Bitcoin price continued its gravity-defying trajectory today, rising by 5.2% in the last 24 hours, to $28,457.20, as of this writing. According to CoinDesk data, the cryptocurrency is up by 72% so far this year. This past quarter marked its biggest quarterly gain in the last two years, the publication noted. Bitcoin’s latest price trajectory indicates that it has shrugged off the latest attack on … Continue reading Notes 3/29: Bitcoin Price and TUSD
What does the CFTC’s case against Binance mean for crypto’s future? Binance is the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume. It is also home to the biggest trading volumes for bitcoin and ether, the world’s two biggest cryptocurrencies. But the CFTC’s lawsuit announcement hardly dented bitcoin price. It fell by 4.5%, to $26,716.35, yesterday in roughly four hours but that’s par for the course … Continue reading Notes 3/28: CFTC Lawsuit Against Binance, Staking Withdrawals, and Tron and Tether
Bitcoin price continues to course a path upwards for the second day, briefly moving past $26,000 before reversing its trajectory. As of this writing, it is changing hands for $25,989.38, up roughly 7.5% from yesterday. Analysts and news reports have pointed out that the jump in its price coincides with the release of favorable inflation data, signaling a correlation with macroeconomic factors. Not Much to … Continue reading Notes 3/14: Bitcoin Price, USDC Depegging Winners
Circle’s USDC may have survived a crisis over the weekend after regulators stepped in to bail out Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) depositors, but it is not out of the woods yet. The stablecoin, which is extensively used in the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem, faces a fresh existential threat this week. A hacker made off with 34 million USDC in a flash loan attack at lending … Continue reading Notes 3/13: USDC’s Peg Is Still Wobbly, Bitcoin Price
The price of Circle’s stablecoin USDC, which had lost its peg over the weekend amidst fears over its reserves, is inching its way back to $1. As of this writing, it is changing hands for $0.98, according to data from CoinGecko. On Friday, amidst drama surrounding the failure of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), it had crashed to a low of $0.87. Decentralized finance (DeFi) stablecoin … Continue reading Notes 3/12: USDC Peg
USDC, the crypto world’s second biggest stablecoin, has lost its peg due to exposure to Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), the bank that liquidated yesterday. The stablecoin’s peg with Tether’s USDT, another dollar-backed stablecoin, fell to as low as 0.86 at cryptocurrency exchange Kraken before recovering. As of this writing, it is still askew at $0.92. USDC’s peg crashed because investors rushed to redeem their holdings … Continue reading Notes 3/11: Circle’s USDC Loses Peg
The murky waters of cryptocurrencies consist of many worthless tokens. The Gemini dollar (GUSD), a stablecoin issued by cryptocurrency exchange Gemini, is one of them. The token serves no purpose in crypto or outside its ecosystem. It claims to be “regulated from day one” to alleviate user concerns about a run on its holdings. But its monthly attestations are suspect because they are issued by … Continue reading Why Does GUSD Exist?
Binance’s stablecoin BUSD’s loss is Tether’s gain. According to Reuters, the biggest stablecoin by market capitalization has seen its share of the overall stablecoin market rise to 52.6% from 51% earlier. The USD Coin is also a beneficiary of BUSD’s fall. The Circle-issued token witnessed a 0.4% increase in its market share to 31.3% after investors fled BUSD. The shuffling around of market share among … Continue reading Notes 2/21: Reordering the Stablecoin Market
There’s been considerable handwringing over regulatory action and its negative effect on cryptocurrencies in recent days. One place where that effect seems less pronounced is bitcoin price. While the crypto community erupted in protest against the SEC’s regulatory actions towards Kraken’s staking service and Binance’s stablecoin BUSD, bitcoin price seemed to take it into its stride. As of this writing, bitcoin price is $22,843.81, up … Continue reading Notes 2/15: Stablecoin Market Capitalizations and Legislation
BUSD is the world’s third biggest stablecoin and is used extensively at Binance – the world’s third biggest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume. Perhaps it is a testimony to crypto’s heft (or grift) that even action by the world’s most powerful regulatory agency could not de-peg the stablecoin. According to research firm Nansen, $2.7 billion fled from Binance between Sunday – when news of the … Continue reading Notes 2/14: BUSD Damage
Following its settlement with Kraken on Friday, the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) dropped another bombshell last night. According to a WSJ report, the agency has served a Wells Notice to Paxos Trust Ltd., issuer of Binance’s stablecoin BUSD. A Wells Notice is an informational notice that is sent before the agency commences litigation. In this case, it plans to sue Paxos for selling unregistered securities. … Continue reading Notes 2/13: BUSD In Trouble
