Cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex announced that it repaid $100 million of outstanding loan facility to stablecoin operator Tether in a post on its official blog on July 2. Per the announcement, Bitfinex made the repayment via wire transfer to Tether’s bank account and the amount was not yet due to be paid to the operator under the facility. Still, the exchange reportedly made the decision to complete the prepayment based on its financial position at the end of the second quarter of 2019. The post concludes: “Also on July 1st, Bitfinex fully prepaid all interest accrued under the loan facility to …

Bitcoin (BTC) is benefitting from inflows of fiat currency as stablecoin Tether (USDT) increases its supply, the CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Kraken told finance news channel TD Ameritrade Network on July 1. In an interview, Jesse Powell took issue with suspicions about tether due to its ongoing legal battle with the New York Attorney General. “Historically, when you’ve seen growth in the supply of tether, we’ve seen growth in the supply of U.S. dollars coming onto Kraken,” he said. “...I think what you’re seeing with tether is just a very transparent reflection of what is happening at the banking system …

Changpeng Zhao, CEO of top crypto exchange Binance, has revealed the company plans to launch a futures trading platform, with initial support for BTC/USDT contracts at a leverage of up to 20x. The CEO made his announcement during a keynote speech delivered at the Asia Blockchain Summit in Taipei earlier today, July 2. According to Cointelegraph’s reporter at the scene, Zhao — better known by his industry moniker “CZ” — indicated that while there is as yet no exact launch date for the new “Binance Futures” trading platform, a simulation test version is expected within a few weeks. Screenshot of …

Brazilian cryptocurrency exchanges are rolling out support for a stablecoin, according to a report by Cointelegraph Brasil on June 26. Brazilian platforms including PagCripto, Nox Trading, 3xBit, and Bitcambio, are reportedly slated to be the next adopters to issue this new stablecoin — pegged one-to-one with the Brazilian real — Real-T (REALT). As explained in its whitepaper, the “Real-T Token” is an Ethereum-based ERC-20 stablecoin that is “strictly pegged” to BRL. The paper claims that the company behind the token, Real-T Tecnologia S.A., will publicly share its bank statement to provide evidence for full backing of Real-T in fiat money. …

Major global crypto exchange Binance has listed trading pairs for USDSB, a Binance Chain-based version of StableUSD (USDS), the firm announced on June 24. As noted in the statement, Binance has launched trading for two trading pairs, including USDSB against major stablecoin tether (USDT), as well as the USDSB-to-USDS trading pair today at 10:00 AM UTC. Derived from StableUSD, a stablecoin pegged 1:1 to the United States dollar and developed by crypto startup Stably, USDSB was issued on Binance’s BEP2 token standard in early June 2019. As previously announced, USDSB has become the first stablecoin to be launched on Binance …

Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin has announced that it is now listing the cryptocurrency Binance Coin (BNB) issued by the exchange Binance, according to a press release on June 19. KuCoin will reportedly offer BNB trading pairs with Bitcoin (BTC) and Tether (USDT). The announcement also notes that KuCoin will support projects based on Binance’s native blockchain, Binance Chain, in addition to its native coin BNB. The recent development shows that major trading institutions are putting trust in Binance’s token-vetting process on its initial exchange offering platform. At press time, KuCoin is the 46th largest cryptocurrency exchange on CoinMarketCap, with an …

Leading cryptocurrency exchange Binance will reportedly issue its own stablecoins within two months, Bloomberg reported on June 5. Binance’s Chief Financial Officer, Wei Zhou told Bloomberg that the exchange will start issuing its own stablecoins “in a matter of weeks to a month or two," with the goal to make stablecoins available for more of the world’s currencies. The exchange’s first stablecoin dubbed “Binance GBP” will reportedly be denominated in and 100% pegged to the British pound. Zhou also revealed that Binance will make money off of interest on fiat deposits, like tether (USDT) does. Apart from Binance GBP, Binance …

Chinese cryptocurrency exchanges facilitate 60% of all stablecoin tether (USDT) trading globally, according to an analysis by Diar on June 3. According to the report, Chinese exchanges in 2019 thus far account for over $10 billion in USDT trading. The United States, in contrast, is said to account for only $450 million of USDT traded. Global exchange giants Binance and Bitfinex reportedly account for close to the remaining amount of Tether traded, accounting for 31% of USDT activity. Additionally, the analysis concludes that the trading numbers are not misleading. According to their findings, a similar amount of sending and receiving …

One of the world’s biggest crypto exchanges by trading volume believes digital currencies can provide financial freedom to consumers in countries where instability and inflation are making fiat payments impractical. In the world of digital technology dominance, traditional global financial systems are facing hard times to transform in order to interact with the overwhelming demands around the globe, especially to developing countries. Issues such as a lack of access to stable banking and the high cost of currency exchange and remittances for migrant workers sending funds back home all contribute to perpetuating existing inequalities. However, cryptocurrency and blockchain technology could …

Major cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex is looking to launch the USDT stablecoin operated by sister firm Tether on the Lightning Network (LN), crypto news outlet The Block reported on May 31. Per the report, Bitfinex’s chief technology officer Paolo Ardoino told the outlet that the company plans to launch USDT on LN later this year. To pursue this objective, the firm reportedly joined the RGB open source development project. According to its GitHub repository, the RGB project is “a completely free, open-source, non-profit and community-oriented effort, promoted by the BHB Network and aimed at the development of standards and best practices …

Eos (EOS) parent company Block.one has announced a blockchain-based social media platform called Voice, according to a press release shared with Cointelegraph on June 1. The firm claims that the platform will use the Eos blockchain to provide transparency on how it operates, without hidden algorithms or content-pushing mechanisms of which the user is unaware. In the press release, the CEO of Block.one, Brendan Blumer, compared Voice with traditional social media platforms, saying: “The truth is, current social media platforms are designed to use their users. Just look at the business model. Our content. Our data. Our attention. These are …

Blockchain tech company Tether has announced that it is partnering with EOS parent company Block.one to release its stablecoin (USDT) on the EOS blockchain (EOSIO), according to a press release shared with Cointelegraph on May 31. According to the announcement, Tether developed the Tether EOS smart contract, which has been sent to the EOS account “tethertether” and peer-reviewed by the Canadian branch of EOS. Tether EOS is reportedly well-suited for peer-to-peer microtransactions, due to its delegated proof-of-stake design. Tether’s Chief Executive Officer, Jean-Louis van der Velde, said that expaned the coin to the EOS blockchain provides greater interoperability. As reported …