In what’s become the ‘new normal,’ Tether now commonly boasts trading volume higher than Bitcoin. At the time of writing, USDT has some $20B in trading volume while Bitcoin has $18B.
Tether is steeped in controversy — more so than ever before — but its trading volume remains at all-time highs. In fact, it’s almost always higher than Bitcoin’s trading volume.
Yet, there’s more than meets the eye.
As has been established a much-publicized BitWise report released during the spring, 95 percent of cryptocurrency trading is ‘fake.’ For Tether, this number is even higher than usual given that most of its volume is coming from no-name or unregulated exchanges. For example, CoinMarketCap currently writes that the leading exchanges for USDT/BTC trading volume including ZB.com ($583M), BKEXS ($509M), and DigiFinex ($505M).
The amount of Tether-led wash trading is likely keeping many altcoins afloat right now, especially those which have collapsed entirely since 2017. In fact, if Tether were to implode, we would definitely see a mass purge of many dead projects and irrelevant altcoins.
Tether has been eating away at Bitcoin’s trading volume all year. In fact, all Bitcoin-led trading pairs have declined significantly as stablecoins become more popular to trade against altcoins. It seems that many cryptocurrency traders are opting for stability rather than Bitcoin’s volatility.It is now the norm for Tether to be leading Bitcoin in volume.
— CasPiancey (@CasPiancey) August 26, 2019
And yes, it’s accurate to point out almost all the Tether volume is wash trading and trading against shitcoins. ie, maybe the wash trading and shitcoins would stop without Tether. pic.twitter.com/xsmgovnkBd


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Anton Lucian
Raised in the U.S, Lucian graduated with a BA in economic history. An accomplished freelance journalist, he specializes in writing about the cryptocurrency space and the digital...
Raised in the U.S, Lucian graduated with a BA in economic history. An accomplished freelance journalist, he specializes in writing about the cryptocurrency space and the digital...
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