While all eyes are on Bitcoin, as the cryptocurrency community watches and waits for the asset’s next uptrend to begin, another crypto asset has gone parabolic – but not in price.
The market cap and total supply of Tether have been skyrocketing more so than Bitcoin price has. Also easily besting Bitcoin, is the amount of Tether transactions on the Ethereum blockchain, potentially demonstrating that the stablecoin is very quickly becoming the cryptocurrency of choice.
Tether Transactions on Ethereum Outpace Bitcoin For First Time Ever
Tether is what the cryptocurrency industry refers to as a stablecoin. Its value is both directly tied to the dollar and backed 1:1 by a corresponding amount of fiat currency and other assets.
This keeps the price of the cryptocurrency relatively stable, which makes it an ideal safe haven for cryptocurrency traders to park capital in during Bitcoin downturns.
Related Reading | It’s Official: Tether Flippens XRP After Recent Crypto Crash
That use case is what put Tether on the map in the first place, but its since grown into a powerhouse of a cryptocurrency – possibly the most used asset in the space.
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According to data, Tether’s market cap has ballooned to nearly $10 million in USD value. The continued printing of more and more of the stablecoin has caused the asset to “flippen” Ripple out from the number three spot in the crypto market top ten by market cap.
Also surging is the number of Tether transactions taking place on the Etheruem blockchain.
Data shows that the total number of transactions sent of Tether through the Ethereum blockchain has outpaced Bitcoin for the first time ever.
Daily Tether transactions achieved a high of 282,000 transactions, while Bitcoin fell behind with just 254,000 transactions.
Tether is not only leapfrogging Bitcoin in totally daily transactions, but it is also dominating the Ethereum network.
The total number of Tether-based transactions is now ten times more than any other ERC-20 token. ERC-20 is an agreed-upon Ethereum standard that was used to launch thousands of new tokens during the ICO boom.
USDT Printing Fails To Boost Cryptocurrency Rally, Is The Stablecoin Finding a New Use Case?
Each new spike in new Tether printed gets the cryptocurrency market increasingly bullish on Bitcoin. In the past, Tether printing has led to the cryptocurrency pumping. This time around, Tether keeps on pumping out new stablecoin assets, but Bitcoin continues to struggle with resistance at $10,000.
Meanwhile, Tether’s market cap has never been larger, and the asset has never been more widely used. Tether’s market cap has nearly doubled since the historic Black Thursday price collapse in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
Instead of relying on acting as a safe haven during extreme crypto market volatility, the stablecoin has found itself a new use case as being the crypto asset most likely to be sent from exchange to exchange, or from wallet to wallet.
Related Reading | Surging Demand and Seized Supply Spark Rapid Growth in Tether’s Digital Gold
Bitcoin, as the first-ever cryptocurrency, often shows its age when it comes to the speed of its network and how quickly transactions are confirmed. Fees have also surged as the network clogs.
Recently, Bitcoin transaction fees reached an absurd high, and transaction confirmations began taking upwards of 24 hours in some cases as a result.
The boost in Tether could be due to its use case expanding into a simple, low-fee, and fast way to send money from account to account, all without the bottlenecks of commonly found when sending Bitcoin.
Once Tether arrives at its destination, it can easily be exchanged for Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies, making it rapidly becoming the cryptocurrency of choice for many.
