Over 500 Million USDT Burned By Tether

Published 5 years ago on October 26, 2018

The company behind the largest Stablecoin in existence, Tether recently revealed through Twitter that they redeemed over 500 million USDT tokens from the Tether treasury wallet. According to the press release published on October 24th this year, the company will leave the remaining 466 million USDT in the wallet to prepare for future USDT issuances. According to Tether, the USDT tokens that are no longer here consisted of over 50% of their former supply. The redemption of the tokens can be seen on the OMNI blockchain Explorer, which confirms a transaction date of 500 million Tether in block 547,155. Tether mentioned on their press release that the company is following an issuance and redemption process which it states in its whitepaper. However, it is unclear as to why the company destroyed the 500 million tokens. In the past Tether has experienced several controversial moments in regards to its transparency in the past. From audits that werenâ€™t clear to the relationship with their previous auditor and a conflict of interest by being run, owned and managed by Bitfinex, multiple people from the crypto community cast suspicion and doubt over the companies claims. Bitfinexâ€™s cold wallet balance fell by around 100,000 Bitcoin early last month and members from the digital currency community came to the conclusion that Bitfinex was selling off their Bitcoin holding to take Tether off the market to either stabilise the $1 value or exit the company. At the start of October, it was reported that the Puerto Rican banking partner for both Tether and Bitfinex, Noble Bank was looking at financial difficulties and that it is no longer a profitable body. BTC Manager commented on the matter and said:

â€œThese problems may have spooked the cryptocurrency community and their confidence in the stablecoin, contributing to its significant influxes in price. From October 14, Tetherâ€™s value slipped below $1.00, falling to almost $0.90.â€

Despite all this, Tether has managed to keep its position as the most popular stablecoin in the market and the eighth most popular cryptocurrency according to CoinMarketCap. The firm will be facing some strong competition, however, three new stable coins (legalised) have come into space recently which could shake things up a little. What are your thoughts? Let us know what you think down in the comments!

Adrian Barkley

Adrian is an avid reader who first stumbled across Crypto after reading 'The Basics of Bitcoins and Blockchains' by Antony Lewis in 2018. Since then, Adrian has immersed himself within the industry, and has a real interest in Enterprise Blockchain solutions.