Circle, the United States-based issuer of USD Coin (USDC), has set its sights on thriving Asian crypto markets. In a move to strengthen its presence in Asia, Circle picked Singapore to establish a regional headquarters. The company is also setting up an investment arm called Circle Ventures, according to Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire’s interview with Bloomberg. The venture arm’s first investment will focus on a Japanese yen stablecoin. Allaire said the company sees substantial opportunities in the Asian markets, where he expects to see strong adoption of stablecoins in borrowing and lending markets. He added that the inflation environment and …

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), …

Circle, the company behind the world’s second-largest stablecoin USD Coin (USDC), has been subpoenaed by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. According to a Monday regulatory filing from Circle, the SEC issued an “investigative subpoena” from its Enforcement Division in July. Circle stated that it would be fully cooperating with the regulator after receiving the request: “In addition, in July 2021, we received an investigative subpoena from the SEC Enforcement Division requesting documents and information regarding certain of our holdings, customer programs, and operations. We are cooperating fully with their investigation.” The Circle filing is part of its plan …

United States-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has announced it will not be pursuing its Lend crypto lending program. In a Sept. 17 update to a blog announcing the program in June, Coinbase hinted at difficulties in regulatory clarity across the crypto industry in its decision to not bring the crypto lending product to the market. According to the exchange, “hundreds of thousands of customers from across the country” had already signed up for Lend, a program that aimed at offering 4% annual yield returns on deposits of USD Coin (USDC). The announcement comes less than two weeks after the Securities and …

The United States Treasury Department is reportedly preparing a review highlighting challenges posed by stablecoin redemptions and the effect of a possible run on the crypto asset market. According to a Sept.1 report from Bloomberg citing anonymous sources, Treasury officials are readying policy recommendations designed to ensure stablecoin holders can freely convert between their tokens and other assets. The report states the lawmakers hope to mitigate “the most urgent risks” associated with Tether (USDT) and other stable tokens, also emphasizing the threats of a “fire-sale run” on crypto assets could wreak for financial stability broadly. Critics have long scrutinized Tether’s …

Amid speculation as to whether China’s second-largest property developer, Evergrande Group, will default on its $300 billion in debts, analysts are wondering whether the firm’s collapse could pose contagion risks for the crypto industry. On Sept. 8, Fitch Ratings asserted it “appears probable” that Evergrande will default on its debts, with the firm having since conceded that it will be unable to sell properties or other assets in its possession quickly enough to service its rapidly mounting debts. In a Tuesday statement, Evergrande predicts “significant continuing decline in contract sales in September, thereby resulting in the continuous deterioration of cash …

A sharp sell-off across the cryptocurrency market on Tuesday — that saw top tokens Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Cardano (ADA) and Solana (SOL) fall by double-digital percentages — created a venue for stablecoins to prove their worth. The fixed-price cryptocurrencies offered interim protection to traders from the notorious crypto price volatility. They did so by almost maintaining their one dollar-peg and offering sufficient liquidity to traders who looked for a safety net during the market decline. Blockchain analytics service CryptoQuant reported dramatic spikes in stablecoin transfers as the cryptocurrency market capitalizati fell from $2.38 trillion to $2.103 trillion on Tuesday. …

United States Senator Elizabeth Warren, one of the most vocal cryptocurrency skeptics in the U.S. government, has called the cryptocurrency industry the “new shadow bank.” In a Sunday interview with the New York Times, Warren said that the cryptocurrency industry offers “many of the same services” as shadow banks but still lacks “consumer protections or financial stability that back up the traditional system.” Warren expressed concerns over the rapidly growing market for stablecoins, a type of cryptocurrency whose value can be pegged to that of other assets, including fiat currencies like the U.S. dollar, the euro or commodities like gold. …

Coinbase president and chief operating officer Emilie Choi has announced that the reserves backing the stablecoin USD Coin (USDC) will be consolidated into cash and United States government treasuries. A Sunday blog post from Centre Consortium — the entity that was collaboratively established by top U.S. crypto exchange Coinbase and blockchain financial services company Circle, which issues USDC — stated that USD Coin’s reserves will soon be entirely held in “cash and short duration U.S. Treasuries.” On Twitter, Choi attributed the change in policy to backlash against USDC’s reserves expanding beyond cash, cash equivalents and U.S. treasuries in May. The …

USD Coin (USDC), Circle’s dollar-pegged stablecoin, seemingly lost one of its biggest competitive advantages over its main rival, Tether (USDT). Major crypto exchange Coinbase made an important change on the USD Coin page on its website following an audit that revealed that not all of USDC’s reserves were held in cash. This ran contrary to the previous statement that “each USDC is backed by one U.S. dollar held in a bank account.” Coinbase visitors are now greeted with a statement that says USDC is “backed by fully reserved assets” when they enter the USD Coin webpage. This new claim states: …

The bid to introduce human-readable addresses as an alternative to the usual lengthy alphanumeric crypto wallet address system is set to achieve another milestone following the recent partnership between Circle and Unstoppable Domains. According to an announcement issued on Wednesday, Unstoppable Domains, a blockchain domain name provider, and USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin issuer Circle are collaborating to release readable “.coin” usernames for USDC transfers. As part of the partnership, both companies will collaborate to enable support for .coin username extensions across wallets and crypto exchanges that support the popular stablecoin. Under this arrangement, USDC transfers will become akin to sending …

The derivatives exchange Bitget is set to become one of the first exchanges to list USD Coin (USDC) as collateral for trading crypto derivatives. The development comes courtesy of a strategic collaboration between the Singaporean crypto derivatives trading service and USDC stablecoin issuer Circle, as reported by Crowdfund Insider on Monday. Bitget will support USDC margins for Quanto Swap Contract trading as part of the partnership, a move the exchange says will provide more liquidity for the market. USDC now joins Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), EOS, and XRP as accepted margins for Quanto Swap contracts. Bitget launched Quanto Swap contracts …