Tether created the USDT stablecoin in 2014, and it’s now the biggest of its kind with a $73.2 billion market cap, big enough to make it the third largest cryptocurrency overall. Now, just as USDT is flagging during a brutal month in the crypto market, Tether is still thinking bigger, expanding into Latin America with a new crypto that is pegged to the price of the Mexican peso.
On Thursday, Tether launched the new cryptocurrency, MXN₮, to accommodate the growing popularity of cryptocurrencies in Latin America, according to a press release.
“Introducing a Peso-pegged stablecoin will provide a store of value for those in the emerging markets and in particular Mexico,” said Paolo Ardoino, Tether’s chief technology officer, in the release. “MXN₮ can minimize volatility for those looking to convert their assets and investments from fiat to digital currencies.”
Launching MXN₮ will serve as a testing ground and help attract other fiat-pegged cryptocurrencies to Latin America, the company said.
The new stablecoin, MXN₮, will be Tether’s fourth stablecoin pegged to a fiat currency. The company also has stablecoins that are pegged to the euro and the Chinese yuan. A stablecoin is a type of cryptocurrency that is meant to have a constant value, usually tied to a non-crypto asset like a nation’s currency.
Investors have cashed out about $10 billion worth of Tether tokens since May 11, after the collapse of algorithmic stablecoin UST shook the crypto world and caused investors to reevaluate their stablecoin investments.
Tether said the redemptions were no problem, and that it has more than enough assets to cover the value of all its circulating tokens. An attestation of its reserves by independent accountants that Tether published on May 19 showed that the company had increased the number of U.S. Treasury bills in its reserves and decreased its riskier commercial paper holdings by 20% since the start of the second quarter.
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