Kriptoks

Tether (USDT) is a stablecoin that is issued by Tether, a Hong Kong-based company. It is designed to have a value that is pegged to the US dollar. To achieve this, Tether maintains a sum of commercial paper, fiduciary deposits, cash, reserve repo notes, and treasury bills in reserves that is equal in USD value to the number of USDT in circulation. USDT was originally launched in July 2014 as Realcoin, which was a second-layer cryptocurrency token built on top of Bitcoin’s blockchain using the Omni platform. It was later renamed to USTether, and then, finally, to USDT.

USDT is considered unique because its value is guaranteed by Tether to remain pegged to the U.S. dollar. Whenever Tether issues new USDT tokens, it allocates the same amount of USD to its reserves, thus ensuring that USDT is fully backed by cash and cash equivalents. This feature makes USDT a safe haven for crypto investors during periods of high volatility, as they can park their portfolios in Tether without having to completely cash out into USD.

USDT was founded by Brock Pierce, Reeve Collins, and Craig Sellars in 2014. Pierce is an entrepreneur who has co-founded several high-profile projects in the crypto and entertainment industries. Collins was the CEO of Tether for the first two years of its existence, and he had co-founded several successful companies before that. Sellars has been a member of the Omni Foundation for over six years and has worked in several other cryptocurrency companies and organizations.

Tether has been the target of a lot of FUD due to its murky balance sheet and lack of a public audit. The company has repeatedly been fined for misleading statements around the state of its books. Doubts remain about Tether's validity due to controversies surrounding its USD reserves. Many have raised concerns about the fact that Tether’s reserves have never been fully audited by an independent third party.

In May 2022, Tether announced the launch of MXNT, a new stablecoin backed by the Mexican peso, marking its expansion into the Latin American market following earlier debuts of its USDT, EURT and CNHT stablecoins, pegged to the U.S. dollar, euro, and Chinese yuan, respectively. MXNT will be available on three major blockchains: Ethereum, Polygon, and Tron. The decision to expand into Latin America was fueled by an increase in cryptocurrency usage in the region. A report from cryptocurrency payments company Triple A revealed that 40% of Mexican companies were interested in adopting cryptocurrencies in one form or another, with 71% within the segment specifically focused on cryptocurrency usage.

In conclusion, Tether (USDT) is a stablecoin that provides crypto investors with a means of avoiding the high volatility of the crypto markets. The fact that USDT's value is pegged to the US dollar makes it an attractive option for those who want to store their crypto portfolios in a stable asset. However, controversies surrounding Tether's reserve balances have led to doubts and scrutiny from regulators. Despite this, Tether has continued to expand its reach, including its recent entrance into the Latin American market with the launch of its MXNT stablecoin.