(Kitco News) -
Tether (USDT), the top stablecoin by market cap, looked anything but stable earlier on Thursday as its market price slipped below its 1:1 pegging with the U.S. dollar.
The stablecoin, which currently has a circulating supply of 68.497 billion Tethers, briefly plunged to a low of $0.938 on the cryptocurrency exchange Kraken as crypto traders raced to redeem $700 million worth of the token amidst the ongoing fallout of the FTX collapse. Traders profit when they redeem their USDT below parity, as each token is redeemable for one U.S. dollar regardless of the market price.
The move prompted Justin Sun’s Tron DAO Reserve to announce the purchase of an additional $700 million from USDT to help restabilize market sentiment toward the stablecoin, bringing its total Tether holdings to $1 billion. Tron DAO affirmed that their new USDT stake will be held on centralized exchanges, a move seen as intending to show support for the beleaguered CEX’s during the FTX liquidity crisis.
Reports have also emerged that Tether had frozen $46 million of FTX’s holdings of the token, which if true would be an unprecedented intervention in crypto markets.
In response to a request for comment, a Tether spokesperson told Kitco Crypto “While we cannot specifically comment, Tether routinely has an open dialogue with law enforcement agencies, including the U.S. Department of Justice, as part of our commitment to cooperation, transparency and accountability.” This follows yesterday’s reports that the SEC and the Justice Department are investigating FTX.
Tether also released their own statement affirming that they have no exposure to FTX or to Alameda Holdings, its affiliated trading firm. “Tether tokens are 100% backed by our reserves, and the assets that are backing the reserves exceed the liabilities,” the firm said. “The vast majority of Tether's reserves are now U.S. Treasuries” which puts them in “a strong position to navigate any volatility that may come,” Tether added.
The stablecoin issuer acknowledged that the token’s price appeared significantly below parity with the U.S. dollar earlier, which they attributed to “a data issue that stemmed from CoinGecko’s API connection with a select few exchanges.” The company said that Tether had not depegged and that the price remained within 10 basis points of parity on Binance, Bitfinex, and Coinbase.
“During periods of market volatility, the trading price for USD? that is quoted on exchanges may fluctuate,” they wrote. “This happens because there is more demand for liquidity than exists on that exchange's order books and has nothing to do with Tether's ability to hold its peg nor the value or makeup of its reserves.”
Tether indicated they have nearly $70 billion in collateral to support USDT redemptions, giving them more liquidity than any exchange. “Ultimately, USDT maintains its peg because of Tether’s redemption facility for USDT and the collateral behind it, not because the price of USDT generally trades at 1$ on exchanges,” they wrote. “In fact, USDT generally trades at $1 on exchanges because investors know Tether’s redemption facility is reliable.”
After Thursday morning’s drop, USDT rebounded and has traded at or slightly above parity with the USD.
