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Tether Is Planning To Offer GBPT, a Stablecoin Pegged To Sterling

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With the addition of a new cryptocurrency tied to the British pound sterling, GBPT, leading stablecoin provider Tether is extending its stablecoin offering (GBP). The new GBP-pegged stablecoin, GBPT, will go live in early July and will originally support the Ethereum blockchain, according to a formal announcement made by Tether on June 22.

In order to offer a quicker and more affordable option for asset transactions, GBPT will be a reliable digital currency linked in a 1:1 ratio to the GBPT.

USDT and USDC On Bitgert Chain Is Going To Have Zero Transaction Cost 1
Tether

GBPT joins the Tether family

The biggest stablecoin by market capitalization, USDT, and the other four fiat currency-pegged Tether tokens are now joined by GBPT. Other stablecoins include the offshore Chinese yuan-egged CNHT, the euro-pegged EURT, and the recently announced MXNT, which is pegged to the peso of Mexico.

The designers that created Tether USDT will create the new stablecoin, and it will function under Tether.to, the company’s primary website.

The UK is a key site for the upcoming wave of industrial transformation, said Paolo Ardoino, chief technical officer of Tether, adding:

“We hope to help lead this innovation by providing cryptocurrency users worldwide with access to a GBP-denominated stablecoin issued by the largest stablecoin issuer. Tether is ready and willing to work with U.K. regulators to make this goal a reality and looks forward to the continued adoption of Tether stablecoins”

The release also notes that in April 2022, HM Treasury revealed ambitions to turn the nation into a center for cryptocurrencies worldwide and include stablecoins within its regulatory framework. In order to accept stablecoins as a form of payment, the Economic and Finance Ministry of the United Kingdom intended to modify its regulatory framework.

Tether Under Mass DDoS Siege; More Details

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Tether, the world’s largest stablecoin had a major scare when CTO Paolo Ardoino confirmed that its website Tether_to was under a massive DDoS attack. “They tried already once. On a normal day, we have around 2k reqs/5min The attack brought us to 8M reqs/5min”, he wrote.

Ardoino further informed that the attack has been mitigated by Cloudflare but it still left ‘I’m under attack mode’ enabled” as a preventive measure.

According to the top exec, the additional security move “won’t affect the ability to redeeming”.

Recently the blockchain-enabled platform released a blog dispelling gossip over its commercial paper holdings. Rumors were doing the rounds that 85% of Tether’s reserves are commercial papers and that are being traded at a 30 percent discount in China and Asia.

The firm then alleged that those were “coordinated” conspiracies trying to profit at a testing time.

“These rumors are completely false and likely spread to induce further panic in order to generate additional profits from an already stressed market,” the blog states. “Tether condemns such attempts which oftentimes see simple users take the biggest hit, while few coordinated funds increase their profits.”

“Tether Always Maintained Adequate Reserves”

In 2021, Tether was fined $41 million by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission for making “untrue or misleading statements and omissions of material fact” about its reserves.

In its response, the team stated that “it has always maintained adequate reserves and has never failed to satisfy a redemption request” and that the CFTC had only found that “the reserves were not all in cash and all in a bank account titled in Tether’s name, at all times.”

Apart from that, the firm through its latest blog sought to allay additional concerns with a report dated March 31, which reaffirms that “over 47% of total USDT reserves are now US Treasuries and that commercial paper makes up less than 25% of USDT’s backing”.

On a final note, the Tether chose to dissociate itself after reports emerged that it might be the next to go down in the market bloodbath after lending platform Celsius’ and crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capitals’ near insolvency crisis.

Here’s why US policymakers are at odds with regards to Stablecoins

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US legislators in the Biden administration and on Capitol Hill have unanimously voiced their support for tighter regulation towards stablecoins as Washington wraps its head around the rapidly growing cryptocurrency industry.

Stablecoins, whose values are tied to those real-world assets like the dollar has grown roughly 500% in the 12 months ending in October, a report from the Biden administration says. As policymakers push for regulating the sector, they seemed quite wary of stablecoin’s meteoric rise.

