The price of bitcoin closed the second quarter of 2019 at a profit of approx 189 percent. Many claimed that it was Facebook’s Libra announcement that injected a fresh wave of optimism in the bitcoin market. Others believed that the ongoing US-China trade war and its impact on the macroeconomic sentiment influenced investors to consider bitcoin as “safe-haven.”\u00a0Nevertheless, there is also the third theory, which is not as picturesque as the two stated above.<\/p>\n
Decrypt<\/a> reported that almost $1 billion of new Tether (USDT), a controversial stablecoin, entered the cryptocurrency market. The freshly printed supply nearly doubled the USDT’s market capitalization to $3.6 billion. Will Harborne, the founder of EthFinex, explained how whales “pre-ordered batches of Tethers” to purchase large quantities of bitcoin.<\/p>\n “Tethers are useful to these large holders, who can trade them \u2014 paired to Bitcoin, Ether, Litecoin and other coins\u2014on high-liquidity exchanges that don\u2019t accept fiat currencies,” said Harborne.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The Attack of the 50-foot Blockchain\u00a0<\/em>author David Gerard earlier called the bitcoin pump an act of “Tether market manipulation.” However, Jesse Powell of Kraken believes otherwise.<\/p>\n The latest surge in #bitcoin<\/a> has been accompanied by big volume in #tether<\/a>. Watch as @krakenfx<\/a> CEO @jespow<\/a> details to @OJRenick<\/a> why the controversy over the stablecoin is much ado about nothing.$BTC<\/a> $USDT<\/a><\/p>\n — Schwab Network (@SchwabNetwork) July 1, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n