318 addresses hold 80% of the USDT, and the "Banker" puller can do whatever it wants.

The decentralized world of cryptocurrencies may be more central to what most observers realize. Friends who are concerned about the market will also find that bitcoin is occasionally bursting and plunging, the price has not changed, and the situation of the position is gone. Retail investors often yell at “Dog Village”, and the USDT's currency distribution tells us that the “Banker” pull plate seems to be able to do whatever it wants.

Giant Bitcoin holders are often referred to as whales, who own nearly one-fifth of Bitcoin's total circulation, but research firm Coin Metrics said analyzing USDT's currency address found that about 300 addresses were found. In fact, about 80% of Tether is controlled .

Tether has been controversial since its launch in 2015. Because Tether could not eliminate the bank's concerns about its illegal use of USDT, it made it difficult for them to obtain banking services. In April, the Attorney General of New York accused the company behind Tether of covering up financial problems, covering up losses and diverting client funds. Some project founders and exchanges are even called Tether Mafia on social media.

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John Griffin, a professor of finance at the University of Texas at Austin, said:

"The centralization of Tether means that control of Tether is in the hands of a few people, they can manipulate the price of bitcoin, and doing so is in their vested interests. It also shows that many exchanges may maintain Tether for vested interests. Running."

According to Coin Metrics, there are currently 318 addresses that store $1 million and above . Bitcoin is actually very widely distributed compared to Tether. According to BitInforCharts.com, the balance of more than 20,000 bitcoin addresses is at least $1 million.

The high concentration of Tether's ownership has raised the risk level of the $300 billion cryptocurrency market. According to Coin Metrics, USDT currently has a market capitalization of $4 billion, and transactions involving USDT account for 40% and 80% of the total transaction on the two headed exchange exchanges, respectively.

According to Coin Metrics co-founder Nic Carter, Tether Whales include some of the world's largest exchanges, such as Malta-based currency and Hong Kong's Bitfinex. He said that among the big shareholders of Tether, there are also brokers and high-frequency traders who exchange RMB for Chinese investors.

Griffin's previously published paper has linked USDT to market manipulation issues and the sharp rise in bitcoin prices in 2017.

Coin Metrics only looked at the Tether address that holds at least $1 million on the OMNI and Ethereum blockchains. In fact, the release and use of Tether has gradually appeared in more blockchains, such as EOS and Algorand. Since a single entity can have multiple addresses, the actual ownership of Tether may even be more concentrated.

Sid Shekhar, co-founder of market tracking agency TokenAnalyst, believes:

“When a large number of Tethers are released into the market, the extreme centralization of Tether's ownership can lead to extreme volatility.”

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