Market maker Cumberland may have taken advantage of the decline as data showed the firm moved millions of Tether stablecoins to centralized exchanges.
According to LookOnChain, Cumberland has sent more than $1 billion in Tether (USDT) to CEX platforms such as Binance, Coinbase, and Kraken since August 6.
Market makers provide liquidity in financial ecosystems and sometimes adopt a strategy of accumulating assets to buffer profits or income. The deposit boom on the CEX Cumberland began immediately after the global market downturn on August 5, when Bitcoin (BTC) fell below $50,000 and the total cryptocurrency market fell to $1.8 trillion.
Since then, cryptocurrency prices have recovered some of their losses, with Bitcoin (BTC) trading above $61,000 at the time of writing. The overall cryptocurrency market has also gained 12% in the past week, according to TradingView. That growth suggests Cumberland could already be in the black if the market maker used $1 billion USDT to buy a basket of cryptocurrencies.
Meanwhile, stablecoin issuer Tether continued its minting streak. The payments firm created $1 billion in new USDT tokens on Ethereum (ETH), bringing its annual tally to more than $32 billion.
The stablecoin complex has surpassed $160 billion in market cap, but companies are paying pennies to put new tokens into circulation. Arkham confirmed that Tether paid less than $1 in on-chain fees for its latest Ethereum replenishment.
TETHER ISSUES $1 BILLION
Guess how much they paid?
… 53 cents. https://t.co/QqXXg7x96g pic.twitter.com/AJoaFaOUkc
— Arkham (@ArkhamIntel) August 13, 2024
