On-chain data shows that Tether, the stablecoin issuer, minted 1 billion USDT on the Ethereum chain at around 5 a.m. today (21st).
Paolo Ardoino, Tether’s chief technology officer, responded that the minting was intended to “replenish inventory” and that it was a transaction that was “authorized but not issued” on the Ethereum network.
Paolo Ardoino explained that this means that this additional issuance will be used for the next issuance request and on-chain interaction.
Market participants believe that Tether has issued a large amount of USDT in a short period of time, which indicates that investors’ demand for cryptocurrency exposure has surged recently, that is to say, a large wave of hot money is rapidly pouring into the cryptocurrency market.
So far, the total amount of USDT on Ethereum has exceeded 35 billion, while the number of USDC tokens issued by competitor Circle is less than 30 billion.