Are you new to crypto industry? Have you heard about Bitcoin? I’m sure most of us have heard about this widely used cryptocurrency. Moreover, BTC is the first crypto that anybody will check out; it’s so widespread. Henceforth, it must be a common notion that Bitcoin will be the highest traded crypto amongst all. However, this statement has been proved false by this controversial stablecoin. Let’s see how Tether (USDT) has slowly but steadily drawn level with Bitcoin in terms of trading volume.
Before going further, a short introduction of what is Tether?
What is Tether?
Tether is a stablecoin pegged 1:1 to the American Dollar since 2014. This USDT token was originally designed to always be worth $1.00 As a result, any turbulence in the crypto industry will not affect the Tether token. This transparency has caused the crypto industry to put their faith on USDT token.
Tether crypto slogans put it, ‘digital money for a digital age’, and aims to ‘bring real world currency to the blockchain’.
Tether vs Bitcoin –
As of now, Bitcoin has a trading value of $10,372 while USDT is a stablecoin. The Tether token will trade at 1$ on all exchanges. As per a report, Bitcoin accounts for about 70% of the entire digital-asset world’s market value in terms of market cap. However, Tether, with a market cap 30 times smaller than BTC, surpasses the monthly and daily Bitcoin trading volume. Isn’t it an incredible feat for Tether!
USDT is the top crypto on the basis of 24hr trading volume as per the CoinMarketCap data.
This stablecoin has a trading volume of $54,461,162,352 with Bitcoin lagging behind at $42,226,890,474. Although BTC is trying to cope up, USDT is changing hands at the same pace as of Bitcoin.
Tether’s market cap bloomed in 2018 and since then, this controversial crypto is being traded frequently.
With all this being said, why do you think Tether is so popular among the crypto-traders? Well, its transparency is the main reason for USDT to enjoy the top position.
“For many people in Asia, they like the idea that it’s this offshore, opaque thing out of reach of the U.S. government,” noted Jeremy Allaire, chief executive officer of Circle, which supports a rival stablecoin called USD Coin. “It’s a feature, not a problem.”
However, Tether has its own share of complications –
First of all, it is being controlled by the central government. This defeats the entire original purpose of blockchain and decentralized cryptocurrencies. Moreover, in the initial days, the team behind USDT had kept themselves a secret. This later came into light that Tether is a brainchild of the Bitfinex Management team. Also, the study suggests that Tether was used to manipulate BTC price in 2017.
In spite of these controversies, the trading volume of USDT is not compromised. Instead, it is steadily increasing. Let’s see last few days of Bitcoin and Tether 24hr trading volume –
As you can see, Bitcoin has a volatile trading volume in February 2020. However, the USDT trading volume shows a constant graph.
It can be easily said that Tether remains the favorite stablecoin of the industry looking at its trading volume. The USDT/BTC is one of the most popular Bitcoin trading pairs as well.
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