It may be due to the Bitcoin Cash fork, but the volatility of crypto prices seems to have returned – downwards – causing a panic selloff that had not occurred for some time, and perhaps even a reassessing of those alternatives that in this 2018 have taken hold: stable coins.
In fact, the price volatility of cryptocurrencies guided by bitcoin is an intrinsic prerogative, but it seems that this year’s scenario has in a way flattened what until last December 2017 seemed to be the boom for crypto investments that saw BTC at its all-time high worth $20,000.
However, despite the widespread awareness of what crypto-assets are and the beginning of a mass adoption, uncertainty remains about what is called the “future of money”: it is still difficult for many to think, in fact, not to have control over the value of an object, let alone if this object is digital.
Not everyone is willing to use an asset that, although digital and rich in unique features derived from the basic technology, can change the value by 10 or 20% in a few hours, both positively and negatively. Moreover, not all users in the crypto world are speculators attracted by sharp value movements.
This is how stable coins can become that alternative of digital assets that anchored to a fiat currency or another resource, keeps its value at a 1:1 ratio so as not to absorb any volatility and remain stable.
It seems that in this 2018, in fact, stable coins have taken hold giving crypto users that extra security that only a peg can offer.
The most famous is Tether USDT, but in the last two months, there has been much talk of other stable coins such as Circle USDC, CarbonUSD on the EOS blockchain, Ekon from Eidoo and the IBM Stronghold project anchored to the US dollar.
Big companies and institutions in the crypto space offer a solution to the price volatility that bitcoin and all the others suffer from, overcoming the initial obstacle of access to the crypto world and expanding the adoption toward the most doubtful and uncertain.
This return of volatility can also be seen as a momentum for the progress of stable coins which in any case will depend very much on the advancement of the crypto market. In fact, even if the queen bitcoin were to return to its standards of volatility, it is possible to foresee a progress of the stable coins as a temporary alternative but not as a replacement.