The mystery of Tether’s finances is slowly being unraveled. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) yesterday published a report claiming that the stablecoin is using investment firm Cantor Fitzgerald to help manage its $39 billion treasury bond portfolio. The firm is a primary dealer in the Treasury Market, a designation that enables it to conduct direct trades with the New York Federal Reserve. Separately, Forbes published … Continue reading Notes 2/12: Tether Finances, Tornado Cash Revisited
Controversial stablecoin Tether released the latest iteration of its attestation report, this time from the future, for reserves backing its circulating supply. The report states that Tether had assets of $67.04 billion while its liabilities, equal to its circulating supply, were $66.08 billion as of December 31, 2022. Technically, this should mean that the stablecoin had adequate reserves on that day to make investors whole … Continue reading Tether’s Eliminates Commercial Paper Holdings But Increases Other Risk Assets In Latest Attestation
Terra Labs’ algorithmic stablecoin UST kickstarted a summer of scandals last year by imploding in spectacular fashion. Along with its sister token Luna, the stablecoin survives in its classic avatar as USTC. In the aftermath of their implosion, both USTC and LUNC – Luna’s classic version – suffered massive devaluation and were abandoned by traders to crypto purgatory. Their current valuations reflect this status. Luna … Continue reading Ghosts of Algorithmic Stablecoins Past
The Fed stuck to an expected script yesterday and announced a quarter percentage point hike in interest rates. The market’s response to the Fed’s announcement was enthusiastic. The S&P 500 closed with a 1% increase while the Nasdaq Composite advanced by 2% to 11816.32. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) rose by 6.92 points to 34092.96. Bitcoin prices also jumped. The biggest cryptocurrency by market … Continue reading Notes 2/2: Bitcoin Price
Where does Tether get its revenues? Over the years, the stablecoin claims to have made redemptions worth billions of dollars. At the same time, it has made investments and loans worth millions of dollars to crypto ventures on the side. It has 42 employees, per LinkedIn. Where does it get the cash to manage these business activities? The company’s financials are a black box. … Continue reading Where Does Tether Get Its Revenues?
In the early days of the United States, private banks were allowed to issue money on the condition that it was backed by gold. This meant that customers could redeem their specie and notes for gold, which was considered a stable medium of exchange in an economy rife with fraudsters and hucksters issuing fake money. But a high redemption rate could eat into a bank’s … Continue reading The Tether Redemption Conundrum
Binance USD (BUSD), Binance’s stablecoin, is among the few regulated parts of the exchange’s sprawling and mostly unregulated operations. It is issued by Paxos – a registered Trust company in New York that was a cryptocurrency exchange in its earlier avatar – and regulated by the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS). That stamp from authorities allays investor fears about BUSD’s reserves – deposits … Continue reading Notes 12/31: Binance’s BUSD: An Unstable Stablecoin
After mostly vegetating in the $16,000 to $17,000 range for the last month, bitcoin price sprang to life yesterday and today. Yesterday’s announcement of lower-than-expected reading of inflation figures was said to have boosted the cryptocurrency’s price. The positive sentiment seems to have carried over today and bitcoin broke past the $18,000 barrier for the first time since 8 Nov. As of this writing, it … Continue reading Notes 12/14: Tether Bumps Up Bitcoin Price, Tether Shorts, and SBF Drama
During an interview at the Indonesia Fintech Summit in November, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) told audiences that the reason his cryptocurrency exchange wasn’t audited was because firms were “running scared” of them because they (Binance) weren’t regulated. “We also want to educate regulators about the list of things they should look for (while conducting audit checks),” he added and listed a bunch of practices … Continue reading Notes 12/9: Binance’s PoR Report, FTX, Paxos, and BUSD
The big news this week has been stablecoin issuer Circle’s decision to scrap its plans for a public listing through a merger with a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC). The Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) played spoilsport to the company’s plans by withholding its approval for the deal. Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire put on a brave front and released a statement that held out hope for … Continue reading Circle’s Mounting List of Woes
