How Panic Buying in Chinese Stocks Affects the Top-Traded Crypto Token

A recent report highlighted that some Chinese investors are giving up on cryptocurrencies, and turning back to the country's growing stock market, spurred by central bank measures to boost the economy.

Despite China’s 2021 ban on cryptocurrency trading, many mainlanders continue to access foreign accounts to trade digital currencies, bypassing capital controls and moving assets overseas.

The report argues that USDT, the world’s most used stablecoin, has recently traded at a discount to the US dollar, coinciding with China’s new economic policies.

This discount suggests increased selling pressure on the USDT as investors sell the stablecoin to buy Chinese equities. Livio Weng, CEO of Hong Kong-based crypto exchange Hashkey, suggested that this reflects investor panic.

Due to the ban on USDT/Yuan direct trading, the dollar serves as a measure of activity, with the USDT’s discount indicating greater demand for dollars.

Bloomberg also reported, that traders of Chinese yuan on Binance’s peer-to-peer market are pricing USDT lower than the official yuan/dollar rate, further confirming this change. Institutional investors are also shifting assets to Chinese equities, contributing to the stock market’s rapid growth.