Tether's USDT has but surpassed XRP in market capitalization, condign the third-biggest cryptocurrency in the moments leading into the Bitcoin halving.

Sitting with a market cap of $eight.79 Billion, information technology is now bigger than XRP, whose market cap is roughly $eight.six billion. USDT is currently second only to Ether (ETH) every bit the largest altcoin in the cryptocurrency market.

The marketplace cap rise comes every bit a result of the abiding increase in the supply of USDT, the majority of which circulates on the Ethereum blockchain. There have likewise been huge inflows of USDT into exchanges in recent weeks in the run-up to the Bitcoin halving.

USDT inflows from Tether Treasury

USDT inflows from Tether Treasury. Source: Twitter/@Whalealert

While it is normal for exchanges to concur big amounts of USDT, especially ahead of a big event like the halving, it can too exist considered as a bullish sign for Bitcoin as investors may be preparing to buy cryptocurrencies with USDT.

Brian Quinlivan, marketing and social media director at cryptocurrency information provider Santiment, recently told Cointelegraph:

Most USDT isn't simply 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 almost often put it in Bitcoin. And what's absurd is the fact that this USDT percentage often fluctuates a few hours or days in accelerate of BTC's toll reacting to it. So monitoring this metric in advance tin can end up producing a tremendous advantage by catching a sudden fluctuation early enough.

Tether dwarfs other stablecoins

Tether USDT dwarfs other stablecoins by marketplace capitalization, trading book, users and every other metric. Tether has besides expanded beyond the dollar and has launched stablecoins pegged to the Chinese yuan, the CNHT, the euro equally well equally gold.

Other stablecoins like USDC, PAX and TUSD lag behind, with USDC having a market capitalization of $707.64 meg. USDT is besides the well-nigh pop BTC pair and comprised an overwhelming bulk of 74% of the total Bitcoin traded into fiat or stablecoin in April.

Nevertheless, despite the impressive growth of USDT, other stablecoins similar USDC and PAX are also growing in popularity and have consistently captured small bits of market share in the stablecoin market place, with both representing around 4% of all BTC-to-stablecoin book.

Regardless of the growth of other stablecoins, the BTC/USDT pair all the same represents xc% of all BTC traded into stablecoins today.

Monthly Bitcoin volume traded into stablecoin

Monthly Bitcoin volume traded into stablecoin. Source: CryptoCompare

Stablecoin book slows in April

While the market place cap of USDT has been growing, trading volume has decreased when compared to March, the calendar month in which Bitcoin reached breaking numbers all across the board, including in terms of BTC traded into USDT and other stablecoins.

Following the large drop in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in March and largely fueled by the coronavirus outbreak, BTC trading into USDT has decreased 26% from 21.half-dozen million to 16.one million BTC in April.

Monthly Bitcoin volume traded into fiat or stablecoin

Monthly Bitcoin book traded into fiat or stablecoin. Source: CryptoCompare

Other stablecoins like the USDC saw a like trend, its trading volume reducing by 39% in April. PAX, on the other paw, saw 0.85 meg BTC worth of volume during Apr, a 27% increase from March. Both stablecoins, although not as big as USDT, crush direct fiat pairs similar BTC/EUR and BTC/KRW, showcasing the popularity of stablecoins.

It is likely that stablecoins are continuing to abound in popularity due to their usefulness even to those that are non invested in the cryptocurrency market place themselves. However, it is also possible that the continued interest tin be seen every bit a bullish sign for Bitcoin, as research has shown at that place is an changed correlation between USDT on exchanges and the Bitcoin price.