More than 100 thousand retail and institutional investors in China are one of the key buyers of USDT tokens entering the market. With their help, they circumvent the ban on cryptocurrency trading. This is evidenced by the results of a study by the Beijing company Sino Global Capital, reports Decrypt .
Since the beginning of 2020, Tether has issued 5 billion USDT, increasing its market capitalization to $ 10 billion. Despite the widespread fears of many experts that such an active emission is not based on real demand, the researchers recorded the high popularity of stablecoin in China.
Sino Global Capital CEO Matthew Graham noted that most of the cryptocurrency transactions in China take place on OTC (OTC) platforms. At the same time, USDT is the most popular tool for their implementation.
Most OTC sites operate in the gray zone. Despite this, for the people of China, they remain one of the few ways to acquire digital assets. While buying cryptocurrency for fiat money remains a difficult and risky process, stablecoin provides a much simpler procedure for entering the market.
The popularity of USDT is due to the fact that their circulation does not require the participation of traditional financial institutions that are subject to Chinese laws. Tokens are characterized by high liquidity and integration with most trading floors in South Asia.
An anonymous employee of one of the OTC platforms confirmed to the publication the accuracy of the Sino Global Capital data. He added that the purchase of cryptocurrency for fiat in fact is not prohibited, but traders are threatened with a lock or complete closure of the bank account.
The employee noted that his platform serves 100 customers with a total annual turnover of more than $ 5 billion. The company is serviced by stern banks that are friendly to digital currencies. Moreover, direct connections are established beten her and Tether, due to which the OTC platform can buy USDT directly from the issuer.
He added that the average transaction size for buying USDT on 6-7 leading OTC platforms is about $ 1,400 in RMB. Turnovers in his company grew by 300% over the past year, and this trend only gets stronger after the introduction of a ban on cryptocurrency trading.
Finally, Graham noted that the high volumes of cryptocurrency trading in China entail a decrease in the volatility of the first cryptocurrency, and in some cases lead to a drop in market value. The vast majority of investors hide their investments from the government and keep BTC as a “safety cushion”.
Recall that the volume of payments with the Tether stablecoin last year amounted to a record $ 212 billion.
