While the value of stablecoins like Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC) is designed to be pegged to another asset, such as the U.S. dollar, the crypto industry has fretted for years about the possibility of a major depegging — especially amid U.S. regulatory concerns about Tether, which has a current market capitalization of over $63 billion. Now one company intends to provide discretionary coverage for investors against that scenario — and Tether itself is backing the play. Bridge Mutual aims to mitigate the risk of loss of funds resulting from hacked or exploited smart contracts, exchange hacks or theft, …

USDC has grown much faster than Tether (USDT) in 2021 and it is emerging as the dominant stablecoin on Ethereum thanks to its popularity in DeFi according to Messari. Research by the analytics firm revealed that the demand for USD Coin has grown so much that it has consumed a large chunk of Tether’s market share this year. Researcher Ryan Watkins predicted that in the coming weeks, this could result in Tether' share of the stablecoin supply on Ethereum falling below 50%. He added that over half of the total USDC supply now sits in smart contracts, which is equivalent …

While a presentation yesterday from Boston Federal Reserve President Eric Rosengren has some members of cryptoTwitter spooked at the idea of regulation and oversight, the central bank might simply be pondering the future. In a presentation titled “Financial Stability,” Rosengren identified the stablecoin Tether by name as a part of three different “Financial Stability Challenges.” The challenges included risks to the housing market, the need for emergency lending facilities in times of crises, and “periodic disruptions to short-term credit markets,” where Tether was noted as one possible disruptor. A follow-up slide noted that stablecoins are rapidly growing in marketcap, and …

In times like these, when the entire cryptocurrency market is down and there is nary a sector-wide runup to be found, traders have to dig into data to see how the market dynamics may have changed to pinpoint signs of new growth. Stablecoins are the newest trend to emerge in the decentralized finance (DeFi) arena due to the resiliency they bring to the sector, especially since protocols that are more reliant on the dollar-pegged assets continue to offer token holders low-risk yield opportunities in turbulent market conditions. Possible evidence of stablecoins rising influence can be found in the difference between …

Jim Cramer, the host of CNBC’s Mad Money, announced he has liquidated nearly all of his Bitcoin (BTC) holdings. Speaking on June 21 during an interview with CNBC’s Squawk Box on the Street, Cramer asserted that BTC is ”not going up because of structural reasons,” highlighting China’s renewed regulatory clampdown. Cramer stated that China’s central government understands Bitcoin to be a “direct threat” to the regime and its capacity to control monetary flows within the country, describing the cryptocurrency as “as a system that’s outside of their control.” The escalating Chinese crypto mining ban has sent Bitcoin’s hash rate tumbling …

The growth of stablecoin's market cap and circulating supply has been one of the best indicators for attaining a general pulse on how participants in the market are feeling during bullish and bearish times. Monitoring the Tether (USDT) treasury for large issuances was a common tactic used by analysts and traders to position themselves for a possible pump in the price of Bitcoin (BTC) and altcoins and previously this has been a good source of alpha for those willing to take a risk. A closer look at the data provided by CryptoQuant indicates that a seismic shift in the makeup …

Welcome to Cointelegraph Market’s Altcoin Roundup, an in-depth newsletter that focuses on investing from the perspective of fundamental analysis and seeks to identify emerging blockchain projects and tokens that fill niche demands within the growing cryptocurrency market. The concept of multi-sector investing has long been advocated in traditional finance as the conventional approach to building a balanced portfolio. Typical allocations include representation of stocks, government and corporate bonds, commodities and real estate. Now that the cryptocurrency market has grown to a multitrillion-dollar ecosystem with numerous emerging assets, clear sectors are beginning to emerge. Savvy crypto investors looking to apply portfolio …

Stablecoin issuing platform ICHI has launched a Decentralized Monetary Authority, or DMA, that enables cryptocurrency networks to more easily mint their own stablecoins securely. By utilizing ICHI’s DMA, cryptocurrency communities can create and govern their own fully-collateralized stablecoins and set their value at exactly $1. ICHI’s developers say their platform solves the myriad of challenges associated with existing stablecoins, including the need to sell other cryptocurrencies to mint more tokens. This problem is akin to selling a stock, which simultaneously decreases the value of that stock. ICHI’s platform seeks to provide the benefits of fiat-backed coins like USDC and USDT …

The decentralized finance (DeFi) sector faced its first real challenge during last week’s market sell-off that saw more than $1 trillion wiped from the global cryptocurrency market cap as traders feverishly ran for the safety of stablecoins amid tumbling prices. Despite rapidly declining token prices, the nascent DeFi sector held its own as decentralized exchanges experienced a record $11.7 billion in trading volume on May 19. Uniswap (UNI) led with $5.7 billion in volume, followed by SushiSwap (SUSHI) which saw $2.8 billion in 24-hour trading volume. According to the recent DeFi Uncovered report from Glassnode, blue-chip DeFi tokens including, UNI, …

Centralized stablecoins have remained resilient during the crypto market downturn, with two stable tokens currently ranked among the top ten crypto assets by market capitalization. Tether and USD Coin are currently ranked third and eighth respectively, having maintained a solid grip on their dollar-pegs despite the massive market downturn. According to Coingecko, Tether and USDC currently represent 80% of the $100 million combined stablecoin capitalization. The total supply of all stablecoins has surged almost 190% over the past 90 days. Top decentralized stable token project, MakerDAO’s DAI, also held its peg throughout the majority of the bearish price action, except …

The founder and CEO of Avanti Financial, Caitlin Long says the “U.S. crypto regulatory crackdown” has begun, but emphasized it’s not a “Bitcoin ban.” She said she was optimistic that the forthcoming regulations would simply bring crypto laws into line with standard financial rules around taxes and compliance. 1/ IT'S CLEAR a US #crypto regulatory crackdown is starting but I'm optimistic bc most of the major players/agencies have spoken already & the policy is taking shape: it's "pay taxes, comply w/ laws & don't take shortcuts, & we'll enable the innovation." It's NOT a "#bitcoin ban" — Caitlin Long (@CaitlinLong_) …

A crypto exchange has launched a brand-new contest to find the ultimate trading masters. Bityard, which is based in Singapore, says a maximum price pool of up to 60,000 USDT is up for grabs — rising incrementally from 5,000 USDT depending on how many participants decide to get involved. Competitors have the chance to band together in teams as they put strategies through their paces in the choppy crypto markets. The team that comes in first place will share 30% of the total prize pool between them, with 20% earmarked for the group in second place, and 10% for those …