The entire cryptocurrency market is trading in a sea of green today with Bitcoin (BTC) marking a daily high of more than 10 percent. With just a handful of altcoins decreasing in value, stablecoin Tether (USDT), drops down by more than 3 percent.
Serious and Sudden Gains
The cryptocurrency market rallied today as it gained over $20 billion in less than two hours. Bitcoin (BTC) led the spike, marking an increase of about 10 percent. And while the cryptocurrency experienced a serious pullback, at the time of writing this it is still trading at $6,653.13 which is an increase of over 5 percent in the last 24 hours according to data from CoinMarketCap.
All of the top 20 digital currencies were trading in the green today, offering a nice change of pace to the otherwise stagnant market.
In fact, as Live Bitcoin News reported recently, Bitcoin has been trading in a tight range of $732 which marked the lowest point of its volatility for the last 17 months – a signed of maturity for some, and boredom for others.
‘Stablecoin’ Tether (USDT) Not so Stable
Despite the positive trading sentiments of today, the US Dollar-pegged Tether (USDT) marked a decrease which completely undermines its sole purpose. In other words, Tether failed to do the one thing that it was meant to do – to remain stable.
At the time of writing this, the ‘stablecoin’ is trading at $0.96 which is more than 2 percent less than a dollar – the price the digital currency is supposed to permanently hold. Prices had dipped even lower overnight, falling as low as $0.92 before rising to its current price.
Just a few days ago, the fourth largest cryptocurrency exchange by means of traded volume – Bitfinex – halted its fiat deposits. At roughly the same time, it was also reported that some $110 million worth of USDT left the exchange on October 10th. Bitfinex came up with an official announcement on October 15th, outlining that all fiat deposits were now processing as usual and that they “have been temporarily paused for certain user groups.”
Do you think there is a relation between the most recent price rally and the unusual activity of Bitfinex? Let us know in the comments below!
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