Notes 3/31: Tether Attestation Report, Stablecoins as Free Banking, and The Banality of Another DeFi Hack

Tether, the algorithmic stablecoin that straddles all of crypto, released an attestation report for its second quarter this morning. As usual, it is a sham and a mishmash of meaningless statistics and assertions. The report does not provide much clarity about its finances though it does bring to light some of the underlying risks. According… Read More Notes 3/31: Tether Attestation Report, Stablecoins as Free Banking, and The Banality of Another DeFi Hack

31 Jul 202331 Jul 2023 rakeshsharmak123Leave a comment

Notes 7/28: Bitcoin Price, Tether and Bitcoin, and Palau Stablecoin

Bitcoin price continues to remain equable in its chosen range of between $29,000 to $30,000. Right now, the cryptocurrency is changing hands for $29,243.94, unchanged from its price a day ago. The world’s biggest cryptocurrency by market capitalization shrugged off positive data about an increase in US Gross Domestic Product (GDP) – news that should… Read More Notes 7/28: Bitcoin Price, Tether and Bitcoin, and Palau Stablecoin

28 Jul 202329 Jul 2023 rakeshsharmak123Leave a comment

Notes 7/25: Stablecoin Ratings, Bitcoin Price

Here’s a zinger of a news item from crypto. Bluechip Stablecoin Ratings Agency has come out with ratings for stablecoins operating in the crypto ecosystem. Binance’s native stablecoin BUSD and Gemini USD have received an A rating while algorithmic stablecoin Tether gets a D. Apparently, the factors considered while deciding the rating are governance, ability… Read More Notes 7/25: Stablecoin Ratings, Bitcoin Price

25 Jul 202325 Jul 2023 rakeshsharmak123Leave a comment

Notes 6/23: Tether Loses Peg At Binance.US As Bitcoin Price Blitzes Past $31,000, Crypto Derivatives Turn Bullish (Why?!), and TUSD’s News Cycle

Algorithmic stablecoin Tether has lost its peg at Binance.US as bitcoin price rallied past $31,000 this morning. According to data from crypto prices aggregation site CoinGecko, bitcoin price is trading at $31,152.69, up 3.5% from a day earlier, right now and Tether’s peg is intact at $1. There is a different story playing out at… Read More Notes 6/23: Tether Loses Peg At Binance.US As Bitcoin Price Blitzes Past $31,000, Crypto Derivatives Turn Bullish (Why?!), and TUSD’s News Cycle

23 Jun 202323 Jun 2023 rakeshsharmak123Leave a comment

Notes 6/21: Bitcoin Price Pops Past $30,000, Stablecoin Regulation

Bitcoin price continues its logic-defying ascent amid a flurry of bitcoin ETF filings. It swept past the $30,000 mark this afternoon, touching a high of $30,585 before retreating slightly. As of this writing, it is changing hands at $30,206.95, up by a staggering 8% from yesterday and 16% from last week. During its surge, the… Read More Notes 6/21: Bitcoin Price Pops Past $30,000, Stablecoin Regulation

21 Jun 202321 Jun 2023 rakeshsharmak123Leave a comment

Tether Reserves Reports Engineer Brief Loss of Peg for Its Stablecoin

Well, that turned out to be an anticlimax. A bunch of publications – CoinDesk, Bloomberg, and The Block – yesterday published a makeup of controversial stablecoin Tether’s reserves in May 2021, after it had paid a penalty and settled with the New York Attorney General (NYAG) for commingling its reserve funds with those for sister… Read More Tether Reserves Reports Engineer Brief Loss of Peg for Its Stablecoin

17 Jun 202317 Jun 2023 rakeshsharmak123Leave a comment

Notes 6/16: Tether Documents, Ether As An “Other” Token, and Bitcoin ETFs Again

It is time to take out the popcorn. The New York Attorney General’s office has handed documents related to its 2021 settlement with stablecoin issuer, Tether, to CoinDesk. The publication is said to be “reviewing” the documentation. Tether has never submitted its finances to a comprehensive audit; instead, it published attestations – snapshots of its… Read More Notes 6/16: Tether Documents, Ether As An “Other” Token, and Bitcoin ETFs Again

16 Jun 202316 Jun 2023 rakeshsharmak123Leave a comment

Notes 6/15: Tether Loses Peg, Bitcoin and Tether Dominance

Algorithmic stablecoin Tether lost its peg briefly amid trader selloffs of USDT at Curve Finance, a liquidity pool that operates in decentralized finance (DeFi) markets, this morning. According to Coinmarketcap, a site owned by Binance – an exchange where Tether records its biggest volumes, the stablecoin was trading as low as $0.9968. While its peg… Read More Notes 6/15: Tether Loses Peg, Bitcoin and Tether Dominance

15 Jun 202315 Jun 2023 rakeshsharmak123Leave a comment

Notes 6/10: Tether’s Volcano Investment, Bitcoin Mining Consolidation

In a week when the SEC attempted to carbonize bitcoin liquidity further with its lawsuits against two prominent cryptocurrency exchanges, algorithmic stablecoin Tether is making plans to ensure future supply of the crypto necessary to maintain its peg. Earlier this week, the company was reported to have put money into a 241-MW renewable energy park… Read More Notes 6/10: Tether’s Volcano Investment, Bitcoin Mining Consolidation

