Tether Mints $2 Billion USDT in Back-to-Back Ethereum Transactions

Tether, the company behind the USDT stablecoin, created two new batches of USDT totaling $2 billion on the Ethereum blockchain in two separate transactions over a 24-hour period on July 16th and 17th. Each transaction involved roughly $1 billion worth of USDT. The first minting incurred a small fee of 0.000681 ETH and the newly created USDT was sent to a Tether-controlled address typically used for managing their supply. This type of activity has historically been followed by the distribution of USDT to cryptocurrency exchanges or large institutional buyers, likely in response to increased market demand.