Tethering on the Edge: How the Tether Affected Bitcoin

While the top dogs in the cryptocurrency world are still Bitcoin and Ethereum as far as today’s best crypto platforms go, other tokens like the ones recently released by Tether still take centerstage, All Crypto Talk reports. Tether has become the go-to token in identifying the value of other cryptocurrencies in the market. This is based on the observation of Binance, one of the top cryptocurrency exchange platforms used in the market as of this writing.

Binance is one platform equipped with a coin trading software that allows Tether pairings as a hedge against the riskier parts of crypto trading. The usage of these Tether pairings to shield certain investors from the still volatile performance of Bitcoin is viewed as one of the reasons behind Tether’s decision to issue 300 million new tokens on the third week of March 2018. It is perceived as a good way to take advantage of fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) existing in the market today.

Trading volume dictated the way Tether got used for most cryptocurrency exchanges according to Changpeng Zhao, Binance’s CEO. But speculations on the actual value of Tether coins on their own increased the moment new tokens got issued since it resulted to a 6% rebound in Bitcoin’s price according to CoinTelegraph. It led to Tether getting extra - to the point of unwanted - attention due to the after-effects felt across the top cryptocurrency trading platforms.

Since no audit could confirm or deny accusations against Tether’s lack of fiat reserves to back their utility tokens, investors can only vie upon the company’s word that USDT tokens have the backing of United States Dollars to the ratio of 1:1. It does not help that any criticism thrown against Tether and its sister cryptocurrency exchange company Bitfinex is retaliated with threats to push through with any legal action applicable to them. All critics are left to do then is simply pay closer attention to any fluctuations to the prices of Tether tokens and Bitcoin respectively.