Regardless of being a controversial asset whose backing has usually been questioned, Tether [USDT] was the third greatest crypto by market cap at press time, with greater than $82 billion to its identify. Including to that, USDT is the lifeblood of not simply the crypto trade but in addition the booming DeFi sector.
To that finish, wanting on the stablecoin’s flows can inform us extra about what may be occurring beneath the flashy floor of the highest exchanges.
I’m somewhat tied up right here. . .
Glassnode’s weekly on-chain alternate flows revealed that USDT noticed web flows of greater than $451.8 million. Because of this with USDT returning to the exchanges, traders may be within the temper to do some promoting – or one thing else totally.
? Weekly On-Chain Trade Circulate ?#Bitcoin $BTC
➡️ $7.9B in
⬅️ $9.5B out
? Internet stream: -$1.5B#Ethereum $ETH
➡️ $5.1B in
⬅️ $6.8B out
? Internet stream: -$1.7B#Tether (ERC20) $USDT
➡️ $4.9B in
⬅️ $4.4B out
? Internet stream: +$451.8Mhttps://t.co/dk2HbGwhVw— glassnode alerts (@glassnodealerts) April 4, 2022
The metrics can assist us map out this development. Since 26 March, the USDT provide held by the highest addresses has sharply fallen. Nevertheless, for the reason that starting of April, there was a small uptick within the USDT share coming again to those wallets.

Supply: Santiment
Now zooming in, we are able to see that the USDT held by the highest alternate addresses has been on an uptrend, whereas the availability held by prime non-exchange addresses has fallen by shut to 1 billion. A crossover is clearly going down.

Supply: Santiment
Now, add all of it up
All roads result in Bitcoin. . .or do they? Santiment knowledge revealed that whereas Bitcoin noticed slight corrections, alts didn’t give in to look strain and a number of other prime 100 alt cash noticed weekly rallies.
? When #Bitcoin declines, usually #altcoins drop alongside the #1 asset in #crypto. Nevertheless, this previous week has been totally different, and #altseason calls are plentiful for a motive. $GMT (+219%), $ZIL (+52%), $WAVES (+45%), and $AAVE (+42%) have led the best way. https://t.co/jzBLPpyovC pic.twitter.com/GhnCaDEDpX
— Santiment (@santimentfeed) April 4, 2022
One attainable interpretation is that crypto merchants are shifting their USDT provide out of chilly wallets and into exchanges with a view to store for alts. In flip, it’s attainable that the shopping for strain drove up costs, resulting in rallies whilst Bitcoin floundered at simply above $46,000.
Might the most effective stablecoin win
So it’s clear that Tether nonetheless has a major position to play within the trade as an asset and signaler of exercise. Nevertheless, is there any likelihood of it shedding out to TerraUSD [UST] any time quickly? In spite of everything, Terra reportedly has greater than $1 billion in Bitcoin and plans to purchase extra, to create a reserve to again UST.
But, at press time, there was lower than 200 million UST in exchanges, displaying that the asset nonetheless has an extended approach to go earlier than difficult USDT’s dominance.

Supply: Santiment