Tether token has risen to the fifth place in the list of the largest blockchain projects, but it has competitors that can soon interrupt the hegemony of the cryptocurrency analogue of the us dollar.
One of the main problems of the digital money market is the opacity of blockchain companies. Tether token (USDT) with a capitalization of $2.04 billion, which is on the fifth place in the list of the largest cryptocurrencies in this indicator, perfectly reveals most of the sins of the new industry: the company is closed as much as possible, no one can guarantee that each coin is really provided with real dollars, the connection of the startup and Bitfinex exchanges for manipulating the course of bitcoin is studied by financial regulators.
Many trading platforms that do not have the ability to add Fiat currencies use USDT as a cryptocurrency analogue of the us dollar. Up to a certain point, the token had a monopoly in this area, as there were no worthy competitors. Everyone understood that Tether could collapse and drag the market to the bottom, but there was nothing to replace it.
2018 was decisive for the whole industry: the governments of large countries began to think seriously about the regulation of cryptocurrencies, HYIP declined, and the situation changed — digital money in fact ceased to be a speculative asset. In the industry, there were just four projects that launched their stablecoin, fully secured by real dollars. This is every month to prove full audits, although the leaders of the Tether are unable to undertake such never.
In September last year, the startup Circle introduced the USD Coin token, its security is checked every month by Grant Thornton. In the same month his cryptocurrency launched Gimini Dollar billionaires brothers Winkelvoss, they received permission from the financial controller of the state of new York. Such a license, the regulator gave out and the blockchain startup Paxos, after which he presented the standard Paxos. The dollars that provide The winklevoss tokens are stored in the State Street Bank, the BPM company from San Francisco conducts a check every month.
At the beginning of last year, another coin was launched with the exchange rate tied to the us dollar — TrueUSD, which also passes monthly audits.
This is very important for the industry. After all, according to Tyler Winklevoss, institutional investors remain aloof from the digital money market because of its opacity. He believes that the industry needs audits because users are concerned about the lack of regulation and guarantees of the reliability of stable tokens.
In a short period of time, the popularity of four new stablecoins has grown significantly, they are already approaching the top of the cryptocurrency capitalization rating, but are still much less common than Tether. USD Coin is on the 19th place ($318 million), True USD — on the 27th position ($209 million), Paxos Standart — on the 37th line ($132 million), Gemini Dollar — on 50 ($91 million). In total, they are still significantly behind Tether both in terms of capitalization ($750 million against $2.03 billion) and in terms of trading volume (daily tether figures are $4.2 billion, against $149 million from four competitors combined).
Such a dynamics can be explained by the fact that new stablecoins are not as well known as Tether, it takes time for the market to accept them. This situation reflects what is happening in the digital money market-regulated companies are gradually emerging and show that even in the blockchain industry, despite its immaturity, business can be done honestly, in compliance with all laws.
