Stablecoin
Crypto Biz: You can’t stop the Tether FUD
In the world of crypto, FUD stands for fear, uncertainty and doubt. It’s often evoked intentionally to draw negative attention to a particular project or business. One of crypto’s most enduring legacies has been the constant FUD surrounding Tether, whose USDT stablecoin commands a market capitalization of nearly $68 billion. Whether intentional or not, The Wall Street Journal ran a story this week claiming that Tether was on the edge of technical insolvency and that it wouldn’t take much to push the stablecoin issuer into financial peril. Of course, Tether didn’t take it lying down and immediately issued a response to what it considered to be a “disinformation” campaign by the Journal. Regardless of which side of the debate you’re on, it’s becoming clear that there is a strong media ...
South Korean central bank eyes MiCA, says future regulations may allow ICOs again
The South Korean central bank has indicated that initial coin offerings (ICOs) will be allowed under the Digital Assets Framework Act, according to a local news report. That comprehensive legislation is expected to be introduced in 2023 and implemented the following year. The Bank of Korea (BOK) discussed ICOs in comments to a Korean translation of the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) legislation released Monday. The BOK stated that the MiCA regulatory package protected users and investors without hindering innovation. “A balanced approach is needed to foster a sound market through the introduction of a crypto asset regulatory system to promote blockchain and crypto asset innovation while not hindering the development of related industries due to excessive regulation,...
Crypto Biz: Step aside, Warren Buffett; stablecoin issuers hold more US debt than Berkshire Hathaway
Warren Buffett raised eyebrows this week when his firm, Berkshire Hathaway, upped its exposure to United States Treasury bills. If you’re one of the few remaining bulls out there, Buffett’s flight to safety is concerning because it signals that the Oracle of Omaha would rather get a 3% yield instead of playing the stock market. If equities go belly-up in the fall, as I’ve been predicting for months, expect Bitcoin (BTC) to follow. Looking at the numbers, Berkshire’s T-bill exposure grew to $75 billion at the end of June, up from $58.5 billion at the beginning of 2022. But, even with the 28% spike, Berkshire doesn’t hold as many T-bill investments as the leading stablecoin issuers. Stablecoins presently command a market capitalization of $153 billion, and a large percentage of their b...
ATOM price is reaching for the Cosmos, but why?
As a market crash takes place, assets become oversold and typically there’s an “oversold bounce,” “return to mean,” “mean reversion,” or some price snapback to the bottom of the pre-crash range. Afterward, the asset under study either consolidates, continues the downtrend, or returns to the bullish uptrend if the downside catalyst was not significant enough to break the market structure. That’s all basic trading 101. This week Cosmos (ATOM) price appears to be following this path, and the altcoin is showing a bit of strength with a 35% gain since Aug. 22. But why? Depending on how you look at it, and technical analysis is by all means a subjective process, ATOM price is either in an ascending channel, or one could say a rounding bottom pattern is present with price close to breaking ...
Independent Tether attestation reveals 58% decrease in commercial paper holdings
An announcement from USDT issuer Tether Holdings Limited revealed information from an independent attestation about the company’s previous quarter’s performance. The reviewer, top accounting firm BDO Italia, assessed Tether’s assets as of June 30, 2022. Tether had previously announced a commitment to decreasing its commercial paper holdings by the end of August 2022. Data from the report revealed a 58% decrease in commercial paper exposure since the previous quarter from $20 billion to $8.5 billion. The chief technology officer of Tether, Paolo Ardoino, tweeted that Tether has plans to continue to decrease its commercial paper holdings to $200 million by the end of August and zero them out by the following October. As of June 30th, more than 58% decrease in Tether’s commer...
Another depeg — Acala trace report reveals 3B aUSD erroneously minted
High-profile security incidents continue to be a theme in 2022 as the Acala Network joined a long list of stricken platforms to fall prey to exploits. Acala’s aUSD token, which acts as the native stablecoin for the Polkadot and Kusama blockchains, saw its value plummet 99% after a misconfiguration of the iBTC/aUSD liquidity pool was exploited after its launch on Aug. 14. Initial estimates from Acala noted that 1.2 billion aUSD were minted without the necessary collateral – seeing the token’s value depeg from its 1:1 USD ratio to a bottom of $.01. Acala put its network in maintenance mode to freeze funds and eventually managed to recoup a significant portion of the uncollateralized tokens. The Acala community proposed and voted on a referendum to identify and destroy the erroneously m...
