Tether (USDT) could be America’s forty-first bank, a tradingplatforms.com’s data presentation shows. The stablecoin has a market capitalization of about $79 billion per the presentation. That valuation means that USDT has surpassed the total value of all but the top 40 banks in the U.S. by market capitalization.

How does Tether stack up against leading banks?

It seems like an odd comparison, but there are some similarities between USDT and banks. That makes it worth looking into how they stack up against each other. One can view both as stores of wealth for people looking for stable holdings for their assets. Again, both have to deal with problems of liquidity.

 “By all intents and purposes, Tether is a bank only that it isn’t,” says tradingplatforms.com’s Edith Reads. She says so, alluding to the crypto’s use in storing and moving funds globally, and adds, “The comparison puts into perspective how far the cryptocurrency industry has come. Tether’s growth is a remarkable feat. Though barely a decade old, it is competing favorably with some banks that have been in business and amassed capital for decades.”

Ranking America’s top banks

Tradingplatforms.com’s analysis considered the top 250 banks in America. JP Morgan Chase Bank remains the largest bank in market cap terms. The banking giant is worth over $3T.

Other banks in the trillion-dollar range include, Bank of America(BofA), Wells Fargo (WFB), and Citibank(Citi). BofA holds the second spot with a capitalization of $2.25T. Meanwhile, WFB and CITI have market values of $1.76T and $1.66T, respectively.

Despite its position as leading stablecoin, Tether has been criticized for its non-transparent nature. It does not provide an audit report that would prove that there are enough dollars in reserve to back all of its tokens. Even so, it continues to be widely used across crypto exchanges.