume. Promoting industry compliance: The GENIUS Act requires full reserves and independent audits, Tether commits to upgrading disclosure standards, forcing competitors (such as Circle) to simultaneously improve transparency. Reconstructing Global Payments: Serving over 400 million emerging market users (mainly in Africa and Latin America), reducing cross-border payment costs to 1/10 of traditional banks, and replacing local currency inflation risks.

USDT, as the "active artery of liquidity in the crypto market," deeply influences various assets through capital flow and chain support strategies. Bitcoin ( BTC ): The increase in USDT issuance is often accompanied by a rise in BTC prices (for example, the issuance of 45 billion USDT in Q4 2024 drove BTC up by 35%), as new funds enter through the USDT/ BTC trading pair. Public chain ecosystem: Supporting a certain chain to issue USDT can significantly enhance its DeFi activity (for example, after receiving support, Solana's TVL grew by 120% in 3 months), while the cessation of support leads to ecosystem shrinkage (for instance, EOS chain's TVL declined by 60%). DeFi interest rate benchmark: The USDT lending rate (such as the average of 5.2% in Q2 2025 on the Aave platform) has become the industry's risk-free yield anchor, influencing staking and leverage strategies.