Blockchain explorer Whale Alert flagged a USDT mint worth $1 billion on the Ethereum network on September 16th at the Tether Treasury. Tether’s CEO Paolo Ardoino clarified that the mint was an authorized transaction, and the minted tokens have not been issued. The executive noted that the minted USDT will be used to replenish inventory.

Tether, the world’s largest stablecoin by market capitalization, minted 1 billion USDT tokens on the Ethereum blockchain at Tether Treasuries. Popular blockchain explorer and analytics entity Whale Alert flagged the transaction on 16th September via an X post.

Tether’s CEO responds to the mint

Tether’s chief executive officer responded to the post, clarifying the intended purpose for the mint. According to Ardoino, the mint was an authorized transaction meant for inventory replenishment on the Ethereum network.

Ardoino emphasized that the minted tokens have not been issued and will be used as inventory for the next issuance requests chain waps.

“Note this is an authorized but not issued transaction, meaning that this amount will be used as inventory for next period issuance requests and chain swaps.”

–Paolo Ardoino

Paolo meant that the minted supply was not yet dispensed in circulation and had been created to respond to future demand.

Tether mints USDT tokens on other blockchains such as Tron, Cosmos, and EOS. According to Tether’s transparency website, Ethereum has a total authorized USDT supply of $53.9 billion, with the less authorized valued at $63.5 million. The net circulation of USDT on Ethereum stands at $53.9 billion.

Ethereum trails the Tron network, which currently leads the pack with the largest supply of minted USDT from Tether Treasuries. The authorized minted USDT supply on Tron is currently valued at $61.8 billion, according to data from Tether’s transparency website. The authorized but not issued supply accounts for $762 million. The net circulation on Tron is currently $61.03 billion.

USDT mint sparks bullish comments

The news about the mint sparked a wave of bullish comments on the original post from Whale Alert. One user commented on Paolo Ardoino’s reply post, stating that the news was bullish. Another user also expressed their bullish sentiment by stating that the bull run was on the horizon.

Another X user highlighted that Tether’s mint was replenishing inventory in the next issuance since whales are preparing to buy Bitcoin at a cheaper price.

Recently, several technical and fundamental analysts also predicted that the crypto market was on the verge of a bull run. Michaël van de Poppe, Founder of MNConsultancy, noted that Bitcoin and commodities could slip into a bull run for the next ten years since the asset classes are undervalued.

On August 9th, Lookonchain reported that Tether minted and transferred $1.3 billion to major crypto exchanges such as Coinbase, Kraken, and OKX. At the time, Bitcoin had bottomed at a five-month low of just above $49,500 before recovering to the $65,000 mark.