📊 Current situation (Q3 2025)
1. Market dominance:
- 78% share among stablecoins ($135 billion capitalization)
- Support for 18 blockchains (including new L3 solutions)
- Average daily volume: $68 billion (2.5x more than all competitors combined)
2. Reserve portfolio (as of June 30, 2025):
- U.S. Treasury bonds: 58.3%
- Cash equivalents: 32.1%
- BTC/ETH: 4.7%
- Corporate bonds: 3.9%
- Other assets: 1.0%
🔧 Technical updates 2025
- USDT Smart (programmable payments on Ethereum L2)
- Zero-Gas Transfers (free transfers between partner exchanges)
- CBDC Bridge (bridge with digital yuan and euro)
🌍 Where is USDT used?
| Sector | Examples | USDT share |
|-------|---------|-----------|
| Exchanges | Binance, Bybit, OKX | 89% pairs |
| DeFi | Aave, Compound, Uniswap | $42B TVL |
| International transfers | 170+ countries | $12B/month |
| Trading | P2P platforms | 73% of volume |
⚠️ 5 major risks
1. Regulatory attacks (new U.S. law on stablecoins)
2. Competition with CBDC (digital euro launched in 11 countries)
3. Technical vulnerabilities (attacks on bridges)
4. Reputation issues (history of unconfirmed reserves)
5. Banking risks (problems with correspondent accounts)
💡 Practical tips
For traders:
- Use USDT for 90% of transactions (best liquidity)
- Convert to USDC for long-term storage
For businesses:
- Accept USDT via BitPay (0.5% fee)
- Use USDT Smart for B2B payments
For developers:
- Integrate USDT API (Tether v3 documentation)
- Optimize for L2 solutions
📈 Forecast until 2026
- Optimistic: $180B capitalization (integration with Visa)
- Base case: $150B (current growth rates)
- Pessimistic: $90B (if banned in the U.S.)
🔐 Security
1. Storage:
- Cold wallets (Ledger)
- Custodial solutions (Coinbase Institutional)
2. Transfers:
- Always check the network (ERC-20 vs TRC-20)
- Use a whitelist of addresses
3. Exchange:
- Only top-5 exchanges (lower risk of freezing)
Conclusion: USDT remains the "oil" of the crypto market, but requires careful handling. For large amounts, we recommend diversification between USDT, USDC, and FDUSD.