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Tether debacle continues; requires proof of USDT backing

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Despite holding the designation of “largest stablecoin in the world,” Tether [USDT] keeps sinking in rough waters. A lawsuit was filed against the network for issuing USDT to boost the price of Bitcoin [BTC]. This market manipulation litigation, which has been ongoing for a while, has changed course. It wasn’t in the stablecoin’s favor this time.

It was revealed that a U.S. Judge in New York had denied Tether’s request to halt the disclosure of its financial documents. As a result, the network is now required to present a variety of documentation relating to USDT’s financial support. General ledgers, balance sheets, income statements, cash-flow statements, and profit and loss statements are all included in this list. Additionally, the stablecoin company must provide documentation of all cryptocurrency and stablecoin transfers. There were other requests for minor information like the transaction’s timing.

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Katherine Polk Failla, Judge presiding over Tether case

The Plaintiffs “plainly explain why they need this information: to assess the backing of USDT with US money,” according to the judge who presided over the case, Katherine Polk Failla. She went on to say,

“The documents sought in the transactions RFPs appear to go to one of the Plaintiffs’ core allegations: that the … Defendants engaged in crypto commodities transactions using unbacked USDT, and that those transactions “were strategically timed to inflate the market.”

It should also be mentioned that Tether was asked to provide information regarding the Bitfinex, Bittrex, and Poloniex accounts that are associated with it.

Tether in troubled waters

It appears that Tether simply doesn’t belong in New York. Following a legal battle between the platform and the New York Attorney General, Bitfinex and Tether agreed to a somewhat pricey $18.5 million settlement. The 22-month-long case, which began in April 2019, was eventually resolved.

The company further confirmed that it would stop providing trading services to New York citizens.

The platform will undoubtedly suffer from the most recent news. As was already mentioned, Tether’s lawyers claimed that providing financial documents was “very excessive” and “unduly burdensome.” However, the judge firmly refuted these claims and emphasized that these records were material to the dispute.

Binance to Halt USDC Trading, Announces That USDT Won’t Have the Same Fate

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The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, has acknowledged that it does not currently have any plans to “auto-convert” Tether (USDT) to Binance USD (BUSD), but that this “may change.”

A spokesperson for Binance confirmed to Cointelegraph that there are no plans at the moment to do the same for USDT, but added that this may change in the future:

“We do not have plans to auto-convert USDT to BUSD as of now, but may change.”

The spokesperson added that the decision to stop providing most trading services for USDC and the auto-conversion is “not temporary measures” and “will continue.”

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Binance to Halt USDC Trading, Announces That USDT Won't Have the Same Fate 3

Binance to discontinue USDC trading

The cryptocurrency exchange shocked the market on September 6 by announcing it would stop supporting USD Coin (USDC), a stablecoin pegged to the US dollar, along with USDP Stablecoin (USDP), and TrueUSD on its platform (TUSD).

On September 29, users who are still holding any of the three stablecoins will start to automatically convert those holdings to BUSD at a 1:1 ratio over a 24-hour period.

While Tether USDT, the largest stablecoin by market cap, was not mentioned, Binance claimed that the decision was made to improve liquidity and capital efficiency for users.

According to a Sept. 6 tweet from Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ), the company is “just merging all liquidity into one pair” and will provide users with the “best price, lowest slippage” rather than delisting the three stablecoins.

Additionally, the exchange will switch most of the pairings over to BUSD and remove the extensive list of spot trading asset pairs paired to these stablecoins.

Users should also be cautious about using USDC in the exchange’s staking, savings, liquid swaps, or loans because those services will also be discontinued for that asset.

Binance’s action coincides with a brief suspension of Ether (ETH) and Wrapped ETH (wETH) withdrawals and deposits on particular networks from September 6 until the end of the month.

Tether: Will Roche Freedman be terminated from class-action lawsuit?

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Following a demand from Kyle Roche to be removed as counsel in the case, Tether (USDT)-issuing company Tether wants law firm Roche Freedman “terminated” as counsel from the Bitfinex and Tether class-action lawsuit.

Tether and Bitfinex’s legal team asked for Roche’s legal team to be completely removed from the case and certified that they had returned or destroyed all defendant-issued documents and had not shared them with any third party, including Ava Labs, in a court order request submitted by Elliot Greenfield of Debevoise & Plimpton LLP on Wednesday.

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The request was made soon after Roche filed a notice of motion to withdraw from the Tether class action lawsuit due to continued fallout from a recent CryptoLeaks exposé that claimed the American attorney had a covert agreement to “damage” Ava Labs rivals in exchange for AVAX tokens and Ava Labs ownership.

