Stablecoins are a type of cryptocurrency offering investors price stability. The most popular stablecoins are those backed by the United States dollar — the world’s leading reserve currency. Others are less popular and not widely used, so many may not have heard of alternatives if they haven’t searched for them. According to data from the International Monetary Fund, the euro is the world’s second most widely held reserve currency, behind the U.S. dollar and ahead of the Chinese yuan. The euro is the official currency of the eurozone, comprising 20 of 27 member states of the European Union (EU), with …

The popular fintech bank Silvergate Bank lost five crypto partners on March 2, owing to a slew of investigations and lawsuits against it. Coinbase, Paxos, Gemini, BitStamp and Galaxy Digital were some of the most notable crypto firms that were using Silvergate as their banking partner. However, the termination of service by Coinbase has also forced a crypto hedge fund to look for an alternate banking partner. Today Silvergate has lost Coinbase Circle Paxos Galaxy CBOE RIP https://t.co/XlexB5u2wD — db (@tier10k) March 2, 2023 On March 3, a crypto hedge fund called Digital Asset Capital Management (DACM) with assets worth …

Business intelligence firm MicroStrategy and stablecoin issuer Tether have become the latest two firms to publicly deny any meaningful exposure to Silvergate Bank. The news comes as Silvergate announced on Mar. 1 that it would postpone the filing of its annual 10-K financial report, which has many fearing the cryptocurrency bank may be on the brink of a bankruptcy filing. This led MicroStrategy — which holds over 130,000 Bitcoin (BTC) — to confirm that its BTC collateral is not custodied with Silvergate. The Michael Saylor-founded firm added that it will not need to pay back a loan from Silvergate until …

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance has confirmed it is “not planning any layoffs” and is trying to fill another 500 roles by the end of June, according to a Binance spokesperson. The comments came despite a huge spike in crypto layoffs in January — the majority of whom were from crypto exchanges. In a statement, the Binance representative said: “As of today, we are actively hiring for more than 500 roles with the goal of filling them by the end of H1 [...] We are not planning any layoffs.” The spokesperson was responding to a request for clarification from Cointelegraph on Mar. …

Several crypto firms have announced they will scale back or outright terminate their relationship with Silvergate Bank following an announced investigation into its alleged involvement in the FTX collapse. Amid news that crypto exchange Coinbase would no longer accept or initiate payments with Silvergate, companies including stablecoin issuers Paxos and Circle and Mike Novogratz's Galaxy Digital have announced similar actions regarding their partnerships with the crypto bank. Galaxy Digital announced on March 2 that it had stopped accepting or initiating transfers to the bank “out of an abundance of caution”. In separate posts on Twitter on March 2, Paxos said …

Citizens Trust Bank, a financial institution regulated by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), has partnered with Circle Internet Financial to hold some of its reserves in USD Coin (USDC) — a move the companies said would promote financial inclusion and digital literacy in the greater Atlanta area. On Feb. 24, Circle announced the Atlanta-based Citizens Trust Bank would hold $65 million in USDC reserves as part of a broader collaboration between the two companies. The bank’s USDC reserves will provide small businesses with access to capital and be used for other financial inclusion initiatives. Citizens Trust’s president and chief …

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is not the appropriate regulator for stablecoins, says Circle founder and CEO Jeremy Allaire. In an interview with Bloomberg on Feb. 24, the Circle chief executive aired his views on the SEC and its recent moves to clamp down on the crypto industry, including stablecoin issuer Paxos. Allaire appears to have taken issue with the SEC's focus on stablecoins, arguing that dollar-pegged “payment stablecoins” should be under the oversight of a banking regulator, rather than the SEC. “I don’t think the SEC is the regulator for stablecoins,” said Allaire, adding: “There is …

The Bitcoin (BTC) price rose to a new six-month high of $24,800 on February 16, registering a double-digit surge of 15%. The prolific single-day Bitcoin price surge took many by surprise, given February has been historically bearish for the top cryptocurrency. BTC price rose by $1,820 in a single day, making it the biggest green day for the top cryptocurrency in six months. Many people attributed the BTC price surge to a number of factors, including a rise in dollar value and declining inflation. On-chain data indicates the current price momentum can be traced back to a mysterious fund that …

USD Coin (USDC) issuer Circle has denied rumors that it received a "Wells Notice" over its United States dollar-pegged stablecoin. On Feb. 14, a now-deleted tweet from Fox Business reporter Eleanor Terrett claimed Circle had been ordered by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to cease the sale of USDC — due to the stablecoin being an unregistered security. Dante Disparte, Chief Strategy Officer and Head of Global Policy at Circle Pay clarified on Twitter just 15 minutes after Terrett's tweet that his firm has not received a Wells Notice. .@circle has not received a Wells notice. https://t.co/lE74zHVLka — …

New York State’s Department of Financial Services, or NYDFS, reportedly received a complaint from stablecoin issuer Circle regarding Binance’s reserves prior to its crackdown on BUSD. According to a Feb. 13 Bloomberg report, Circle alerted NYDFS in an autumn 2022 complaint that Binance’s reserves were insufficient to support its tokens, seemingly including stablecoin Binance USD (BUSD). A person familiar with the matter reportedly said Circle’s team had uncovered the information through blockchain data. Circle’s actions came prior to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission’s plans to file a lawsuit against Paxos, claiming that BUSD was an unregistered security. NYDFS …

USD Coin (USDC) issuer Circle has released an accountant-verified report of its treasury reserve holdings backing more than $44.5 billion worth of tokens currently in circulation. Circle’s December 2022 reserve report, which was reviewed by GrantThornton accountancy group, breaks down the current make-up of the stablecoin issuer’s reserve vault. According to Circle, 44,553,543,212 USDC is currently backed by $44,693,963,701 U.S. dollars held in custody accounts. It is worth noting that a significant portion of the latter amount is invested in a variety of U.S. Treasury bonds. As per Circle’s VP of accounting Timothy Singh, the fair value of assets in …

Stablecoins in the cryptocurrency market help provide USD pegged tokens within the volatile industry. In bull markets, the market capitalization of stablecoins tends to decrease as investors flock to more volatile assets and in bear markets, investors seek shelter in low volatility stablecoins thus increasing their market caps. On Jan. 26, the total market capitalization for stablecoins like Tether (USDT), USD Coin (USDC), Binance USD (BUSD) and Dai (DAI) is over $131 billion. Stablecoins are so crucial to the future of crypto, that Moody’s, a well-respected analytics agency, is planning to develop a scoring system. The scoring system may help …