"Tether Faces Pressure as Crypto Market Shifts, Altcoin Season Unlikely in 2025"

Tether's competitors are increasingly exerting pressure to push the world's largest stablecoin issuer out of the crypto market, including political pressure aimed at reducing the firm's leading market share. Meanwhile, analysts suggest that most cryptocurrencies won't see a widespread "altcoin season" rally in 2025, and only select tokens with sustainable investor interest and revenue-generating models will be able to outperform the rest of the tokens.

Tether's CEO, Paolo Ardoino, has stated that the company faces mounting pressure from competing firms and politicians. Tether, the issuer of the world's largest stablecoin, USDt (USDT), has a market capitalization of more than $142 billion, over twice as large as Circle's USD Coin's (USDC) $56 billion. However, Ardoino noted that the stablecoin issuer is focused on promoting global financial inclusion, particularly in underdeveloped economies, with USDT used by more than 400 million people and gaining 35 million new wallets each quarter.

In the wider crypto markets, CryptoQuant's CEO, Ki Young Ju, believes that most cryptocurrencies beyond Bitcoin and Ether may not experience a widespread "altcoin season" rally in 2025. Projects with strong fundamentals and revenue-generating models could outperform the broader market, but the era of everything pumping is over, according to Ju. His outlook comes as 24% of the 200 largest cryptocurrencies have fallen to their lowest levels in more than a year, sparking speculation about possible market capitulation.

The hacker behind the $1.4 billion Bybit exploit has laundered more than $335 million in digital assets, with investigators continuing to track the movement of stolen funds. Crypto investor sentiment was hit by the largest hack in crypto history on Feb. 21, when Bybit lost over $1.4 billion in liquid-staked Ether (STETH), Mantle Staked ETH (mETH) and other digital assets.

US lawmakers in the House of Representatives have advanced a resolution to repeal the "DeFi broker rule," which requires brokers to report digital asset transactions to the Internal Revenue Service. The IRS broker regulation was approved on Dec. 5 and would expand existing reporting requirements to include decentralized exchanges. The House Ways and Means Committee voted 2