Greenfield expressed “great worry” that Kyle Roche “may be abusing the discovery process” and “misusing material” he obtains through litigation after Roche’s words appeared on the CryptoLeaks website:

“He states that he is Ava Lab’s ‘crypto expert’ because he ‘sue[s] half the companies in the space’ and ’know[s] where this market is going’ because he has ‘seen the insides of every single crypto company.’”

Tether’s legal representative’s high claims

Greenfield emphasized that Roche Freedman LLP has issued a number of document requests seeking information that has no obvious link to the claims and defenses in this complaint and said that the issues are very pertinent to the case.

The attorney also emphasised the need for the documents to be suppressed, saying that they contain information that, if made public, would endanger the privacy and security of the defendants and their clients as well as confidential and competitively sensitive information about the defendants’ businesses.

The removal of Kyle Roche does little if anything to resolve the serious issues about the possible misuse of discovery, according to Greenfield, despite the fact that Roche has filed motions to withdraw himself from the case and others.

He further added,

“Even if he is no longer counsel of record, he would still have access to discovery materials, would retain the ability to direct the conduct of other lawyers at his firm, and would profit from any potential recovery in this lawsuit.”

Greenfield continued, saying the “removal would not prejudice Plaintiffs” because they would still be represented by “two other large and experienced firms,” including Schneider Wallace Cottrell Konecky LLP and Selendy Gay Elsberg PLLC.

Tether and Bitfinex were accused of manipulating the cryptocurrency market by releasing unbacked USDT “in an effort to communicate to the market that there was enormous, organic demand for crypto commodities,” according to the class-action lawsuit filed in 2019.

Roche has also recently dropped out of the litigation against Binance, Solana, Tron, BitMEX, Nexo, and Dfinity.

USTX WARP: how to bend space and time to offer 30% APR on USDD staking!

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DeFi is a word that means financial freedom, but most users think it’s too difficult and risky. USTX Team ultimate goal is to simplify user access to DeFi and provide solutions to give users new opportunities. We now present WARP, a DeFi app within the USTX ecosystem that allows the users to stake USDD and get 30%+ APR with low risk and easy access.

Background

During the last months the DeFi space took some serious hits, beginning with Luna-UST crash and the following down-trend of the market. In the middle of this crisis, TronDAO launched USDD, a very ambitious project to give added value to users via a decentralized, over-collateralized, algorithmic stablecoin promising very interesting yield rates (up to 30%). Everything looks good now with USDD, it ticks all boxes: it’s decentralized, over-collateralized with great APY. But is it enough for users to jump on board?Let’s look at the last part, the promised high yield, up to 30%. How easy is to get that APY? Where is it available? After a quick search everyone can see that 30% is available only on CEX, which is not great for a stablecoin that has the word “decentralized” in its name. So, what about DeFi yields? The 30% APY is not available on DeFi, unless you chose to farm the USDD/TRX LP, which exposes your capital to TRX price fluctuation.

So we did some research and tried to find a way to offer Tron and USTX users the best USDD DeFi APY and the simplest way to access it. We worked the math, coded the smart contracts, tested them and now we present WARP, our way to simplify USDD yield harvesting.

The app

WARP implements a pseudo delta netral farming strategy on the USDD/TRX liquidity pool on SunSwap. This allow to get the best APR on the market and reducing the risk associated to TRX price variations. The user can stake USDD and get weekly USDD rewards using a simple interface.!

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USTX WARP: how to bend space and time to offer 30% APR on USDD staking! 6

What is the role of USTX in all this? WARP will merge in the USTX ecosystem in two ways: to generate more buyback and to increase the APR for USTX holders.The WARP app will distribute weekly rewards to users, but a part of the raw APR will be routed to USTX buyback and increase token price and the staking rewards sustainability.To incentive WARP users to also buy and stake USTX tokens, they will benefit from a multiplying factor over the base APR, called Warp Factor.

The user warp factor is determined by the amount of USTX the users holds in any of the locked staking options that USTX offers. Maximum warp is obtained when 20 USTX are held for every USDD deposited, that corresponds to a 50% increase over the base APR.So, making the best use of Tron USDD DeFi options, we’re able to maximize the user rewards and simplify the overall experience at the same time. Warp users will get over 30% APR, while normal deposits still get 20% APR (these APRs will change over time and will depend on Sun.io and JustLend conditions).

