Tether (USDT-USD) stablecoin on Thursday is gaining above $1 in a rare move that comes in the wake of Russia-Ukraine tensions. Note USDT is the largest stablecoin with a $79.5B market cap, followed by USD Coin (USDC-USD) valued at over $53B and Dai (DAI-USD) at $10.15B. The price of USDT on Ukrainian cryptocurrency exchange Kuna is rising to 31.90 hryvnia, which is equivalent to $1.09 per USDT even though it's supposed to be pegged at $1 (29.48 UAH). The only other time investors paid a hefty premium over the U.S. dollar for USDT was at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020. Looking at Binance, the world's largest digital asset exchange, the USDT/UAH pair is climbing nearly 7% to 31.83 hryvnia ($1.07). In mid-February, U.S. Treasury's Nellie Liang said there is a risk that stablecoins are not backed dollar-for-dollar.
