As of August 13, Tether (USDT) balances on crypto exchanges reached a record high of $20.339 billion, signaling that investors may be preparing to channel them into other cryptocurrencies ahead of the U.S. Federal Reserve's upcoming interest rate decision in September.
This surge in Tether’s reserves followed the issuance of $1 billion in USDT from Tether’s vault on the Ethereum network.
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino explained that the transaction was an “inventory replenishment,” meaning that the tokens were reserved for future issuance requests rather than being immediately put into circulation.
Data from Tether’s transparency page shows that $941.72 million in USDT was “authorized but unissued” on Ethereum as of August 14, indicating that approximately $60 million of it from the recent issuance has already entered circulation.
This reflects strong demand for USDT in anticipation of upcoming market movements.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has spotlighted a significant acceleration in institutional crypto adoption, driven largely by the surging popularity of exchange-traded funds and increased use of Coinbase Prime among major corporations.
The latest market turbulence, fueled by geopolitical tensions and investor fear, offered a textbook case of how sentiment swings and whale behavior shape crypto price action.
Jefferies chief market strategist David Zervos believes an upcoming power shift at the Federal Reserve could benefit U.S. equity markets.
Anchorage Digital, a federally chartered crypto custody bank, is urging its institutional clients to move away from major stablecoins like USDC, Agora USD (AUSD), and Usual USD (USD0), recommending instead a shift to the Global Dollar (USDG) — a stablecoin issued by Paxos and backed by a consortium that includes Anchorage itself.