In spite of being a controversial asset whose backing has typically been questioned, Tether [USDT] was the third greatest crypto by market cap at press time, with greater than $82 billion to its title. Adding to that, USDT is the lifeblood of not simply the crypto trade but additionally the booming DeFi sector.
To that finish, the stablecoin’s flows can inform us extra about what may be happening beneath the flashy floor of the prime exchanges.
I’m a bit tied up right here. . .
Glassnode’s weekly on-chain alternate flows revealed that USDT noticed web flows of greater than $451.8 million. This signifies that with USDT returning to the exchanges, buyers may be in the temper to do some promoting – or one thing else completely.
🚨 Weekly On-Chain Exchange Flow 🚨#Bitcoin $BTC
➡️ $7.9B in
⬅️ $9.5B out
📉 Net stream: -$1.5B#Ethereum $ETH
➡️ $5.1B in
⬅️ $6.8B out
📉 Net stream: -$1.7B#Tether (ERC20) $USDT
➡️ $4.9B in
⬅️ $4.4B out
📈 Net stream: +$451.8Mhttps://t.co/dk2HbGwhVw— glassnode alerts (@glassnodealerts) April 4, 2022
The metrics may help us map out this pattern. Since 26 March, the USDT provide held by the prime addresses has sharply fallen. However, since the starting of April, there was a small uptick in the USDT share coming again to these wallets.
Source: Santiment
Now zooming in, we are able to see that the USDT held by the prime alternate addresses has been on an uptrend, whereas the provide held by prime non-exchange addresses has fallen by shut to one billion. A crossover is clearly going down.

Source: Santiment
Now, add all of it up
All roads lead to Bitcoin. . .or do they? Santiment knowledge revealed that whereas Bitcoin noticed slight corrections, alts didn’t give in to peer stress and a number of other prime 100 alt cash noticed weekly rallies.
📈 When #Bitcoin declines, usually #altcoins drop alongside the #1 asset in #crypto. However, this previous week has been completely different, and #altseason calls are plentiful for a cause. $GMT (+219%), $ZIL (+52%), $WAVES (+45%), and $AAVE (+42%) have led the means. https://t.co/jzBLPpyovC pic.twitter.com/GhnCaDEDpX
— Santiment (@santimentfeed) April 4, 2022
One attainable interpretation is that crypto merchants are transferring their USDT provide out of chilly wallets and into exchanges so as to store for alts. In flip, it’s attainable that the shopping for stress drove up costs, main to rallies at the same time as Bitcoin floundered at simply above $46,000.
May the finest stablecoin win
So it’s clear that Tether nonetheless has a big position to play in the trade as an asset and signaler of exercise. However, is there any likelihood of it dropping out to TerraUSD [UST] any time quickly? After all, Terra reportedly has greater than $1 billion in Bitcoin and plans to purchase extra, to create a reserve to again UST.
Yet, at press time, there was lower than 200 million UST in exchanges, displaying that the asset nonetheless has a great distance to go earlier than difficult USDT’s dominance.

Source: Santiment
https://ambcrypto.com/what-usdt-returning-to-the-exchanges-tells-us-about-the-state-of-altcoins-this-week/