Almost two weeks ago, when I posted that Bittrex had chosen a different token to create a USD market for it, I wrapped it up like this, without anything but my gut feeling to back it up:
And I still believe that USD market on a large exchange is coming sooner or later for STEEM. I would say quite soon if you ask me, but it's just a feeling.
I was right, except on the "large" part. :) So far!
Yesterday evening, my time, Steemit announced the long awaited event. That STEEM will have a direct USD market going forward.
There is a little catch though. The exchange where the fiat trading pair was created for STEEM is not really known. Its name "Lykke" (which I like), apparently means luck, and they are based in Switzerland. It doesn't show up on coinmarketcap's list of exchanges, however. On coingecko they are the 195th by daily volume. And citizens of some major countries and provinces are still restricted to use their services.
The fact that they have fiat operations, which some big exchanges still don't, is a big plus for them, even if they are not known or used much in the market. And probably creates some regulatory issues in some countries. Maybe the fact they are based in Switzerland helped with easier fiat bridging? :)
This listing is done obviously for mutual interest, which is understandable, because they can use the exposure which Steem can offer. I'm happy for our first STEEM-USD listing, and every tiny step forward counts. But I guess in my ideal world this piece of news would have created a much greater justified hype.
Hopefully, now that we have our first direct fiat trading pair for STEEM, we could (re)try to aim higher, for the next one.