Bitcoin (BTC) rally is fueled by Tether - expert opinion

The capitalization of the most popular stablecoin Tether (USDT) is snowballing as the market has entered the recovery mode. At the time of writing, USDT takes the 9th place in the global rating of digital assets compiled by CoinMarketCap. The total market value of the stablecoin is registered at $3.5 billion, at the beginning of the year, it was about $1.8 billion.

Experts believe that many traders prefer stablecoins as they are considered a safer option than traditional digital currencies. Moreover, the growing trading volumes of Bitcoin may also be supported by Tether as the digital currency No1 is bought primarily with this coin. The share of USDT in BTC trades exceeds 64%, USD takes second place with 18%. 

Meanwhile, Facebook’s Libra might have excited interest in stablecoins and influence the trading volumes of Tether. It remains to be seen if the momentum can be sustained, considering the recent debacle related to Tether manipulations.

Also, cryptocurrency experts are worried that Tether-driven Bitcoin growth may be short-lived as it is not backed by either retail of institutional interest. 

“Bitcoin: this last run is not backed by more Google searches nor tweets about #bitcoin,” cryptocurrency investor Eneko Knorr writes in his Twitter.

Meanwhile, BTC/USD is changing hands at $11,200. The first cryptocurrency has gained about 3% of its value in recent 24 hours and stayed unchanged since the beginning of the day.