[ad_1]
Stablecoin Tether (USDT) is gaining popularity as a payment method, with some analysts seeing it reaching Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH).
As reported by Bloomberg on Oct.25, cryptocurrency payment processor CoinPayments has seen the rapid rise in popularity of Tether – a stablecoin pegged 1: 1 to a US dollar – as a means of payment. On the site, which has a 2.4 million user base, Tether currently accounts for 30% of the volume, which is 30 times more than a year ago.
Does Tether undermine Ether’s leadership?
The Bitcoin application as a means of payment has seen a volume drop of nearly 60% from 80% last year, according to CoinPayments, while Tether pushed Ether to second place. Users presumably choose Tether because of the stablecoin’s ability to avoid price fluctuations. Sean Mackay, Head of Operations at CoinPayments.net, said:
“Traders used to accept Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple and convert them to Tether to protect themselves from volatility. We are now seeing that payments are made directly in Tether. “
Additionally, Tether has seen wider adoption among the types of merchants who struggle to obtain credit card processing services or who are forced to pay high card processing fees.
Multimillion dollar coin and new offers
In mid-September, Tether minted 300 million USDT as part of the exchange from the Omni protocol to the Ethereum blockchain. However, there had been no token burning on the Omni blockchain at the time. In July, Tether accidentally minted and subsequently burned 5 billion USDT tokens.
Also last month, Tether announced the launch of a new stablecoin linked to the Chinese offshore yuan dubbed CNHT. The new currency joins Tether’s other stablecoins backed by US dollars (USDT) and euros (EURT).
As part of its further expansion of offerings, Tether plans to release a version of the stablecoin supported by a basket of commodities such as gold, crude oil and rubber.
