Tether co-founder supports new stablecoin project on Ethereum and Solana

What’s new? Reeve Collins, one of the co-founders and ex-director of Tether, will be the head of the new Pi Protocol stablecoin project. The protocol and USP token are planned to launch on the Ethereum and Solana platforms. This is expected to happen in the second half of 2025 or even earlier, Bloomberg reports.

Experts believe that the project could well compete with the dominant market players Tether and Circle by using tokenized real assets such as US Treasury bonds as collateral. This model follows the path of new competitors such as Ethena’s sUSDe ($4,5 billion issue size) and Mountain Protocol’s USDM (5% yield), as well as BlackRock’s BUIDL fund.

What else is known? As traditional stablecoins are transformed into interest-earning digital dollars, big players are entering the sector. Collins noted:

“We view Pi Protocol as the evolution of stablecoins. Tether has been extremely successful in showcasing demand for stablecoins. But they keep all the yield. We believe 10 years later the market is really ready to evolve.”

Tether itself remains dominant, having reported net gains of $13 billion in 2024 from government bonds, repurchase agreements, and money market funds. It has a market capitalization of $141 billion, solidifying its role as the most traded digital asset on the crypto markets.

Meanwhile, institutional investors such as BlackRock are betting on programmable dollars as the next phase of financial innovation, while IMF experts suggest that stablecoins could reinforce the dominance of the US dollar rather than challenge it.

What is known about the project’s creator? Collins served as CEO of Tether from 2013 to 2015 and had a significant impact on its initial development and launch, working alongside Brock Pierce and Craig Sellars. During his leadership, he became an important figure in shaping the relationship between Tether and the Bitfinex exchange and later founded the BLOCKv platform for NFTs, which raised $22 million in 2017. Collins also recently finalized the sale of his gaming startup Pala Interactive to Boyd Gaming for $70 million.