Tether Surpasses 500 Million Users as Growth Accelerates—But Risks and Peg Concerns Persist
Tether’s USDT has crossed a significant milestone, surpassing 534 million customers, even as the broader crypto market stays underneath strain following a pointy contraction that started in October 2025.
According to the corporate’s This fall 2025 USD₮ Market Report, the stablecoin added greater than 35 million customers within the quarter, marking the eighth consecutive quarter of including over 30 million customers.
USDT Expands as a Global Store of Value Even as Crypto Market Cap Contracts
The progress comes throughout a interval of declining risk appetite. Since the October 10 liquidation cascade, the full crypto market capitalization has fallen by greater than one-third (30%). Meanwhile, USDT’s provide has continued to broaden modestly.
Tether reported that its market capitalization rose to $187.3 billion, up $12.4 billion in This fall, even as some competing stablecoins shrank.
Tether attributes the resilience to demand for financial savings, funds, and cross-border transfers quite than purely speculative buying and selling.
On-chain metrics cited within the report present rising pockets balances amongst long-term holders and report transaction volumes.
However, the estimates of whole customers embody each on-chain wallets and approximations of alternate customers, making impartial verification tough.
Reserve disclosures additionally present continued enlargement. Total reserves reached $192.9 billion, together with $141.6 billion in US Treasuries, a degree that will place Tether among the many largest Treasury holders globally if it have been a rustic.
The firm additionally elevated its Bitcoin holdings to 96,184 BTC and its gold reserves to 127.5 metric tons, reflecting a method to diversify collateral past cash-equivalent belongings.
On-chain exercise continued to develop quickly. The variety of USDT holders rose to 139.1 million, whereas month-to-month energetic customers reached 24.8 million, each report highs.
The worth transferred on-chain reached $4.4 trillion in This fall, and USDT’s share of spot trading volumes on centralized exchanges climbed to 61.5%. This highlights its position as the dominant settlement asset in crypto markets.
Minting Surge, Peg Wobbles, and Flippening Talk Highlight USDT’s Growing Systemic Role
Recent issuance exercise suggests demand has carried into early 2026. On February 4, blockchain analytics account Lookonchain reported that Tether minted $1 billion in USDT, a part of roughly $3 billion in stablecoins issued by Tether and Circle over three days.
Large issuances are sometimes interpreted by merchants as a sign of incoming liquidity, though newly minted tokens usually are not all the time instantly circulated.
At the identical time, Tether’s rising dominance has intensified scrutiny. Market consideration briefly turned to USDT’s stability after the token slipped to round $0.9980, its weakest degree in additional than 5 years.
While the deviation was small and short-lived, any sustained lack of confidence in the peg may have outsized penalties, given the stablecoin’s central position in buying and selling infrastructure.
Market estimates typically recommend that the majority crypto buying and selling quantity flows via USDT pairs, making it a crucial pillar of liquidity.
The scale of Tether’s enlargement has additionally fueled debate over its place within the crypto hierarchy. Some market observers have speculated that, if present developments proceed, USDT may finally problem Ethereum’s position as the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, significantly throughout extended durations of threat aversion when capital rotates into steady belongings.
Meanwhile, the most recent information reveals that USDT is increasing when it comes to customers, reserves, and transaction quantity, even as the broader market contracts.
Yet that very same progress is concentrating liquidity and systemic significance in a single instrument. The stability of Tether’s peg is more and more tied not simply to 1 firm, however to the resilience of the crypto market itself.
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