This is evident from the Tether case which has come under attack from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission last year for alleged misrepresentation of its dollar reserves. The case settled with Tether Ltd. agreeing to pay $41 million without admitting any malpractice.

Despite their conservative outlook, both Democrats and Republicans have agreed on the need for new federal action on stablecoins, but are at loggerheads about how and when to proceed.

On one hand, the Biden administration wants to treat stablecoin issuers like banks, a move criticized by some Republicans and Democrats who favor a lighter statutory touch. Some lawmakers on Capitol Hill, as well as representatives of the cryptocurrency industry, are opposed to the idea of regulating stablecoin issuers like banks.

Rep. Josh Gottheimer, Co-Chair, Problem Solvers Caucus (D- NJ).

Rep. Josh Gottheimer who has overseen legislation that would provide additional oversight of issuers’ reserve assets deviated Biden administration’s request saying, “What we heard is clearly some are willing to become a bank or go that route and others are not and they want a little bit more flexibility,” he said.

US regulatory lingo on stablecoin to persist until next year

The Blockchain Association, an industry group led by Circle, the issuer of one of the most popular stablecoins wants to allow nonbanks to compete with banks in issuing stablecoins. It’s helpful to have that competition, to have that innovation,” said Ron Hammond, the association’s director of government affairs.

In its executive order last month, the Biden administration tasked agencies to improve the government’s handle on digital assets, including the possibility of creating a digital version of the dollar.

As those reviews are likely to take months, lawmakers anticipate that Congress won’t take major action on cryptocurrency until next year.

Circle’s USDC hits $50B in market cap as it looks to dethrone Tether

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USDC, the world’s second-biggest stablecoin by market capitalization recently hit a new milestone as it crossed the $50 billion mark of the dollar-pegged asset circulating supply, looking to topple the dominance of the current leader, Tether [USDT] in the stablecoin landscape.

In fact, just two weeks ago, the cumulative supply for USDC on Ethereum has overtaken that of Tether, putting USDT in second place on Ethereum for the first time.

At present, Tether supply is mostly split between Ethereum and Tron, with nearly 39 billion and 36 billion USDT on each network, respectively, and the rest on others such as Solana [SOL], Omni [OMNI], and Algorand [ALGO], according to its transparency report.

Sharing the latest news via Twitter, the USDC creator Circle published a blog detailing the exponential trajectory of the stablecoin which has grown 10x over the course of 2021. In addition to that a recent tweet by company co-founder and CEO, Jeremy Allaire said while this is a huge number,

‘It’s the massive growth and ecosystem around it that tells the broader story.’ Adding that USDC has seen 10,000% growth over the past two years.

USDC catching on as Tether dominance diminishes

Crypto research firm Delphi Digital observed even though USDT is still the market cap leader, its growth has however slowed down compared to USDC since May 2021.

The total stablecoin supply currently stands at $177 billion, which captures 9.7% of the total crypto market capitalization. Of that, Tether commands around 45%, whereas Circle now takes a 29% share, rapidly closing the gap.

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Tether Is Planning To Offer GBPT, a Stablecoin Pegged To Sterling 4

Interestingly at this time, last year Tether controlled around 74% with Circle taking a mere 16% of the stablecoin pie. According to CoinGecko, Circle’s stablecoin market capitalization rose by 987% in 2021 whereas, over the same period, Tether’s supply saw less than a third of that growth with 275%.

As per Circle’s CEO, the stablecoin network recorded $2.5 trillion in on-chain transactions and 4.6 million active wallet addresses in 2021 alone. To top that, USDC runs on eight different blockchains, is supported by 200 protocols, and can be traded in 180 countries on 34 exchanges around the world.

In addition to this, Circle on 31st January 2022 announced that the firm is expanding its USDC multichain on the Flow Network to enable users to pay on Web3.

