But what exactly does this mean for the overall cryptocurrency market, stablecoins, and Bitcoin?
The Fed Fiat Printing Press is Positive For Gold and Crypto
With an economic recession upon us due to nearly all economic activity halted by the coronavirus outbreak, economists, investors, and more are recommending people move their money into hard assets like gold, real estate, or Bitcoin in an attempt to weather the coming storm.
Gold has an extremely limited supply, and its use as a currency and trading instrument date back centuries.
It’s also long been looked to as a safe-haven for capital during economic downturns, which is part of the reason for the precious metal’s recent 7% gains.
Related Reading | Author Rich Dad Recommends Gold, Bitcoin as Dollar is Dying
Decentralized crypto assets like Bitcoin have hard-capped digital scarcity built right into their code. The limited supply gives the assets gold-like qualities as a safe-haven, simply due to the impact inflation in the dollar would have on hard assets.
Inflation occurs naturally but turns into hyperinflation and dangerous devaluing of the dollar when printing of more fiat currency supply gets out of control.
The Fed has committed to essentially printing an unlimited amount of fiat in a pledge to save the economy from disaster, however, it could be at the peril of the dollar.
Stablecoin Growth Spikes Following Record Bitcoin Collapse
But not all crypto assets are decentralized and hard-capped. Many, especially stablecoins often tied 1:1 with the dollar and backed by reserves, are printed at the whim of the parent company or consortium, or as the market shows increased demand.
Ever since the recent Bitcoin bottom, stablecoins have been printed to the tune of $2.39 billion in market cap – across just the main crypto stablecoins Tether, USDC, BUSD, and Paxos Standard.
The brands have also recently created digital gold tokens, representing a troy ounce bar of physical gold with XAUt and Paxos Gold, in response to the growing gold demand and limited supply.
But why exactly are these companies printing so many stablecoins, nearly as fast as the Fed themselves?
It could be that a massive increase in demand is expected. While this could very well indicate that investors may soon be moving more capital from Bitcoin and altcoins and into stablecoins, during Bitcoin’s epic rally in 2019, Tether was printing at a rapid rate.
Related Reading | Economist: Government Overspending Amidst Crisis is Bullish for Bitcoin
It also could be due to natural growth in the financial asset. Stablecoins are increasingly being used as a digital replacement for the dollar.
Whatever the reasoning may be behind the massive printing press churning out more and more stablecoins, at least its a sign of growth somewhere in the crypto market.