Expanding the variety of cryptocurrencies offered in Bankera Exchange has always been one of our key priorities. Thus, today we are happy to confirm that Tether (USDT) stablecoin, one of the most actively traded cryptocurrencies worldwide, has been listed on our trading platform.
What is a stablecoin?
Stablecoin is a cryptocurrency with a non-volatile price, acting as an alternative to fiat assets in the cryptocurrency world. Currently, one could find various types of stablecoins in the market: some of them pegged to precious metals, e.g. gold, or to other cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin or Ethereum.
However, most commonly, stablecoins are pegged to fiat currencies, such as the US dollar (USD) or Euro (EUR), using fiat assets to back their prices. For example, the companies that issue USD-backed stablecoins need to have an amount of US dollars in their reserve accounts that would match the value of their stablecoin in the market. One of such stablecoins is Tether.
Tether – the most popular stablecoin
The stablecoin Tether (‘tethered’ to US dollar, hence the name) is a cryptocurrency created in 2014, nowadays regarded as the most popular stablecoin in the whole cryptocurrency market, as well as one of the most popular digital assets in general – these days, only Bitcoin has a larger daily trading volume than Tether.
Tether (USDT) has been initially issued as a token on the Omni Layer – a protocol that makes it possible to build new cryptocurrencies on top of the Bitcoin blockchain. Although the cryptocurrency was initially designed to be tied to the US dollar only, as the years went on, Tether EUR, pegged to Euro, has also been released.
The stability of USDT price has been protected by the collateral Tether reserve – every issued Tether, ideally worth exactly 1.00 USD, is backed by a fiat US dollar, held in the reserve bank account. The official website of Tether is publishing daily reserve holdings reports for their community to build trust and ensure full transparency of the project.
To accelerate the speed of transactions and provide lower network transaction fees, in 2017 the founders of Tether have decided to create a new crypto asset on the Ethereum blockchain – an ERC20 token. The ERC20 Tether tokens do not differ from the original tokens issued on the Omni layer in terms of their utility. However, they provide more advantages to their holders, such as shorter transaction confirmation times and lower gas fees. These and other ERC20 Tether token characteristics led us to pick it as the next new cryptocurrency, as well as the first stablecoin to be added to Bankera Exchange platform.
How can Tether prove beneficial to Bankera Exchange?
In our opinion, adding a stable cryptocurrency to our platform is a significant component that should prove advantageous to Bankera Exchange users in many ways. Seeing a huge demand for a renowned stablecoin expressed by our community, we have decided that Tether – the most popular asset of this type in the market – would be the perfect addition.
The stablecoin will act as a trustful alternative to fiat currencies on the Exchange platform. As we all know, cryptocurrency market is considerably volatile, and in many cases, it is beneficial to have a digital asset with a stable price.
For example, traders expecting a drop in Bitcoin price can exchange their BTC assets to USDT and after a while trade USDT for BTC back again. As BTC would be worth less and the price of USDT would have remained the same, this action would result in bigger BTC gains. Tether is tied to US dollar and in this way shielded against volatility, so it is highly unlikely that it would experience any price fluctuations.
Moreover, adding USDT should also boost the trading volumes on the platform. Tether is paired with all the cryptocurrencies and tokens listed on Bankera Exchange – Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), NEM (XEM), Dash (DASH), and Banker (BNK) – to ensure seamless exchange possibilities within the platform. The addition of Tether also provides the option to trade the three most popular cryptocurrencies in the world – BTC, USDT, and ETH – against each other on Bankera Exchange.
As we are planning to offer our users a selection of ERC20 tokens, our platform was designed to ensure smooth implementation of this cryptocurrency type. Thus, initially, we are introducing the ERC20 Tether token into our platform.
We believe that the Ethereum-based stablecoin provides many advantages to its users and is quicker to implement, hence allows us to offer stablecoin support on Bankera Exchange faster. Nevertheless, our future plans also include the support of Omni Layer-based USDT token.
If you have further questions regarding the listing of Tether on Bankera Exchange, please contact us at [email protected].