It's not but it's how free market works. No, Tether was not the reason why btc went up, 2010 dark net moved the price, 2013 MtGox was most likely the reason the price moved. Since 2016 the volume have been spread across multiple exchanges. 2016, chinese ones were driving the price, later, the korean exchanges took over. None of those used Tether.

Tether was just a way of getting money on exchanges that didn't allow US-citizens to trade. Since those exchanges held the most different type of assets.

Week of the peak: Bitstamp BTCUSD volume = ~200k Bitfinex BTCUSD volume= ~750k Coinbase BTCUSD volume= ~230k

Binance BTCUSDT (Tether) volume= ~100k Poloniex BTCUSDT volume = ~120k Huobi BTCUSDT volume = ~110k Bittrex BTCUSDT volume = ~110k

The Tether numbers don't add up. Among the most popular exchanges at the time, the btcusd volume was clearly higher. This is from the week it peaked -> https://imgur.com/a/lw0n5UN The only listed btcusdt pair is ranked 10. Earlier that year (june btc at 2000 usd): https://imgur.com/a/bUTMfIw Only 1 listed btcusdt pair in top10 (2) Also only