Stablecoin issuers like Tether (USDT) and Circle have accumulated a significant share in the United States Treasury market, outperforming major traditional finance players. Various stablecoin providers collectively held $80 billion worth of short-term U.S. government debt as of May 2022, according to a study by the investment bank JPMorgan, The Financial Times reported on Aug. 20. Tether, Circle and other stablecoin firms accounted for 2% of the total market for the U.S. Treasury bills, holding a bigger share of T-bills than totally owned by Warren Buffett’s investment giant Berkshire Hathaway. Stablecoin issuers have also outperformed offshore money market funds (MMF) …

Tornado Cash (TORN) has lost almost half its market valuation two days after being slapped with sanctions by the U.S. Treasury Department. The department accused Tornado Cash, a crypto mixer platform, of laundering more than $7 billion in cryptocurrencies, including a stash of $455 million allegedly stolen by North Korea-based hackers. Immediate reactions were followed by U.S.-based crypto companies, including Circle and Coinbase. In a controversial move, the popular crypto firms blocked the movements of their jointly-issued stablecoin USDC tied to Tornado Cash's blacklisted smart contracts. TORN price drops 45% The news prompted traders to limit their exposure to TORN, …

Circle has released a full breakdown of its USD Coin (USDC) holdings for the first time — a move designed to offer transparency and instill greater trust in the stablecoin issuer. As of June 30, Circle’s $55.7 billion reserves were comprised of $42.12 billion in short-term United States Treasuries and $13.58 billion in cash held at regulated financial institutions in the country, the company disclosed Thursday. The weighted average maturity of its Treasury assets was 43.9 days. “The USDC reserve is held solely in cash and 3-month U.S. Treasuries, held in segregated accounts for the benefit of USDC holders, and …

Fintech firm blackfridge has launched a new stablecoin that is fully backed by the British pound (GBP), potentially opening the door to wider adoption of digital assets in the United Kingdom and its Crown Dependencies. The newly launched “poundtoken,” which trades under the ticker “GBPT,” will be available for trading on Gate.io, Bittrex Global and Uniswap, blackfridge announced Monday. GBPT is said to be fully backed by the British pound, which means that every token issued will have an equivalent value held in reserves. GBPT’s reserve status is regulated by the Isle of Man Financial Services Authority, which oversees deposit …

The cryptocurrency market has experienced a turbulent period as of late, with several firms filing for bankruptcy or shutting down. Voyager Digital announced its bankruptcy on Wednesday, becoming the second crypto lender to default following Three Arrows Capital. In the light of present market circumstances, Circle has sought to reaffirm its commitment to openness and user security in a blog post published on Tuesday. Jeremy Fox, the chief financial officer of Circle, said that his firm's priority is to preserve the financial integrity of the system — robust, trustworthy and safe. He added that other financial institutions offer fraudulent promises …

The growth of Circle's native stablecoin USD Coin (USDC) in the last two months compared to its $66-billion rival giant Tether (USDT) is nothing short of spectacular. USDT, USDC market cap ratio hits the lowest on record Notably, USDC's market capitalization has grown by 8.27% since May, reaching its highest level of $55.9 billion on July 2. In contrast, USDT has suffered an over 19% drop in its market valuation, currently treading around $66.14 billion. This is the closest USDC has come to challenging USDT's supremacy in the stablecoin sector based on the diminishing gap between their market caps. In …

USD Coin (USDC) is taking a run at the title of the top stablecoin in crypto after its daily ‘real volume’ on the Ethereum network doubled that of Tether’s (USDT) on Tuesday. According to crypto market data tool Messari, Circle’s USDC posted $1.1 billion in daily real volume on the Ethereum network on Tuesday, which was double USDT’s real volume of $579 million. Messari’s real volume metric is calculated by compiling data only from exchanges that it believes have “significant and legitimate crypto trading volumes" and thus differs from the more commonly seen “total volume” metric. Exchanges included in Messari's …

USD Coin (USDC) issuer Circle Internet Financial is launching a fully-reserved stablecoin pegged to the euro, signaling to the market that demand for crypto foreign exchange services remains high despite recent industry turmoil. Euro Coin, or EUROC, will be available for trading on June 30, Circle said Thursday in a statement that was shared with Cointelegraph. Like USDC, Euro Coin is a regulated stablecoin that is fully backed by reserves — in this case, the euro. That means every EUROC token in circulation will have an equivalent euro-denominated reserve held in custody at financial institutions regulated by the United States. …

The total supply of stablecoins saw its sharpest drop in history during Q2 2022, with stablecoin redemptions spiking as a result of “short-term liquidity and concerns about insolvency that were not present during the panic of 2020," according to data analytics firm Coinmetrics. CoinMetrics head of research and development Lucas Nuzzi highlighted the data via Twitter on June 16, with a graph showing the total supply of stablecoins since January 2020. “22Q2 is the first time in the history of stablecoins where Total Supply decreased. Even if we exclude UST, over 10B has been redeemed *directly from the treasuries* of …

Stablecoins are a controversial subject in crypto. Questioning the legitimacy and backing of Tether (USDT) is a right of passage for many entering the crypto market for the first time. The meltdown of the Terra (LUNC; or the old LUNA) ecosystem left little doubt that algorithmic stablecoins don’t have a future beyond Do Kwon’s fantasies. Pesky regulators are constantly poking and prodding at dollar-pegged assets to carve out firmer rules on their usage. But, if you look beyond all the fear, uncertainty and doubt, stablecoins are providing liquidity to millions of people who don’t have access to dollars because of …

Circle, a peer-to-peer financial services firm, has agreed to acquire Cybavo, a digital asset infrastructure platform. The deal will allow Circle to provide "infrastructure as a service" for firms wanting to develop on Web3. Developers will be able to work on their products without having to worry about digital asset security, operations, or blockchain infrastructure management. According to the Friday press release, Circle and CYBAVO intend to further promote the adoption of USD Coin (USDC) and Web3 applications while integrating technology deeply into their core product suite. Circle signed an agreement to acquire @cybavo! Once the deal closes, Circle plans …

Cross-border transfer service MoneyGram officially launched its stablecoin-powered payment channel on Friday, giving users the ability to send USD Coin (USDC) payments worldwide that can be withdrawn as cash by recipients. The service is being rolled out across several key remittance markets, including Canada, the United States, Kenya and the Philippines, Circle and MoneyGram announced Friday. Global cash-out functionality will be available by the end of June. To encourage adoption, the USDC transfer service will carry zero fees for the first 12 months. As Cointelegraph reported, MoneyGram’s new transfer service was built on the Stellar (XLM) blockchain and allows Stellar …