Until stablecoins are backed, nothing bad can happen. Tether has been blamed for a few years, but it's still here. Over time more stable coins appear, which makes it possible not to put all eggs in one basket. USD inputs from credits cards are also open, for example, on Binance and some other exchanges, but stablecoins are more convenient as you can't sell your btc back with exchange and get dollars to your credit card (as far as I know, maybe it will be possible soon).

From what I understand, there is nothing wrong with stablecoin as long as it is properly backed by something and it is usually by the dollar though there are those now experimenting with gold, other fiat currency and yes even T-bills. Stablecoins are very useful in trading and they are there precisely to provide stability hence the name. You ask traders and most likely they are using stablecoins from time to time. Of course, the controversy in Tether got many to question the integrity of the coin and their utility.

The reddit discussion is like this:
Only 1.6% of the USD/Bitcoin reported volume is actually traded in USD
NOBODY said anything about fake.

Just because I trade LTC vs BTC doesn't mean it's fake.
But, and this is quite funny, although I don't agree with how the conclusion was taken, I agree with the results, probably ~95% is fake activity, bots run by the exchanges themselves to attract customers with fake numbers.


4. A lot of shitty tokens end up being listed only on shitty exchanges that have no USD or another fiat alternative because they want to leave no tracks when they exit scam.
And so users are forced to sell their tokens for stable coins and then turn their stable coin into either BTC or ETH or fiat.

volume is an irrelevant metric anyway

having say $50k volume one day but $30k volume the next is MEANINGLESS
it does NOT mean more people are trading.
it does NOT mean more dollar is deposited.
it does NOT mean more people want to buy

volume does not reveal WHO or how much.
for instance with just $5k i can day trade/arbitrage around a market 10 times and make the volume appear as $50k even though the physical $$ moving is just $5k for the entire day.

but i do have to agree, because 'stablecoins' dont have the disadvantage of taking 3-5 business days to move from an american account of exchange A to exchange B. stable coins can be used to arbitrage exchanges in seconds. which makes arbitrages circle faster and thus make volumes numbers appear larger due to more arbitrage cycles.

what would be more of a metric is how much fiat is on orderlines at any one point. then different days you can spot if there are more or less 'buyers' than usual because you can spot how much TOTAL $$ is fixed to an orderline thus able to total how much dollar wants to be buying bitcoin.

the other advantage is that you can spot which direction a market may flow. here is the most easiest way without knowing numbers but just looking at order charts


but getting back to the topic.. the "volume" metric is meaningless.. it reveals absolutely nothing about the markets that can be of any use in any way

It doesn't matter if it's stablecoins? it's just a way to efficiently and easily trade with fiat-pegged crypto(so, able to send it very fast etc)..

This is not new. With the advent of stablecoins, people are just using those instead of real dollars in trading. Also, exchanges have this habit of faking the volume that goes within their platform to lure more customers and traders in. However I'm not sure whether keeping most of the volumes in stablecoins is a good idea considering that the issue of these currencies being backed by real assets/dollars is still somewhat questionable at best.


One can only hope that they really are backed by something that can really hold value as what Tether introduced them to be.

This has been an issue for a long time. We can see trading volume as nothing but it could really deceive traders. They're actually doing something to fake their volumes to attract investors which is bad at this point because they're causing confusion.

Their days are numbered. Companies like BTC-e and 1Broker weren't immune from US federal agencies, and Tether isn't either. The DOJ is only six months into a criminal probe of Bitfinex and Tether for market manipulation. That probe was launched nearly a year after the CFTC began investigating them for the same thing. Sooner or later, both Bitfinex and Tether are probably going to have seizure notices on their domains.


If volume goes to other stablecoin markets on the same exchange, it certainly doesn't hurt them. I noticed that Binance promotes other stablecoin markets like USDC and PAX when you press the "Trade" button on your balances page. I think subtly pushing traders towards safer stablecoins makes sense for exchanges because a Tether implosion will be bad for everyone. The bigger they are when they go down, the worse the collateral damage will be.

I expected the volume of stable coins to be higher than the volume of actual USD but this seems like a very disproportionate market to me. Most likely the numbers are this way because pretty much every small-medium exchange use different bots and machines to fake their volume in order to attract more clients because apparently people tend to choose those exchanges that have the highest volume even though over 90% of it its fake

I am agree with you, this is a time bomb who is going to explode... This tricky market has tokens as it bases, and this will take us to nowhere, so, be carefull with this bubble and play it smart, because when the crash comes, it will do it hard.