US Financial Regulators Raise Concerns About Growing Stablecoin Dominance

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The cryptocurrency market has grown by an exponential rate over the past year with the pandemic forcing people to move towards quick, contactless payment methods. Even though the industry was growing in size pre-corona, the last 12 months have really opened up the eyes of the regulators to what cryptocurrencies can actually do.

One of the recent concerns raised by regulators was related to the burgeoning size of the stablecoin market, specifically cryptocurrencies such as Tether [USDT]. They claimed that the size of the market allowed several billions of dollars to be transacted without ever coming under the purview of the country’s financial watchdogs.

During a recent Senate Banking subcommittee, members discussed the various ways cryptocurrencies could hamper financial overwatch. Officials added that a majority of stablecoin holders were unaware of the fact that their funds do not come under the jurisdiction of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. The FDIC is responsible for protecting the claims made during financial transactions in the United States. Josh Lipsky, the director of the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center stated:

The most immediate way that some stablecoins might come under attack is from enforcers, such as what happened with the New York attorney general, who could pursue issuers for lying to consumers. Stablecoin issuers could eventually work in tandem with international governments’ projects to issue their own digital currencies but that the U.S. and others will have to develop regulations to ensure consumers aren’t hurt.

The Senate Banking members are not the first to speak against stablecoins as the industry has also been attacked by government officials such as Senator Elizabeth Warren and Federal Governor Lael Brainard. These comments came in the wake of Tether’s growing dominance on the cryptocurrency charts, currently sitting pretty at number 3. The world’s largest stablecoins holds a market of roughly $63 billion with a daily trading volume of $58 billion. Tether’s growth also allowed it to surpass major cryptos like XRP and Bitcoin Cash on the charts.

Banking officials stacked on their arguments by reminding everyone of Tether’s trading ban a few years back. Tether General Counsel Stuart Hoegner assured everyone that Tether and all its resources were maintained at the highest levels of safety and security. Hoegner promised:

We continue to look for avenues of regulation globally and are pursuing regimes in several countries

While regulators are trying to bring stablecoins under their thumb, the US government has revealed tentative plans to create a state backed digital asset. A CBDC will be controlled by the state while using blockchain technology and all the core fundamentals of a stablecoin. Although the US is not the first country to initiate or even begin working on such plans, its statements may play a huge role in how the groundwork is laid out.

XRP, Tether [USDT] fall back as Dogecoin [DOGE] lands the 4th position

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Dogecoin [DOGE] seemed to be overhauling prominent currencies like XRP as well as the largest stablecoin, Tether [USDT]. The altcoin’s latest move added to the series of surprises the coin had been giving the community over the last year.

The asset had garnered a place below the crypto spotlight, right from the beginning as it caught people’s eye for being associated with a meme. DOGE continued to attain traction after Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX began endorsing the altcoin as his favorite crypto. GenZ’s interest in the altcoin on the social media platform, TikTok further added to this. The fervor around the coin continues as DOGE was seen climbing up the crypto ladder while pushing prominent cryptocurrencies down.

Just yesterday, DOGE made news after it rose above the USDT. Earlier today, DOGE once again pushed XRP down below to the fifth position.

XRP Bids Adieu To The Fourth Spot

XRP’s tiff with the SEC almost destroyed the cryptocurrency. However, the asset managed to make its way back to the top both in terms of price as well as market cap. The altcoin had regained a place in the top five, while its price soared above $1. XRP’s stay in the fourth position seemed to be temporary as the market cap of DOGE was seen recording new highs.

At the time of writing, the market cap of DOGE was at a high of $89.52 billion while XRP’s was noted at $65 billion. Additionally, Tether’s market cap was at $52 billion. The rise in Dogecoin’s market cap not only helped the asset land the fourth position but also aided in the surge of the overall market cap, which was at $2.25, during press time.

