The blockchain stablecoin issuer Tether Operations Limited has recently surpassed a $50 billion market valuation after seeing exponential growth during the last few years. Furthermore, the stablecoin tether has launched on the trading platform Coinbase Pro this week marking the San Francisco-based exchange’s first time supporting the dollar-pegged token. Tether Market Cap Increases by 170% in 6 Months The blockchain company has reached a milestone this week as the firm’s dollar-pegged token USDT has surpassed a $50 billion market capitalization. Back in November 2020, Bitcoin.com News reported on how USDT towered over the stablecoin competition, as the market cap grew by 2 million percent in four years. At that time, records had shown tether’s (USDT) market valuation was around $18.5 billion. At $50 billion today, the USDT market valuation increased by 170.27% since November. Tether Operations Limited says that the skyrocketing market cap stems from a myriad of use cases including spot exchanges leveraging tether and decentralized finance (defi) applications using the stablecoin. Data from Messari.io shows that reported daily volume for tether is around $117 billion and usually reported daily USDT volume is over the $100 billion mark every day. 24 hour “Real Volume” stats from Messari.io indicate that USDT volume could really be around $38.80 billion on April 26. This is still the largest crypto in terms of traded volume on a daily basis, in comparison to top crypto assets like ETH and BTC. “Crossing a market cap of US$50 billion represents an incredibly important milestone for Tether,” Paolo Ardoino, the CTO at Tether explained after reaching the $50 billion market cap milestone. “When the group of visionaries that created Tether in 2014 first launched the stablecoin they could not have dreamt that it would have grown so exponentially. Tether’s success is a blueprint for a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) and a banking system of the future. We are truly humbled by the pivotal role that Tether now plays in the digital token ecosystem across myriad protocols and applications.” Coinbase Pro Starts to List Tether Trading Pairs in Phases, Stablecoin Is Not Supported on Coinbase.com Yet When tether (USDT) first came out, the stablecoin was issued via the Bitcoin (BTC) network by using the Omni Layer Protocol. Since then, the token has branched off into multiple blockchains and USDT has been issued on blockchain networks like Ethereum, Solana, Tron, Bitcoin Cash, EOS, Liquid, and Algorand. Moreover, tether’s ERC20 version is leveraged on various defi applications and decentralized exchange (dex) platforms. USDT is used on a myriad of centralized spot exchanges all across the globe and just recently the token was added to Coinbase Pro. “Starting immediately,” Coinbase said. “We will begin accepting inbound transfers of USDT to Coinbase Pro. Trading will begin on or after 6 p.m. Pacific Time (PT) Monday, April 26, if liquidity conditions are met. Please note that Coinbase only supports ERC20 USDT.” If everything works out and a sufficient supply of USDT is established on the Coinbase platform, the exchange will offer tether pairs in BTC, ETH, EUR, GBP, USD, and USDC. But if there is not enough liquidity for one pair, the pairing may get removed. Coinbase says that it will announce each tether pair listing in phases and USDT will not be available yet on Coinbase.com. “We will make a separate announcement if and when this support is added,” the San Francisco exchange’s announcement concludes.
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Major U.S. financial group Charles Schwab has conducted a survey and found that young British investors are twice as likely to buy cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin, as they are to buy stocks. The company says it is watching the crypto space closely but needs “additional clarity from regulators” before considering providing any crypto services directly to customers. Charles Schwab’s Crypto Survey U.S. financial group Charles Schwab, which has about 31.9 million active brokerage accounts, revealed the results of its investment survey last week, Reuters reported. The survey, conducted between February and March, received 1,000 responses. Respondents were U.K. investors aged over 18 who hold at least one type of investment out of a list of assets, including equities, bonds, certificates of deposit (CDs), exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and contracts for difference (CFDs). Charles Schwab found that 51% of millennial and Gen Z investors aged between 18 and 37 traded or owned cryptocurrencies, up from 44% in May last year. In addition, 70% view cryptocurrencies as a good investment. Meanwhile, only 8% of investors aged over 55 traded cryptocurrencies. In comparison, 25% of young investors bought or held equities. The Charles Schwab press release presenting the survey details: As more young people purchase speculative products, there is a fear that these investors are not diversifying their portfolios enough to mitigate risks in case cryptocurrency markets decline. The survey’s findings further showed that seven out of 10 young investors were uncertain as to how to protect against losses in the current financial environment. Charles Schwab UK managing director Richard Flynn told Business Insider that the survey gives an insight into the amount of risk that young investors are taking on. He said: “Cryptocurrencies seem to be the flavour of the month. It is