Tether is an outlier in that it’s a major player in the cryptocurrency market. Most notably, it has caught the world’s attention by now holding nearly $120 billion in U.S. government debt. Bizarrely, Tether is now the 19th largest holder of U.S. Treasurys. So much so, that it has outpaced powerhouses such as Germany and the United Arab Emirates. The implications of Tether’s financial maneuvers have sparked discussions about its role in the stablecoin market and about the broader cryptocurrency landscape.
Around 70% of the global stablecoin market is in Tether’s hands. The sheer scale of their influence creates significant, critical questions around the risks and benefits of their operations. Donald Trump Jr. provided some cryptic hints in a recent interview about the Trump family’s interest in cryptocurrency. He justified their entry into this sector as a logical answer to what they encountered using conventional banking systems. He reiterated how much their launch into the crypto market went well past a vanity project. This quickly became necessary after they were “debanked” as casualties of his father’s political rise.
Tether has a massive pile of assets that fund the company’s profitability. Leaping ahead to the first quarter of 2025, it announced an astounding operating profit of more than $1 billion. The company’s financial health stands in stark contrast to the plight of so many legacy banking institutions.
Despite Tether’s success, concerns regarding blockchain anonymity persist, and Trump Jr. acknowledged this aspect without disputing its potential for misuse. The thing is, you can’t tell who’s behind any of these actions,” he added. He underscored the challenges of realizing the intended transparency of the blockchain ecosystem. He emphasized that it’s hard to have an impact if you don’t know where the data came from. This demonstrates the real challenges in tracking transactions in a decentralized and opaque environment.
Now the Trump family has leapt into the world of cryptocurrencies by launching their own meme coin $TRUMP. This crypto had an absolute explosion in trading activity immediately following its launch. Between January and late April alone, over $324 million in trading fees were reportedly routed to wallets linked to the creators of this token. The $TRUMP token issued only three days before Donald Trump’s inauguration. It eventually catapulted itself to a market valuation of $15 billion.
As Donald Trump Jr. noted in an oped published by the Forum, there’s great opportunity for stablecoins such as USD1 to strengthen U.S. financial supremacy — not weaken it. He was hopeful about their prospects, noting of their place in the global economy, “Stablecoins could be the savior of U.S. currency.” This perspective aligns with his family’s broader strategy to leverage cryptocurrency as a viable alternative amidst increasing distrust in conventional banking systems.
A recent court filing by the plaintiffs triggered even deeper regulatory scrutiny. Justin Sun and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) are negotiating a settlement for the civil fraud lawsuit filed against him by the SEC. This fluid, constantly-evolving environment only adds to the uncertainty for those operating within the cryptocurrency space and makes clear the regulatory hurdles that still await.
Meanwhile, Tether is continuing to do great, as the defacto kingpin of the cryptocurrency space, though. Yet we are yet to see how its large holdings and relationships with other significant financial players will shape future market dynamics. As discussions around transparency and regulation persist, industry stakeholders watch closely to gauge the ramifications these developments might have on both traditional and digital finance.