How do cryptocurrency investments impact the broader crypto-economy? Although the cryptocurrency market appears to grow in a positive feedback loop, that does not mean that (un)expected events may not impact the trajectory of the ecosystem as a whole. Although blockchain and cryptocurrencies are fundamentally meant as ‘trustless’ technologies, trust remains key there where humans interact with one another. The cryptocurrency market is not only impacted by the broader economy, but it may also generate profound effects by itself. Indeed, the Terra case shows that any entity — were it a single company, a venture capital firm or a project issuing …

Central bank digital currencies (CBDC) can work well with decentralized finance (DeFi), and they have a lot of potential to boost DeFi adoption, according to a Swiss central bank official. Among many various types of digital currencies, it is CBDC that could provide more stability and lower risks to the development of DeFi, according to Thomas Moser, a governing board member at the Swiss National Bank (SNB). In order to grow, DeFi needs stable money, which is why stablecoins were invented, and stablecoins clearly helped DeFi to become more popular, Moser told Cointelegraph. Despite being polar opposites, centralization and decentralization …

State regulators from Texas and Vermont have filed a motion objecting to embattled crypto lender Celsius’ plans to sell off its stablecoin holdings. Separate motions from both regulators filed on Sept. 29 argue that there’s a risk the firm could use the capital to resume operating in violation of state laws. The filings come after a Sept. 15 notice from Celsius' legal team asking the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York for permission to sell its stablecoin holdings, reportedly worth around $23 million. A hearing to accept or decline the motion will occur on Oct. …

North Carolina Representative Patrick McHenry may have used his virtual appearance at a cryptocurrency conference as a soapbox for calling for votes in the 2022 United States midterm elections. In a prerecorded message for the attendees of the Converge22 conference in San Francisco on Sept. 29, McHenry suggested that the goal of a “clear regulatory framework” for digital assets could drive U.S. lawmakers to develop legislation. The Republican lawmaker used terms including “bipartisan consensus” and support from both major political parties over certain regulatory frameworks related to digital assets and stablecoins before seemingly encouraging crypto users to vote red in …

Despite Russia pushing the idea of using cryptocurrencies for cross-border payments, it still remains unclear what digital asset exactly the government plans to adopt for such transactions. Russian authorities are quite unlikely to approve the use of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) for cross-border transactions, according to local lawyers and fintech executives. Bank of Russia needs to control cross-border transactions It’s “highly questionable” that Russia would allow usage of Bitcoin or any other similar cryptocurrency for cross-border payments because such assets are “hard to control,” according to Elena Klyuchareva, the senior associate at the local law firm KKMP. Klyuchareva emphasized that …

USD Coin (USDC) issuers Circle have announced that it will soon roll out its stablecoin across five additional networks including Polkadot, Optimism, NEAR, Arbitrum and Cosmos. The firm first dropped the news at the Converge22 event on Sept. 28, and noted that support for most of these blockchains will be rolled out by the end of 2023, while USDC on Cosmos will go live at the start of 2023. In a Sept. 28 statement, Circle’s vice president of Product Joao Reginatto emphasized that the expansion of USDC will provide “greater liquidity and interoperability within the crypto economy,” especially for the …

JPMorgan Chase's CEO Jamie Dimon feels threatened by how the crypto space is disrupting the payment systems, stated the Shark Tank host and multi-millionaire venture capitalist Kevin O’Leary speaking at a Converge22 panel on Sept 28. O'Leary made his remarks after Dimon declared himself as a “major skeptic” on "crypto tokens, which you call currency, like Bitcoin," referring to them as "decentralized Ponzi schemes" in his testimony to the United States Congress last week. Still on the panel, O'Leary explained that friction is one of the major problems in the traditional financial system and, plus, it's how banks profit on …

Guido Cannetti, an Argentinian Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) fighter, is now the first martial arts athlete in the country to receive 100% of his salary in stablecoins, amid rising inflation and Argentina's economic deteriorating, announced the crypto payroll company Bitwage on Monday. Dubbed El Ninja, he returns to the Octagon on October 1st in the United States to face the local fighter Randy Costa. According to Bitwage, Guido will receive his payment in USDC stablecoin via the Stellar Network on Vibrant, a wallet application developed by the Stellar team specifically for Argentines experiencing inflation. As per official government figures', inflation …

After the mining failure involving its stablecoin aUSD, the Acala Network announced on Monday that it had resumed its operations following a referendum allowing LPs to withdraw liquidity from pools or unstake LP tokens. The community referendum for Stage 1 of resuming Acala operations has passed and been executed. LPs who choose to unstake LP tokens or withdraw liquidity on Acala now have the option to do so. https://t.co/yzvOz7zwxT — Acala (@AcalaNetwork) September 26, 2022 In August, a misconfiguration of the iBTC/aUSD liquidity pool led to a 3.022 billion aUSD to be erroneously minted, taking its price to less than …

The market capitalization of USD Coin (USDC), a stablecoin issued by U.S.-based payment tech firm Circle, has dropped below $50 billion for the first time since January 2022. On the weekly chart, USDC's market cap, which reflects the number of U.S. dollar-backed tokens in circulation, fell to $49.39 billion on Sep. 26, down almost 12% from its record high of $55.88 billion, established merely three months ago. In contrast, the market cap of Tether (USDT), which risked losing its top stablecoin position to USDC in May, crossed above $68 billion on Sep. 26, albeit still down 17.4% from its record …

The digital asset landscape in the European Union is evolving ahead of the passage of the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation framework that aims to instill regulatory clarity around crypto assets. While well-intentioned, the current structure of MiCA may throttle innovation. But if a revised version of this policy passes, it could see the European Union become one of the leaders in the digital payment space. If not, then there is a genuine possibility of the continent falling behind. MiCA aims to set a regulatory framework for the crypto asset industry within the EU. At this point, much still needs …

There is a small chance the U.S. House of Representatives could pass the bill to regulate stablecoins by year-end, though it's more likely it will pass in the first quarter of 2023, says U.S. Congressman Warren Davidson. According to a Thursday report from Kitco, Davidson made the remarks at the Annual Fintech Policy Forum on Sept. 22, where he suggested: "There's an outside chance we find a way to get to consensus on a stablecoin bill this year." The “stablecoin bill” seemingly refers to draft legislation aimed at “endogenously collateralized stablecoins” which came to light this week — and would …