The volatility of the bitcoin this year may have opened the door to the stablecoins — cryptoassets backed by some national currency — to gain ground. Total amount of resources of this type of asset doubled in six months, thus jumping from US$ 6 billion to US$12 billion, according to Cointimes.
The speed of growth is much higher than previously recorded. The stablecoins took five years to reach the US$ 6 billion level, which has now been doubled in one semester.
This higher bet on stablecoins is because they are stable due to the fact of being backed in a national currency — as suggested by the name — unlike the bitcoin. In that way, they allow the investor to wait for the best time and have greater agility to buy a more speculative asset, such as the bitcoin.
Despite the rise, the value still represents only a fraction of bitcoin’s market capitalization, which, according to data compiled by CoinMarketCap, exceeds US$ 219 billion.
BRZ itself, Brazil’s largest stablecoin, noticed the increased interest in stablecoins and reached in July an offer of 35 million tokens – equivalent to R$ 35 million.
Growth of stablecoins can benefit bitcoin
Another consequence of the strong volatility of bitcoin this year was the fall in the volume of transactions with this cryptocurrency. This movement reached the point where, in June, the daily value of these operations was below the total moved with the stablecoins. According to data from Coin Metrics cited by Bloomberg, it was the first time this ever happened.
“Most users don’t want to make transactions with volatile cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin or Ether, preferring to save them. Therefore the stablecoins are a great supplement”. As said by Ryan Watkins, an analyst at Messari to the news agency.
However, this advance of stablecoins may be good news for the bitcoin. This is because it is common to use those tokens to buy bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
This exit movement of stablecoins toward bitcoin should happen when those who have capital invested in the first ones see an uptrend in bitcoin, according to Cointimes’ analysis.
