Tether, the biggest stablecoin by market capitalization, recently announced that it launched the Tether USDT cryptocurrency on Solana, which has become the 7th network to support the stablecoin.
The stablecoin is already supported by the Ethereum, Tron, Algorand, EOS, Liquid Network, Omni, and Bitcoin Cash networks, which has allowed the currency to reach a market capitalization of over $37 Million and occupy the 4th spot in the cryptocurrency ladder.
The Solana Token, SOL, saw its price spike after the announcement by reaching a value of $16.32, the closest the token has got to its all-time high of $18.12 back on February 24th.
Tether expects that with the addition of USDt to Solana, users will be able to enjoy the speeds of more than 50k transactions per second and low fees the network offers, facilitating the adoption of the currency and boosting innovation in spaces like Decentralized Finance (DeFi).
The addition of USDt support has proven to be beneficial for networks that have integrated in the past by attracting investors who see the stablecoin as safe haven in times of high market volatility, as well as crypto enthusiasts that rely on the stablecoin due to its 1-on-1 peg to the US dollar.
Extortionists Target Tether by Asking for 500 BTC
Back in late February, Tether announced that there were forged documents circulating online that aimed to undermine Tether and cryptocurrency’s credibility.
The group behind the extortion was asking 500 BTC to be sent to prevent the leak of the documents, which according to them could “harm the bitcoin ecosystem”.
Tether stated that they believe the extortion was a “pretty sad attempt at a shakedown” but it was being taken seriously, with all the information being forwarded to law enforcement for an investigation to take place.
The alleged documents supposedly show an email thread in which a Tether employee’s communicated with a representative from Bahamas bank Deltec would put in doubt the companies claims of its currency’s backing.
Fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) campaigns are not unusual in the cryptocurrency ecosystem but attempts to extortion companies of the size of Tether are pretty unusual.
However, as the cryptocurrency ecosystem continues to grow and more attention is paid to companies behind the projects, these types of actions are expected to increase.
The USDt Reserve Controversy
Despite being the most popular stablecoin used by millions, Tether has been in the eye of controversy since its inception in 2014 due to its claims of being backed by US dollars, which has been contested by multiple experts.
The controversy recently resulted in New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, investigating Tether’s operations and going as far as branding the company as “fraudulent” back on February 23rd and imposing an $18.5 million fine.
The reason behind the assertion was that Tether had been operating with the funds that backed the cryptocurrency by interacting with Bitfinex, which according to the attorney general was not aware of the location of the money during the investigation.
While Tether and Bitfinex settled with the general attorney’s office, both companies were banned from offering trading services in the state. Both companies denied any wrongdoing and claimed to pay the fine to “put this matter behind”.
Tether also agreed to disclose additional information about its reserves every quarter to the attorney general’s office and its users, increasing transparency to regain investor confidence.
The stablecoin is seen by many as one of the most influential forces in the crypto market, with personalities like Vitalik Buterin going as far as calling it a “ticking time bomb demon” when referring to the Bitcoin ecosystem, as it has proven to have a considerable impact on the most popular coin’s performance.
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