Tether Continues To Flow Into Exchanges: Why This Is Bullish For Bitcoin

Keshav Verma

1 year ago

3 mins read

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Tether (USDT) has continued to move into exchanges recently. Here’s why this can be a positive development for Bitcoin.

Tether Supply On Exchanges Is Now Highest In 7 Months

According to data from the on-chain analytics firm Santiment, $9.99 billion worth of USDT is now on exchanges. The indicator of relevance here is the “supply on exchanges,” which keeps track of the total amount of a cryptocurrency being stored in all centralized exchanges’ wallets.

The interpretation of this metric can differ depending on the type of asset that’s being discussed. In the case of Bitcoin, for example, the exchange reserve may be considered a measure of the potential selling pressure, as one of the reasons investors may deposit the coin is for selling-related purposes.

Thus, the cryptocurrency’s supply on exchanges going up could be a sign that selling is increasing in the sector, and hence, the asset’s price may be heading towards a bearish outcome.

In the context of the current discussion, BTC’s supply on exchanges isn’t the one of interest, but rather the metric for Tether is. USDT is a popular stablecoin (the largest one based on market cap) that always has its value pegged to the US Dollar.

Here is a chart that shows the trend in the supply of exchanges for Tether over the past few years:

Looks like the value of the metric has been going up in recent days | Source: Santiment on X

Usually, an investor may want to hold their capital as a stablecoin like USDT to keep it away from the volatility associated with other assets in the cryptocurrency sector.

However, many such stablecoin holders use these assets as a temporary safe haven, as they eventually wish to return to the volatile market.

When these investors finally find the time to jump back into cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, they swap their USDT for them. These traders may use exchanges to make this shift, so a rise in the supply on exchanges of the stablecoin can be a sign that investors are looking to swap into volatile coins.

Such buying using Tether can naturally cause a bullish effect on the prices of BTC and others. So, in this way, the exchange supply of the stablecoin can be considered the opposite of the metric for BTC.

The above graph shows that the indicator’s value has increased in the last few weeks. “The $9.99B worth of Tether sitting on exchanges is the highest level of buying power for crypto’s top stablecoin in approximately seven months,” notes Santiment.

It should be kept in mind that the rise in the Tether supply on exchanges only implies an increase in the available dry powder. Whether Bitcoin would benefit from a boost depends on whether this dry powder is used to buy the asset or not.

BTC Price

Bitcoin has declined in the past couple of days as the asset now trades around the $27,600 level.

BTC has recovered a bit from its lows from yesterday | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView

Featured image from DrawKit Illustrations on Unsplash.com, charts from TradingView.com, Santiment.net

Keshav Verma

Keshav is currently a senior writer at NewsBTC and has been attached to the website since June 14, 2021.

Keshav has been writing for many years, first as a hobbyist and later as a freelancer. He has experience working in a variety of niches, even fiction at one point, but the cryptocurrency industry has been the longest he has been attached to.

In terms of official educational qualifications, Keshav holds a bachelor’s degree in Physics from one of the premier institutes of India, the University of Delhi (DU). He started the degree with an aim of eventually making a career in Physics, but the onset of COVID led to a shift in plans. The virus meant that the college classes had to be delivered in the online-mode and with it came free time for him to explore other passions.

Initially only seeking to make some beer money, Keshav unexpectedly landed clients offering real projects, after which there was no looking back. Writing was something he had always enjoyed and to be able to do it for a living was like a dream come true.

Keshav completed his Physics degree in 2022 and has been focusing on his writing career since, but that doesn’t mean his passion for Physics has ended. He eventually plans to re-enter university to obtain a masters degree in the same field, but perhaps only to satiate his own interest rather than for using it as a means to find employment..

Keshav has found blockchain and its concepts fascinating ever since he started going down the rabbit-hole back in 2020. On-chain analysis in particular has been something he likes to research more about, which is why his NewsBTC pieces tend to involve it in some form.

Being of the science background, Keshav likes if concepts are clear and consistent, so he generally explains the indicators he talks about in a bit of detail so that the readers can perhaps come out having understood and learnt something new.

As for hobbies, Keshav is super into football, anime, and videogames. He enjoys football not only as a watcher, but also as a player. For games, Keshav generally tends towards enjoying singleplayer adventures, with EA FC (formerly FIFA) being the only online game he is active in. Though, perhaps due to being ultra-focused on the game, he is today a semi-pro on the EA FC scene, regularly participating in tournaments and sometimes even taking back prize money.

Because of his enthusiasm for anime and games, he also self-learned Japanese along the way to consume some of the untranslated gems out there. The skill didn’t merely remain as just a hobby, either, as he put it to productive use during his exploration for small-time gigs at the start of COVID, fulfilling a couple of Japanese-to-English translation jobs.

Keshav is also big into fitness, with agility and acceleration-related workouts making a big part of his program due to the relevance they have in football. On top of that, he also has a more traditional strength based program for the gym, which he does to maintain an overall fitness level of his body.

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