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Hong Kong’s stablecoin adoption is actually accelerating right now as the city’s taxi industry gets pushed into embracing digital payments, and this is signaling China’s strategic crypto reentry through regulated channels. Starting April 1, Hong Kong’s cash-loving cabbies have been required to offer digital payment alternatives, which creates the perfect testing ground for China crypto reentry initiatives along with regulated stablecoins Asia deployment. How Hong Kong Stablecoin Adoption Signals China’s Crypto Reentry Hong Kong taxi with payment terminal interface – Source: South China Morning Post The timing of Hong Kong stablecoin adoption actually coincides with new licensing requirements that were launched on Friday, and this positions the territory as Asia’s crypto capital. This regulatory framework enables China crypto reentry through controlled channels while mainland restrictions are still being maintained. Dr. Xiao Feng of HashKey Group...

Ripple thinks its newly acquired prime brokerage, Hidden Road, will boost confidence in its tiny stablecoin, RLUSD. The $1.2 billion cash, equity, and XRP token deal is quadruple the value of RLUSD’s market capitalization. Unlike the $1-pegged RLUSD, the value of XRP is supposed to rally in response to positive developments. Unfortunately, XRP has declined in value today since CEO Brad Garlinghouse’s morning announcement of the company’s most expensive acquisition ever . Price of XRP since Brad Garlinghouse’s 8:06am NYC time zone tweet. Read more: PayPal and Ripple stablecoins still sub-1% despite ‘stablecoin gold rush’ According to Garlinghouse, Hidden Road will use Ripple’s RLUSD as collateral while prime brokering, “including cross-asset (crypto and traditional instrument) trades.”  Why Hidden Road couldn’t simply use another stablecoin to serve the same purpose wasn’t clear from the press release. ‘Efficient cross-margining’ despite man...

The asset management titan Fidelity Investments reportedly plans to roll out its own dollar-backed stablecoin. Citing two people familiar with the matter, the Financial Times reports that the Boston-based firm with $5 trillion in assets under management (AUM) is now in the advanced stages of testing the crypto asset. Fidelity’s digital assets arm will manage the stablecoin, which is designed to function as cash in cryptocurrency markets. The report says the company is launching the stablecoin as part of its expansion into the nascent market for tokenized versions of US Treasury bonds. Last week, the asset manager also submitted a filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to register a blockchain-based version of the Fidelity Treasury Digital Fund. The development comes amid Donald Trump’s support for dollar-backed stablecoins. The president has pledged to promote stablecoin growth to strengthen the dominance of the US dollar and urged Congress ...

Ripple (XRP) is currently one of the leading cryptocurrency tokens leading the market right now. The token is part of a fierce speculative regimen, which is indicative of its massive price hike in the near future. The token is also awaiting a final hearing on its case with the US SEC, which may put an end to the tumultuous years-long turmoil that the token has experienced recently. Here’s how XRP is slowly paving a new price path for itself, maneuvering through various hurdles to eventually hit the $10 price mark. Also Read: Dogecoin: DOGE Primed For A 200% Surge: Here’s When Ripple: Reasons That May Propel The Token To Hit New Highs Source: Outlook Business Ripple (XRP) is currently standing at a pivotal precipice of change. The token is now an official part of the US crypto reserve, which has already strengthened the positioning of the token in the market. At the same time, the US SEC has lately been dropping cases against major market contenders, which is fueling a new narrativ...

Leading crypto exchange Binance and stablecoin issuer Circle are teaming up to expand the adoption of USDC. In a statement, Binance says the strategic partnership, which was announced at the Abu Dhabi Finance Week on Wednesday, will make USDC more available across its suite of products and services. The exchange says the collaboration will enable its users to seamlessly access and use the dollar-pegged stablecoin for trading, saving and payment applications. Says Binance CEO Richard Teng, “Through our strategic partnership, our users will have even more opportunities to use USDC on our platform, including more USDC trading pairs, special promotions on USDC across trading, and other products on Binance.” Binance says it will also integrate USDC into its financial strategy. “Additionally, Binance will adopt USDC as a vital U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin for our corporate treasury, signaling a significant move towards on-chain financial operations.” For its part...

