Tether Returns to the Top of the Crypto Market as BTC Dips
EOS and Binance Coin have just been passed by Tether (USDT) on the de-facto cryptocurrency leaderboard. As of the time of writing this, the stablecoin is the 6th largest cryptocurrency, sporting a market capitalization just shy of $4 billion, with BNB and EOS (in that order) fall in line after it.
USDT’s ranking surge, which comes as the asset was 8th largest for weeks on end, comes as Bitcoin has dumped, as have all altcoins. The leading cryptocurrency is down 11% in the past 24 hours, finding itself trading at $10,000. Due to the severity of this dump and the rationale of investors in this budding market, altcoins have dumped even harder, with Ethereum posting a loss of nearly 20% — returning the levels it was trading at in October of 2018.
Both Binance Coin and EOS are down around 11% in the past 24 hours, both managing to somehow match and trace the performance of Bitcoin.
While USDT’s return to the upper echelons of the cryptocurrency market could be seen as decidedly bearish, there may be a silver lining. You see, over recent months, analysts, namely Filb Filb, have begun to observe a correlation trend between the number of USDT in circulation and the price of Bitcoin. As USDT enters the market, so does BTC. Fundamentally, this makes sense.
As Kraken’s Jesse Powell explained in an interview with TD Ameritrade, the influx of USDT is an extension of the amount of money flowing into the cryptocurrency space.
With money obviously being injected into this market via Tether, and thus through exchanges like Binance, there is a chance for a recovery from the current levels of $10,000.
Binance Coin Falls Amid Positive News Flurry
Binance’s collapse comes as the crypto startup has seen a flurry of positive news. As reported by Ethereum World News previously, Binance launched margin trading for eligible, KYC-verified users of the exchange.
Per a blog post detailing the new product, this new product is part of Binance’s “effort to help push the industry forward and freedom of money”. Per a quote from the exchange’s beloved CEO, Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, the introduction of margin trading will also help his startup accommodate both “advanced institutional traders and retail traders” under one single roof, this being Binance.com.
To use this new system, which only is supported on some Bitcoin, Ethereum, Binance Coin, Tron, and Ripple’s XRP trading pairs for the time being, users will need to transfer their funds between their primary Binance wallet and their new margin wallet.
Binance is soon expected to launch futures trading, making it one of, if not the first startup to delve into spot, futures, margin, and decentralized trading.
That’s not all. CZ revealed just recently that Binance will be burning more of its BNB than expected, meaning that from a supply-demand economics perspective, the asset could perform better should demand persist.
Title Image Courtesy of Andrew Neel Via Unsplsah
