Tether's just dropped a bombshell. The stablecoin issuer minted $1 billion USDT on the Tron network. This move brings their total minted tokens in the past year to a whopping $33 billion.
Blockchain data spilled the beans on August 20. Tether created the tokens and sent them to its treasury wallet. Lookonchain, an on-chain analytics platform, crunched the numbers.
The platform revealed some eye-opening stats. Tether's been busy. They've minted $33 billion in stablecoins over the last year. That's no small change.
The breakdown is interesting. Tron network saw 19 billion USDT tokens minted. Ethereum wasn't far behind with 14 billion.
This latest mint follows a similar move on Ethereum. On August 13, Whale Alert flagged a $1 billion transaction there too. Talk about déjà vu.
Tether's CEO, Paolo Ardoino, chimed in on X. He called the Ethereum transaction a "USDT inventory replenish". It's authorized but not issued yet.
What does that mean? Well, it's like restocking shelves. Tether's getting ready for future demand. They're creating USDT to meet upcoming issuance requests and chain swaps.
Tether's staying mum on the Tron mint. But it's likely serving the same purpose as the Ethereum one. They're probably running low on USDT on Tron.
Their Transparency page backs this up. As of August 19, Tether had only $36 million USDT tokens on Tron that were "authorized but not issued". Demand's looking strong on Tron.
Speaking of Tron, it's leading the stablecoin supply market. Coin Metrics data from August 16 shows it commands 37.9% of the total market share. That's over $61 billion in stablecoins. Not too shabby.
This move by Tether is raising eyebrows in the crypto world. It's a clear sign of growing demand for USDT, especially on the Tron network. As the stablecoin market continues to evolve, all eyes will be on Tether's next moves.