Tether launched in 2014 as RealcoinUSD on the Omni Layer on top of Bitcoin, making it one of the oldest stablecoins in existence. Rebranded to USDT shortly after, it became the default trading pair on early crypto exchanges including Bitfinex (owned by Tether’s same parent company, which drove endless “are they the same entity” controversies). By 2017, USDT was the primary way traders moved between crypto and dollar equivalents without touching the banking system.
Tether’s history is controversial. For years, Tether refused to produce a full audit of its reserves, leading to persistent accusations that not every USDT was actually backed by dollars. The New York Attorney General investigated and settled with Tether in 2021, with Tether paying $18.5 million and agreeing to publish attestations. Subsequent attestations showed Tether held a mix of commercial paper, treasuries, Bitcoin, and other assets rather than pure cash. Critics were never fully satisfied, but the peg held.
Despite the controversies, USDT won the stablecoin war decisively in the emerging-market use case. For users in Argentina, Turkey, Nigeria, and dozens of other countries with unstable local currencies, USDT became the default way to hold dollar exposure. It circulated in peer-to-peer markets, powered remittance flows, and served as the underlying asset for more trading volume than any other crypto asset in the world. By 2025, USDT had over $150 billion in supply — bigger than USDC, DAI, and every other stablecoin combined.
USDT’s lesson is that trust in crypto doesn’t always correlate with regulatory cleanliness. Circle has the better reputation with regulators and institutions, but USDT has the users. The thing that matters in a stablecoin is whether it holds its peg, and Tether’s peg has held through every major crisis including Terra, FTX, SVB, and multiple Tether-specific FUD waves. Whatever one thinks of the company, USDT delivered on its core promise — a dollar-equivalent token that can move globally 24/7 — and that’s why it won.
Leave a Reply