Bitcoin has remained the most popular coin since the mining of the genesis block. The pioneer cryptocurrency has been sharing the spotlight with two other cryptocurrencies recently, at least in terms of trading volumes.
BTC, ETH, USDT Dominate 90% Of Daily Trading Volume
Bitcoin, dollar-backed Tether (USDT) and Ethereum, accounted for 90% of the total trading volume on crypto exchanges this year. The other cryptocurrencies in the top 10 enjoyed only a small portion of the usage that BTC, ETH, and USDT got every day.
Statistics collected by Messari indicates that this marks a 75% increase from the same time last year.
Trading volume is a primary indicator of real-world use. A high volume shows that the market is liquid, which means that crypto-assets can be traded without having a considerable impact on the market price and with as little friction as possible.
Tether: The Unlikely Winner
Despite the criticisms of manipulation and opaqueness leveled against Tether, the stablecoin has continued to rule the roost in terms of trading volumes, even overtaking BTC which holds 67.4% of the total crypto market share.
Amid global market turmoil caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, controversial stablecoin USDT has emerged as the biggest winner. After the Black Thursday market downturn, most investors turned to Tether to hedge against volatility as its value is said to be equivalent to $1 most of the time.
Since the market reached the bottom in mid-March, the total amount of USDT has more than doubled from $4.3 billion to $8.7 billion, registering a 102% increase.
Moreover, Tether’s market cap has been on a steady climb thanks to the constant printing. The stablecoin is now threatening to usurp Ripple’s XRP as the world’s third-largest cryptocurrency as it has a market cap of $8.7 billion -only $80 million shy of XRP’s market capitalization.
Ethereum Comes In Third Place
Ethereum is the third-largest cryptocurrency with regards to daily trading volumes. Notably, there has been amped-up buzz surrounding the launch of the much-delayed Phase 0 of ETH 2.0. Most recently during the Consensus: Distributed virtual conference, Vitalik Buterin apparently confirmed that the project is set to launch in July.
In a tweet, however, Buterin claimed to have misheard the question asked, noting that ETH 2.0 will not be launched by July.
Nonetheless, despite the persistent delays with the ETH 2.0, ethereum remains the third-most traded cryptocurrency.