Centralized stablecoins have remained resilient during the crypto market downturn, with two stable tokens currently ranked among the top ten crypto assets by market capitalization. Tether and USD Coin are currently ranked third and eighth respectively, having maintained a solid grip on their dollar-pegs despite the massive market downturn. According to Coingecko, Tether and USDC currently represent 80% of the $100 million combined stablecoin capitalization. The total supply of all stablecoins has surged almost 190% over the past 90 days. Top decentralized stable token project, MakerDAO’s DAI, also held its peg throughout the majority of the bearish price action, except …

HaloDAO, a decentralized marketplace for stablecoins, has raised $3.5 million in seed investments, setting the stage for the creation of an all-in-one DeFi ecosystem for swapping, borrowing and lending. Founded by former employees of ConsenSys, HaloDAO aims to develop liquid markets for stablecoins beyond the U.S. dollar. As part of its initial rollout, HaloDAO will focus on asset-based stablecoins for Asian fiat currencies. “Asia has one of the most tech-savvy and blockchain-aware populations in the world and will likely reach mass adoption of digital assets before other regions,” Julian Gropp, portfolio manager at Parataxis Capital, said, adding: “We believe that …

Following a major cryptocurrency sell-off, Canada’s central bank stated that digital assets like Bitcoin (BTC) remain a highly risky asset despite their adoption by institutional investors. The Bank of Canada issued on Thursday its financial system review, an annual report outlining the most important financial risks and economic vulnerabilities. As part of the review, the central bank paid specific attention to cryptocurrencies, stating that crypto volatility is an emerging vulnerability to Canada’s financial system: “Price volatility stemming from speculative demand remains an important obstacle to the wide acceptance of crypto assets as a means of payment. Despite the broadening institutional …

The founder and CEO of Avanti Financial, Caitlin Long says the “U.S. crypto regulatory crackdown” has begun, but emphasized it’s not a “Bitcoin ban.” She said she was optimistic that the forthcoming regulations would simply bring crypto laws into line with standard financial rules around taxes and compliance. 1/ IT'S CLEAR a US #crypto regulatory crackdown is starting but I'm optimistic bc most of the major players/agencies have spoken already & the policy is taking shape: it's "pay taxes, comply w/ laws & don't take shortcuts, & we'll enable the innovation." It's NOT a "#bitcoin ban" — Caitlin Long (@CaitlinLong_) …

Decentralized finance (DeFi) has emerged as a transformational force for not just the cryptocurrency market, but for financial markets in general in 2021 thanks to the ease of access and security offered by blockchain-based protocols which operate on smart contracts. One project that is looking to take the simplicity of DeFi to the next level is Celo (CELO), an open blockchain ecosystem that makes financial tools accessible to anyone with a mobile phone. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that the price of CELO rallied 50% from a low of $4.29 late on May 16 to an intraday …

Supply chain management has historically been challenging due to issues, such as increased costs, consumer demands, financial risk, volatility and much more. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic has created even bigger issues for supply chains globally. A recent survey conducted by Big Four firm Ernst & Young in late 2020 puts this in perspective, noting that 97% of automotive and industrial product companies found the pandemic to have negative effects on their businesses. The EY study further found that 64% of surveyors believed that the digital transformation of global supply chains will accelerate due to the pandemic. Although this is merely …

Tether Holdings Limited, the company behind the popular Tether (USDT) stablecoin, released a full breakdown of its reserves on Thursday, offering more transparency about the composition of its assets. More than three-quarters of Tether’s reserves are held in cash, cash equivalents, other short-term deposits and commercial paper as of March 31. Within this category, commercial paper accounts for 65.39%, fiduciary deposits for 24.20%, cash for 3.87%, reserve repurchase agreement notes for 3.6% and Treasury bills for 2.94%. Beyond this category, secured loans accounted for 12.55% of Tether’s reserves. Corporate bonds, funds and precious metals represented 9.96%, and “other investments,” including …

Facebook-backed digital currency project the Diem Association has partnered with cryptocurrency-friendly bank Silvergate to launch a stablecoin pegged to the United States dollar. Diem announced Wednesday a new model of its upcoming stablecoin, relocating its main operations from Switzerland to the United States and withdrawing its application for a payment system license from the Swiss Financial Markets Authority. The association, which comprises 26 financial firms including Nasdaq-listed cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, is now planning to move forward with its USD stablecoin plans through Silvergate Bank, which is set to be the issuer of the Diem USD and will manage the Diem …

Uniswap’s native UNI token can greatly enhance its utility by becoming a pricing oracle for stablecoins, according to Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin. In a proposal submitted to Uniswap’s governance platform, Buterin said that a successful decentralized finance, or DeFi, ecosystem relies on a “highly secure pricing oracle,” noting that algorithmic stablecoins, synthetic assets and collateralized loans all depend on oracles. The problem, however, is that Uniswap currently doesn’t provide an oracle for the price of ERC-20 tokens in the truest sense. “This is a problem,” Buterin explained, adding that “Algorithmic stablecoins need an oracle for the price of ETH/USD to …

Stablecoins present peculiar challenges to regulators. Although there is no single, agreed-upon definition of a stablecoin, the common denominator of the commonly used definitions is that stablecoins are designed to maintain a stable value in relation to a specified currency, asset or pool of such currencies/assets. They are contrasted with regular cryptocurrencies, which have no such stability mechanism and whose values tend to fluctuate, sometimes even substantially. Related: All risk, no gain? The vague definition of stablecoins is causing problems Stablecoins do not denote a uniform category but represent a variety of crypto instruments that can vary significantly in legal, …

In an August 2020 paper “Is bitcoin money?” Peter Hazlett and William Luther wrote that there exists only “a small corner of the internet where transactions are routinely conducted with Bitcoin serving as the medium of exchange.” But that corner may be growing into a room, or even a house now. “Demand for Bitcoin has certainly grown over the last year,” co-author Luther, assistant professor of economics at Florida Atlantic University, told Cointelegraph in a recent conversation. “As new users find themselves with Bitcoin, and existing users find themselves with more Bitcoin, it’s only natural that more people will consider …

After a devastating hack, a cross-chain decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol has revealed today a temporary compensation plan for token holders and investors impacted by one of the largest exploits in DeFi history. In a Tweet today, EasyFi announced their “Interim Compensation Plan,” a multi-stage process that includes immediate payments, IOU tokens, and incentive programs aimed at victims of the attack. 1/ #EasyFi is releasing a carefully thought out compensation plan for the protocol users on @0xPolygon. We would also like to inform you that we have onboarded new strategic investors & strong backers to help expand the protocol operations & …