Despite some analysts arguing that the next bullish cycle has already begun for the cryptocurrency markets, there still appears to be a lot of value sitting on the sidelines. Just short of $6 billion is being held in different stablecoins, presumably waiting for a signal to enter the market.

The total fiat value held across all stablecoins is now close to $6 billion. Accounting for this total is US Dollar-backed Tether, TrueUSD, USD Coin, Paxos Standard, Gemini, DAI, BitUSD, and sUSD.

According to Messari’s Stablecoin Index, Tether makes up most of the total. The controversial Bitfinex-affiliated project currently boasts a market of 4.782 billion alone. Other big contributors to the total are USDC at $454 million and PAX at around $210 million.

Although BeInCrypto recently reported on Jeremy Allaire of Circle stating that stablecoins could eventually transform global finance, the dominant use of most dollar-tied digital assets is still as a hedge against the cryptocurrency market itself.

Traders will buy the USDT or USDC stablecoins when they are unsure of which direction the market will move in. Once convinced, they can make a decision to buy a cryptocurrency asset or to stay in the relative safety of the more stable digital currency.

Founder of QuantumEconomics.io and cryptocurrency market analyst @MatiGreenspan believes that the money sitting in stablecoins is going to transfer into Bitcoin and other digital currencies when the market really starts moving. Such a move would give whatever bullish momentum prompting it an extra push.

As we’ve seen many times before, when Bitcoin starts moving, more traders become interested in the market. This causes more investment and takes prices even higher.

For many retail investors, “fear of missing out” will likely occur when the price passes a previous all-time high. As a report by Twitter-based cryptocurrency analyst CL (@CL207) notes, much of the investing public that drove the price close to $20,000 is not even paying attention to Bitcoin until mainstream media starts reporting on new all-time highs, let alone looking at stablecoins.

Those with money sitting in stablecoins are not the general public that are thought to have “FOMO’d” in at $20,000. These cryptocurrency-literate investors will likely enter the market before “mom-and-pop investors” even take notice. Whilst that $6 billion extra in market capitalization won’t take Bitcoin back to its previous highs, it certainly won’t hurt.