2 August 2023
5m read
TL;DR
One of the most widely used stablecoins is Tether (USDT). It was intended to have an equal worth to the US dollar. The coin is present on numerous blockchains, and during the past few years, trading volume and liquidity have increased.
Similar to other stablecoins, USDT is helpful for trading cryptocurrencies since it enables users to stay away from the market volatility crypto assets are known for. Stablecoin use also eliminates the additional fees and wait times associated with changing between cryptocurrency and fiat money.
A crucial component of the crypto ecosystem is Tether. With a market cap of over $80 billion as of July 2023, Tether is the third-largest cryptocurrency in the world. But what exactly is Tether, and how can you use it?
The first stablecoin (a cryptocurrency that approximates the value of a fiat currency) is called Tether (USDT).
Although it has since moved to other blockchains, USDT was first distributed via the Omni Layer. In fact, the majority of its supply is available on Ethereum as an ERC-20 token. The OMG Network, TRON, EOS, Algorand, Solana, and other blockchains are among those on which it is also distributed.
Tether has since had its share of triumphs and problems. The price of USDT has been quite erratic, especially in its early years, once even hitting $1.2 at one point. Since the beginning of 2019, the coin's volatility has significantly decreased. This is probably due to a consistent increase in trading volume and the development of the cryptocurrency markets as a whole.
The utility of stablecoins over more established crypto assets is in their comparative stability. The attraction of Tether as a stablecoin is in its tethering or pegging to fiat money. According to rumors, the USDT was initially exactly tied to the USD, with one USDT stored for everyone that was in use.
According to the initial Tether whitepaper, all Tether tokens are backed entirely by Tether's reserves and are tied 1:1 to a corresponding fiat currency. At least once a day, the value of our reserves is updated and published daily.
Tether's one-to-one asset was initially the US dollar, but it has evolved to hold collateral in the form of various real-world currency equivalents, assets, and loan receivables.
The coin (usually) trades at a consistent one-to-one rate with USD. However, its price could be impacted by important market occurrences.
Tether serves as a link between digital and traditional currencies. Without the inherent volatility of other cryptocurrencies, it offers investors a simple option to get a one-to-one exchange for the USD.
Investors can hold a digital asset equivalent to fiat money because of this stability, which also makes it simple to exchange it for other coins on cryptocurrency exchanges. Tether is a well-known coin thanks to its distinctive qualities, but it is not risk-free.
Instead of attempting to cash out when the price of crypto assets is rapidly declining, you can immediately trade to USDT.
You may transfer funds between exchanges very rapidly with Tether. Using other coins in arbitrage trading is another application for this.
While some exchanges do not offer fiat deposit or withdrawal options, they do permit USDT trading. You can trade on these exchanges without being concerned about the market volatility of using your principal trading funds in cryptocurrencies by first getting Tether.
Due to the peg that USDT has on the USD, you can trade like you would on the Forex market by converting local (non-US) currencies into USDT when their value is high relative to the USD. When the local currency declines, you can then cash out or trade for other assets.
You can keep your USDT on a variety of cryptocurrency wallets in addition to other exchanges. These include digital wallets for the web and mobile devices (like Trust Wallet), as well as software wallets that connect to hardware wallets for cold storage (like Ledger). You must make sure that you are sending and receiving USDT from the same network because it is distributed across a number of different blockchains.
Tether offers more stablecoins besides USDT, including EURT (a Euro-pegged Tether coin), and XAUT (a real, gold-pegged currency Coin Tether).
Due to the fact that traders no longer need to exchange fiat money for cryptocurrency numerous times, stablecoins have brought about a great deal of convenience in the realm of cryptocurrency trading. Therefore, USDT is a practical asset to keep on hand for cryptocurrency trading.
The volumes over the past few years show confidence in Tether's worth as a stablecoin, despite the fact that there have been numerous doubts raised regarding the veracity of the reserves. You may also choose to use stablecoins than USDT, such as BUSD, USDC, TUSD, and PAX.