What are the conditions to use WARP

  • Interface: web app accessible via browser (pc, mac, mobile)
  • Wallet: Tronlink, Math and Klever
  • Deposit token: USDD TRC20
  • Rewards token: USDD TRC20
  • Deposit lock: 1 full epoch (epochs duration is 1 week, changes every Saturday)
  • Rewards lock: till next epoch transition (unlock on Saturday after the request)
  • Rewards compounding: yes, manual compounding available
  • Max Warp factor: 5.0 (+50%) if user has at least 20 USTX in locked staking every USDD deposited
  • Fees: app requires energy to operate, a portion of the rewards will be used for buyback and reserve (max 25%), balance withdraw is not taxed unless the equity ratio is below 100%. This can happen after significant changes in TRX price, but recovers naturally within a few days. The team will create a reserve in the contract to avoid equity ratio < 100%.
  • Custody: the deposits are fully managed within the contract, they will NOT be moved to team wallets. The smart contract handles all the interactions with JustLend, SunSwap, Sun.io and all other contracts required to manage the strategy.
  • Management: the team will monitor the equity level continuously and weekly will re-balance the strategy, to make sure that it stays close to neutrality.
  • APR: Warp yield will vary over time and will depend on Sun.io and JustLend conditions. The team will make sure the contract parameters are always optimized for the best yield and lowest risk.
  • Anti-whale: There is a limit on how much a single user can deposit. Currently is 15,000 USDD but it will be increased to 25,000 USDD.

Risks

As always, we want informed users, so here’s the risks associated with Warp:

  • smart contract risk: we carefully designed and tested the contracts on Nile and mainnet, but human error can never be excluded 100%;
  • capital risk: in case of TRX price variations, the value of the underlying assets (deposits, borrows and LP value) can go below 100%. The team will make sure that over time and adequate reserve will be created to handle these events;
  • liquidation risk: TRX is borrowed from JustLend against USDD deposits. The strategy is balanced so that if TRX price increases up to 85% there is no liquidation risk. The team will monitor the margin and act to re-balance the strategy in case of significant variation from nominal;
  • USDD price risk: the contract works with USDD, so all values are relative to USDD. If USDD price is reduced from nominal (1$), the same will happen to the deposit value. This risk is NOT strictly related to Warp, but is present every time the user holds USDD (or any other token).

This is not financial advice, DYOR.

Contacts

🌐 WEB: https://ustx.io/
🚀 DEX: dex.ustx.io
🚀 WARP: dex.ustx.io/warp.html
✉️ Mail: info@ustx.io
🌍 Twitter: http://twitter.com/USTX6
🇺🇸 Telegram (International): http://t.me/ustx_en
🇮🇹 Telegram ITA: http://t.me/ustx_it
🌍 Github: https://github.com/ustx/ustx-dex
🌍 Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/USTX/
🌍 Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/USTX
🌍 Medium: https://medium.com/@USTX
🌍 Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ustx
🌍 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ustxcrypto
🌍 Discord: https://discord.gg/2stXZjtv9A

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 [USDT] CTO Paolo Ardoino says “everyone takes from king” on competitor’s rising market cap

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Tether, the issuer of the stablecoin USDT, has been constantly under regulator’s scrutiny. Over the past couple of months, USDT appears to be shrinking while its competitor USDC advances at a rapid pace. But this exec is not worried.

Paolo Ardoino, who happens to be the CTO of both Bitfinex and Tether, iterated the famous adage “Let everyone grow so that the sum of all voices will be louder,” and asserted that the “stablecoin industry is much more solid [with competitions] around in the long run.”

Taking a jibe at the recent reports regarding USDC “eating away USDT’s market share,” Ardoino clarified that does not mind seeing growth and that he welcomes everyone provided there is a level playing field. His tweet read,

“Everyone at Tether is proud that the idea that they created in 2014 is now copied by many parties. Ain’t good if no one bothers. So we are flattered. Alone is harder to make history. With a bigger representation of stablecoins, we can aim for fairer regulations.”

USDT’s decline in dominance

The dwindling price of the cryptocurrency market has had no effect on the transaction volume of stablecoins. In fact, the figures have stayed widely unfazed. As per Messari’s latest report, stablecoins witnessed impressive growth in the second quarter of this year amidst market-wide sideways movement. In addition to that, stablecoins have reportedly facilitated a staggering $1.7 trillion in transaction volume, meaning a rise of 1,090% year-over-year and 59% since the previous quarter.

USDT, on the other hand, had failed to impress the charts, as the parabolic growth in the market cap of the world’s oldest and largest stablecoin giant came to an abrupt halt in May.

