Tether Buys 8,888 Bitcoin For $618 Million, But Why Is Price Down?

On-chain data shows that the world’s largest stablecoin issuer, Tether, recently added more Bitcoin to its holdings. The magnitude of the purchase has caused the crypto community to speculate on why Bitcoin’s price has dipped instead when such a development is usually bullish for the crypto token. 

Data from the blockchain analysis platform Arkham Intelligence shows that Tether acquired 8,888 Bitcoin on March 31, and the stablecoin issuer now holds almost 75,400 BTC. With its BTC holding, Tether now ranks as one of the largest Bitcoin holders, even having more BTC than some of the most prominent crypto exchanges and Spot Bitcoin ETF issuers.

Last year, the stablecoin issuer announced its plan to regularly purchase Bitcoin for its stablecoin reserves using part of the profits realized from its operations. Therefore, it is no surprise that the company has been able to acquire this amount of BTC since then, especially with the success they have attained recently. 

However, what is surprising is that Bitcoin has since dropped below $70,000 following this development. Usually, a Bitcoin purchase of such size should positively impact Bitcoin’s price and not cause a price dip like the one currently experienced. However, there is reason to believe other factors have overshadowed Tether’s purchase and caused Bitcoin to see such a sharp correction. 

Crypto trading firm QCP Capital recently provided insights into why Bitcoin’s price broke below $70,000 and dropped to as low as $66,000. The firm claimed that the sharp move to the downside was due to the “large liquidations on retail-heavy exchanges like Binance, which saw perp funding rates go from as high as 77% to flat.”

The Spot Bitcoin ETFs, specifically Grayscale’s GBTC, also look to have contributed to Bitcoin’s decline as Grayscale continues to experience significant outflows from its fund. On April 1, GBTC saw an outflow of $302.6 million, mainly contributing to the combined net outflows of $85.7 million recorded by these Bitcoin ETFs.This has brought about more selling pressure on Bitcoin, which is currently overwhelming the buying pressure in the ecosystem. 

Activity in the derivatives market has also played a part in the bearish market sentiment, with the bears looking firmly in control. Data from Coinglass shows that $409 million has been liquidated from the market in the last 24 hours, with $328 million in long positions being wiped out during this period. 

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading at around $66,500, down over 4% in the last 24 hours, according to data from CoinMarketCap.