Tether [USDT], one of the largest stablecoins by market cap, has been dominating the stablecoin space for quite some time. Even though Tether is crowned king of the stablecoin space, it has seen a lot of turbulence over the last few years. And, recently it had to fight off allegations made against it in the Wall Street Journal.
Heavy is the head
Notably, in a recent article WSJ claimed that Tether has been delaying an audit since 2017. While analyzing the assets and liabilities of Tether, the Journal reported that a 0.3% decline in Tether’s assets could jeopardize all of Tether’s operations and could “render the stablecoin insolvent.”
Furthermore, the journal has made some serious allegations against the stablecoin, and the comments have not been taken lightly by Tether.
Tether was quick to issue a response against the Wall Street Journal and called a lot of the content of the article “a series of unsubstantiated conclusions.”
Tether further went on to defend itself by defending its three-month worth of U.S. treasury bills. It stated that calling them an unsafe asset is unfair, as it has been the world’s safest asset for quite some time.
Tether also claimed that the company has been profitable for several years, a response to another criticism that the WSJ had made.
However, Tether did not dispute claims about the low margin of error issue. It did compare USDT with other stablecoins stating that all stablecoins go through the same problems
Despite the fact that Tether has issued a response to WSJ’s scathing criticism it appears that USDT has taken a hit.
Looking at the numbers
According to a recent Glassnode update, the number of exchange deposits has (7d MA) just reached a three-year low of 216.96.
Furthermore, the total address count of USDT has been on a steep decline since the beginning of August.
Source: Messari
The volume of USDT has been on a decline as well.
The metrics don’t seem to be in USDT’s favor. But, it seems like the negative PR hasn’t affected the stablecoin to a great extent.
Well, there has been a spike in social dominance, but the positive sentiment has outweighed the negative sentiment. Additionally, most people’s perception of the stablecoin still remains positive.
Source: Santiment
Although USDT is still at the top of the stablecoin ladder, keeping the top spot is getting tougher. Additionally, it also seems like the battle between USDC and USDT is getting very competitive.
