Bitcoin sell pressure ‘closer to exhaustion’ after $4B USDT market-cap drop: CryptoQuant

Biggest stablecoin Tether (USDT) has shed $4 billion in market cap in just two months, but history suggests that the downturn is nearly over.Key points:Tether’s 60-day rolling market-cap contraction stays near $4 billion in one of its heaviest drawdowns.Analysis suggests that the worst of bear-market selling pressure could be over as a result.Comparison to 2022 bear-market highlights an ongoing RSI divergence.USDT drawdown puts “acceleration” of Bitcoin selling in doubtOnchain analytics platform CryptoQuant in a blog post last week flagged market cap “undergoing one of its sharpest contractions on record.”“The deterioration has also accelerated at the margin: nearly $870 million of USDT supply disappeared over the latest 11-day period, showing that the contraction is not merely a legacy effect from earlier redemptions,” analysts wrote. CryptoQuant data puts the 30-day simple moving average (SMA) of 60-day USDT market-cap change at minus $4.88 billion as of Aug. 10. USDT 60-day market-cap change vs. BTC/USD. Source: CryptoQuantThe extent of the drawdown echoes crypto bear markets and rivals the largest ever seen. Its severity has implications for Bitcoin and the broader market recov...