Coin Metrics, crypto market research firm head-quartered in Massachusetts, has pointed out that 318 addresses store nearly $1 billion worth of Tether (USDT), representing 80% of global Tether supply.
The finding was reported by Bloomberg. Nic Carter, co-founder of Coin Metrics, further stated that cryptocurrency exchanges such as Binance and Bitfinex are some of the USDT whales holding huge quantity of Tether coin.
The report further states that the scenario is strikingly contradictory to Bitcoin (BTC), with only 20% of its total supply being held by whales. Furthermore, 20,000 BTC addresses store a minimum of $1 million in equivalent assets.
Even though Bitcoin is distributed in a better manner among crypto investors, the USDT whales may be able to turn Bitcoin volatile, as explained by John Griffin, finance professor at the University of Texas, Austin.
“The concentration of Tether suggests that control of Tether is in the hands of a few central players who can swing Bitcoin prices, and have a vested interest in doing so […] It also suggests that many exchange players have a vested interest in keeping the Tether game going.”
Griffin has earlier stated that USDT is used to manipulate market and primarily responsible for Bitcoin’s neck-breaking rally in 2017. Sid Shekhar, co-founder of TokenAnalyst, a market tracker, opined that market participants are usually worried when a large amount of Tether is sent into the market.
Notably, USDT is now offered on Bitfinex through another blockchain covenant for Bitcoin i.e., BlockStream’s Liquid Network sidechain. In the past, USDT was run on Omni blockchain. Liquid intends to make available Liquid-powered USDT on other major cryptocurrency exchanges in the future, including OKEx, BTSE, OKCoin, BTCTrader/BtcTurk, Sideshift AI and RenrenBit.
