Most Bitcoins are not bought with USD but with Tether and other stable coins. Tether is printed at the pace of billions per week recently so no wonder it lifts all the boats in crypto world.
Isn't this like a pedantic detail? How is Tether bought? USD/EUR/GBP/JPY, right?
Fiat -> stablecoin -> BTC
Fiat -> BTC
basically the same journey
my point is, according to this https://markets.chainalysis.com/ there's $3b/day in BTC inflows...
> Fiat -> BTC
> basically the same journey
stablecoin == fiat is the lie that enabled and perpetuates the crypto madness
BTC holders always had trouble getting USD due to KYC onramps and offramps. People couldn't get out of a volatile BTC position back into stable USD fast enough... so holding BTC just wasn't worth the risk.
But Tether shows up and voila the holding problem is solved as it's a dollar "equivalent" that doesn't have to deal with pesky KYC laws slowing down USD cash-out. Let's trade one magic token for another on a whim, we'll deal with getting USD later. They're good for it. "Line go up" madness starts.
To anyone that's been actually paying attention, Tether is a house of cards waiting to implode. They are not worth 1 USD each, no matter how much anyone wishes, hopes or screams it does.
One by one the so-called stablecoins are being shown to be the garbage/scams they are. Once the market wakes up and realizes that they aren't actually worth a dollar, then BTC has nothing left to artificially prop it up.
Popcorn time.
And if you think my language isn't appropriate, Tether is run my literal scammers: a proven financial fraud and an online poker cheat. Chances of it being even semi legit operation are zero.
The question is how much tether is originating as part of a cash transaction vs how much is being minted out of thin air specifically to buoy the price of cryptos.
$1 -> 1 Tether -> $1 worth of bitcoin
$1 -> $1 worth of bitcoin (as an "investment" for Tether to make money)
$1 worth of bitcoin -> Collateral on loan to Tether -> $0.50 -> $0.50 worth of bitcoin
We don't know exactly what Tether is doing with their money because they don't open their books. Safe to assume it's some sketchy stuff though.
Nobody knows.
Perhaps I should have said it's less a question of how tether is bought and more a question of if tether can be said to be bought, at its point of origin.