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Tether Is Planning To Offer GBPT, a Stablecoin Pegged To Sterling 6

Furthermore, the price DOGE was also on a roll as it was seemingly aiming for $1. The altcoin was trading for $0.68 with a whopping 56% in the last 24-hours. Over the previous seven days, DOGE reportedly bagged gains of up to 165%. This pump further helped the altcoin garner an array of fans. Several took to Twitter to point out DOGE’s potentials of going to the moon.

https://twitter.com/22loops/status/1389670523488149510?s=20

Bitfinex and Tether CTO Comes to the Rescue for User Who Lost $1 Million During Transfer

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The world of virtual assets has been the subject of speculation and strife since its inception, primarily because of the transfer of large sums of capital.  As years have passed, industry officials have also tried to ensure proper transparency and protection for all users.

This focus on security was put on show recently when a user was able to receive their holding safely after having sent it to a false address. The user in question had sent $1 million to an unknown Swerve token contract and later found that it had all been lost. 

The issue was discussed by an entire Discord chat where users opined that the chances of the funds being recovered were very little. Some members of the group stated that the ideal way to send money to an address was to send a couple of dollars in the beginning and then confirm its legitimacy. The seriousness of the issue was escalated to such an extent that it even involved the Chief Technical Officer of Bitfinex and Tether, Paolo Ardoino.

The Tether official came to the rescue by claiming that the capital could be recovered because the transaction involved Tether. His tweet read:

Tether was considered as the ideal mode of transfer because of its connection to the United States dollar. Bitfinex and Ardoino himself have assured the concerned user that any further relevant steps will be taken to ensure the capital is safely returned. Ardoino further reiterated that users need to be careful when they use DeFi projects. Many users have complained about DeFi projects in the past because of the threat of transactions landing in the wrong place.

The Tether CTO also provided the trail of the $1 million recovery via an etherscan link. The transaction had a hash of 0x0b44bf8681cbfb337f1c0f5bdb2b662a070e29eb204ec848a575c8dc3549413e on block number 10841656. The funds were sent from a wallet with the address 0xabbc27c71eb28dc52098c8e2b4dafb428d559ffb.

 

New York Supreme Court Summons Bitfinex For Video Conference

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With scams and attacks having found a place in the crypto-verse, the involvement of law enforcement is inevitable. While some cases have been put to rest, a few others continue to seek justice in court. One such ongoing case between Bitfinex’s parent company iFinex and the New York Attorney General [NYAG]. As per recent updates pertaining to the case, both the parties involved will reportedly have a conference with the New York Supreme Court.

NYAG Seeks Video Conference With Bitfinex

On Wednesday, the New York Attorney General urged Joel M. Cohen, Judge of the Supreme Court in New York to carry out a video conference with iFinex. NYAG’s latest request follows iFinex’s negligence in producing the documents that the court had previously ordered. The court went on to affirm the video conference and scheduled it for 17 September 2020 at 11:00 AM.

iFinex, Bitfinex, and Tether were subject to immense scrutiny following the cover-up of $850 million funds that were lost. The case has been in court since April 2019 and iFinex has failed to submit documents that were essential for the case. While the NYAG claims that certain documents were key to the ongoing case, iFinex wanted the court to decide otherwise. Back in July, rejecting iFinex’s appeal, the court ordered that Bitfinex, as well as Tether, had a total of 60 days to present the required documents.

Since the crypto platform failed to do so, the NYAG went on request a video conference in light of the same. The filing read,

“At the conference we seek, the OAG will request that the Court order the immediate production of documents and information by Respondents [….]”

The Supreme Court further pointed out that the link to the forthcoming video conference would soon be presented to counsel before the conference. The court order further read,

“The parties are directed to submit letters to the Court, no more than 3 pages in length, outlining their positions on the issues raised above. The letters should be filed on NYSCEF on or before September 14.”

Ethereum’s Transaction Fee Shrinks 80% from ATH after Tether Switches to OMG

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Trailing the crypto’s Big Daddy, Ethereum has put up a great show in the five years of its existence. Even as Bitcoin succumbed to the bearish pressure, Ether has succeeded in being the altcoins’ front runner. Investors were watchful of the value of the token as stablecoin continued to gain traction and DeFi frenzy.

