Tether Issued in August Not Influencing Crypto Markets

The recent issuances of stablecoin Tether (USDT) have yet to impact the prices of either major cryptocurrencies or even smaller altcoins.

This is according to a report seen on Bloomberg.

The claims that Tether has been used to influence or stabilize the price of Bitcoin (BTC) — previously brought up in a paper from the University of Texas — are not holding true for the crypto markets this month.

The paper had alleged that Bitcoin touched its all-time high of $20,000 due to price manipulation that involved both Tether and sixth largest crypto exchange Bitfinex, which is said to be “the only direct client” of Tether.

The research paper had utilized 87 examples of the largest purchases of Tether with BTC from March 2017 to March 2018, discovering that although they made up for “less than 1 percent of the time period examined, they amounted to about 50 percent of Bitcoin’s compounded return over that year.”

This week, the findings made in a recent research paper by blockchain research firm Chainalysis said that Tether has been gradually affecting the prices of smaller cryptocurrencies, such as EOS and NEO, instead of major cryptos such as Bitcoin, Ethereum (ETH), and Litecoin (LTC), are not true for August.

The cryptocurrency has issued over $500 million worth in new tokens this month, according to Omniexplorer data. However, “not even more than half a billion” in new USDT has made any impact on the price of EOS and NEO this month, claiming that the altcoins have dropped 37 and 44% this month, respectively.

Bitcoin has also seen a dip of around 19% on the month, with Bloomberg emphasizing that August’s Tether issuance is a “move that in the past would have often coincided with a rally in Bitcoin.”