July 8, 2014. Michael Casey broke the story in the Wall Street Journal: a new startup called Realcoin was launching a dollar-backed digital currency. Bitcoin was struggling at $600. Most dismissed crypto as drug money.
But Reeve Collins, along with Brock Pierce and Craig Sellars, saw something different: they saw Bitcoin's fatal flaw for commerce: nobody wants to pay for coffee with something that might double in value tomorrow.
“Unfortunately, there has been confusion for people between the currency called bitcoin and the technology called bitcoin, when they are distinctly different things,” Collins told the WSJ. Realcoin, he explained, was basically “digitizing the dollar” by giving it access to the bitcoin blockchain.
Their solution launched as “Realcoin”, a name that lasted just four months before becoming Tether. The mechanism was simple: deposit one dollar, get one USDT. Redeem one USDT, get one dollar back. No algorithms, no complex collateralization, just dollars in a bank account.
The challenge? No bank wanted their money. Traditional finance saw crypto as radioactive. Every door closed. Every partnership fell through. But Tether persisted.
By late 2017, something unexpected happened. Despite every obstacle, Tether became crypto's lifeblood. Traders needed a stable asset to move between exchanges. USDT filled that gap perfectly. The simple idea had become essential infrastructure.