This ride, for the underlying blockchain of the largest altcoin, has not been a smooth one. Network congestion has been one of the biggest issues that have crippled the network. However, there were signs that there could be a way out.

Shifting gear?

In a much-needed respite for Ethereum, transaction fees shrunk to almost 80% from its all-time high recorded on 22nd August, bringing back to levels last seen in mid-July. This was noted by the crypto-analytic firm Santiment which tweeted,

“This is a nice opportunity for significantly cheaper on-chain operations”

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The Ethereum network was reported to be getting more and more congested. Taking up an enormous amount of space was the DeFi’s newbie Yield Farming. But it was not just the ecosystem of decentralized finance that was to blame. Tether, the world’s largest stablecoin has been consistently sitting on the list of top three Ethereum “gas guzzlers”.

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Hence, the high growth of both DeFi, as well as stablecoins, has had a negative impact on the ETH network which witnessed the average transaction fee skyrocketing to an ATH breaking the previous records of the ICO boom of 2017.

Tether’s migration

Tether’s issuance has raised the eyebrows of many in the community. But what added to the current problem of congestion was when USDT’s issuance exceeded that of ETH on the Ethereum network.

In a bid to relieve pressure on the parent chain network, Tether entered into integration with the OmiseGO network, which happens to be the Layer 2 solution for Ethereum. With the stablecoin migrating to OMG Network for the settlement, it was expected to achieve a reduction of transaction fees and confirmation times.

However, days after the announcement, transaction fees fell which also coincided with the gas fees withdrawing considerably from its all-time high. Meanwhile, Gas usage was still hovering close to its ATH. This implied that despite the drop in transaction fee, the network is no mood of slowing down.

Good long-term signs of things to come

Ethereum was currently priced at $392. Even as it faced a minor correction, there were no signs of any sharp price movements on either side and was up by approximately 370% since the Black Thursday lows. And while a short-term bearish pressure did materialize, ETH was bullish with respect to the macro trend since its transaction count stood firm near its ATH, which has provided fundamental support for its current price action.

USDT Market Cap Reaches a New Milestone of $12 Billion

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Tether’s market capitalization has soared to new heights, after gaining $1 billion within seven days. Tether revealed on August 14 that the USDT market cap broke past the $12 billion marks, as the demand for stablecoins continues to grow.

Stablecoins like USDT have in the cryptocurrency space continued to gain momentum over time. The increased popularity in stablecoins can be attributed to the ability of coins, often associated with cryptocurrencies, to protect investors and traders against volatility. The dramatic rise in the USDT market cap corresponds to an increase of 140 percent, an additional $7 billion increase since March 2020.

USDT market cap skyrocketing

The swift growth in Tether’s market cap is the impetus behind the 12-months long stablecoins market growth. According to a study by Coin Metrics back in July, the entire stablecoins market took five years to hit $6 billion in market capitalization, but only took four months to increase from $6 billion to $12 billion.

At the time, the study consisted of the entire market for stablecoins. At present, USDT is worth $12 billion on its own. In fact, the other stablecoins on the market are not even close to reaching the milestones set by Tether. On the other hand, the USDC is the closest stablecoin with a total market capitalization of just over $1 billion, followed by the DAI at just under $420 million, and the Gemini Dollar follows the bundle with about $9 million.

Tethers growth impact on Bitcoin

Major cryptocurrency exchanges such as Bitfinex and Binance utilize USDT as an alternative to traditional currencies. Due to this fact, the majority of investors in crypto space depend on Tether to preserve funds in the sides.

Furthermore, USDT is frequently utilized as a hedge against the significant cryptos; it can be argued that Tether’s total supply portrays the capital kept on the sidelines. Some analysts argue the increasing supply of USDT, the weakening of the dollar, on top of institutional adoption; has resulted in a sentiment that the price of BTC could rise. Some of these analysts anticipate BTC to hit new milestones by next year.