For almost two months, Tether has not issued a single USDT on the Ethereum network. This has been one of the major factors that have affected the asset losing its market dominance. Additionally, China’s renewed crypto crackdown on USDT is another contributor in addition to the mounting regulatory threats.

Stablecoins facilitated an astonishing $1.7T in transaction volume in Q2: Messari

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Stablecoins are non-volatile assets that mostly remained got fresh attention this month after the USDC issuer, Circle revealed its plan to list on the New York Stock Exchange, that too on the same day, when China’s central bank warned about these tokens citing serious risks to global financial systems.

The price of the cryptocurrencies might have taken a backseat, but the transaction volume of stablecoins has remained widely unfazed. According to Messari’s latest report, these tokens saw impressive growth in Q2 this year. In fact, this cohort of cryptocurrencies reportedly facilitated an unprecedented $1.7 trillion in transaction volume, an increase of 1,090% year-over-year and 59% since Q1.

Messari’s Senior Research Analyst, Ryan Watkins noted,

“The stablecoins story continues to rhyme each subsequent quarter – climbing up and to the right.”

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Stablecoins facilitated an astonishing $1.7T in transaction volume in Q2: Messari 10

USDT’s dwindling market dominance paves the way for other stablecoins

Watkins also mentioned that the stablecoin monetary base climbed above $107 billion in the second quarter of the year, and was 70% since the first quarter in addition to raking in 803% year-over-year. While Tether [USDT] still leads the figures, its dominance has been dwindling of late, owing to serious controversies that have damaged its reputation. As a result, USDC, BUSD, and DAI have been on a rapid increase. So much so that their market share has applied by 23%, 9%, and 5%, respectively.

USDC, for one, has experienced a tremendous leg up in Q2. Currently, more than 50% of the total supply now sits in smart contracts which is almost equivalent to $12.5 billion. While this share is not as high as DAI, USDC still leads by a wide margin in terms of dollars.

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Stablecoins facilitated an astonishing $1.7T in transaction volume in Q2: Messari 11

In addition to that, Messari also observed that the decentralized stablecoins have also maintained a consistent upward trajectory. Fortunately, decentralized tokens such as DAI’s continue to win share from centralized stablecoins. At the beginning of the second quarter, the decentralized ones surged to an all-time high of almost 10% of the total stablecoin supply.

Besides, DAI remained the market leader this quarter with a 61% share of the market. Interestingly, its share had taken a hit in Q1 due to Terra’s rise.

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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XRP, Tether [USDT] fall back as Dogecoin [DOGE] lands the 4th position 13

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

Binance Futures Launches YFI/USDT Perpetual Contract as DeFi Demand Surges

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DeFi (Decentralized finance) is currently one of the hottest corners of the crypto industry this year and, as a result of the boom, many project tokens have shown incredible price surges. One of the prominent tokens is Yearn. Finance ‘s native YFI, which has gained significant traction over the last few weeks.

DeFi, the big hype

In a bid to cash in on the mania, several centralized platforms have now jumped on the DeFi bandwagon.

In the latest development, one of the world’s largest centralized cryptocurrency exchange, Binance announced the launch of the YFI/USDT perpetual contract on its Futures platform wherein the users will be able to choose between 1-50x leverage.

The YFI/USDT perpetual contract is a USDT-margined futures contract that uses USDT as collateral. According to the official blog post, the contract will be made available to users from 31st August 7:00 AM [UTC].

This news follows Binance‘s announcement of offering ‘DeFi Index Perpetual Contracts’ to cater to the huge customer demand to get exposure to a broad base of DeFi products.

yearnfinance charts

YFI’s meteoric rise

Meanwhile, in a little over a month, YFI has soared by a staggering 4008% since it was created $764.42 in July to the press time price at $31,682. Following the path of Bitcoin, the creators of the project have limited the supply of the governance token to 30,000 YFI coins. This could be an important contributing factor to the rapid surge in its price.

This new rally was also speculated to be triggered after, one of the largest DeFi protocol, Aave announced the listing the token. This was a significant development for the YFI ecosystem primarily because Aave has successfully outpaced the likes of Maker, Curve Protocol in the race for the first place in terms of TVL.

As previously reported, yet another catalyst for the token’s upward momentum was directed towards a  potential collaboration between the crypto derivative platform FTX and Yearn.Finance.

Besides, the protocol also recently announced the launch of ‘yinsure.finance’ which is essentially a prototype for a new tokenized insurance, the first of its kind in the DeFi ecosystem.

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.