The ownership of tether (USDT) turns out to be quite concentrated. According to a recent report, a few addresses control the bulk of the stablecoin, which is widely used by bitcoin traders. The finding comes on top of fresh accusations of creating a bubble levied in a lawsuit against tether’s operators. That adds to the persistent critique that the coin isn’t backed one-to-one with U.S. dollars as previously claimed.
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$2.8 Billion of USDT Held by a Handful
Just 104 tether addresses hold 70% of the stablecoin’s circulating supply, according to an investigation conducted by blockchain intelligence company Intotheblock. Considering tether’s supply and its $1-dollar price, the fiat equivalent is over $2.8 billion. Such a small number of addresses controlling that large of share could be a cause of concern.
The researchers have also confirmed tether’s high and fast turnover. In the last seven days alone, Intotheblock tweeted on Tuesday, the total volume of large transactions worth over $100,000 amounted to a staggering $2.4 billion. Besides, the average period a USDT token is held is only 17.8 days, the company pointed out.
Let’s talk about #Tether and provide you with a few onchain fundamentals:
– There are 104 addresses that control 70% of the circulating supply
– In the last 7 days, the total volume of large transactions (greater than $100k) was $2.4b
– The avg the token is held: 17.8 days— intotheblock (@intotheblock) October 15, 2019
High wealth concentration is a phenomenon observed with decentralized cryptocurrencies as well. A tweet from Glassnode, another onchain data provider, highlighted an ongoing
