- Tether purchased 8,888 BTC on 31 December 2023
- USDT’s dominance has risen by 5% since the year began
Stablecoin issuer Tether bought an additional 8,888 Bitcoins [BTC] towards the end of last quarter. According to data from BitInfoCharts, an address associated with the entity revealed that it currently holds 66,465 BTC, valued at $2.8 billion at the coin’s press time price of $41,451 per BTC.
Source: BitInfoCharts
Additionally, a Dune Analytics dashboard found that this address ranks as the 11th-largest holder of the leading coin after Binance, Bitfinex, the U.S government, and other unidentified addresses.
Data from BitInfoCharts also showed that Tether began acquiring BTC on 30 September 2022. Since then, it has completed over 35 transactions to purchase the king coin. Its largest purchase yet was in March 2023, when it acquired 15,915 BTC. Its last purchase for the year was made on 31 December, when it acquired 8,888 BTC.
In May 2023, the stablecoin issuer had announced its intention to regularly allocate up to 15% of its net realized operating profits towards purchasing BTC. At the time, Tether claimed this would help diversify the reserves backing its USDT coin.
Rise in supply on exchanges
During the general market rally between October and December 2023, there was a rally in the supply of USDT held on exchanges by the coin’s top 10 addresses. When USDT sees a rally in exchange balance, it often signals the presence of more potential buyers for cryptocurrencies. This played out in Q4 2023 as increased demand for crypto-assets pushed their values to multi-month highs.
Source: Santiment
Conversely, a surge in USDT’s exchange balance can also signal a rise in selling pressure. In fact, according to data from Glassnode, USDT exchange balances observed on a 90-day moving average have risen by 4% since the year began.
Source: Glassnode
An evaluation of Bitcoin’s [BTC] price since the year began also highlighted a 3% decline since the year began.
With a circulating supply of 95 billion USDT at press time, USDT continues to dominate the stablecoin vertical of the crypto-world. An assessment of its dominance chart revealed that this has risen by 5% since the year began. In fact, this week alone, USDT dominance has grown by 9%.
Source: TradingView