important to remember that these are speculative assets that don’t fit within traditional asset-allocation models.” Flynn then cautioned: “While the prospective returns are tempting, investors should be aware that it is just as susceptible to supply and demand, but will not necessarily have the inherent value behind it.” In its business update last week, Charles Schwab CEO Walt Bettinger talked about cryptocurrency. He said his firm is looking “closely” and “cautiously” at the crypto market and is waiting for regulators to give more guidance around the digital currencies before considering offering crypto capabilities on its platform. Emphasized that “additional clarity from regulators would be important before we would consider offering a retail-type trading experience on crypto,” he opined: We’re watching closely. We recognize well what’s going on. We would like to see more regulatory clarity. If and when that comes, you should expect Schwab to be a player in that space in the same way it has been a player in other investment opportunities across the spectrum. During the first week of April, South Korea’s ‘kimchi premium’ on domestic cryptocurrency exchanges had jumped over 18%, but then leveled off, equalizing with global exchange rates over the last two weeks. On Monday, as bitcoin prices spiked 8% higher surpassing the $54k zone, in South Korea, the premium on bitcoin climbed 4.56% higher than the most trading platforms worldwide during the last 24 hours. ‘Kimchi Premium’ on Domestic South Korean Exchanges Starts to Rise Again Bitcoin (BTC) and cryptocurrency markets have improved on Monday as the entire crypto-economy has risen by 3% since yesterday. BTC prices tapped a high of $54k during the early morning trading sessions and BTC currently rests just below the $54k zone at the time of writing. In addition to the bitcoin price jump, the well known ‘kimchi premium’ in South Korea has returned. Currently, domestic exchanges like Korbit and Bithumb are trading for $3k more than most foreign exchanges. South Korea's Bitcoin 'Kimchi Premium' Reappears, Korbit and Bithumb Exchange Volumes Spike BTC/KRW chart for Bithumb on April 26, 2021. At approximately 4:30 p.m. (EST), BTC is swapping for 625,970,000 won or $56,345. Data shows that Bithumb’s BTC/KRW spot market volumes have increased by 13.2% today and a single bitcoin is swapping for prices between $56,345 to $56,727 or between 625,970,000 to 663,040,431 won. That’s a gap of 4.56% with the ‘kimchi premium’ and on Bithumb a number of other popular crypto assets are seeing premiums as well. ETH, for instance, is swapping for $100 more per ether on domestic exchanges. While XRP only has a $0.10 premium on Bithumb at the time of writing. The South Korean crypto trading platform Korbit has similar premiums, but BTC prices are a touch lower than Bithumb’s current BTC prices. ETH prices and XRP prices on Korbit are relatively the same, showing a much smaller ‘kimchi premium’ on those crypto assets than BTC’s higher premium. Korbit’s collective trade volume for today for every trading pair is well over $100 million but Bithumb, on the other hand, has $2.3 billion in reported trade volume today. Weekend Trading Volume Increased by 28% Overall, analysts are positive about BTC’s price jump, in general, as the weekend’s trading sessions and into Monday have shown bitcoin bulls are not giving up so easily. In a note to Bitcoin.com News, Alex Kuptsikevich, Fxpro senior financial analyst explained that overall trade volumes have increased this weekend. “The weekend showed that the crypto market in general and Bitcoin, in particular, are not ready to give up,” Kuptsikevich said. “Market participants were waiting for the weekend results to see how the retail sector would react. At one point, Bitcoin reached a local bottom at $47,250, but this drop significantly increased the demand for the first cryptocurrency as the asset began to be bought by investors who were waiting for a discount.” The analyst added: An additional positive is that with the price rebound, the trading volume also increased by 28%, strengthening the positive sentiment. A rebound in the stock market could be a supportive factor for the crypto market in general. Stats further show that the South Korean won captures close to 2% of BTC’s global trade volume today and the won is BTC’s sixth-highest trading pair. During the course of the weekend, volumes on South Korean exchanges have shown a steep increase as well and Monday’s BTC price spike has fueled the volumes on domestic platforms in the country. The recent premium on South Korean exchanges follows the country’s regulatory decision to investigate the premiums and foreign investors leveraging arbitrage. The covid-19 crisis is worsening every day in India, as the country keeps hitting record daily numbers of cases and its death toll. The crypto community is starting to show solidarity with the country, as big players such as Ethereum co-founder and a well-known investor announced crypto donations to provide support. Buterin Also Contributed With Makerdao Funds Indian tech founder Sandeep Nailwal – founder of the Ethereum scaling platform Polygon – set up a fund to help with the crisis, and Vitalik Buterin and Balaji Srinivasan publicly announced their donations. On April 24 via Twitter, Nailwal revealed the campaign he launched to deal with the devastated country by the pandemic, calling off especially for help to the crypto community: Can’t take this sitting down anymore, I am going to run a