Crypto Bloodbath Vaults Tether to 4th in Market Cap Rankings
Following today's crypto bloodbath, Tether (USDT) now ranks as the fourth-largest cryptocurrency. | Source: Shutterstock
With a roughly 10% increase to its market capitalization, Tether (USDT) has shifted to the fourth slot in the crypto market cap rankings.
The repositioning can be attributed more to the downfall of other cryptocurrencies than it can to increased demand for Tether or expansion of its market cap. At $2 billion, it is about 20% of third-place Ethereum. Combined, the top three (Bitcoin, Ripple/XRP, and Ethereum) make up $70 billion of the current $112 billion cryptocurrency market capitalization.
Former number four EOS dropped by over $200 million, or 10%, over the past 7 days.
24-hour trading charts showed EOS struggling to retain its over-$2 price range.
This reporter has previously speculated with some degree of accuracy that the $2 billion in USDT is likely to stick around for a long time due to the structure of Tether withdrawals. Its position in the top 10 cryptos by market cap is relative to the performance of other cryptocurrency assets more than it is attractiveness of Tether itself.
Tether Somewhat Stagnant, Other Stablecoins Growing
The world’s oldest pegged stablecoin has been pitted against a growing list of alternatives over the past year.
TrueUSD, which is the first offering on the TrustToken platform, has seen relatively steady growth.
Over the same period that TUSD has added around $2 million new units to its belt, Paxos Standard has seen $10 million exit. TUSD currently leads itBit’s PAX by about $65 million.
MakerDAO’s Dai added about the same as TUSD over the 7-day period, topping out at $75 million.
Meanwhile, Gemini USD had an interesting if chaotic week, recovering from $91 million up to $95 million.
Circle-backed USDCoin led the alt-stablecoin market with over $335 million. This figure hasn’t changed since the beginning of the 7-day period, although early on it had dropped by about 10% at one point.
Combined, the five stablecoins make up more than a quarter of the total market capitalization of USDT. USDT remains king for various reasons, although the momentum certainly seems in the favor of the others. Its $2 billion is unlikely to go anywhere. Other stablecoins may increase their network value with the next bull run, but the pegged coin will likely retain a large portion of its capitalization due to high withdrawal fees.
The future is still wide open for stablecoins. USDC has made a strong showing, but dozens of new alternatives will be entering the market in the coming years. The main points of competition seem to be on liquidity, ease of use, and regulatory disposition.
Featured Image from Shutterstock. Price Charts from CoinMarketCap and TradingView.
