Gary Gensler, the chairman of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, has appeared virtually before the European Parliament to share his policy recommendations regarding the regulation of crypto assets. Speaking to the Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs on Wednesday, Gensler highlighted the role financial technologies are playing in globalizing economic flows and undermining siloed national markets: “I think the transformation we’re living through right now could be every bit as big as the internet in the 1990s.” Gensler highlighted the $2.1-trillion cryptocurrency markets as a “truly global” asset class, stating, “It has no borders or boundaries. It …

The adoption of nonfungible tokens has served as a practical entry point for users joining the crypto economy, driven primarily by their respective fandoms and the benefit-centric nature of the tokens. For instance, if you're a Lebron James superfan, you can understand why “The Block” from the 2016 NBA finals is valuable on NBA Top Shot without understanding the blockchain. But when it comes to brands, stablecoins are likely to become the biggest entry point. Reimagining rewards points Selling to existing customers costs brands less than acquiring new ones, which is a leading reason why more than 90% of companies …

The rise of decentralized finance and nonfungible tokens has transformed the blockchain ecosystem and generated near unimaginable riches for investors, but none of this would be possible without the strong foundation offered by layer-one blockchain networks like Bitcoin and Ethereum. Smart contracts and layer-two protocols promise to revolutionize the finance and logistics industry, but they require a robust, secure and distributed network to operate on and to ensure their immutability. Currently, most of the top layer-two projects operate on the Ethereum network, and this has resulted in increased transaction costs and delayed confirmation times due to network congestion. The network’s …

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 …

Most of the stories coming out of the crypto industry this past year have centered around enormous numbers flowing in and out of the space. From stablecoins topping over $100 billion, with Circle raising $440 million in private investment in the spring, to decentralized finance (DeFi) projects like Solana completing a $314 million fundraiser, people love to discuss the huge amounts of money being made in DeFi as new all-time highs break records across the board. What we don’t see enough of are the use cases on how this technological innovation underpinning these new financial instruments can benefit important causes …

Institutional interest in crypto is growing, confirmed by a Goldman Sachs survey, which found that 40% of the company’s high-net-worth clients were already exposed to cryptocurrencies. Stablecoins — which offer a more secure and steady option in the crypto space — have experienced hyper-growth, reaching a $119 billion market cap. The volatility of crypto has attracted more conservative investors to asset-backed stablecoins. Stablecoins are a form of private money. As Christina Segal-Knowles, executive director for financial markets infrastructure at the Bank of England, points out, modern money is a combination of public and private funds, up to 95% of which …

Tether Holdings Ltd, the issuer of the largest stablecoin, Tether (USDT), reported that its total market capitalization had crossed $64 billion for the first time in history. The company called the event a “milestone,” adding that it is another indication of the cryptocurrency market’s “continued trust and confidence” in its stablecoin. Tether’s $USDt market cap hits $64B! A new milestone reached and another indication of the market’s continued trust and confidence in #Tether ! pic.twitter.com/t85i6e6UQt — Tether (@Tether_to) August 16, 2021 In detail, Tether’s business model revolves around providing digitized dollars to cryptocurrency traders and investors. In doing so, the …

Automated market maker (AMM) and decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Balancer announced Monday that it had partnered with DAO-based staking platform Lido to introduce a MetaStable Pool incentive program. MetaStable Pools are liquidity pools specifically designed to work with highly correlated (but not hard-pegged) tokens, like wrapped assets. Users will be able to create swaps between MetaStable pools and assets integrated with other liquidity pools while benefiting from cheaper swap prices and eliminating the need for individual swap-specific stable pools. They will also prevent the dilution of liquidity from existing pools and increase maximum trade amounts, according to the release. The …

The world’s first decentralized token is on its way to cheaper transactions and widespread adoption with help from a well-known DeFi protocol. With the mission to help users access the best of the services available on the blockchain, Mimo has undergone an integration with the Polygon framework to bring added utility to their network. Mimo DeFi became the first platform allowing its users to mint stable tokens algorithmically pegged to the Euro without spending any digital assets. Instead, cryptocurrency investors could lock up any cryptocurrency in their possession. Investors could do so while simultaneously minting PAR tokens, letting their assets …

A new stablecoin pegged to the value of the Chilean Peso is now live on the open-source Stellar payments network — but is yet to prove popular with users. Chile-based firm CLPX Inc launched what it describes as the first-ever Chilean Peso-pegged stablecoin dubbed the “CLPX” token. According to the public ledger on Stellar Expert, since the launch on Monday, the stablecoin has seen limited volume of just $12,689 from a total of 12,902 trades. CLPX was designed to provide a cheaper alternative to traditional Peso-based remittances, with the firm utilizing the Stellar Network, as it incurs “substantially” lower fees …

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: …

Multichain infrastructure network Biconomy has formally launched its Hyphen mainnet, setting the stage for instant low-cost token transfers across Ethereum-compatible blockchains. With the launch of Hyphen, users can make near-instantaneous USD Coin (USDC) transfers between Ethereum Virtual Machine, or EVM, compatible chains rather than waiting 30 minutes or hours, as is currently the case. Biconomy can facilitate speedy transfers by maintaining and rebalancing token liquidity on both sides of the chain, the company said Tuesday. Biconomy’s chief technology officer, Sachin Tomar, explained the existing challenges facing cross-chain transfers: “On average, to transfer funds from Layer1 to Layer2 blockchains, it can …