Tether is about to overtake Ripple in terms of market cap

The market cap of Tether dollar (USDT) is growing steadily. This was also confirmed by Tether’s CTO, Paolo Ardoino, who revealed: 

“The recent market instability has demonstrated that there is a huge need for Tether. Investors want a safe haven to reduce the risk in their portfolios”. 

Precisely because of the growing market demand, Tether is increasing its USDT issuance. To date, more than $8.6 billion have been officially released on the market, and this figure is growing steadily, as evidenced by the new issuances. 

The market cap of Tether

In reality, in total, the USDT created are already over 8.7 billion, but there are 126 million of them not in circulation. In particular, there are 132 million USDT on Ethereum and 107 on TRON which have already been authorized but not yet issued, and which could be released soon if the market demand increases. 

Therefore, although the current total market cap of USDT is $8.6 billion, it may well exceed 8.8 billion in the very near future. 

The market capitalization of XRP, i.e. the cryptocurrency of Ripple, is around $8,7 billion, although it varies: while USDT’s market cap is steadily growing, that of XRP is fluctuating, such that it has already fallen several times below $8,5 billion in the recent past. 

Moreover, it has been declining on average since its peak in early January 2018, when it reached $145 billion. After the bursting of the speculative bubble, it first fell to 27 billion and then fell further below 20 billion in August of the same year. 

In September it even plunged to 11 billion, a contraction of more than 90% compared to only nine months earlier, and since then it has continued to fluctuate between 10 and 20 billion until November 2019, when it first fell to 9 billion, and then under 8 billion. 

Since then it has fluctuated between 8 and 15 billion until it collapsed in mid-March 2020 when it fell to around 6 billion, and then recovered and fluctuated between 8 and 10 billion, hence it is possible that it may fall below USDT, especially since the latter is growing significantly. 

As a result, it may only be a matter of time before USDT becomes the third cryptocurrency by market cap, behind only Bitcoin and Ethereum, although it is not correct to call it a cryptocurrency for all intents and purposes since it is a token backed by fiat currency, the value of which is controlled by a single centralized entity.