Tether (USDT) New Intervention Lifts Bitcoin (BTC) to $6,800
The Tether treasury is the tool used recently to boost prices in a market still exhibiting weakness.
The Tether treasury intervened in the markets with an injection of $50 million worth of tokens, very soon after that retiring the equivalent of $30 million tokens. On August 27, the Tether treasury wallet created the first transaction.
The intervention had an almost immediate effect on the performance of many coins. In the case of Bitcoin (BTC), this tranche coincided with a greater price strength, taking the leading coin above $6,800.
https://twitter.com/KKKTHXBYE/status/1034081481470169089
BTC saw a dramatic price move shortly after the intervention, jumping from the $6,700 range to $6,903.07 as of 12:00 UTC. For a while, BTC went as high as $6,926 but then slid to $6,908.17 as of 6:00 UTC.
Previous USDT interventions have led to a similar pattern of fast price movements. After the latest one, the dominance of Bitcoin remains relatively high at 53% of total market capitalization, while USDT accounts for more than 22% of all trading volumes.
For Bitcoin, the weight of Bitfinex on dollar-priced pairs is more than 38%. Given the decline in mainstream interest in Bitcoin and the apparent retreat of Japanese investors, BTC prices rely on trading against the USDT. As of August 28, the share of USDT pairs remains high at more than 52%, data from CryptoCompare show. While BTC also trades against altcoins, the BTC/USDT pair is what serves to produce the intuitive dollar price of the asset.
In the past weeks, the interventions still had a relatively slow effect. Previously, USDT liquidity prompted outside investors to pour in real cash. This time, it took weeks to bring BTC back near the $7,000 level, and the price increase has not led to renewed enthusiasm.
Some have seen indications of the USDT tokens being used by bots:
https://twitter.com/soleil_dusoir9/status/1033796025255903232
This may explain the immediate effect, as well as the retirement of funds once trading is completed.
