Highlights
- Unlike Tether's USDT, Collin's Pi Protocol is expected to provide yield to holders, which may come from tokenized investments in real-world assets (RWA).
- According to Bloomberg, the token is expected to launch on the Ethereum and Solana blockchains in the second half of 2025 or earlier.
Reeve Collins launches stablecoin Pi Protocol, which may generate yield from RWA. According to a Bloomberg report on Tuesday, Reeve Collins, one of the co-founders of Tether, is launching his own stablecoin project.
Similar to emerging stablecoin projects like Ethena and M^0, Collins' Pi Protocol is expected to provide yield to holders, which may come from tokenized investments in real-world assets (RWA). This model differs from early stablecoins like fiat-backed USDT and USDC, as well as algorithmically pegged DAI, whose primary function is to track the value of the US dollar rather than generate yield.
According to Bloomberg, the stablecoin protocol is planned to launch on the Ethereum and Solana blockchains in the second half of 2025.
It is currently unclear where the stablecoin's yield will come from, but several stablecoins have already distributed yield to holders by investing in RWA (such as US Treasuries). For example, Mountain Protocol's USDM stablecoin, launched last year, provides around 5% annualized yield to holders based on its reserve assets.
According to The Block data, Ethena's sUSDe currently dominates the yield-bearing synthetic dollar market, with a circulating market cap of around $4.5 billion. This is followed by MakerDAO's "savings-backed" DAI (sDAI) and BlackRock's BUIDL fund.
In 2024, Tether reported that its reserve asset portfolio (including government bonds, repurchase agreements (repos), and money market funds) generated over $1.3 billion in net profit for the company.
Reeve Collins served as Tether's CEO from 2013 to 2015, and prior to that, he co-founded Tether's predecessor "Realcoin" with Brock Pierce and Craig Sellars. The Tether stablecoin was first launched on the Bitcoin Omni layer in October 2014.
During his tenure as CEO, Collins facilitated Tether's close collaboration with the crypto exchange Bitfinex. Bitfinex acquired Tether shortly after Collins' departure in 2015. Collins also founded the early NFT platform BLOCKv and raised $22 million through an ICO in 2017. More recently, he sold the gaming startup Pala Interactive, which was acquired by Boyd Gaming for $70 million.
Tether has now become the most actively traded cryptocurrency. According to The Block data, its market cap has reached $141 billion.
