In the world of crypto, FUD stands for fear, uncertainty and doubt. It’s often evoked intentionally in order to draw negative attention to a particular project or business. One of crypto’s most enduring legacies has been the constant FUD surrounding Tether, whose USDT stablecoin commands a market capitalization of nearly $68 billion. Whether intentional or not, The Wall Street Journal ran a story this week claiming that Tether was on the edge of technical insolvency and that it wouldn’t take much to push the stablecoin issuer into financial peril. Of course, Tether didn’t take it lying down and immediately issued …

El Salvador, the Central American nation that adopted Bitcoin (BTC) as a legal tender in September last year, has delayed the launch of its billion-dollar Bitcoin bond again. The Bitcoin bond, also known as the "Volcanic bond" or Volcanic token, was first announced in November 2021 as a way to issue tokenized bonds and raise $1 billion in return from investors. The fundraiser will then be used to build a "Bitcoin City" and buy more BTC. The bond was set to be issued in the first quarter of 2022 but was postponed to September in the wake of unfavorable market …

What is a gold-backed cryptocurrency? A gold-backed cryptocurrency is a type of digital currency that is backed by physical gold. The currency’s value is based on the current market price of gold and can be used for transactions just like any other type of cryptocurrency. Some cryptocurrencies are backed by gold in order to tie the derivative asset (crypto) to a tangible asset (gold), thereby preventing excessive fluctuations in price. Thus, gold-backed cryptocurrency is often more stable than other digital currencies. This is because the price of gold is generally less volatile than the prices of other assets, such as …

From a bearish perspective, there's a fair probability that the crypto market entered a descending channel (or wedge) on Aug. 15 after it failed to break above the $1.2 trillion total market capitalization resistance. Even if the pattern isn't yet clearly distinguishable, the last couple of weeks have not been positive. For example, the $940 billion total market cap seen on Aug. 29 was the lowest in 43 days. The worsening conditions have been accompanied by a steep correction in traditional markets, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index has declined by 12% since Aug. 15 and even WTI oil prices …

Tether Holdings Limited has clapped back at The Wall Street Journal over an article it claims spread “false information” about the stablecoin issuer’s profitability, solvency and accounting standards. In an Aug. 29 article, the Journal claimed that Tether could be deemed “technically insolvent” if its assets fell just 0.3%. That conclusion was drawn from Tether’s reported assets and liabilities as of Aug. 25. One week prior, Tether published its latest attestation showing $67.7 billion of reported assets against $67.5 billion of liabilities. The August attestation was conducted by BDO Italia, the Italian arm of international accounting firm BDO Global. As …

An article in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) has claimed that Tether’s balance sheet is in a position that even a 0.3% drop in value of its reserve assets could “render Tether technically insolvent.” In an Aug. 27 report, WSJ journalists Jean Eaglesham and Vicky Ge Huang focused on the cloudy nature of Tether’s USDT reserves and its long-awaited audit that has been in the works since 2017. Eaglesham and Huang suggested that such a “thin cushion of equity” could cause mayhem in the market, if Tether’s liabilities were to outweigh its assets: “A 0.3% fall in assets could render …

After the rising wedge formation was broken on Aug. 17, the total crypto market capitalization quickly dropped to $1 trillion and the bulls' dream of recouping the $1.2 trillion support, last seen on June 10, became even more distant. The worsening conditions are not exclusive to crypto markets. The price of WTI oil ceded 3.6% on Aug. 22, down 28% from the $122 peak seen on June 8. The United States treasuries 5-year yield, which bottomed on Aug. 1 at 2.61%, reverted the trend and is now trading at 3.16%. These are all signs that investors are feeling less confident …

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) …

An announcement from USDT issuer Tether Holdings Limited revealed information from an independent attestation against the company’s previous quarter's performance. The reviewer, top accounting firm BDO Italia, assessed Tether’s assets as of June 30, 2022. Tether previously announced a commitment to decreasing its commercial paper holdings by the end of August 2022. Data from the report revealed a 58% decrease in commercial paper exposure since the previous quarter from $20 billion to $8.5 billion. The CTO of Tether, Paolo Ardoino, tweeted that Tether has plans to continue to decrease its commercial paper holdings to $200 million by the end of …

The crypto market registered a major slump on Friday, resulting in major cryptocurrencies losing key support and falling to new monthly lows after a prolonged bullish surge over the past month. Bitcoin (BTC), which was looking to break through $25,000 resistance last week, fell below $22,000 to register a new two-week low of $21,747. Ether (ETH), the second largest cryptocurrency, has surged past $2,000 in the run to the Merge but slumped by 6% over the past 24 hours to register a new weekly low of $1,726. The flash crash after weeks of bullish momentum also saw 157,098 traders getting …

In a step toward greater transparency and better alignment with international accounting standards, stablecoin operator Tether Holdings Limited has tapped BDO Italia to conduct regular reviews and attestations of its dollar reserves. Tether, which operates the USDT stablecoin, officially began working with BDO Italia in July, the company disclosed on Thursday. BDO Italia will be responsible for conducting an independent review of Tether’s stablecoin reserves to ensure that each unit of USDT is backed by cash or cash equivalents. Through BDO’s reviews, Tether aims to release public attestation reports monthly instead of quarterly. The attestations will include updates about the …

The market capitalization of Tether (USDT) tokens has increased by nearly $2 billion since the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash. The Office of Foreign Asset Control essentially barred Americans from using Tornado Cash on Aug. 8, blacklisting 44 USD Coin (USDC) and Ether (ETH) addresses connected to the service to a list of Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (SDN). OFAC alleges that Tornado Cash was used by individuals and criminal organizations to launder over $7 billion worth of cryptocurrency since 2019. Funds linked to North Korean Lazarus Group hackers are also believed to have …