Nomura Holdings and Laser Digital have partnered with GMO Internet Group on a new stablecoin-focused project. The companies will collaborate in the issuance, redemption and circulation of Japanese yen and US dollar-pegged stablecoins in Japan Nomura Holdings, the Japanese banking and investment giant, is teaming up with GMO Internet Group to explore the issuance of fiat-backed stablecoins in Japan. The collaboration, according to an announcement published on Monday, will see Nomura Holdings, through its digital assets arm Laser Digital, support the issuance, redemption and circulation of Japanese yen (JPY) and US dollar-(USD) denominated stablecoins. Eyeing the stablecoin market in Japan As well as JPY and USD stablecoin s, Nomura and GMO plan to offer a “Stablecoin-as-a-Service” solution. The project will support companies looking to issue stablecoin s for the Japanese market.  Users of this new service will benefit from aspects such as re...

The EURC stablecoin (formerly EUROC) is now available on Stellar in addition to Ethereum and Avalanche. Stablecoin issuer Circle has launched a Stellar network version of its euro-backed stablecoin , EURC, according to a Sept. 26 announcement. EURC was previously only available on the Ethereum and Avalanche networks. Hello Europe meet our new friend EURC on #Stellar. Same speed, low cost, and reliability of the Stellar network we all know and love in a brand new currency. With @circle's EURC, we can't wait to see what real-world utility builders unlock next.@TeanaTaylor breaks it… pic.twitter.com/eQE5sMZI2M — Stellar (@StellarOrg) September 26, 2023 Stablecoins, or fiat-backed crypto tokens, have become an essential component of the Web3 ecosystem. They allow users to send payments, borrow currency, lend it out for interest, and perform other fiat-currency related actions on blockchain networks. U.S. dollar-backed USD Coin (USDC) and Tether (USDT) are currently the sixt...

On Aug. 30, Binance informed users via its in-app notification about its intended discontinuation of the BUSD stablecoin support in early 2024. Binance intends to cease support for the BUSD stablecoin. The move indicates a shift in Binance’s operations amidst ongoing legal battles. As Paxos has halted minting of new BUSD, #Binance will now gradually remove support for the stablecoin on our platform. BUSD will always remain backed 1:1 by USD, and we continue to support a wide range of other stablecoins. Find more details below. — Binance (@binance) August 31, 2023 In a statement released to the public by Binance on Aug. 31, Binance confirmed its commitment to maintain support for various stablecoins and digital assets within its platform. However, users are advised to convert their BUSD holdings into other assets offered on Binance before February 2024 for a smooth transition. The exchange has also assured users their BUSD balances can be traded for First Digital USD...

The stablecoin pool ideally has a weightage of 33.3% of each USDT, USDC and DAI, however, on June 15, the USDT weightage rose above 70% in the pool. Tether-issued USDT (USDT) stablecoin slightly deviated from its dollar peg value on June 15 due to an imbalance in the Curve 3pool. The price of USDT fell by 0.3% to around 0.997 as the USDT weightage in the curve 3pool increased to over 70% from the ideal 33.1%. Curve's 3pool is a stablecoin pool for decentralized finance that holds a massive amount of liquidity of the three top stablecoins in DeFi- USDT, USDC and DAI. A significant rise in a particular stablecoin weightage in the curve pool indicates a heavy selling of that stablecoin. USDT price depeg, Source: TradingView With USDT weightage at around 73.8%, it means traders are increasingly selling their USDT for DAI or USDC. USDT concentration in Curve 3pool exceeded over 50% last in November 2022 at the time of FTX collapse. Curve's 3 pool stablecoin weightage. Source: Cur...

