Tether (USDT) slides into the top 5 crypto currencies by market capital
Tether (USDT) had to struggle with a sharp decline in capitalization, especially in October 2018. Under the continuing downward trend of the crypto currency market, however, the stable coin has now slipped into the top 5 crypto currencies by market capitalization, partly due to the dramatic decline of other top currencies such as Bitcoin Cash and EOS.
October 2018 did not pass Tether by without a trace. As we reported, Tether did not issue any new tokens in October. Instead, Tether Limited sent a total of 690 million tether (USDT) back to its treasury account seven times within a few days, thus withdrawing it from circulation. It was noteworthy that the bulk of the outflows occurred either after or immediately before the loss of the USD peg by USDT, when the USDT price slipped to as low as USD 0.92. The USDT price was USD 0.92. The USDT price was USD 0.92. All in all, Tether Limited took more than a quarter of all tether out of circulation in October. The number of USDT has fallen from around 2.8 billion to 2.008 billion in October, currently even down to 1,856,421,736 USDT.
After October Tether did not degrade so much. One could speculate as to why this is currently the case. A possible factor could be the high cost of direct payments of tether (in USD) compared to other stablecoins. Paxos Standard, USD Coin and Gemini Dollar all have much friendlier payout terms than Tether, which requires a minimum in several thousand dollars.
The reason why Tether has now slipped into the top 5 crypto currencies by market capitalization seems obvious: the weakness of the other top crypto currencies. 90 days ago Litecoin still had a market capitalization of more than 3.4 billion dollars, currently it is only 1.46 billion dollars, 400 million dollars less than Tether. EOS was over 4 billion dollars at the time, but today it is about 1.72 billion dollars.
Paxos Standard, USDC and also TrueUSD are rapidly gaining in value in the last 30 days, PAX more than USDC, although USDC has a higher total capitalization. Currently TrueUSD is #23 with a market capital of 213 million US dollars, Coin is #26 with 194 million US dollars and Paxos is #29 with 172 million US dollars.
All in all, the “new” Stablecoins still have a lot to do. But if the trend continues, if newer players win and Tether loses, the day may not be far away if Tether is the runaway and one of the new stablecoins is the king.
