Over-the-counter and cryptocurrency futures exchange BTSE today launched support for BiLira’s Turkish stablecoin TRYB. TRYB can now be traded against Tether (USDT) on BTSE’s spot markets. Cointelegraph spoke to BiLira and BTSE to find out more about what the listing means for Turkey’s burgeoning cryptocurrency sector. BTSE co-founder and CEO Jonathan Leong stated that the listing “enables Turkish users to facilitate lower fees via remittances, as well as instantaneous settlement times for TRYB users.” Leong told Cointelegraph that BTSE entered the Turkish market earlier this year, stating that the exchange has garnered “a strong and growing community in Turkey.” He …

Bitcoin (BTC) mining has become a multibillion-dollar industry. Pools, manufacturers and farms contribute to the growth and professionalization of the space. Financial service companies bring institutional-grade products and capital that increases liquidity for the biggest operators. There’s a fundamental shortage of United States dollars available relative to the overall demand when the sector encounters certain market conditions. The dollar shortage is one of the contributing factors to volatility in the markets. Just like traditional commodity producers, Bitcoin miners will likely become large users of derivatives — whether it’s with futures to lock in prices or options to hedge against losses. …

Tether’s USDT has just surpassed XRP in market capitalization, becoming the third-biggest cryptocurrency in the moments leading into the Bitcoin halving. Sitting with a market cap of $8.79 Billion, it is now bigger than XRP, whose market cap is roughly $8.6 billion. USDT is currently second only to Ether (ETH) as the largest altcoin in the cryptocurrency market. The market cap rise comes as a result of the constant increase in the supply of USDT, the majority of which circulates on the Ethereum blockchain. There have also been huge inflows of USDT into exchanges in recent weeks in the run-up …

Is gold faltering as a safe haven? A Coinbase blog post from May 1 suggested that several months into the COVID-19 pandemic, gold’s market efficiency vis-à-vis Bitcoin (BTC) could be slipping. “Bitcoin and gold are fundamentally similar as scarce and globally accessible units of value,” the report noted, but recent “challenges” in the gold market “reveals Bitcoin’s distinct advantage over gold.” The event that provoked this observation was a market supply squeeze. As Coinbase recounted: “According to the LA Times on March 24, ‘The gold market in New York is facing a historic squeeze as the global pandemic chokes off …

A crypto data firm representative explained how Tether’s on chain data can potentially forecast Bitcoin’s (BTC) bull runs. Marketing and social media director at Santiment, Brian Quinlivan, told Cointelegraph on May 7 that the percentage of USDT held on exchanges often anticipates Bitcoin’s bull runs. He explained the principles behind the analysis: “Most USDT isn't just being taken off exchanges to be stored in wallets or cashed out through a FIAT-based platform like Coinbase. When people aren't using USDT, they most often put it in Bitcoin. And what's cool is the fact that this USDT percentage often fluctuates a few …

Recent research shows that there is an inverse relationship between the percentage of the Tether (USDT) stablecoin on exchanges and Bitcoin’s (BTC) price. Cryptocurrency market insights firm Santiment published analysis showing that the percentage of USDT held on exchanges is inversely related to Bitcoin’s price. In a May 4 tweet, the firm noted that the recent correction probably is not a trend inversion in Bitcoin’s movement: “In spite of the minor $BTC correction over the weekend, prices are beginning to rebound close to $9,000 again. According to our metrics, one thing that is still trending in the right direction is …

Decentralized finance, or DeFi, protocol, Compound, has implemented its first two community-driven governance proposals in the past week. The proposals come ahead of the launch of Compound’s Governance token (COMP) — which will be used to facilitate community-driven protocol upgrades and development. Compound implements community upgrades The first proposal asked the community whether the Compound protocol should introduce support for Tether (USDT), inspired by a September 2019 poll that saw Tether and Maker (MKR) rank as the top two most-requested crypto assets for Compound. The vote saw over 90% of the Compound community vote in favor of USDT support and …

As the global economy trembles, investors continue to find sanctuary in stablecoins. In the most recent 12-month period (ending April 29, 2020), the three top stablecoins — Tether (USDT), Circle (USDC) and Paxos (PAX) — increased their market capitalization by 161%, 191% and 146%, respectively. Kim Grauer, head of research at Chainalysis, told Cointelegraph that with the use of a different metric, “We can confirm a 250% increase in the amount of Tether moved on-chain in the past 12-months (ending March 2020),” and the growth isn’t all front-loaded, either. As COVID-19 raged, President Trump declared a national emergency in the …

With Bitcoin (BTC) ascending sharply in the last eight hours — over $9,100 at press time — U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin Tether (USDT) is on a minting spree. Whalebot Alerts has reported that Tether issued more than 160 million new coins in the last 24 hours in just two transactions. The first $60 million were minted when Bitcoin was valued at just over $8,000. A second transaction of $100 million USDT was issued just before BTC’s push past $8,500. 💵 💵 💵 💵 💵 💵 💵 💵 💵 💵 100,000,000 #USDT (100,050,700 USD) minted at Tether Treasury Tx: https://t.co/G8iH40VoyY — Whale …

Renowned veteran trader Peter Brandt has compared holding Tether (USDT) to the risk of holding ‘the Nigerian Trinket’. In a tweet earlier today, Brandt took aim at the controversial stablecoin, calling people “fools” for holding Tether “even overnight”. “It is a joke when people condemn USD as fiat, yet hold Tether,” he said. To be fair to Nigeria, their currency is actually called the ‘naira’ — not the trinket — and inflation there is around 18%, which isn’t good, but also isn’t terrible compared to countries with hyper-infation like Venezuela. Brandt’s point appears to be that Tether is neither reputable …

Speaking to attendees at Virtual Blockchain Week from her home in Kansas, Alyze Sam, co-author of a major guide to stablecoins, suggested stablecoins could be the key for big companies like Facebook and JP Morgan accepting decentralized assets as payment. Her midwestern charm matched her deep knowledge of stablecoins, and Sam sees these digital assets as having a place in the crypto world for the long haul. “They don’t have that decentralization. They don’t fill that freedom that we all want to experience. But stablecoins offer the benefits of a cryptocurrency, including cryptographic security and the ability to transfer assets …

Stablecoins are not driving up the price of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, according to a new study from the Centre for Economic Policy Research. Academics Richard K Lyons from UC Berkeley and Ganesh Viswanath-Natraj from the Warwick Business School looked at the issuance of Tether (USDT) and other stablecoins over the last three years, including during the price pump in late 2017. Contrary to the popular belief that the Bitcoin price is being manipulated with fresh minted batches of Tether, the researchers found little correlation between prices and new stablecoins issuance: “Our bottom line: We find no systematic evidence of …