Tether (USDT) in the Top 5 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization

Tether (USDT) suffered from a sharp decline in market capitalization since October 2018. But with the cryptocurrency market continuing its downward trend, the Stablecoin has now made its way into the Top 5. One factor for this was the dramatic decline of other currencies such as Bitcoin Cash and EOS.

Tether did not issue any new tokens in October of this year. Instead, within a few days, Tether Limited did send a total of 690 million Tethers (USDT) back to its Treasury account. The company took these tokens out of circulation.

Tether took 25% of tokens out of circulation

Remarkably, most of the transactions took place either immediately after or just before the loss of the USD peg, as the USDT price decreased to $ 0.92. In total, Tether Limited took more than a quarter of all Tethers out of circulation in October. The number of USDT dropped from around 2.8 billion to 2.008 billion in October, and currently to even 1.856.421.736 USDT.

Tether has just destroyed 500M USDt from the Tether treasury wallet with the following tx: https://t.co/HTG52LaRVh
For more information see the announcement here: https://t.co/McLTCGzmJi

— Tether (@Tether_to) October 24, 2018

In November however, this trend did not continue. One potential factor could be the high cost of Tether payouts (in USD) compared to other Stablecoins. Paxo’s Standard, USD Coin and the Gemini Dollar all have much friendlier payout conditions than Tether, which requires a minimum of several thousand dollars.

Tether (USTD) in the Top 5

The reason why the stablecoin has now made its way into the top 5 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization seems obvious: it is the weakness of other cryptocurrencies. Days ago, Litecoin still had a market capitalization of more than $ 3.4 billion, but is currently only at $ 1.46 billion. This is $ 400 million less than USTD. EOS was at over $ 4 billion but is now at about $ 1.72 billion.

Bitcoin Cash, however, suffered the biggest decline, caused by the Hard Fork and “hash war” with Bitcoin SV. BCH lost about 75% of its former position. 90 days ago, the coin had a market capitalization of just over $ 8 billion, compared to the $ 1.75 billion of today.

Will Tether still be the Top Stablecoin?

Paxo’s Standard, USDC and also TrueUSD are rapidly gaining value over the last 30 days. PAX even more than USDC, even though USDC has a higher total capitalization. Currently, TrueUSD is ranked # 23, with a market capitalization of $ 213 million. USD Coin is at number 26 with $ 194 million, and Paxos at number 29 with $ 172 million.

The “new” Stablecoins still have a lot of work to do. However, if the trend continues and new coins continue to gain space, Tether might not continue as the number 1 stablecoin in the market.