Tether’s USDT has crossed a significant milestone, surpassing 534 million customers, even because the broader crypto market stays underneath stress following a pointy contraction that started in October 2025.
In accordance with the corporate’s This autumn 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.
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USDT Expands as a International Retailer of Worth Whilst Crypto Market Cap Contracts
The expansion comes throughout a interval of declining danger urge for food. For the reason that October 10 liquidation cascade, the full crypto market capitalization has fallen by greater than one-third (30%). In the meantime, USDT’s provide has continued to increase modestly.
Tether reported that its market capitalization rose to $187.3 billion, up $12.4 billion in This autumn, whilst some competing stablecoins shrank.
Tether attributes the resilience to demand for financial savings, funds, and cross-border transfers moderately than purely speculative buying and selling.
On-chain metrics cited within the report present rising pockets balances amongst long-term holders and document transaction volumes.
Nonetheless, the estimates of complete customers embody each on-chain wallets and approximations of alternate customers, making impartial verification tough.
Reserve disclosures additionally present continued enlargement. Whole 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 had been a rustic.
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The corporate 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 document highs.
The worth transferred on-chain reached $4.4 trillion in This autumn, and USDT’s share of spot buying and selling volumes on centralized exchanges climbed to 61.5%. This highlights its position because the dominant settlement asset in crypto markets.
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Minting Surge, Peg Wobbles, and Flippening Discuss Spotlight USDT’s Rising Systemic Function
Latest 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.
Giant issuances are sometimes interpreted by merchants as a sign of incoming liquidity, though newly minted tokens aren’t at all times instantly circulated.
On the similar 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.
Whereas the deviation was small and short-lived, any sustained lack of confidence within the peg may have outsized penalties, given the stablecoin’s central position in buying and selling infrastructure.
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Market estimates usually counsel that almost all crypto buying and selling quantity flows by USDT pairs, making it a important pillar of liquidity.
The size of Tether’s enlargement has additionally fueled debate over its place within the crypto hierarchy. Some market observers have speculated that, if present traits proceed, USDT may ultimately problem Ethereum’s place because the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, notably throughout extended durations of danger aversion when capital rotates into steady belongings.
In the meantime, the most recent knowledge reveals that USDT is increasing by way of customers, reserves, and transaction quantity, even because the broader market contracts.
But that very same progress is concentrating liquidity and systemic significance in a single instrument. The soundness of Tether’s peg is more and more tied not simply to at least one firm, however to the resilience of the crypto market itself.