Amid stablecoin market ‘May-hem’, Tether taking new steps to regain lost ground

The largest stablecoin with a market cap of $73 billion, Tether, ether has launched its native USDT on Polygon. The move is expected to help Tether gain ground as the leading stablecoin despite the recent de-pegging. While stablecoins have had a difficult month, this is a step in the right direction.

Tether Token (USD₮) Launches on Polygon

Read the Press Release ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/mIOEKBAvdp

— Tether (@Tether_to) May 27, 2022

As per the press release, the addition of Tether to the Polygon ecosystem is a milestone moment as it offers a new stablecoin option for more than 8,000 teams building on Polygon. This move will also benefit Tether in increasing adoption across various blockchains. Tether is now live on eleven blockchains including Ethereum, Solana, Tron, Kusama, Algorand, EOS, Liquid Network, Omni and Bitcoin Cash’s Standard Ledger Protocol.

The tales of May-hem

Stablecoins have been at the center of attention of the crypto space in May. The “May-hem” was eventually set in motion for stablecoins when UST was de-pegged against the U.S dollar. The effect was catastrophic as the then $1 stablecoin was valued at $0.09 as of Wednesday. The de-pegging led to a stunning fall of the crypto market and wiped out more than $200 billion from the market. 

While a reboot has been initiated for ‘Terra’, there were still suspicions around stablecoins in light of the crash. Tether also came under the microscope and was ‘de-pegged’ at the height of the Terra collapse on 12 May. Tether’s value dropped to $0.97 which is its lowest since October 2020. Another shocking observation was the $10 billion fall in its market capitalization.

Source: Santiment

USDC, the second largest stablecoin by market cap, was the first to reap the benefits of the crashes. It had a volume of around $5 billion at the beginning of May but the Terra crash opened the floodgates.

At its peak, USDC was valued at $1.007 with a volume of around $20.68 billion on 12 May. DAI, on the other hand, did not witness such astronomical numbers. It still managed to shoot up its volume from $250 million to a massive $3 billion at the height of the crisis.

As USDC and DAI reached new heights during the Terra collapse, they were unable to hold on to the momentum. They are about to end the month more or less on the same page as they started. Even Tether looks back on track with the latest Polygon announcement but there remains little confidence in Terra’s reboot.