According to a new press release published on Dec. 5, USD Coin (USDC) issuer Circle announced the mutual termination of its proposed merger with special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, Concord Acquisition. The deal was announced in July 2021 with a preliminary valuation of $4.5 billion and was then amended in February 2022 when Circle's valuation ballooned to $9 billion. USDC is currently the second largest stablecoin in circulation, with a market cap of $43 billion. Under the terms of the agreements, Concord had until Dec. 10 to consummate the transaction or seek a shareholder vote for an extension. However, …

With the new announcement that Cardano is on its way to release an algorithmic stablecoin in 2023, various community members expressed concerns, comparing the project to Terra USD (UST), which caused great losses within the crypto space in 2022. According to its developers, the stablecoin project Djed will be pegged to the U.S. dollar and backed by Cardano (ADA). Apart from this, it will be using another token as its reserve coin. The project highlighted that it will be overcollateralized and will have on-chain proof-of-reserves. Despite the assurances given by the team, various community members expressed concerns, with some bringing …

If early November’s FTX collapse was crypto’s “Lehman moment” — as more than a few pundits have suggested — will the FTX contagion now spread to stablecoins? After all, Tether (USDT), the market leader, briefly lost its United States dollar peg on Nov. 10. In normal times, this might have raised alarm bells. But, these aren’t normal times. In fact, in the days following FTX’s Nov. 11 bankruptcy filing, stablecoin “dominance,” i.e., the sector’s share of overall cryptocurrency market capitalization, increased to 18%, an all-time high. Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), and most altcoins appeared to be feeling the pain from …

Decentralized lending protocol, MakerDAO, has voted against crypto investment firm CoinShares' proposal to invest between 100million and 500million worth of the community’s funds, into a portfolio of corporate debt securities and government-backed bonds for yield, as an investment strategy. 72.43% of the community votes went against CoinShares' proposal to invest MakerDAO’s funds into various traditional assets. If the community had voted in favor of CoinShare’s proposal, the crypto investment firm would have provided “a variable APY above the SOFR interest rate (3.01% as of October 26, 2022) in the community’s preferred currency (DAI, USDC, USD…) to MakerDAO'', which would have …

A handful of government-backed financial institutions have been exploring tokenization use cases to revolutionize traditional financial systems. For instance, El Salvador’s Bitcoin Volcanic bond project has been in the works for over a year and aims to raise $1 billion from investors with tokenized bonds to build a Bitcoin city. The Central Bank of Russia has also expressed interest in tokenized off-chain assets. In addition, the Israeli Ministry of Finance, together with the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE), recently announced the testing of a blockchain-backed platform for digital bond trading. Cointelegraph Research’s 2021 Security Token Report found that most securities …

USD Coin (USDC), a stablecoin issued by the U.S.-based Circle Financials Ltd, is taking the lead over its top rival, Tether (USDT), when it comes to institutional adoption, according to on-chain data. USDC daily transfer volumes are higher The market capitalization of USDC tokens in circulation comes to be around $44 billion versus USDT's $65.42 billion. However, USDC's daily transfer value on the Ethereum blockchain has been consistently higher than USDT throughout 2022, data from Glassnode shows. For instance, as of Nov. 22, the USDC daily transfer was around $14 billion compared to USDT's $5 billion. In other words, USDC …

Blockchain analytics carried out by a Nansen researcher has highlighted outflows of Ether (ETH) and stablecoins from centralized exchanges in the wake of FTX’s collapse. Nansen research analyst Sandra Leow posted a thread on Twitter unpacking the current state of Decentralized Finance (DeFi), with a specific focus on the movement of ETH and stablecoins from exchanges. As it stands, the Ethereum 2.0 deposit contract contains over 15 million ETH while some 4 million Wrapped ETH are held in the WETH deposit contract. Web3 infrastructure development and investment firm Jump Trading holds over 2 million ETH tokens and is the third …

There's no escaping it: the DeFi markets have cooled down over the past year. After breaking $180 billion in total value locked last November — coinciding with Bitcoin racing to a new all-time high of $68,700 — data from DeFiLlama shows the collective value of this market has now dwindled to around $40 billion. Nonetheless, experts remain bullish on the potential of decentralized finance. Protocols are continuing to build furiously during the bear market — ensuring that they'll be in a strong position for the next wave of adoption. And although this recent contraction has scared away some retail investors, …

The fall of crypto giants this year reignited questions about the stability of cryptocurrencies and their impact on fiat ecosystems. Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) assessed the situation and found that the instabilities of crypto assets, including asset-backed stablecoins, can potentially spill over to the traditional financial system. The HKMA assessment on asset-backed stablecoins pointed out the risks of liquidity mismatch, negatively impacting their stability during “fire-sale” events. A fire sale event relates to a momentary price fluctuation when investors can purchase stablecoins cheaper than their market price — a phenomenon noticed during the Terra (LUNA) crash. According to Hong …

Proof-of-stake blockchain platform, Cardano, has partnered with COTI, a DAG-based Layer 1 protocol, to launch what it refers to as an over-collateralized algorithmic stablecoin. The project said in an announcement provided to Cointelegraph that the stablecoin will be backed by excess collateral in the form of cryptocurrency stored in a reserve. It's official! $Djed will launch on the Cardano Mainnet in January 2023! $Coti $Ada #Djed pic.twitter.com/cu8ryW6Lo7 — Djed Stablecoin (@DjedStablecoin) November 21, 2022 According to the release, Djed is set to go live on the mainnet in Jan. 2023, pending a successful audit and a series of rigorous stress …

The first official decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) in the United States is taking on the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over its 2021 token registrations. American CryptoFed DAO has told Cointelegraph it will represent itself without an attorney over SEC allegations that it omitted and misstated information in a securities registration last year. The DAO registered its native, interdependent stablecoin Ducat and governance token Locke in its 2021 filing with the SEC, but the regulator has begun proceedings to issue a stop order citing a raft of problems with the registration. In correspondence with Cointelegraph, American CryptoFed chief operation officer …

In recent years, taking care of the environment has been elevated to a global priority, as evidenced by carbon dioxide emissions hitting a new record high in 2021 at 414.72 parts per million according to the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate.gov website. Recognizing the impact these emissions are having on climate change, many countries have announced their efforts to achieve net-zero emissions. The United States shared its plan for environmental commodity measurement via the Bureau of Economic Analysis, while Denmark leads the charge with a plan to hit net-zero emissions before 2050. By reaching net zero, a …