Covid relief campaign in lieu of what’s going on in India. Need help from the Global crypto community. I will take full responsibility for transparency, funds usage, and regulatory compliance. On the same day, Buterin thanked Polygon’s founder for the campaign and published on his Twitter profile proof of his contribution of 100 ethereum (ETH) and 100 maker (MKR), both worth over $600,000 as of press time. Srinivasan, a former executive of the now-publicly listed crypto company Coinbase, donated 21.74 ETH worth $54,224.66 according to markets.Bitcoin.com data. Moreover, he announced that for every RT of his public appeal to contribute to the fund, he’d donate amounts starting from $50 to up to $100,000 “to fight COVID in India.” Could the Crypto Donations Be Blocked at Some Point by the Indian Government? Although this philanthropic initiative is well-received in the midst of tough times that India is living in nowadays, there could be issues on the road for crypto donations, specifically in regulatory affairs. As Bitcoin.com News has been covering in the last few months, India is set to propose a law banning cryptocurrencies, “fining anyone trading in the country or even holding such digital assets.” But also, the proposal could be stricter than expected, as the government is also reportedly considering the blocking of IP addresses of crypto companies and exchanges “on which trading in cryptocurrencies is happening.” The European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde is keeping the central bank’s monetary easing policies unchanged according to her statements from a press conference last Thursday. Moreover, the central bank’s Twitter account recently shared a video of Lagarde defending negative interest rates, as the bank’s President stresses that they “support companies and people in the eurozone.” ECB President Christine Lagarde Wants to Preserve Favorable Financing Since well before Covid-19, a great number of central banks started to initiate monetary easing practices and pushing interest rates down to zero or below. On Thursday, Lagarde spoke during a press conference after the European Central Bank (ECB) decided to keep policies the same after keeping rates below zero and issuing lots of fiat. Lagarde says that the financing conditions must be maintained to fend off the economic effects of the global pandemic. “Preserving favorable financing conditions over the pandemic period remains essential to reduce uncertainty and bolster confidence, thereby underpinning economic activity and safeguarding medium-term price stability,” the ECB President Lagarde emphasized on Thursday to members of the press. The ECB also said last month that the central bank was planning on increasing government bond purchases and data shows the bank did just that. Statistics from Deutsche Bank indicate that the ECB acquired 74 billion euros in bonds in March after it only purchases 53 to 60 billion euros during the first two months of 2021. On Thursday, the ECB highlighted that the increase in government bond purchases would continue to expand. “The Governing Council expects purchases under the PEPP over the current quarter to continue to be conducted at a significantly higher pace than during the first months of the year,” the ECB said during the press conference last week. Lagarde Speaks About the Resentment of Savers, ‘We Have to Look at the Whole Economy’ Further on https://secretstradingbitcoin.com/podcast/ April 23, the ECB’s official Twitter account wanted the https://secretstradingbitcoin.com/news/bitcoin-trading/ public to “watch” a video featuring Lagarde defending negative interest rates in a video-tweet. “President Lagarde responds to criticism about negative interest rates and describes how they support companies and people in the eurozone,” the ECB account stated. In the video, Lagarde does defend negative interest rates as she believes they are good for the people who need them. “I completely appreciate that people who are saving are not satisfied with being charged the negative consequences of negative rates, but we have to look at the situation from a global point of view,” Lagarde said in the video. “We cannot look at a particular depositor, or a particular category, we have to look at the whole economy.” Lagarde further added: And we know that by putting in place those negative interest rates, we are effectively supporting the economy, encouraging enterprises, families, households, young couples, to actually borrow at very low rates in order to invest… In order to buy their first apartment, in order to buy some equipment, and you know, the contribution makes sure that jobs are kept. In order to make sure that corporates can continue to operate and produce is clearly a trade-off. Against some aspects that are resented by those that are only savers and are not borrowers. The ECB’s tweet didn’t go over so well on Twitter as the commentary Lagarde made was controversial, to say the least. “Sure, don’t incentivize savers, but encourage borrowers,” one person replied to the tweet. “The only way to make sure that a slave society is firmly in place,” the individual added. Another person responded: “The frantic gasps of a drowning system. The saving/borrowing/interest rate/taxation levers used to steer capitalism quite well.” The individual who remarked about the slave society stressed: Yep. The balance is now fully broken. Not sure what the end game is but it won’t be pretty. For us anyway. |
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