Bitcoin is traded, even is we forget for a moment about wash trading. In each transaction we generate only a small margin, which adds to the value of traded assets. Only 2-5 billion dollars of bitcoins were from mining in 2020. Tethers are printed out of thin air and sold fully, from 0$ to 1$ (in equivalent), margin is 100%. So 15 billion of new tethers printed this summer had much more influence on the market than even greater amount of Bitcoin trades.