Four members of the Wyoming Legislature have sponsored a bill which would allow the state treasurer to issue a stablecoin. On Thursday, Wyoming State Senators Chris Rothfuss and Tara Nethercott with House Representatives Jared Olsen and Mike Yin introduced Senate File SF0106, titled the “Wyoming Stable Token Act.” If signed into law, the bill would authorize the treasurer to issue a U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin redeemable for fiat held in an account by the state. The state treasurer — Curtis Meier at the time of publication — would consult with the department’s Investment Funds Committee and have the authority to hire …

In a tweet published early Friday, Do Kwon, founder of Terraform Labs, the entity developing the Terra Luna (LUNA) and Terra USD (UST) stablecoin ecosystem, announced the injection of 450 million UST ($450 million) into the Anchor protocol's reserves. The proposal passed a vote by the Luna Foundation Guard on Feb.10. Anchor serves as the flagship savings protocol of the Terra ecosystem, offering users of up to 20% interest per annum on their UST deposits, paid for by borrowers. Funded. pic.twitter.com/NLvnSa0bBu — Do Kwon (@stablekwon) February 18, 2022 The protocol's reserves had recently dwindled to as low as $6.56 million …

USD Coin (USDC) operator Circle has seen its valuation double to $9 billion after the company revised its merger agreement with Concord Acquisition Corp, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) founded in 2020. Circle announced Thursday that it had terminated its previous business combination terms with Concord and reached a new agreement that is expected to be finalized by Dec. 8, 2022, with the possibility of it being extended to Jan. 31, 2023. As Cointelegraph reported, Circle and Concord first announced their merger plans in July 2022. A Circle spokesperson told Cointelegraph that the new agreement reflects a commitment from …

Blockchain infrastructure company Fireblocks has finalized the acquisition of First Digital, a stablecoin and digital asset payment platform, as part of a broader effort to expand its payment capabilities for the cryptocurrency sector. The acquisition gives Fireblocks additional resources to enable payment service providers to acquire cryptocurrencies and accept payments in digital assets, potentially opening the door to wider use cases for the emerging technology. According to Fireblocks, merchants today are eager to integrate crypto payments but high wallet integration costs and manual Know Your Customer and Anti-Money Laundering screening hinder adoption. Through the acquisition of First Digital, Fireblocks plans …

House Financial Services Committee member and New Jersey Representative Josh Gottheimer has introduced legislation which would have the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation back stablecoins in a similar manner to fiat deposits. In a draft of the Stablecoin Innovation and Protection Act of 2022 released on Tuesday, Gottheimer proposed labeling stablecoins issued by insured depository institutions or certain nonbank issuers as “qualified.” Under this definition, the bill suggests “qualified stablecoins” are neither securities or commodities under U.S. law, and redeemable on demand from the issuer. In cases of nonbank issuers, the legislation would require the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, or FDIC, …

Decentralized finance (DeFi) has had a rough go so far in 2022, and data from Messari shows the top ten-ranked DeFi assets currently down between 10% to 50% since the start of the year. A positive is, the situation may change soon as funds have began to flow back into the DeFi ecosystem following a month of declines as data shows institutional and retail funds returning to crypto markets. Data from Defi Llama shows that the total value locked in all of DeFi platforms has climbed to $211.1 billion on Feb. 11, up from a low of $185.14 billion on …

Cryptocurrency exchanges now have more stablecoins on their books than ever before in a fresh sign investors are waiting to buy Bitcoin (BTC) and altcoins. Data from on-chain analytics platform CryptoQuant shows that this week, exchanges' total stablecoin reserves passed 27 billion for the first time. Exchange users herd stablecoins to accounts After reaching a previous peak in late December, stablecoin reserves tumbled at the start of 2022 as BTC/USD and altcoin markets fell in tandem to multi-month lows. In recent weeks, however, the trend has reversed, with exchange users sending more to their accounts than at any point in …

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Japan’s largest financial group, is working hard to take the lead in stablecoin development, launching a proprietary stablecoin project. On Wednesday, MUFG introduced its stablecoin platform called “Progmat Coin,” a blockchain-based system for issuing and managing stablecoins pegged on a 1:1 ratio to the Japanese yen. The platform aims to enable a “universal digital asset payment method,” providing cross-chain interoperability with a wide range of other digital assets other than those issued on Progmat, as well as Japan’s central bank digital currency, the digital yen. According to the announcement, the Progmat Coin project is based on …

Whether regulations on stablecoins and digital assets should be addressed at the state or federal level was the topic of discussion among at least two U.S. lawmakers in a hearing for the House Committee on Financial Services. Speaking virtually at a Tuesday hearing titled “Digital Assets and the Future of Finance: The President’s Working Group on Financial Markets’ Report on Stablecoins,” North Carolina Representative and ranking committee member Patrick McHenry asked the committee to consider state-level regulatory frameworks in lieu of a comprehensive federal law on stablecoins. In response to McHenry, Jean Nellie Liang, the Under Secretary for Domestic Finance …

Polygon’s native stablecoin protocol QiDAO faced an exploit on its Superfluid vesting contract leading to a 65% drop in the price of the governance token QI. QI price fell from $1.24 to $0.18. QiDAO took to Twitter on Tuesday to acknowledge the exploit on the Superfluid vesting contract but assured that users' funds are safe and no funds from QiDAO have been affected. Superfluid also confirmed the exploit on QiDAO and said they are investigating the situation and will update accordingly. The protocol enables users to move assets on-chain in a constant flow in real-time from one wallet to another. …

Japanese trading house Mitsui is reportedly planning to issue a cryptocurrency pegged to gold, local news agency Nikkei Asia reported Friday. Called ZipangCoin (ZPG), Mitsui’s new digital currency will reportedly be issued as early as February and will be available to retail investors through cryptocurrency exchanges. The stablecoin will be linked to gold prices at yen-denominated prices by Mitsui from the London Metal Exchange, with one ZPG valued equivalent to one gram of gold and guaranteed by Sumitomo Mitsui Banking. According to the report, the new gold stablecoin will be initially offered through Mitsui’s proprietary crypto exchange and later made …

On Jan. 31, Meta, formerly known as Facebook, announced that it was pulling from its stablecoin project, Diem, formerly known as Libra. Intellectual property and other assets related to the operations of the Diem Payment Network were to be sold to Silvergate Capital Corporation, essentially meaning the end to Mark Zuckerberg and his corporations’ stablecoin aspirations, at least in their current shape. This also marks the end of a once-groundbreaking initiative that was revealed in 2019 with a promise to bring a global alternative to fiat money to Facebook’s 2-billion-strong user base. Here is how this plan went from the …