In mid this week, the cryptocurrency market spiraled to new 2018 lows wiping approximately 30 billion U.S dollars along the way. This crypto market dip opened investors to safer options in the market.
With Bitcoin and most other digital currencies dropping in price, coins pegged to the United States dollar saw an increase in market capitalization and a surge in their trading volumes within 24 hours. Some even witnessed an increase in trading volume of up to 400 percent.
Surprisingly, Tether was not among the most traded stable value coins although it has been known to be in the market for quite some time.
Its competitors, like the newly launched USD-C which is backed by reputable crypto firms, Coinbase and Circle, and GUSD which is a product from Gemini crypto exchange, were among the most traded on November 14 when the crypto prices fell sharply.
As reported by Coindesk, the two top gainers were USD-C and TUSD with USD-C achieving over 400 percent increase in its 24-hour trading volume.
However, the takeover by the newly launched stable coins does not seem to dent the reach and trading of USDT as it continued to occupy a bigger chunk of the trading volume.
Tether has had a fair share of controversies some of which indicate it has been used in the past to inflate or deflate the price of bitcoin. Its USDT: USD ratio has also been a topic of debate.
Unlike the new stable coins, Tether is available on more than 350 digital currency markets while others like Paxos Standard Dollar (PAX) are only available on less than 40 cryptocurrency markets.
The increased trading on these stable coins indicates that investors converted from Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, etc to the ‘stable’ options to guard themselves against market volatility.
With the recent crypto market dip opening investors to safer options, do you think they will hold the ‘safe’ options until the market looks up again?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
