Stablecoin issuer Tether issued a record 2 billion USDT over the past week. As a result, the volume of USDT emission inof all supported networks, including Ethereum, Tron and Omni, reached 24.6 billion.
Alameda Research trader Sam Trabucco believes there are several reasons for this phenomenon.
“Some people don't trust local banks or currencies. USDT is the most liquid channel on the market to gain access to the dollar, ”he said.
Another reason is the “aggressive selling of bitcoinper USDT ”or operations in the opposite direction, due to which the USDT rate may temporarily deviate from the anchor currency up or down. Since the beginning of the month, the USDT price has been slightly above the dollar until it dipped below it this Monday, according to data from the Kraken exchange.
Tether CTO Paolo Ardoinoclaims that new large investors are actively using USDT for OTC trading, and this is contributing to the growth in the number of stablecoin tokens in circulation.
“Tether's clients include all major OTC platforms and high-frequency trading firms,” he said.
These platforms convert client funds into USDT and distribute buying pressure across all available liquidity sources, driving demand for stablecoin.
Трабукко добавил, что «повышенные объемы» на всех cryptocurrency trading platforms in recent weeks have been complemented by "the ability to use USDT as collateral in an increasing number of derivative products." USDT trading volumes continue to exceed those of Bitcoin, in pairs with which the bulk of activity on the crypto market was previously concentrated.
Tether previously announced all USDT in circulationbacked by US dollars, short-term reserves and other cryptocurrencies. In 2018, Deltec Bank issued an unauthorized letter confirming that Tether had $ 1.8 billion in reserves, which was equal to the amount of USDT in circulation at the time. In April 2019, a Tether lawyer reported that USDT is backed by fiat equivalents by 74%, and the rest of the collateral is represented by other financial instruments.
</p>“Tether is fully secured, period,” wrote Ardoino on December 31st.