10 Jun 202310 Jun 2023 rakeshsharmak123Leave a comment

Notes 6/7: Bitcoin Price, Tether’s Holy Grail

After the one-two punch thrown by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) earlier this week, bitcoin price should have been boxed into a cul-de-sac of declining prices. But that is hardly the case. As of this writing, it is changing hands at $26,589, up 2.3% from its price a day earlier. That figure represents minimal… Read More Notes 6/7: Bitcoin Price, Tether’s Holy Grail

7 Jun 20232 Jul 2023 rakeshsharmak123Leave a comment

The Tether Algorithmic Stablecoin

The surge in market capitalization for Tether always brings the stablecoin’s many mysteries into the spotlight. Who runs it? Who are its bankers? And, most important of all, where are its reserves? Tether claims to be a fiat-backed stablecoin. This means that its circulating supply should be bolstered by an equal amount of fiat currency… Read More The Tether Algorithmic Stablecoin

6 Jun 202310 Jun 2023 rakeshsharmak123Leave a comment

Notes 3/17: Bitcoin in Tether’s Reserves

Tether is Bitcoin’s new savior. The crypto world’s biggest stablecoin plans to increase bitcoin holdings in its reserves by investing 15% of its future profits into bitcoin. According to its latest attestation report, Tether had $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin on its books. The firm said it will use “realized profits”, or profits accruing to… Read More Notes 3/17: Bitcoin in Tether’s Reserves

17 May 202317 May 2023 rakeshsharmak123Leave a comment

How Does A Debt Default Affect Stablecoins?

Blame it on multiple open tabs. Or on a lizard brain. In the post on Tether’s reserves day before yesterday, I forgot to mention the most important risk facing the stablecoin: a debt default. Unlike past years, the prospect of a debt default by the US government is a very real threat this year. Both… Read More How Does A Debt Default Affect Stablecoins?

13 May 202316 May 2023 rakeshsharmak123Leave a comment

Tether Releases Attestation Report

Controversial stablecoin Tether released its latest reserves report for the first quarter yesterday. As usual, there are many red flags. The stablecoin has released an attestation and not an audit, meaning the accounting firm responsible for verifying Tether’s reserves only checked the state of its finances at a particular moment in time. What’s more, their… Read More Tether Releases Attestation Report

11 May 202317 May 2023 rakeshsharmak123Leave a comment

Notes 4/30: Bitcoin Price, USDC Peg

Bitcoin price remains poised before the $30,000 mark, a key resistance level according to analysts, over the weekend. As of this writing, the cryptocurrency is changing hands for $29,624.72, up by 1.5% from its price a day earlier. In the past week, it has rallied by 6.3% based on data from CoinGecko. Explanations for the… Read More Notes 4/30: Bitcoin Price, USDC Peg

30 Apr 20231 May 2023 rakeshsharmak123Leave a comment

Notes 4/29: Circle Cross Chain Transfer Protocol

Stablecoin issuer Circle made news at crypto shindig Consensus last week by announcing a Cross Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP) to ensure “seamless liquidity” of their token USDC. In simple words, this means that the CCTP will enable USDC holders to move the token between different blockchains. According to the company, the CCTP is currently functional… Read More Notes 4/29: Circle Cross Chain Transfer Protocol

29 Apr 202329 Apr 2023 rakeshsharmak123Leave a comment

Notes 4/22: Stablecoin Regulation

Privately issued currencies used for daily transactions are a long-held goal for libertarian crypto enthusiasts distrustful of fiat money issued by government. Stablecoins, or coins that can be exchanged at par for fiat, are the best bet to carry forward the crypto torch of payments that is not beholden to government diktat. But two legislations,… Read More Notes 4/22: Stablecoin Regulation

22 Apr 202322 Apr 2023 rakeshsharmak123Leave a comment

Notes 4/9: USDC Liquidations

Stablecoin USDC lived to see another day after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank last month. But traders are still not sold on the Circle coin. According to statistics from DefiLlama, an analytics site that tracks decentralized finance (DeFi) markets, the number of liquidation positions against USDC stands at $259 million. USDC is a vital… Read More Notes 4/9: USDC Liquidations

9 Apr 2023 rakeshsharmak123Leave a comment

Notes 4/8: TUSD Illiquidity, Banning Crypto

Just how illiquid is crypto? The latest quarterly report from Kaiko Research sheds some light on the answer. TrueUSD pair had just 2 BTC worth of liquidity in early March. That compared with 400 BTC worth of liquidity for Binance’s stablecoin BUSD and between 1,000 to 1,500 for Tether’s USDT, the world’s biggest stablecoin that… Read More Notes 4/8: TUSD Illiquidity, Banning Crypto

8 Apr 202310 Apr 2023 rakeshsharmak123Leave a comment

Notes 4/4: TUSD Attestation Reports

Stablecoin TrueUSD (TUSD) claims that it generates a real time attestation report for its reserves on its website. That’s an impressive achievement. But TUSD is an unregulated stablecoin in the United States. That means the checks and balances that are standard for regulated entities here are absent for the stablecoin. The report, which is a… Read More Notes 4/4: TUSD Attestation Reports

4 Apr 20234 Apr 2023 rakeshsharmak123Leave a comment

Notes 3/29: Bitcoin Price and TUSD

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… Read More Notes 3/29: Bitcoin Price and TUSD

29 Mar 202329 Mar 2023 rakeshsharmak123Leave a comment

Coin Notes

Notes on cryptocurrencies and blockchains

Category: stablecoin