Abracadabra.Money’s stablecoin, Magic Internet Money (MIM), has surged past a $1-billion total supply this month as the project works to provide competition to MakerDAO. Abracadabra is a cross-chain stablecoin lending protocol that operates on Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain (BSC), Fantom, Avalanche and Arbitrum. Along with MIM, the project also has a SPELL governance token that can be staked on the protocol. The project describes itself as a “spell book” that enables users to provide collateral via interest-bearing tokens, such as yvUSDC and xSUSHI, and to borrow the MIM stablecoin against their tokens. “To reverse the spell, the caster simply returns …

Tether (USDT), the largest stablecoin issuer by market capitalization, has refuted the details of a Bloomberg story on its reserves holdings. In a Thursday report, Bloomberg journalist Zeke Faux made numerous claims against Tether, including that its chief financial officer Giancarlo Devasini has used the company’s reserves to make investments, that seem to contradict Tether’s public position that the holdings were fully backed at all times. In addition, Faux alleges that Tether has invested in Chinese firms and issued crypto-backed loans “worth billions of dollars.” According to the report, he was only able to confirm one bank in the Bahamas …

Hackathons have gained popularity in the crypto space as the hunt for talent is continuing. Lisk, a blockchain application platform, is launching their second HackOnLisk event, where developers will have the opportunity to build a blockchain application with the latest Lisk SDK following its July hackathon. This time, they are celebrating the new Mainnet v3 and would like developers to hone in on the areas of decentralized finance (DeFi) and GameFi. DeFi applications to consider include decentralized exchange (DEX), lending and stablecoins projects. GameFi (financialization of games) applications include blockchain games and collectibles. For HackOnLisk2, there is a total of …

MakerDAO founder Rune Christensen has published an essay outlining measures that could be taken to make the protocol a vehicle for addressing climate change. In a lengthy Tuesday post published to the MakerDAO governance forum, Christensen asserts that MakerDAO should strive to ensure that all of its collateral comprises “sustainable and climate-aligned assets that consider the long-term impacts of financial activity on the environment.” Christensen asserts that the protocol’s collateral should be invested into sustainable real-world assets (RWAs) through senior credit positions in projects that build “solar farms, wind turbines, batteries, recharging stations and other cost-efficient renewable energy solutions, as …

Financial services company MoneyGram International has partnered with the Stellar Development Foundation to enable consumers to send money using Circle’s popular stablecoin, USD Coin (USDC), and convert directly to and from fiat. Per a Wednesday announcement, MoneyGram has integrated support allowing crypto wallets connected to the Stellar Network to access its global retail platform. Working alongside Circle, MoneyGram will also enable “near-instant backend settlement,” account funding and local fiat withdrawals using the USDC stable token. United Texas Bank will act as the settlement bank to complete the process within the regulatory framework. “As crypto and digital currencies rise in prominence, …

Protocol upgrades are one of the biggest drivers of momentum because they show developers' dedication to fixing bugs, incorporating user requests and adding new features that make the protocol competitive and shore up the token's value. One project that has seen its token price rally to a new all-time high following the launch of a highly anticipated upgrade is Terra (LUNA), a blockchain protocol that uses fiat-pegged stablecoins like TerrUSD (UST) to create a global payments system. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that after hitting a low of $23.81 on Sept. 21, the price of LUNA surged …

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 …

The Bank of America Corporation (BoA) has published a research report offering a bullish outlook for the long-term prospects of cryptocurrency. The report, published on Monday by BoA subsidiary, BofA Securities, offers a nuanced appraisal of the digital asset sector that highlights innovation taking place within the decentralized finance (DeFi) and nonfungible token (NFT) sectors. The report asserts that the cryptocurrency sector’s $2.15-trillion market capitalization is “too large to ignore,” highlighting that the digital asset ecosystem has evolved to encompass “so much more” than just Bitcoin (BTC). The report characterizes the sector as comprising “tokens that act like operating systems, …

This week, United States lawmakers and regulators have stolen much of the spotlight once more. The cryptocurrency-related provisions of the infrastructure bill, a tiny grain of sand in the grand scheme of the omnibus legislation, had all laser eyes glued to the fateful House of Representatives vote — which never happened. There is a sense, however, that the bill will become law sooner rather than later. We have also learned from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell testifying to Congress that the Fed sees no use in a China-style blanket ban on cryptocurrency, eyeing tighter regulation of stablecoins instead. The latter …

The Biden administration is reportedly considering a new legal framework for stablecoin issuers that would put them in the same category as banks, raising questions about the future of crypto regulation in the country. Citing people familiar with the matter, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that the administration is looking to convince Congress to create a new “special-purpose charter” for stablecoin issuers and other companies that fall within the same category. Although it’s not entirely clear how the legislation will look, it’s expected to be tailored specifically to these types of business models. Policymakers have been sounding the alarm …

Global payments giant Visa has introduced a project that aims to be a “universal adapter” of blockchains that can connect multiple cryptocurrencies, stablecoins as well as central bank digital currencies (CBDC). According to an official announcement on Thursday, Visa’s research team is working on a “Universal Payment Channel” (UPC) initiative, a blockchain interoperability hub connecting multiple blockchain networks and enabling transfers of digital assets from different protocols and wallets. “Imagine splitting the check with your friends, when everyone at the table is using a different type of money — some using a central bank digital currency [...] like Sweden’s eKrona, …

The blockchain ecosystem has evolved significantly over the past decade as smart contract capabilities have moved the industry from being a simple medium of exchange to a bustling ecosystem full of decentralized finance (DeFi) and nonfungible tokens (NFT). One project that has benefited from the increased capabilities of blockchain technology and the recent launch of smart contracts on Cardano is Coti, an enterprise-grade fintech platform focused on helping organizations create their own payment solutions and digitize any form of currency as a way to facilitate decentralized payments. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that since bottoming out at …