Novatti Group Limited, a leading Australian payments fintech company, has announced the expansion of its Australian dollar-backed stablecoin , AUDD, to the XRP Ledger. As outlined in a June 13 release, this move marks the integration of AUDD with the XRP Ledger following its initial launch on the Stellar blockchain in November 2022. With the integration, AUDD can now be swapped for 1:1 AUD via the XRP Ledger. This development allows users worldwide to utilize AUDD for payments and trading with other XRP-based tokens through the native decentralized exchange (DEX). User accounts will have access to AUDD through any XRPL-enabled wallet. Novatti’s AUDD targets growing digital currency demand According to the announcement, Novatti aims to enhance its suite of payment tools by integrating AUDD, designed to cater to various use cases such as remittance, payment gateway, trading pair, and stablecoin -as-a-service. The company seeks to capture the growing demand for digital currenc...

According to a recently released report by CCData, total Stablecoin market cap fell by 0.45% in the past month. This means it’s fallen for 14 consecutive months and currently sits at $130 billion — its lowest level since September 2021. At the same time, stablecoin market dominance has risen to 11.1% in the overall crypto market, possibly a bearish sign for crypto. The decline in Stablecoin market cap coincides with an exit of liquidity from Crypto exchanges. Metrics by numerous sources, including the Block, confirm that May was the lowest month in terms of Crypto trading volume on exchanges since the beginning of 2022. This decline in overall liquidity is paired with a heavy decline in stablecoin trading volume, which according to CCData fell in May by 40.6% to $460 billion . This represents the lowest monthly trading volume by stablecoins on centralized exchanges since December 2022. Tether’s market cap has grown in tandem with bitcoin’s rise in price t...

The trading freeze follows an analysis from DeFi's risk manager firm Gauntlet Network considering different scenarios for the USD Coin price. Lending protocol Aave has frozen stablecoins trading and set Loan-to-Value (LTV) ratio to zero in response to recent price volatility on stablecoins after the USD Coin (USDC) depegged on March 11.  According to the Aave's governance forum, the trading freeze follows an Analysis from DeFi's risk manager company Gauntlet, recommending that all V2 and V3 markets should be temporarily paused. "Setting LTV to 0 definitely helps everywhere, but on the Avalanche v3 Pool, given that cross-chain infrastructure doesn’t cover Avalanche, the Aave Guardian can act immediately. Setting LTV to 0 in practise discounts the “borrowing power” of the asset, without affecting the HF of any user position," noted one participant in the forum discussion.  LTV is an important metric that determines how much credit you can secure using crypto as...

In mid-2022, Babel Finance , a Hong Kong-based crypto lender , restricted withdrawals and redemptions from its platform citing unusual liquidity pressures. Soon after, it was revealed that the lender lost more than $200 million in Bitcoin and Ethereum because it could not meet margin calls. According to Bloomberg, Babel estimates that an additional $524 million worth of Bitcoin, Ethereum and other tokens were “lost” as a consequence of Co-Founder Wang Li’s trading activities. Thus, the proprietary trading desk reportedly accrued a $766 million order-book deficit. Another Co-founder and current Director at Babel, Yang Zhou, is reportedly planning to file a “moratorium of protection” to the high court of Singapore. He intends to ask creditors not to take action against the lender for a period of six months. Furthermore, he is also looking to get their approval on a restructuring plan.  Citing a recent filing viewed, Bloomberg reporte...

The researchers compared the average cost of remittances according to World Bank data with estimated costs of trading USDC and EUROC stablecoins at Uniswap. If the foreign exchange market starts using DeFi protocols instead of the current centralized systems, the cost of remittances could be reduced by “as much as 80%,” according to a Jan. 19 paper jointly published by researchers at Circle and Uniswap. On-chain foreign exchange (FX) is a new model of global value exchange that offers a faster, cheaper, and more efficient alternative for cross-border payments. Our recent research paper with @circle has it all https://t.co/NGniRo8yrp — Uniswap Labs (@Uniswap) January 19, 2023 The paper, titled “On-chain Foreign Exchange and Cross-border Payments,” was written by Uniswap Data Scientist Austin Adams, Circle Chief Economist Gordon Liao, Mary Catherine Lader, David Puth, and Xin Wan. The authors studied trading activity of Circle’s US Dollar Coin (USDC) and Euro Coin (EUROC) on Uniswap...