Stablecoin Season
Tether has just announced plans to launch a new stablecoin for the US market, calling it USAT.
At this rate, the Rabbit Swap blog is turning into a stablecoin blog:
- two days ago I wrote about USDH,
- yesterday it was hUSDe,
- and today we’ve got USAT.
Everyone’s been waiting for altseason. Mike Novogratz even declared that Solana season has begun. But honestly, what we’re seeing right now looks more like stablecoin season. Big announcements in this space are popping up almost daily.
And yet, real demand for stablecoins outside the mainstream ones looks very weak:
- rabbit.io users are actively swapping USDT and USDC,
- PYUSD and DAI get some traction,
- but that’s about it. Beyond this short list, there’s practically no real usage, even though Rabbit Swap supports a much wider range of stablecoins.
That’s why I’m skeptical about USAT’s prospects.
On one hand, you could frame it like this:
Two stablecoins from the same issuer. One (USAT) is fully compliant with US regulations. The other (USDT) is unregulated everywhere and hasn’t managed a proper audit in over ten years. Which one would you choose?
Looked at this way, it seems obvious that USDT doesn’t stand a chance - everyone should eventually move to USAT.
But on the other hand, remember what happened with Europe’s MiCA regulations. USDT wasn’t compliant there either, so Tether launched USDQ and EURQ. Both are available for swapping on rabbit.io, but user interest is basically nonexistent.
That makes it look like USAT is the one with no chance.
I honestly don’t see what could seriously shift the stablecoin landscape - unless USDT collapses. Maybe that’s exactly what all these new issuers are preparing for?
