Sherrod Brown, the chair of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, has called on several crypto firms to release information related to consumer and investor protection on stablecoins. According to a Nov. 23 announcement, Brown sent notices to Coinbase, Gemini, Paxos, TrustToken, Binance.US, Circle, Centre, and Tether requesting information on stablecoins by Dec. 3, suggesting that he and other lawmakers may be preparing to hold a later hearing on the subject. The senator said investors “may not appreciate the complexity and distinct features and terms of each stablecoin,” with crypto platforms not always providing users with the …

Looking at the past 7-days of winners and losers might give one the impression that cryptocurrency markets are net positive. Still, total market capitalization actually fell by 6.7% to $2.72 trillion as Bitcoin's (BTC) price retraced 8.3% to $58,425. The only connection between this week's top gainers seems to be the Metaverse and gaming sector, which has been on a bull run since Facebook rebranded to Meta on Oct. 28, signaling its new focus on that segment. Further bullish news backing the current surge in Metaverse-related tokens is Gemini exchange raising $400 million on Nov. 19 to build a decentralized …

The first rule of Bitcoin (BTC) trading should be “expect the unexpected.” In just the past year alone, there have been five instances of 20% or higher daily gains, as well as five intraday 18% drawdowns. Truth to be told, the volatility of the past 3-months has been relatively modest compared to recent peaks. Whether it be multi-million dollar institutional fund managers or retail investors, traders new to Bitcoin are often mesmerized by a 19% correction after a local top. Even more shocking to many is the fact that the current $13,360 correction from the Nov. 10 $69,000 all-time high …

Synonym Software Ltd., a company founded by stablecoin issuer Tether Holdings Limited, officially launched on Tuesday, setting in motion a highly ambitious project to bring Bitcoin (BTC) transactions mainstream through an independent financial platform that utilizes the Lightning Network. Synonym’s stated goal is to enable self-ownership and control of crypto assets by creating an open financial ecosystem that utilizes Bitcoin and the Lightning Network, the company announced Tuesday. CEO John Carvalho said “Hyperbitcoinization won’t magically happen on its own. In order to live in a world without big banks, oppressive regulations, or Big Tech presiding over our lives, we need …

Tether (USDT) has gone from being a renegade cryptocurrency to becoming the industry's primary crutch during the last seven years, according to a new report. Essentially, USDT is a bridge between traditional currencies like the U.S. dollar and decentralized digital currencies operating on open blockchain networks. Independent crypto outlet Protos provided an in-depth insight into the most common stablecoin and the liquidity providers who supply it to cryptocurrency platforms. According to the report, issued USDT is primarily acquired by just two market makers. Between 2014 and October 2021, Alameda Research and Cumberland received a projected $60.3 billion in USDT, accounting …

As many have come to realize, Bitcoin (BTC), while offering many opportunities, is a volatile cryptocurrency, one that is no stranger to fluctuation in its prices. Like other volatile assets in traditional markets, many traders have looked to derivatives trading to help mitigate some of these risks. However, the same diverse set of professional-grade derivatives that investors have come to know didn’t always exist in the digital space of crypto. BitMEX, a platform established in 2014, arose to address this need as a Bitcoin-only platform for margin and settlement. Since then, the evolution of the cryptocurrency landscape towards stablecoins has …

Solana (SOL) surpassed Cardano (ADA) and leading stablecoin Tether (USDT) to become the fourth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. At press time, the net worth of total SOL tokens in circulation was a little over $76 billion, falling only behind Binance Coin's (BNB) $109 billion, Ether's (ETH) $540 billion, and Bitcoin's (BTC) $1.17 trillion. Meanwhile, Cardano and Tether's market cap came out to be $66.39 billion and $74.42 billion, respectively. $100M fund launch boosts SOL's bullish outlook Solana's market capitalization surged as its native token, SOL, rose to yet another record high. On Nov. 7, the SOL price crossed above $262 …

Cryptocurrency exchanges Bitfinex is preparing to test out a new Anti-Money Laundering (AML) tool on its platform. The firm announced Wednesday that it will be testing a new solution designed for complying with the “Travel Rule,” an AML/Counter Financing of Terrorism regulation for financial institutions introduced by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in 2019. Bitfinex partnered with compliance startup Notabene to implement its software-as-a-service solution to identify virtual asset accounts, track cross-border transactions and comply with other broad obligations of Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs). The integration will supposedly allow the firm to ensure privacy while collecting and managing …

Shiba Inu (SHIB) may see a pullback by almost 25%-35% on fears that the cryptocurrency's excessive price rally in October has left it overvalued, a key indicator shows. Dubbed Relative Strength Index (RSI), the indicator measures the magnitude of an instrument's recent price changes to evaluate its oversold and overbought conditions. The result can be anywhere between the number 0 and 100, with a reading below 30 showing the instrument's oversold and above 70 showing its overbought status. SHIB crossed above 70 on Oct. 3 and peaked around 94 three days later. Ideally, its overbought reading could have resulted in …

Tether Operations Limited, the firm operating the Tether (USDT)-centric platform tether.to, announced today that it will use Notabene, an end-to-end solution for cryptocurrency Travel Rule compliance. Tether will begin testing Notabene's cross-border transaction monitoring system for virtual asset service providers (VASPs) to combat financial crimes such as money laundering. Notabene is a new technology for monitoring cryptocurrency transactions in real-time, making the blockchain more transparent and allowing regulators to keep better track of cash flow. The Know Your Customer infrastructure stack at the firm is built to span jurisdictions with little or no regulation of financial services. In order to …

Bullish sentiment is running high across the cryptocurrency market on Oct. 20 as Bitcoin’s (BTC) surge to a new all-time high at $67,000 thrust the digital asset into uncharted territory, with investors closely watching to see how altcoins and decentralized finance (DeFi) tokens react to the move. The DeFi sector has also benefited from BTC’s bullish breakout, and today, the total value locked (TVL) across all DeFi protocols climbed to a new record high. According to data from Defi Llama, which collects data from DeFi protocols across all major blockchain networks, including Binance Smart Chain, Avalanche and wrapped Bitcoin (wBTC), …

A bounty of up to $1 million has been offered to anyone who can cast light on the precise backing of Tether’s reserves. That backing just got a little bit murkier after Celsius Network CEO Alex Mashinsky reportedly said that Tether mints new Tether (USDT) in exchange for crypto assets — which appears to conflict with Tether’s own terms and conditions. Forensic financial research firm Hindenburg Research tweeted on Wednesday to its 171,000 followers that it holds “doubts about the legitimacy of Tether” and offered a reward of up to $1 million for important details on Tether’s reserves, which it …