Built to fall? As the CBDC sun rises, stablecoins may catch a shadow
There’s a ferment brewing with regard to central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), and most people really don’t know what to expect. Varied effects seem to be bubbling up in different parts of the world. Consider this: China’s e-CNY, or digital yuan, has already been used by 200 million-plus of its citizens, and a full rollout could happen as early as February — but will a digital yuan gain traction internationally? Europe’s central bank has been exploring a digital euro for several years, and the European Union could introduce a digital euro bill in 2023. But will it come with limitations, such as a ceiling on digital euros that can be held by a single party? A United States digital dollar could be the most awaited government digital currency given that the dollar is the world’s rese...
Brazilian payment app PicPay launches crypto exchange with Paxos
Major Brazilian payment application PicPay is moving into cryptocurrencies by integrating a crypto exchange service allowing users to buy Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH). The firm officially announced on Wednesday that PicPay clients can now buy, sell and store two major cryptocurrencies, BTC or ETH, directly on its app. PicPay pointed out that its choice was due to the real use cases provided by these digital assets, including security and many other benefits. The firm stated: “Blockchain technology, which is behind coins like Bitcoin and Ethereum, is already used in the real estate sector, the insurance industry and even the art market, through non-fungible tokens.” The new crypto feature is enabled through a partnership with the major crypto company Paxos and allows customers to use Paxos...
Vitalik: Centralized USDC could decide the future of contentious ETH hard forks
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin says that centralized stablecoins such as Tether (USDT) and Circle USD (USDC) could become “a significant decider in future contentious hard forks.” Buterin was speaking at the BUIDL Asia conference in Seoul on Aug. 3, along with Illia Polosukhin, the co-founder of Near Protocol (NEAR) to discuss Ethereum’s upcoming Merge. The Ethereum co-founder argued that centralized stablecoins could be a “significant” decider of which blockchain protocol the industry would “respect” in hard forks. A hard fork occurs when there is a radical change to the protocol of a blockchain network that effectively results in two versions. Usually, one chain ends up being preferred over another. “At the moment of the merge, you will have two [separate] networks […] and then you ...
Bill addressing stablecoins risks in US likely delayed until September: Report
Lawmakers in the United States House of Representatives have reportedly pushed back the timeline for considering a bill addressing the potential risks of stablecoins. According to a Monday report from the Wall Street Journal, people familiar with the matter said House members will likely delay voting on a stablecoin bill until September after being unable to complete a draft in time for a Wednesday committee meeting. The unresolved issues in the bill reportedly included provisions on custodial wallets from the Treasury Department and concerns from the Securities and Exchange Commission. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen reportedly wanted to coordinate with the Biden administration for her response to the bill. Neither has publicly weighed in on the proposed legislation, but Yellen previously...
Demand for widely used euro stablecoin is huge, says DeFi expert
The market capitalization of Tether (USDT), a United States dollar-pegged stablecoin, is currently over $65 billion. USD Coin (USDC), another stablecoin backed by the U.S. dollar, clocks in near $55 billion. Some reports estimate that the total market cap of dollar-backed stablecoins is over $160 billion. Despite this success of dollar-based stablecoins, there has not been a euro stablecoin that is even remotely comparable in size. By the end of June, the U.S.-based company Circle announced that it will launch its own euro stablecoin, Euro Coin (EUROC), on the Ethereum blockchain. With a euro-based stablecoin, uncomplicated euro transfers will be possible worldwide in the future, as is currently the case with the U.S. dollar. Instead of the eurozone-based business, Circle has opted to issu...
‘Token will defeat cryptocurrency’: Russia debuts palladium-backed stablecoin
The Russian government-backed tokenization platform Atomyze has issued its first digital asset backed by palladium in collaboration with the local bank Rosbank. Rosbank officially announced on Monday that it became the first partner of the Russian blockchain firm Atomyze, acting as an investor in Russia’s first digital asset deal with palladium. According to the announcement, the newly issued digital asset is the first digital financial asset (DFA) issued through Atomyze. The platform obtained registration from the Bank of Russia in February 2022, becoming the country’s first legal digital asset manager. Both Atomyze and Rosbank are backed by Interros, a Russian conglomerate and investment firm co-founded by sanctioned oligarch Vladimir Potanin. The CEO of the Russian nickel and palla...
